Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[Bonus]

We would like to be able to tell people that stay with us about places close to Guaso that are worth visiting. To that end we like to visit and get to know places ourselves and last Sunday we visited "Graus". It's an easy 45 min drive and worth going to see.

 

Here are some pictures from the San Pedro Church on the hill above Graus.

In actual fact you could visit Graus and then on the way home visit the submerged village of "Mediano" quite easily . . . so I am working out a few "Day Trip" Routes that you can easily follow. . . .

Edited March 15, 2017 by Bonus

[Bonus]

A few more from Graus . . .

[ZakAttak]

Jeez, the history and Architecture of Spain always amazed me... so rich and so full of stories to be told... really beautiful

[Bonus]

The foundations of this church were laid in 1184AD. Then it was built properly in the 14th and 15th Centuries.

 

I fear we may have an equally long wait between starting and finishing our project . . . .

[Bonus]

Jeez, the history and Architecture of Spain always amazed me... so rich and so full of stories to be told... really beautiful

 

 

There's so much stuff to see, and the history goes back so far . . .  I remember moving from the UK to Jo'burg in 1976 and they were celebrating the cities "90th Birthday". Here in Spain they have towns and villages that are a thousand years or more old.

 

Our neighbour Ramon the Farmers family have been in the farmhouse in Guaso for at least 400 years . . . .

[Bonus]

I started checking out the "Zona-Zero" MTB routes and Road Cycling in the area when we got here and we've always reported on local places of interest that we've visited - now we've started doing the same for local "Walks".

 

Here are some pics from a walk we did last week. We started at the "Vultures Dinning Room" (2 mins outside of Ainsa), where we parked the car and we finished at "Partara" which is the viewing point up on the hill that Angel from Zona-Zero dragged a bench up to!

 

It took us about an hour each way at a casual pace. We climbed from 600m to 859m and we saw lots of birds of prey on the way - from below and later from above! Very impressive but very hard to take pictures or video of!

 

The Vultures Dinning Room is, as the name implies, a place where local meat companies drop off meat to help feed the local Vulture population (they often "hover" over me when I'm climbing on the MTB!).

 

Vultures and a variety of Eagles/Kites/Hawks are all indigenous to the area - but I'll talk about that in another post . . .

[Bonus]

More pics . . .

[Bonus]

One more . . . .

[Bonus]

The view from the top is magnificent. It's not too hard to get to by foot or by bike (it's on Zona- Zero Route 5) and you can sit down at the top and have a picnic :-)

[Bonus]

Snow in Ainsa! Pics to follow . . . .

[Bonus]

March 25th and it suddenly snowed!

 

Two days ago I was working in the sun with shorts and a T shirt on, one day ago we were hibernating because it suddenly got cold . . . and now this!

 

Tyre Snow Chains recommended on the road up to France.

Possibly the worlds smallest snowman . . .

Some Pics of Ainsa in the snow.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Bonus

[Bonus]

The local village of Baniston and its Church . . .

[Gen]

The local village of Baniston and its Church . . .

Yeah that isn't spring.

[DIPSLICK]

Hi guys

I have been following with much jealousy, and much respect for you two sticking through this year of highs and lows. I have been wondering as I am sure others are also some have hinted at the question,,,so ILL BE THAT GUY

 

COSTS,BUDGETS and surely a cut off, I don't want specifics I'm more curious even on scale system would also be cool, I am just trying to understand the financial plan

 

On purchasing the "barn" was there an initial budget, if so were you within initial ball park you had in mind when setting off on your adventure

 

On the costs up to this point,,did you know that there were going to be as many hurdles when you initially started as you guys have been through. I'm sure you didn't initially plan for builds paper work and use of architects to be done over and over I'm sure they not submitting and changing everything for free

 

With seeing how "things work" over there are you recalculating costs going forward and changing any expectations

 

Initially what time period did you work on before you "expected" any income from your venture

 

 

Now the majority of the thread this question would never have crossed my mind because I've seen how passionate you guys are and how you have approached everything thrown at you till this point,,,,,,,here it comes BUT

 

if things continue at the current pace do you guys have a cut off point where the minister of finance eventually says NO,,,NO MORE

If there is a cut off is there a plan B

 

Obviously no one wants this I think the HUBBERS following this thread are living your dream through your updates

[Vetseun]

Hi guys

I have been following with much jealousy, and much respect for you two sticking through this year of highs and lows. I have been wondering as I am sure others are also some have hinted at the question,,,so ILL BE THAT GUY

COSTS,BUDGETS and surely a cut off, I don't want specifics I'm more curious even on scale system would also be cool, I am just trying to understand the financial plan

On purchasing the "barn" was there an initial budget, if so were you within initial ball park you had in mind when setting off on your adventure

On the costs up to this point,,did you know that there were going to be as many hurdles when you initially started as you guys have been through. I'm sure you didn't initially plan for builds paper work and use of architects to be done over and over I'm sure they not submitting and changing everything for free

With seeing how "things work" over there are you recalculating costs going forward and changing any expectations

Initially what time period did you work on before you "expected" any income from your venture

Now the majority of the thread this question would never have crossed my mind because I've seen how passionate you guys are and how you have approached everything thrown at you till this point,,,,,,,here it comes BUT

if things continue at the current pace do you guys have a cut off point where the minister of finance eventually says NO,,,NO MORE

If there is a cut off is there a plan B

Obviously no one wants this I think the HUBBERS following this thread are living your dream through your updates

Plus whan

[Wendy]

Hey guys. I'm sure Bonus will give a more detailed reply but for now some quick answers.

 

Our first big hurdle was getting enough time of work in SA to get this ball rolling. With only 15 days leave so to find a "ruin" and get started we had to resign and take a trip or 3.

These were costly but we kept costs down by staying in the cheapest places we could find while looking for a place (and taking flights at horrible hours) We found it and it was indeed about €20 000 over budget. Budgets for renovations have moved as well. Like the boiling frog every time we were told of an increase we could see the merit so agreed until it became a massive renovation.

Lawyers fees and extra costs along the way have also added up.

We expected to be earning by now and can probably stay alive for another year before we become part of the daisies in the terraced garden.

We decided to get a loan against the building to build so that we can keep our cash flow to survive until it's all done and that turned out to be a good decision.

Originally our loan was approved but they could not process it until the licence was granted. 8 months later and a new director of risk department changed their minds. We are now with another bank. One that has an interest in rejuvenating Spains rural areas. We also found out that neither our financial position or our business plan are the problem for the delay, but rather the fact that they feel we could run away from our debt at any time.

 

Lastly, plan B and when do we call it a day. Our original plan B was to go to England and work until we can continue but that has changed. After a year our Spanglish is better and we could work here. But we will not throw in the towel. We will try for doing a quarter of the renovations and keep going from there.

Visitors from all over and also many of the Spanish people we have met at all the fiestas are positive that this will work. We even have the guys from Zona Zero impressed with our plans and very positive about it all. We can't let this just go.

It's all time now.

Anyone wanting to do this or similar and worried about the costs. It's just a matter of jumping in.

My father once said that if couples say they are saving to have children, they will never have enough. You just jump in and go or you will never go.

Of course if anyone wants help with making any move we most certainly can help with real numbers or near as dammit.

 

Sorry that was longer than expected

Night all