Sunday 25 October 2015

Renovation project - some big decisions are needed

Renovation project - some big decisions are needed

We have been in Spain for a couple of months now and we are loving every minute of it.

The family have been to visit as have friends, the food is wonderful, the sun has not stopped shining though at times we have just spent afternoons in the villa with the air con on!



But we are not having much luck on the house hunting front, we have arranged to view a few but on the morning of the viewing, we are informed the house we wanted is no longer available but there is this one (just happens to be over double the price!)

We are seriously thinking that Spain is not the place to be to do what we want too.

The area we have chosen, does not seem to have been hit by the recession in the same way and a house requiring work is not much different in price to one that is completely finished.

Another issue is the licenses and permits, it is much more difficult in spain when it comes to the paper work. I never thought I would miss the French bureaucracy, but it seems so efficient compared to Spain!

It is time to make some big decisions.

We love Spain and this is where we want to be, but if we are not able to buy and work here, what will we do?

At this point I start to have a look at houses in France again, maybe Spain is the long term dream and France is the practical solution?

Maybe we can stay in Spain for part of the year and stay in France for the remainder?

But reality has to take charge, in France we are in the health system, we can work, I can speak the language (though English is not a problem in Spain) but I want to be part of the country I move to, I do not want to be part of little Britain in another country.

So we can think seriously about it whilst we are lay on our sun lounges enjoying the food and the weather and all that Spain has to offer.

The next few weeks will be the decider, hopefully we will find a property here, but who knows?

I am not sure if this is exciting or terrifying........

5 comments:

  1. A new, warmer, less busy part of France? Or France where the work is?

    ReplyDelete
  2. not sure what you should do, i loved it when you were in france. if i had your skills (johns building and your French bureaucracy skils) i would be in france with a b&b or something simular!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you, we are now deciding on our next project, we would like to try having a gite (obviously one we will have to renovate)

      Delete
  3. Have you tried connecting with other expats that have done the same thing as you want to do? Maybe they could head you in the right direction as to availability of houses at the right price. I follow a blog that is a couple from the uk who moved to Spain and are doing similar to what you want. Here is their blog if you want to check it out.
    http://www.technobillies.net/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Janice thanks for the link. Our problem is that the area that we want is very expensive and I do not want to be where the children will struggle to get to us, so maybe it is back to the drawing board

      Delete