Mistral
property details
for a Hub House co-operative coliving project

Environment ✧ wooded hills and the odd craggy river; hikes on doorstep

Services ✧ all

Access ✧ station 5mins walk: 1h30 Toulouse (last 8:45pm) and airport (45mins bus/tram), 6h Barcelona, 7h Paris or night train

Area ✧ several gardens 5mins walk
✦ indoor and outdoor tennis 10mins walk, also start of several short hiking circuits and longer climbing to the peak of the mountain at 1200m in 4h
✦ town center 10mins walk, though only a small square is attractive with bars and resturants
✦ 30mins walk to excellent suspended wire bridge
✦ 75km greenway at door
✦ mountain biking in the mountains (south) involves starting with a steep 200m climb, however on the otehr side of the river there's gentler climbs; easier biking starts 20mins away
✦ lake with beach 15mins drive (suitable for sup if boards purchased)
✦ riding 20mins drive
✦ 30mins drive to Kayaking and more hikes
✦ Castres is a much nicer town and is only 15mins by train (but 40mins including walk) with last at 10pm which makes nights out easy
✦ Revel and Carcassonne are 50mins drive, and Albi 1h, all good to visit
✦ also at 1h are the gorges and river in a different environment

Property ✧ not great value, given that twice the cost gets a much larger property in a nicer area
✦ previously used by a labour union; then bought for 40k from the town in 2022 and conversion abandoned thus an offer could be a fair bit lower, perhaps 75k (150k got a magnificent 1000m2 building in similar state)
✦ quiet part of town amongst old factories, some demolished leaving empty land, indeed the town is apparently 2/3 unbuilt
✦ effectively has it's own corner on the edge of a small bridge with garden directly over a stream, and the south-west view is only green space
✦ the north-east onto the lane faces a 3-storey factory building that's abandoned though the factory (textiles) itself isn't
✦ solid and roof good, but empty though this means easy to fitout
✦ 12x12m
✦ 3 windows on the lane and 5 on the garden, plus a couple of random side ones
✦ next to an ugly 5-storey apartment block, probably partly blocks winter sun, the end has no windows and could be given a mural, it abuts the garden and south-west facade (pictured) onto the stream
✦ the south-west facade facing the appartment parking only has some bathroom windows but gets morning sun so would benefit from bigger windows lintels
✦ the south-east facade (pictured) faces the stream
✦ 65m2 triangle of garden at the lane, but steep with steps, gets a little sun but mainly blocked by trees; could become a 35–45m2 extension/shed with a roof terrace giving more privacy from the lane and havign a view down the stream to the small railway viaduct, inside in could have a work bar with windows hanging over the stream
✦ 100m2 of rear garden higher above the stream, there's steps up from the garden to teh 1st floor, and down to the lower garden that could be removed for internal access
✦ covering more of the garden is no issue as just across the bridge is a large greenspace/field also along the stream, also with a 200m2 long building that'd make an excellent coworking space if the town were open to it
✦ 2nd floor lane would be 3 rooms with windows (4x3), 5 mezzanine rooms (3.5x2.2, plus standing mezzanine, requiring skylights as using middle of building), and a long library-lounge catching sun, plus some workspace, offering best use of the view
✦ 1st floor would have a room with 4 pods (but limited height), and kitchen-dining in an L around it opening into the orangerie and roof terrace (via a window that could be turned into a door)
✦ ground floor would be casual workspace onto the lane (there's a huge arched double door, and two small windows would need to be enlarged down to the floor), and could be a mini-hub for drop-ins; one half of the rear would be a cinema/presentation/event space in the south corner though would remain open to the coworkign thus use woudl be mutual leaving anyone not participating to use the library
✦ the ground would also have a room for 4 more pods with good height using the south-west half of the rear as it has 2 side windows (albeit obstructed by terrace decking) and 2 blocked vent windows (woudl open into the lower orangerie, one could be enlarged to the same size for 3 windows thus nice and light), bathrooms would be in the extension, however could be swapped with the pods as the extension would be taller still due to being slightly lower down a slope
✦ the extension would have a callroom with stream view; because of the side windows the roof terrace would not extend fully around but would probably give 65m2, 20m2 being decking connecting to the orangerie
✦ the rear steps would be rebuilt narrowers to not waste space in the orangerie
✦ a sauna and plunge pool would be possible in the garden
✦ 8 rooms, 8 pods