Hotel de la Montagne
property details
for a Hub House co-operative coliving project

Environment ✧ rolling wooded river valley and lakes, light agricultural

Services ✧ organic shop, bakeries, supermarket, restos

Access ✧ station at door: 45mins Limoges (last 9:20pm; airport +20mins), Paris 4h30, Bordeaux 3h30

Area ✧ further price drop, been on market ages
✦ climate is rather dreary and English does however have several back widnows with south exposure and some sheltered garden
✦ right opposite a large public park along a pleasant bit of river with kayaking, tennis courts, and beach volley
✦ also next to the abbey buildings so a very pleasant setting, and the building has windows overlooking the park
✦ fairly well served and moderately lively town
✦ one pretty small town 30mins drive, another 25min train
✦ city of Limoges at 45mins by train is an good distance for a day out with last back moderately late is quite good
✦ walks start 20mins along lanes (along river or 200m ascent up hill); more hikes train 15–30mins up into the national park (800m); good biking; mulchy in winter(!)
✦ horse riding 15mins walk; hilltracks, lake with boating and better riding 15mins drive (bus in summer)

Property ✧ in a poor state and needs stripping but structurally sound including roof; immediately requires windows and doors to seal properly thus circa 25k though some could be deferred as front windows as just about ok, and thus minimal livability during works could be achaeived without unreasonable effort
✦ coworking on ground with two big street facing windows, backs onto a 20m2 cave that would likely be used for storage (bikes) as there's nowhere else
✦ 110m2 on 3 floors, plus attic
✦ 35m2 first floor courtyard; could extend into this but would loose internal light on 1st with only rear light wells; second could have conservatory above this onto garden, else would be on 1st preserving light, however this low the annexe and upper neighbour actually block south sun (except in summer) so restricting 1st floor light likely isn't an issue and the north-east street windows are fairly big
✦ 60m2 of semi-enclosed garden on 2 levels catching sun, access is unclear but likely from top floor of annexe, thus same as new conservatory giving access instead of through annexe; could build a ~20m2 extension to the annex onto the garden, with a roof terrace for better winter sun
✦ 75m2 tall attic 11.5m x 8.5 with 4 windows +1 suitable as mezz without skylight
✦ annexe is in very poor condition
✦ the roof is old slate and seems acceptable except for the ridge flashing
✦ ground floor clearly has an important beam that needs additional support, however likely no problem adding some permanent columns rather than replacing which would be too much work
✦ lots of lathe walls and cielings, but these would be ripped out to change the alyout and thus easy to put plastboard in their place
✦ 20m2 annexe attic; another opportunity for a 30m2 roof terrace slightly above garden