Becoming Co-Stewards of the French Farmhouse
The story behind the tiny French farmhouse we acquired with friends, and notes on how we navigated the real estate transaction as Americans.
On the last day of 2020, just shy of my 40th birthday, we bought our first house.
It’s old (1800s). It’s smaller than it looks from the outside (<800 sqft). It’s in France. And it’s shared between nine (!) of us.
This acquisition didn’t happen easily. Global lockdowns and the financial / emotional strains of the pandemic impacted every step of the process. The undertaking would’ve been complicated enough to begin with, regardless of the mayhem of 2020. But, with a firm belief in our vision, along with the help of warm-hearted people that cheered us on, the deal became official juuuust before the ball dropped to usher in a new year.
I long knew the exact place in France in which I wanted to live. This made matters simple from the onset. Whenever I had a spare moment, I’d simply conduct web searches for available homes and land within the region.
