Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[Gen]

Last night we had a meeting with a heating engineer to discuss the finer points of our proposed hot water & heating system.

 

I've never lived in a house with seven different thermostat controlled "Zones" before. Closest I ever came was probably "Upstairs and Downstairs" . . . .

 

:-)

It sounds very complicated [emoji23]

[Bonus]

It sounds very complicated [emoji23]

 

hotter, colder, just right. That's what it "boils down to" Gen :-)

Edited January 13, 2017 by Bonus

[Bonus]

The winter weather that a lot of northern and eastern Europe has been experiencing over the last few weeks was headed towards the Pyrenees yesterday and got there last night.

 

Up in the Alto-Pyrenees - places like Bielsa & the Ski resort of Benasque - nearly a meter of snow has fallen and the tunnel from France that our friends from the UK came through when they visited us back in the summer is currently closed, as is the tunnel at Somport, north of Jaca.

 

Ainsa has a bit of a cold wind blowing through it at the moment but sunny skies - no rain or snow here and it was up around 11 degrees when we popped to the shops earlier.

Cold but certainly not too cold.

 

Guaso today was sunny and fairly warm if you kept out of the slight wind :-)

 

 

We can see the snow that fell on our nearest mountain, the Peña Montañesa, last night but it's all above about 2000m. You can see the bad weather behind the mountains but, despite the snow blowing towards us from France, it's not making it as far as us.

 

This is the sort of bad weather I don't mind - when you can just see it in the distance . . .

[Bonus]

This picture of Ainsa "Old Town" being used in the latest tourism initiative from our local area council.

 

(From Facebook)

 

 

Corona de Aragon

22 November 2015

 

Hello. Very good morning. We want to collaborate from crown of Aragon with this initiative of treasures of Aragon to publicize locations of our land, Aragon. We need your help. The shape is very simple, give the likes and / or share this message. The first town we want to make known to the whole world, is ainsa. Help us, we want to reach 25.000 people reached. Thank you.

[Bonus]

It's been a little while since we updated our "Big Adventure" thread properly . . . . . . things did not go as planned for us at the beginning of the month and we've consequently found ourselves being kept busy with all sorts of things we didn't expect!

 

It's sometimes been difficult to stay positive but we're still alive and kicking and not ready to give up just yet

 

Over the next couple of days we will post and tell you guys & girls all about it!

 

Bonus & Wendy.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Bonus

[coppi]

Cool thanks, looking forward to your updates...............

[Popit]

Looking forward to the update ...

Hope it is working out for you guys .

If needs be , chin up and stay positive .

[Bonus]

Here's a piece Wendy wrote as a follow up to my post last week . . .

 

 

"Well getting through the red tape in Spain is certainly a little slower than we expected . . . and as one door opens it seems only to reveal another closed door on the other side.

 

During 2016 we opened many doors - and that helped us to maintain our positive mind-sets. At least we haven’t come across a closed door that has remained shut. For that we are grateful. But each closed door has meant a delay.

 

Delays started with our architect losing his business associate to cancer in November 2015 - just as he was supposed to be starting our drawings. His increased workload and the fact that we weren't actually here to chase him, meant that the drawings we expected in January where not ready until the end of March.

 

On the day we received our house plans we took them straight to the local council offices so that we could get our building license (planning permission). We expected this to take between 6 weeks and 2 months - but it turns out that the council architect, a young lady called Eva, only works Tuesdays & Thursdays . . .

 

Eventually, after about 4 months we had a call from our architect to say that there was a problem with the drawings. The problem was that the law had recently changed in Spain regarding the amount of renovation work you can do on an existing property - and now our house was suddenly too big. We had to employ a solicitor to help us and the architect convince the council that because our planning application was submitted BEFORE the change in law, we should be exempt. We got there in the end but it had been another delay.

 

The next closed door was put in our way by some of our neighbours and the "100 year old family feud" they were having between them. They didn't even have the decency to both lodge their complaints at the same time! More expense and more time. We got there in the end but the months were stacking up . . .

 

We finally got out license in early December. 6 months later than we expected. The cost of the planning permission building license includes a portion of tax - and the rate of tax depends on the type of building. It looks like our building has been incorrectly classified . . . the council are currently checking this for us and we don't have to pay the bill until the investigation is finished . . . so they can take as long as they like in this case!

 

The latest closed door is the door to our bank, who had originally agreed to lend us the "top up" amount we needed to pay for the building work. In the time it took us to obtain our planning permission the EU Court ruled that Spanish Banks had acted unlawfully when granting mortgages with "minimum interest rates" attached. Long story short - Spanish Banks are going to have to pay back around 5 Billion Euros between them to customers with illegal mortgages.

 

This has changed the landscape in terms of who banks will lend money to and how much they have available to lend. We are currently waiting to hear from our bank as to where we stand, but in the meantime, we can't sign contracts with our builder . . . who was expecting to start in the second week of January . . . .

 

In two weeks time Bonus will have been in Spain for a year. I joined him a few weeks later. As much as we have manged to keep our heads up during this very long year, it has taken its toll on our finances and our senses of humour.

 

 

This thread started out as a “what to do/not to do” or rather “how to do it successfully” thread but later became our daily encouragement and motivation thread.

 

Thank you all for your relentless patience and participation in our “adventure” and keep watching this space . . . the orchestra have taken their seats but the fat lady has not yet sung...."

[barrykm]

That's certainly a litany of obstacles, but I hope that your finances and senses of humour can stretch to an extended timeframe. 

 

We are rooting for you and always look forward to your updates.

[SwissVan]

Having now lived in a forgein land for 14 years almost to the day.... I wonder if a local would have experienced the same amount of "closed doors"

 

We have not taking the same big steps you have (renting in a popular expat location instead of buying and building in a small community) and yet we still have come across this "resistance"

 

Vasbyt, you will get there .... maybe all these closed doors are a form of integration testing sub chapter P(1) Perseverence.

 

????

Edited February 7, 2017 by SwissVan

[Gen]

Shees.. after this you guys can open a consulting firm..

 

 

Vasbyt guys

Edited February 7, 2017 by Gen

[coppi]

This might sound cheesy but its something I believe in...............if its meant to be it will be !

[Jensie]

Good Luck Guys and hope you get there fast....strongs hey

[Bonus]

It's nice, when things are crawling along at a snails pace and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be on a dimmer switch, to be given some professional reassurance

 

When our first choice of bank seemed to be dragging it's heels with regards to our top-up loan, we started talking in tandem to a second bank. One that specialises in loans for properties in rural areas. The manager there loved our ideas and our business plan but before he could consider our application his risk department needed us to have a "Viability Study" carried out by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, who are based in the nearby town of Huesca. It's a free service that takes about 10 days to complete. We sent them everything we could - business plan, the architects project, a dozen emails with lots of "extra" ideas we've had . . .

 

We met with Susana, the lady from the Dept of Commerce, this week and she gave us her report. We're thrilled to learn that according to her, based on everything we gave her (and we gave her a lot!) and everything she knows about the expanding tourism and investment in the local area etc etc, we will be successful with our venture

 

Of course there will be hard work and long hours, but we can manage that - the view out of the window will remind us why we're doing it.

 

We've passed the report on to the bank manager and I think he's as happy as we are.

Now we just have to wait . . . for a change.

 

Bonus.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Great news, Bonus!

[Gen]

Aaah good to hear..