So, it all started back in 2012....

Life back then was pretty normal. Jonathan was running his own business as a Chartered Building Surveyor/Developer, Sam worked as a School Bursar in one of the local schools in addition to book-keeping for a local Dairy Farmer, the children were both doing pretty well at school, and our fluffy family of 4 (3 dogs, 1 cat) were generally being very fluffy, but it dawned on us all (after returning from a short ski break that same February), that life has a tendency to stand still unless you are prepared to give it a gentle nudge.

And a gentle NUDGE is exactly what it got…

So, after procrastinating over how it couldn’t work, we decided to JUST GET ON WITH IT.

The searches began, and we had made our decision… Morzine was our destination, and what seemed like one of those pipe dreams, soon turned to mission impossible. I won’t lie, it was tough at times, really tough.

The plot of land we fell in love with was literally on the side of a mountain. It was accessible by car (JUST) but had water bubbling out from its grass marshland and was clearly home to wild boars that had convincingly made their mark. The day that we viewed the plot for the first time, we could feel that eyes were watching us. Curtains started to twitch, heads were turning and the silence was deafening. I won’t be writing you a novel here, I just wanted to set the scene. This was going to be the Mother of all challenges… and our presumption was SPOT ON!

So once planning was approved, we started to dig ground in May 2014 (Yes ….2014!), the diggers started to arrive, dumper, cranes, workforce (if you can call them that), and slowly our money started to drip out of the bank account. Tonnes of concrete were sunk into this plot to provide a decent footing, which I was pretty supportive of, considering the spring water bubbling out of the ground had to be stopped/channeled!!

In September 2014 the children were settled into school (well, as settled as they can be coming to a completely different country/culture with a new language, new faces, no uniform…) Their first day at school was the worst day of our lives here. OK, so we didn’t want them to grow up being expected to learn in a straight line, but WHAT ON EARTH were we thinking?

Back to the Build, steel sheets, concrete lintels, gallons of liquid concrete, enough sand & dust to fill the local quarries, this was no glamorous job. Sam was often sent off down the mountain with truck and trailer to purchase materials. It’s just as well she was capable of reversing trailers into awkward spaces, especially with some of those small builders yards. The language was a challenge too, with Jonathans non-existent French and Sam’s Boulangerie French. (Learning quickly day-by-day) Fortunately, both Jonathan and Sam had grown up on a farm, raised in wellies, drove tractors before driving cars, they were no softies, and getting stuck in was their choice. Months & months passed, the oak frame that was hand crafted in UK arrived on the back of 2 enormous lorries, and the structure started to take shape. The roof was finally ON in November 2015, just before snowfall. Through 2016, Jonathan and Sam worked tirelessly on groundworks, flooring, plumbing, electrics, the list was exhaustive. Still by Snowfall of 2016, the bank account had pretty much dried up, the mission was becoming more and more impossible, the stress levels were at their peak. Finally in August 2017, after some help from Jonathans workforce back in UK,  things were taking shape. Plasterboard, second fix electrics, bathroom suites, underfloor heating.... We’d basically dusted ourselves down, and decided to get on with that last push. Jonathan, at this point working incredibly long hard hours for months and months on end, and Sam had started marketing the Chalet for Winter 2017/2018, so the commitment was there.

As our first guests arrived on 6 Jan 2018, and were driving up the driveway, we were literally slinging the workbench (currently in the lounge) into the workshop, we were securing a few picture frames, buffing the last tap and sweeping away the last traces of saw dust.

MISSION WAS COMPLETE!

NOT EASY, NEVER AGAIN, but we’ve the house of our dreams, we achieved what we set out to do and this was it. Corner4 was now OPEN for business.

A snippet of how it all came together

Jonathan can now relax much more and concentrate on his business building houses, Sam is loving her new job, meeting, greeting, and is busy re arranging scatter cushions, they both can sleep through the whole night without ‘stress & worry’ waking them up,  the children, Millie & Arthur, after time and patience have adapted, they’ve battled, they’ve learnt, they are absolutely amazing, are now fluent, happy and have the best life ever.

We've many close friends and amazing family to thank for the success of this place, and they know who they are. They've picked us up when we were at an all time low, celebrated our achievements (even if it was plumbing in the bathroom tap one Sunday evening), and have given us 'around the clock' encouragement. We'd still have been standing in a puddle of our own tears if it wasn't for them. 

But most importantly, Huge Congratulations and Thanks to Jonathan (my amazing husband, the best father ever and great friend) who had this most amazing determination, when everything seemed to be going against us. So many things went wrong for us during this project, it was the hardest thing we've ever done, but I'm pleased to say 'We've come out the other side, stronger, closer, wiser and so much happier'.

Some Friendly Advice...