GallopingGhostler

4,000 m^2 is a US acre, you came across a really good real estate deal.

Telemaster Sales UK

House prices in this part of France are very low because there is no work here for the young and the population is diminishing all the time. In my commune of 70 villages and hamlets, five babies were born last year and twenty-five people died. If you go to Normandy, Artois, Toulouse or Paris or any other area where there is much more work, house prices rival those of the UK.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

The house looks good and sturdy and the roof looks good. What is the monthly cost of living where you are like?

Telemaster Sales UK

It's a bit difficult to say Flyer, I've never been into recording everything I spend. Some things are cheaper and some things are more expensive. For example, in England you have to tax a car in order to be able to drive it on the public roads. How much you pay varies with how pollutant your car is but I paid over £300 each year to tax my Rover 75. (Current exhange rate In France you do not have to pay road tax but against that you pay a toll to use the autoroutes and insurance is more expensive. Petrol and diesel fuel are both cheaper in France than in England, tobacco is much more expensive in England, and food is a bit more expensive in France, mind you I grow a fair bit of my own food and I've never smoked so the price of tobacco is not a concern. Local taxes are much less in France than in England and the income tax charged on my pension is about the same

I am spending money a bit faster than it is coming in at the moment and there will be considerable expense involved in improving the house, furthermore I'm currently living in rented accommodation and will continue to do so until the work has been completed in the new house, so that will be expensive.

Telemaster Sales UK

Sorry Flyer the cybernetics will not allow me to edit the above post, what I meant to say was that the Pound Sterling is currently worth $1.24US and the Euro is worth $1.07, alternatively $1 is worth £0.81 or 0.93€. I am currently paying 431€ per month to rent this place. Once I'm installed in the new premises I will be able to live pretty frugally.

When I first looked at the house, there was a little white Peugeot 205 diesel in the cellar; it hadn't moved for three years. As a joke I asked the previous owners to leave the car and I would restore it. Bless them they have left it! I inspected the house last night with my shepherdess friend Ruth. She found the ignition key and after a few turns the old girl rattled in to life! It's done nearly 400,000kms which probably accounts for the can of oil and container of water in the boot! Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the "carte grise" or logbook to the British, title to Americans but I'm sure there will be a way around this. I started it up myself this afternoon and managed to drive it a few feet forwards and backwards in the garage so the clutch and at least two of the gears work. It's fairly scruffy and the steering feels a bit loose but if I can get it legal it'll be an economical little runabout. When it was new it was quite a well appointed little car, electric windows and all.


Intriguingly there is a large wood burning stove in the house which was made in Louisiana. I forgot to record the name of the manufacturer, King-something. Firewood is available in three sizes over here, 20cms, 30cms or 50cms. This stove will easily accommodate the largest size.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Buy a house get a free car, what deal! If the stove is efficient it can be an inexpensive way to heat the house. My wife had an uncle on Poughkeepsie, NY who did just that with a high efficiency insert in his fireplace. It would burn an average size log for about 7 to 8 hours. I enjoyed visiting him I wish we had gotten together more before he passed on.

Telemaster Sales UK

I don't think that little Peugeots were imported into the USA or Australia, herewith a picture of the car.

The stove appears to have been made by a company called "Kingsworld " of Louisiana. It's the first American stove I've seen in France. The French make a lot of stoves themselves.



I don't think that I'll be restoring this one though!

acdii

Thats a Cellar? When you said cellar, I picutred a hole in the ground to store root vegetables.

Telemaster Sales UK

Sorry I mis-led you. The car was in the cellar/underground garage when I first saw it but the old owners moved it to the free-standing garage in the grounds. The underground garage measures 12 metres by 4 metres then there's a boiler room and a wine cellar both of which measure 6 metres by 4 metres. I plan to set up my model aeroplane workshop in the boiler room.

Picture of the free-standing garage.



Pictures of the underground garage taken today.



Boiler room.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

So you have what amounts to two garages, or if you prefer hanger with building area and a free standing garage!. The delivery van doesn't look viable to restore unless you don't mind spending a lot more than its worth? Perhaps you can sell it to a scrap metal dealer or give it to someone to haul off for scrap? The last Peugeot imported to the US I believe was the 505 though there was some talk that might return to the US market last year. Alfa Romeo has come back to the US they have started advertising the Giulia on television and I know we have a local dealer.

acdii

Thats a nice setup. Lots of room for a shop.

Telemaster Sales UK

I was of course being ironic when I referred to restoring the delivery van. Though it's not obvious in the picture it's just the rear load-carrying part of the van which remains. There is no engine, gearbox or cab and I don't think there's even a rear axle or wheels. Someone must have used it for storage. I'll get the scrap man to take it away some time. In good condition these vans, Renault 4Ls, are collector's items as few have survived. They were based on the Renault 4 car and there are still a few of those about. Two old girlfriends had three between them but that was ages ago!

As for the Peugeot 505 that was a solid car as was its predecessor the 504. A few years ago whenever there was news from Africa on the television, in the background, amidst the Land Rovers and Japanese stuff you'd see lots of 504s and 505s rolling along. I've heard these cars, together with the Mercedes W123 and the bigger Volvos, referred to as "African Taxis," such was their reliability. I used to know a builder in England who had a good side line in restoring 504 and 505 estate cars, station wagons in American parlance. A very practical car. Mick Jagger has a chateau near Amboise in the Loire Valley. He used to drive about incognito in an old 505 until people started saying, "Look at that old 505! Hey that's Mick Jagger driving it!" I believe that he now drives something more modern..

With all of that space I have plenty of room for my other toys, a 955cc Triumph motorcycle and a 1974 Rover P6 plus the ride-on motor mower I'm going to need with all of that land! There's a new John Deere motor mower for sale in the Peugeot agents in Aigurande. John Deere have a reputation, like many exported American products, of being of high quality if a little expensive. Has anybody ever owned one?

rcmiket

Unsubscribed. I can see this kinda stuff on the HGTV.

Mike

Telemaster Sales UK

That's a pity. Once I've finished the Baron 1914, my next two builds are going to be a Supra Fly 45 pattern ship and a Warbirds Replicas Hawker Hurricane. .

http://www.warbirdreplicas.co.uk/

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

Well I liked it even if it wasn't strictly on topic.

acdii

Why give the guy grief over showing us where he plans to build all his hard to find kits?

BTW I used to have a Renault SportWagon, until the trans failed and couldn't find a replacement. It was a fun car to drive.

skylark-flier

Gotta admit, that IS a nice area to set up shop - and maybe another full woodshop to go along with it.

ETpilot

If the JD is in good condition you should get good service from the mower. I purchased a new JD 345 48"deck about 22-24 years ago. It has cruise control, power steering, hydraulic deck lift and hydrostatic drive. It served me well mowing around the house for many years. After many years I replaced it with a Kubota Diesel zero-turn with 72" deck. The JD I took to the local airport where I use it to tow my Cessna T210, 2400 lbs. empty, and other a few other planes. It is still at the airport and still working good. I have managed to tear up the hood a bit. But mechanically it is sound.

I like the Kubota because it saves me time plus I easily maintain my RC 60x300' runway.

Good luck if you buy the JD.

acdii

+1 on JD.

radiisteve

My Feedback: (24)

From the do it yourself viewpoint, I've been working at finding plans for all of my favorite planes from yesteryear when my Dad taught my brother and I to build in the 60's, and through my own lifetime of building.

I have 240 folders of different plane types (u control, glider, scale and non scale RC) with somewhere's around 1,240 sets of plans stored away in PDF and AutoCad files ready for printing or redrawing. My biggest passion is for scale designs, but I started out with U Control like many did back in the 60's.

I love to build, I love to draw (a designer/engineer professionally) and I have a great appreciation for the art of designing and drawing up plans, so just review old Berkeley classics, or the greats like Ziroli, Platt and many many more, is a great source of pleasure for hours at a time.

So, having amassed perhaps several lifetimes worth of plans now that I'm retired, I plan to cut my own kits, along with having some kits laser cut (large giant scale zillion piece models). As far as I'm concerned, the old great kits will never die.

Telemaster Sales UK

At risk of being accused of going off topic, the John Deere is a brand new X125 model priced at 2799€ which equates to $3008 US or £2425 Sterling. I will not be cutting every blade of grass in my 1 acre garden. Some of it is woodland and I can set aside another portion for a few of my friend's sheep!

Anybody out there know anything about this lawnmower?

Once I get some info on the lawnmower, I promise I'll get back to model aircraft kits. .

acdii

Haven't been to the Saito thread, have ya! LOL It runs so far off topic that half the time no one has a clue what the topic is.

Anyway to answer your JD question, the X model is dealer sold, higher quality than the D series sold at Home Centers. It's the Lexus of lawn tractors. It may look like the D series, but has a heavier chassis and a much better motor and transmission. Top rated.

GallopingGhostler

(deleted)

GallopingGhostler

Pricey. X125 is listed as an export model. Engine in it is of lower HP than US offerings. US entry level X330 (MSRP $3k) has 20 HP (14.9 kW, ditto with D). X125 has 9.6 kW (13 HP). D130 sold at home improvement centers MSRP $1.9k apparently has same chassis as X125 but with 22 HP (16.4 kW) V-twin motor.

Personally for our acre yard, we use a self propelled walk behind mower with Honda engine. Is of slightly lower HP than those with Briggs and Stratton or Tecumseh engines, but am told does the same work. We've had it for 13 years and still works fine. For roughly 1/10th the cost and convenience of the self propelled, it makes relatively short work of the lawn. I've kept it repaired, may replace piston rings and keep another 5 years.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

You can't beat the Honda walk behind mowers. I'm not as attentive to regular maintenance as I should be but my first one lasted 10 years before the transmission broke and its replacement is still going strong after 8 years (knock on wood).