Stone house renovation and permaculture project in rural Limousin, France

Detalhes

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  Descrição

  hi! It’s Kalina & Dima here :) after some years travelling & working seasonal jobs we settled down in France. Our house is an old stone building that requires a lot of love after being neglected for some years (served as a summer/holiday house). It is set in a tiny hamlet in the least populated region (Creuse) in the French countryside (Parque natural regional de Millevaches en Limousin). It is 25km from the Lac de Vassivière (which is one of the biggest artificial lakes in France). With the house came the land- we have around 1ha with a spring and a bit of forest.
  We want to create a homestead that will be as self-sufficient as possible. We have a water source, we want to install solar panels and establish a permaculture garden. We are planning on doing most of renovation work by ourselves and we will try to use reclaimed and local materials.
  We have the house to update (no heating/no isolation etc.), small bread house to rebuild and big barn to fix. Also we're planning on starting permaculture garden asap. In longer run we would like to keep some animals (chicken, maybe goats), create natural swimming pond and some kind of food forest (or at least a nice orchard).
  Most of the time we just need some extra pair of hands to speed the processes up or someone tending to garden/cooking/cleaning while we're still in renovating process ourselves.
  Since we have spent all our savings on purchasing the estate, now we still leave for few months a year to work in different region, hence not full availability.
  It's just a beginning and we are still setting priorities so the help will be very diverse depending on what you want to do and what your skills are. We're workawayers ourselves and hoping to be good hosts, knowing the opposite perspective:)
  Few words about us: we're in our late 30ties, both worked for corpos, quit in 2017, went for grape picking in France where we meet :) together we bought a van, travelled and worked seasonally in vineyards (to put money aside) and eventually decided to settle down in France. We got the house at the end of 2021.
  We consider ourselves open-minded and tolerant. Pragmatic and down-to-earth. We're vegetarians, dumpster divers, immigrants :)
  We have an adopted Malinois, he is young & a bit crazy, full of energy and loves to play. He’s not accepting all dogs, he especially doesn’t like small dogs (no idea why :/ ). He’ll probably be good with medium/big sized female dog.
  We also have 4 cats, ducks &gees.
  
  Internet- we only have limited access through our hotspots (moblie internet), no wifi available. Not fast enough for working online.
  
  Edit 2025
  
  *renovate the barn, we finished the roof, now we’re putting flooring in place
  
  *MAIN THING: eco renovation of the house. We had a project made and now waiting for decision about state financing part of it. It involves hempcrete isolation, making new window’s opennings, creating heating system etc. Also in plans: creating kitchen and bathroom.
  
  *We had the bread house ruin fall down completly so we need to clear the tiles & stones and prepare it to be rebuilt as summer kitchen/green house/ pizza oven. Might be a fun project (mix of stone, glass, clay) but at the beginning it’s mostly moving the stones around.
  
  *We’re planning on expanding the garden &orchard so there’s always sth to do there as well.
  
  *also small thing inside the house like painting the windows etc.

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  Tipos de ajuda e oportunidades de aprendizado

  Projetos artísticos

  Ajuda em projetos ambientais

  Jardinagem

  Construção/faça você mesmo

  Cuidar de animais

  Ajuda em fazenda

  Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras

  Ajuda a cuidar da casa

  Manutenção geral
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  Oportunidades de intercâmbio cultural e aprendizado

  We can teach you Polish or Romanian :) you can practice your French with us (not fluent yet) or English (much better here ;) We can share our countries culture, national cuisine (PIEROGI !!!) or some vegetarian/vegan recipes. We can show you around so you inhale some of French culture. We love vintage stuff and can take you tonbrocante/second hand shops. We still have a lot to explore in the area, so we can do it together.

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  Ajuda

  If you have some experience that would be great, but if you have enthusiasm and learning fast that would do too. You just need to know at least basics since we don’t have time to supervise at all times.
  We’re flexible with the help & hours, all depending on the ongoing projects. We can just give you tasks and then it’s up to you when to fullfill it, we don’t work on schedule. You set your working time yourself.
  
  You need to be quite independent, we probably won’t be next to you at all times (if you’d requite help - you’ll get it, also instructions at the beggining).
  Best if with some practical sense and not affraid to use tools.
  
  We expect you to tidy/clean after yourself - after work with putting tools back, after cooking disches etc.
  
  We’d appreciate cooking / cleaning / gardenig also if you’re not into DIY projects, we just need to know in advance so we know what to expect.

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  Idiomas

  Idiomas
  Inglês: Fluente
  Polonês: Fluente
  Romanian: Fluente
  Francês: Intermediário

  Este anfitrião oferece intercâmbio de idiomas
  Este anfitrião indicou que tem interesse em compartilhar seu idioma ou em aprender um novo.
  Entre em contato com ele para obter mais informações.
  
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  Acomodação

  We have extra bedroom, with double bed, so can host couples. Kitchen, bathroom is shared. There's some space in the garden and we can provide tent/hammock if you prefer staying outdoors.
  
  NO TOILET INDOORS. There’s outdoors composting toilet, no flushing toilet inside the house.
  You need to be comfortable with peeing in the bush ;)
  The only bathroom (with shower) has a bit limited access since it’s only accessible by the guest bedroom.
  
  We are vegetarians and that's what we can provide when it comes to meals.
  We will probably have one or two meals together (lunch/dinner) during the day, with breakfast (and the other meal) you will help yourself (we'll provide all you need).

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  Algo mais...

  Our hamlet is really small (only 8people living here) and it is in the middle of meadows/pastures & forest so you need to be comfortable with it (not much happening here…).
  In your time off you can visit Vassivière lake, go hiking in the Parque natural regional de Millevaches, visit local markets, see some small, charming villages around or visit Limoges.
  Not much of a public transportation around here but there’s a bus going places from Bourganeuf and we can give you a lift.

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  Mais alguns detalhes

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    Acesso à internet

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    Acesso à internet limitado

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    Temos mascotes

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    Somos fumantes

  • 

    Pode hospedar famílias

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  Espaço para estacionar campervans

  We have some flat space in front of the house, the rest of the land is on a slope

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  Pode aceitar animais

  Only friendly female dog (medium to big) since our dog is picky when it comes to his company.

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  Quantos Workawayers pode acomodar?

  2

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