Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[Bonus]

We've been busy but we've got some serious catching up to do with our updates - lots has happened over the last week - although sadly none of it involves winning the lotto.

 

Normal service will resume shortly . . . .

[Bonus]

Wendy and I have moved into a new phase of our "Big Adventure".

 

At the end of May, after a lot of consideration, we moved out of our rented apartment in Ainsa and into a wing of Ramon the Friendly Farmer & Rosas Farmhouse - which is very close to our own property in Guaso.

 

They have been on at us for ages to move in with them - I think they've actually adopted us now. I expect the paperwork is in the post!

 

It will be very convenient when building work finally starts on our Project (I'll cover that point in a separate post) and in the meantime it is convenient for me working on the Bike Park that we are building on Ramon's land next to our house. It was only a 10 minute or so drive from Ainsa to Guaso but by the time you get from the apartment down to the car etc etc it makes "popping over to do an hours work" very inefficient. This will be much better . . . Plus it's nice to be close to our own place :-)

Edited June 7, 2017 by Bonus

[Bonus]

There are free Spanish lessons every week on a Tuesday up in Ainsa old town, for people wanting to learn the language.

 

Last week was the last lesson of the term and instead of meeting in class we met and had a picnic at a place Wendy and I suggested. The abandoned hilltop village of "Muro de Bellos". As with all these local places there are spectacular views and our teacher, Roberto, was able to point out loads of local landmarks to us.

 

Roberto bought with him a home-made guitar that held a secret . . .. :-)

 

[Matchstix]

My kind of guitar

[Bonus]

We're suffering a mini pre summer heatwave here this week. 39 degrees yesterday.

 

Thankfully it's cool at night and lovely in the mornings until around 10 ish. Phew.

[Ozzie NL]

 

There are free Spanish lessons every week on a Tuesday up in Ainsa old town, for people wanting to learn the language.

 

Last week was the last lesson of the term and instead of meeting in class we met and had a picnic at a place Wendy and I suggested. The abandoned hilltop village of "Muro de Bellos". As with all these local places there are spectacular views and our teacher, Roberto, was able to point out loads of local landmarks to us.

 

Roberto bought with him a home-made guitar that held a secret . . .. :-)

 

Does Einstein's offspring live in Ainsa???

[Bonus]

A week or so ago Jack and his mum & sisters were moved from the "Nursery" to the "Junior Barn" where he will now stay for a 6 to 8 weeks - until he is around 6 months old.

 

For the first few days after the move he was too busy playing with all his new friends (all the babies & mums were moved from the nursery over the space of a week) to pay us any attention - but for the last day or two he's been snuggling up to us again.

 

Our pet - Jack the Lamb . . . .

 

[Bonus]

The heatwave continues . . . .

 

When it's as warm as this during the day you soon learn which jobs to do and when to do them.

 

Thankfully it's still nice and cool in the mornings, evenings and at night. No sign of any rain near us just yet - but we need it.

 

 

[Gen]

The heatwave continues . . . .

 

When it's as warm as this during the day you soon learn which jobs to do and when to do them.

 

Thankfully it's still nice and cool in the mornings, evenings and at night. No sign of any rain near us just yet - but we need it.

Lekker

 

Hope the heatwave bring some rain for you

 

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Bonus]

Craft Beer tasting, Tapas dishes and live music. The Boltana Summer fiesta!

 

:-)

[New Landy new life]

Wondering what progress you guys are making on the building front ?

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Wendy]

Wondering what progress you guys are making on the building front ?

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

None at the moment. Sadly everyone we have spoken to that has either done or are doing building renovations has had years of delays and waiting. We met a couple who had an idea of the delays and they opted to buy something that does not need any permissions. However it cost them most of their cash, they are doing small jobs inside but are really no further than us. They arrived same month as us and are hoping to open end of this year. We did look at that option, but you pay a lot more for something you're not completely satisfied with. Either way it's a slog but I think in the long run if one buys to rebuild/renovate your end product is exactly what you want.

Tough one. I suppose it depends on how much you have to spend.

 

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Edited June 25, 2017 by Wendy

[Bonus]

Changes to the way Spanish Banks are allowed to Lend money:

 

Our current delay is due entirely to the fact that the Spanish banks, after Spain's EU Bailout, have been forced to change the way they lend money.

 

In a nutshell: Prior to the crisis and the EU's financial bail out, bank managers had the authority to make decisions regarding the lending of money to their local customers themselves. Sadly, this privilege was abused and led to people without sufficient means to repay loans, being lent money for anything and everything. Multiply that by several million customers countrywide and you have a financial disaster of note. Hence the "Financial Crisis" in Spain.

 

It was as a result of this Crisis that we were able to buy the property we know own, for the price we did. Pre-Crisis, in the "Boom Years" we would have paid twice as much as we did - which in fact would have been prohibitive. We couldn't have done it.

 

So on the plus side, we got a more property for our "Rand", but on the negative side . . . all new loan applications are now referred to the Risk Dept at the banks Head Office and these guys are strict.

 

We can't take out a mortgage because mortgages are specifically for "people with jobs looking to buy somewhere to live".

 

What we need to do is take out a Business Loan - the renovation of our property to turn it into a B&B is a business venture. And herein lies the problem - our repaying the loan depends entirely on the business being successful, and as confident and excited as we are, that is not something the risk department like the sound of. . . . .

 

More details later - right now we are going out for a nice picnic - it's the "Day of the Fiesta of Rosa" . . .

[Bonus]

Cont.

 

Aside from the risk departments getting involved with all loans nowadays, something else that took us a bit by surprise was the fact that banks don't want to take into account the value of your existing property when calculating a loan.

 

In other words, they won't accept our existing property as security against the loan because, in the event we default, it will do them no good to take our property from us and try and sell it to settle the loan. The banks already hold more property than they want to after default loans were called in during the crisis and the property market is such that they can't sell for love nor money.

 

Again - that's a reason why we got such a good deal when we bought . . . it was, and still is, a buyers market.

 

 

 

Edit: the reason we're spelling all this stuff out is not just because we want to tell everyone our story but because, from the beginning, the plan was to inform people of the pros and pitfalls of doing something like this.

 

We hope our trials and tribulations are of some use to someone out there!

 

:-)

 

to be continued . . . . .

Edited June 27, 2017 by Bonus

[Bonus]

We've had a nice couple of days with our British friends from down in Catalonia. They came to stay while they tested out their new camper van.

 

The trails were a bit wind & rain battered when I took them for a ride yesterday because we had an overnight storm, but they got to see a bit of the surrounding countryside.

 

Was nice to speak mostly English for a couple of days!

Edited July 11, 2017 by Bonus

[Loose cog]

Thought you may enjoy this,

 

It was sent to us by our friends in Malaga who are trying to get official licenses to establish a chicken processing business on one of their farm.