Located in a village with all necessary amenities in the Millevaches Regional Park in the Limousin, this 2-bed 1930’s stone house could be many things: your first purchase if you are in your twenties or thirties and don’t want to pay any more rents, or an easy-to-maintain second home, or even a profitable investment. The decision is yours and at this very affordable price, the decision is not too difficult to make...

The house
This used to be a house with a shopfront. The large bay window in the living room facing the street is a testimony to its history. It is the only house on that street to have a front garden, as the house is set back from the other street buildings. You climb a few steps up to the front door which opens onto the 130ft² useable kitchen with an open fireplace which the wood range is connected to. Behind this room, the 140ft² dining room with a fireplace and window overlooking the West-facing garden, is raised above a cellar.

To the left of the kitchen, the former shop with its bay window is now the living room (180ft²). It also has a fireplace. It is raised on a shallow crawl space. Finally, a 75ft² landing raised above the cellar rounds up the rooms on the ground floor. It has a door to the living room, one to the dining room and another to the garden and houses the stairwell and the oil-fired boiler with heat distribution ducts.

On the first floor, a second landing leads to a 65ft² basic bathroom with bath, sink, bidet, hot water tank and washing machine, and two East-facing bedrooms (170ft² & 180ft²).

A staircase with a door leads from the landing up to the convertible attic above, of ca. 175ft² between the 6ft high A-frames and ca. 215ft² if you include the space beyond the A-frames. Sprayed wool insulates the floor of the attic whilst the natural slate roof is exposed.

Even though this house can be lived in, it is better to plan an overall upgrade of its interior: electricity, plumbing, interior decoration, insulation (doors, windows, and ground-floor floors), changing some of the ground-floor beams, as well as decorating and insulating the attic under the eaves if you want to add a top bedroom and bathroom. And if you can do most of the work yourself (nice little project!) then you will be able to keep the costs down.
 

The outbuildings
There are two small outbuildings: a shed with a cement fiber roof on the garden side protects the "antique" looking oil tank and the wood supplying the range cooker from the elements. Also, a stone lean-to with a flat clay tile roof is attached to the left-hand neighbour’s house and can be used to store garden tools.

A raised garden to enjoy the setting sun
The back door of the house opens onto a small courtyard on the same level. There are 2 pedestrian accesses, one on either side of the house via two wooden gates that connect to this courtyard. A paved passage and a staircase built into a stone wall gives access to the small 2050ft² raised garden: there is enough space for some vegetables and a few flower beds and perhaps a small terrace to admire the sunsets. The land of the house runs behind the neighbour's secluded courtyard and terrace. He can only see you if you stand directly in front of his terrace.

Access and amenities
La Croisille sur Briance is a small dynamic village in the Millevaches in Limousin Regional Park and has all the basic amenities: corner supermarket, bars with restaurant, café with associations, bookstore, chemist’s, garage, primary and infant schools (via a merger with a neighbouring village’s school). There is a fishing pond with a mini nature campsite. You are in the middle of the hilly countryside (between 1300ft and 2300ft above sea level), but only 15 minutes by car from the train station, the motorway, 35 minutes from the Limoges city centre and 45mn from its international airport.