Property details

Ref:

R2762

Property type:

House

Location:

3 km de RUFFEC

Region:

Poitou-Charentes

Département:

Charente 16

Habitable Space:

Not Known

Summary

Wonderful 200 year-old merchant house with great character and charm: The house is in the old quarter of Villegats, just a short hop off the N10. Major towns with budget airlines are easily

Property description

Wonderful 200 year-old merchant house with great character and charm: The house is in the old quarter of Villegats, just a short hop off the N10. Major towns with budget airlines are easily accessible: Poitiers 45 mins, Angouleme 35 mins, Limoges 1 oe hrs, La Rochelle 1 oe hrs and Bordeaux 2 oe hrs. In March, 2008 Ryanair will be flying into Angouleme-Brie airport, an easy 30-minute drive. The pretty market town of Ruffec nearby has the fast TGV train link to Paris (2 hours). The setting is paradisiacal for country lovers with rivers meandering through rolling fields and woods, and it is great fun for rambling, cycling , fishing and horse-riding. Close by through the idyllic village of Verteuil, dwarfed by an immense Chateau, the Charente river snakes through with impressive waterfalls. Since we bask in 2,250 hours of sunshine on average - second only to the Cote D'Azur - the Charente is a very attractive place to live. Smothered in honeysuckle the house has historical features that adds to its charm and character. An old 'hanger barn' attached to the back of the house is where the merchant owner back in the 19th century would alight into his horse-drawn carriage, sheltered from the weather. Many of the pretty old windows still have panes of old glass, and a notable feature from when the house was first built is an alcove with a stone sink in the salon. Given its convenient location, over the last four years Les Tremieres has been run successfully as a Chambres d'Hotes, and has just been chosen as a special place to stay by the GUARDIAN TRAVEL WEBSITE. Old vines yielding a good tasty crop of purple and yellow grapes trail around the walls from the pretty courtyard side of the house to the rear, where a conservatory attached to the house opens through french doors onto the back garden. Heady with the scent of lavender, roses and honeysuckle the garden is a joy and the harvest from fig, peach, cherry, plum, pear, almond and apple trees yield delicious fruit through the summer and autumn. A large soundly-built roofed barn in the garden would make a spacious additional home/gite and the village mayor has given his approval for such a conversion. Upstairs there are four main bedrooms (one en-suite), and a fifth bedroom/study. There is full oil-fired central heating. More rooms could be added by carrying the staircase up into the unused loft that runs the entire length of the house and has solid oak floors and magnificent oak trusses that would give superb character to additional rooms. Equally the kitchen downstairs opens into a large utility room with separate shower room/laundry, and above that up a flight of stairs is a double height room large enough to add separate living quarters. It has floorboards and access to the loft. THE KITCHEN 28 m2 Lovely oak units, old black and white tiled floor, beams, and a large open fireplace with a magnificent hand-carved old mantel with a pair of lovebirds. UTILITY ROOM 32 m2 Accessed through the kitchen door, beamed, stone floor window overlooks pretty courtyard and door opens into it. Separate laundry/shower room. SALON 38 m2 Cherry parquet floor, pretty inbuilt wood-burning fireplace, four old-feature windows opening onto front/rear gardens, and french doors opening to the garden. CORRIDOR Both the salon and kitchen have doorways to the corridor and there are french doors opening to the conservatory, which in turn opens into the back garden. There is a small toilet and sink under the stairwell. BOILER ROOM At the end of the house with access from the outside there is considerable storage space. FIRST FLOOR Rare, original wide-plank oak flooring. Opening off the corridor at the top of the staircase is a small dressing room. BEDROOM No. 1 6 m2 Currently unused, this could be a small bedroom or study. BEDROOM No. 2 17 m2 Bedroom with window overlooking the garden. BEDROOM No. 3 28m2 Large bedroom with gorgeous window views and en-suite bathroom. A second corridor door opens into the end wing of the house, with two more bedrooms and a bathroom. BEDROOM No. 4 19 m2 Large with windows overlooking a huge purple fig tree and the back garden. BEDROOM No. 5 13 m2 Window overlooking front garden. BATHROOM 6 m2 Pine-floored with a bath, toilet, and wash basin. Window overlooks front garden. This is a special house where care has been taken to preserve the historical features that give it such a feeling of individuality. * Although it is already a spacious and well laid-out home there is plenty of scope to expand further without having to shell out huge sums, as is often the case with renovation projects.

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Available now for

€220,000

Agency Fees Included? Yes

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