Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[allstar scott]

So let me make sure I understand this. You and Wendy, both went up 'Vulture mountain'.

 

You took a picture of her. And the mountain in the background is 5 km's away.

 

She took a picture of you...and now the mountain is 15 km's away.

 

AND....the cloud coverage is exactly the same in both photo's.

 

PHOTOSHOP FAIL !!!!!!!!! and bull**** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

WHY???????

[Zatopek]

So let me make sure I understand this. You and Wendy, both went up 'Vulture mountain'.

 

You took a picture of her. And the mountain in the background is 5 km's away.

 

She took a picture of you...and now the mountain is 15 km's away.

 

AND....the cloud coverage is exactly the same in both photo's.

 

PHOTOSHOP FAIL !!!!!!!!! and bull**** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

WHY???????

https://youtu.be/dS12p0Zqlt0

 

Sent from my HUAWEI VNS-L31 using Tapatalk

[RossW]

So let me make sure I understand this. You and Wendy, both went up 'Vulture mountain'.

 

You took a picture of her. And the mountain in the background is 5 km's away.

 

She took a picture of you...and now the mountain is 15 km's away.

 

AND....the cloud coverage is exactly the same in both photo's.

 

PHOTOSHOP FAIL !!!!!!!!! and bull**** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

WHY???????

The background shows snow-topped mountains. Other than a general haziness, there are no clouds.

 

I don't think you have anything positive to add this conversation.

Edited March 27, 2017 by RossW

[BigDL]

So let me make sure I understand this. You and Wendy, both went up 'Vulture mountain'.

 

You took a picture of her. And the mountain in the background is 5 km's away.

 

She took a picture of you...and now the mountain is 15 km's away.

 

AND....the cloud coverage is exactly the same in both photo's.

 

PHOTOSHOP FAIL !!!!!!!!! and bull**** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

WHY???????

Really? Don't be a knob

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Gen]

Really? Don't be a knob

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There is always one[emoji53]

[Slowbee]

Ummm, does Bonus even know what photoshop is ? Let alone use photoshop.

 

#alwaysgivethemenoughrope

[DIPSLICK]

thanks wendy, nice to get the background, if you guys remain as positive im sure eventually you will reap the rewards, keep griding on and all the best

[Bonus]

So let me make sure I understand this. You and Wendy, both went up 'Vulture mountain'.

 

You took a picture of her. And the mountain in the background is 5 km's away.

 

She took a picture of you...and now the mountain is 15 km's away.

 

AND....the cloud coverage is exactly the same in both photo's.

 

PHOTOSHOP FAIL !!!!!!!!! and bull**** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

WHY???????

 

 

Holy Cow - we've been busted!

 

. . . we weren't up a mountain at all - this picture was taken against the back-wall of our local travel agent!

 

In fact we're not even in Spain. We're "living a lie" and tucked away in Groblershoop, NW Province.

 

Those pictures of Snow - that was me with a bottle of tippex! I have skillz you know :-)

 

 

"Ramon the Friendly Farmer" is actually Oom Frikkie and his wife is Tanie Saartjie . . . they don't make their own Olive Oil - they make their own Kooksisters!

 

 

[Bonus]

 

Sent from my HUAWEI VNS-L31 using Tapatalk

 

Perfect. :-)

[Wendy]

Ummm, does Bonus even know what photoshop is ? Let alone use photoshop.

 

#alwaysgivethemenoughrope

Oh if he did have photoshop it would take forever to get photos from him. He would play for hours.

He doesn't and we don't have the greatest camera either. Something I wish we had spent our SA rand on before exchanging it 18 to 1. We are getting close to the poor line now so instead of driving around to explore we are walking every trail nearby. I walk everyday for exercise (I take M&Ms to keep it real) while Bonus works on his bike track and Thursdays are exploration day. With our little camera and M&Ms of course.

[Popit]

So let me make sure I understand this. You and Wendy, both went up 'Vulture mountain'.

 

You took a picture of her. And the mountain in the background is 5 km's away.

 

She took a picture of you...and now the mountain is 15 km's away.

 

AND....the cloud coverage is exactly the same in both photo's.

 

PHOTOSHOP FAIL !!!!!!!!! and bull**** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

WHY???????

ZOOOOOOM !!!

[allstar scott]

I apologise for my manner. I may have been a bit sozzled.

 

However my observation still stands I can see the snow capped mountains but the variance in the background distance remains a puzzle.

Believe it or not but I read this thread often as it is inspirational.

 

I sincerely hope this is me just being a knob.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I apologise for my manner. I may have been a bit sozzled.

 

However my observation still stands I can see the snow capped mountains but the variance in the background distance remains a puzzle.

Believe it or not but I read this thread often as it is inspirational.

 

I sincerely hope this is me just being a knob.

It is. 

 

It's a question of perspective. Wendy is closer to the camera, and it's using a different focal length and crop for each image. So the distance to the mountain will seem different. 

[Wendy]

I apologise for my manner. I may have been a bit sozzled.

 

However my observation still stands I can see the snow capped mountains but the variance in the background distance remains a puzzle.

Believe it or not but I read this thread often as it is inspirational.

 

I sincerely hope this is me just being a knob.

No pasa nada. All is good. We really don't take any offence to very much. If we did we probably wouldn't survive this adventure.

Myles is probably right I have no clue but Bonus does all the zooming in and cropping and most certainly when you do come and visit our viking mansion in spain ???? we will take you up there. Then we can zoom in on you too ????

[Bonus]

OK here's a more serious post for my buddy Dips and anyone else curious to know what our budget was going into this and, quite frankly, how on earth we are managing to keep this going with no apparent income etc. . . .

 

 

Remember, none of this happened overnight. It took lots of planning, saving and no small amount of self confidence!

 

 

Budget & Costs:

 

Trips:

 

Each of our exploratory trips to Spain cost approximately R50 000, and we made three trips.

 

Trip 1: Check out Northern Spain/Southern France to find a suitable area.

Trip 2: Look for property in specific area and put in an offer.

Trip 3: Sign and pay for property.

 

Our trips to Spain were for 2 adults and all went via the UK, so that we could visit family & friends. Via the UK certainly added to our costs but I think that what we lost on going via the UK we gained by my having a good basic knowledge of Spain/France to start with, from my previous holidays. We spent less time on the road here exploring than someone with no prior knowledge would have done. So it balanced out in the end.

 

The cost of the trips included everything. Flights, car-hire, petrol, channel-crossing to Europe, toll-roads, meals & accommodation, presents for my grand daughter . . .

 

 

Property:

 

Our Budget for buying a property, based on what we'd read about property prices here and what we'd see on-line at estate agents was around €120 000 and that price was to be split between buying and renovating. The theory was that the more we spent on the initial property the less we'd need to spend on renovations. The property needed to be suitable for conversion to a B&B Guesthouse.

 

In the end we spent more than we budgeted for on the initial property AND the property needed more renovations than we would have liked! This didn't happen by accident though - we made a decision to stretch ourselves when we found a property that we thought was worth it. We knew that It meant that life would be a tighter for us whilst renovating, and it would take a little longer once completed for us to move from the red back into the black. We just made the decision.

 

Having said that, of course you can only make this sort of decision if you believe you have some funds behind you that allow it. You can make life harder and cut certain things but there is a finite limit to how far you can stretch.

 

 

Belongings:

 

We had a house full of stuff in SA and we had to decide what to take and what to leave. This decision will be different for everyone. In summary - I would say a young family with mostly cheapish furniture should probably sell for what they can in SA and start again wherever they go.

 

For us, with some slightly more expensive/quality furniture we decided to bring what we could with us. This was based on us being offered almost nothing for a "house clearance" in SA, not having the time or enthusiasm to try to sell stuff privately and knowing that we had a big house to "refill" asap in Spain. If you move somewhere, get jobs and it takes you 5 years to restock a house that's fine. But if you plan on opening a B&B you're going to need all the furniture you can get immediately. The cost of replacement versus the cost of shipping meant that we chose shipping. We could have sold everything we had in SA and barely refurnished two rooms in Spain. Whereas we used our SA money (rather than exchange it) to pay for shipping and now we have a house full of furniture ready and waiting :-)

 

We got a quote for shipping and then when the guys came to pack I added loads of stuff that I said "we might as well take with us now that we're paying for a container". This wasn't necessarily a mistake, everything we bought over we need or will use, but it did bump up the cost of shipping somewhat (by about a third!)

 

 

Additional Expences:

 

By buying a Barn that needed converting instead of a house that needed "modernising", we suddenly brought architects fees into the equation. The fees are calculated based on the value of the property when it's finished and a few other variables - as set by the "Institute of Architects". The fees ended up being more then we would have liked, but we believe it will be worth it in the long run because we end up with a better property than we would had if we had bought and modernised an existing house. Again, makes life tougher now but hopefully worth it over all. We paid around €15000 in architects fees and I'm happy that we got more than enough work and help out of him to justify that. (as I've detailed earlier in the thread)

 

Because our planning permission took as long as it did, we have ended up paying rent for an apartment for much longer than we had ever imagined. We've been here a year so far and I expected us to be rented for 3 or 4 months! We have a lovely comfortable apartment, but it comes at a cost. Wendy will have the monthly figures I'm sure :-)

 

Planning Permission / Building License - a percentage based on the value of the property when it's finished. We will pay about 3.5% of the value of the finished property.

 

Medical Aid - it is compulsory for people not covered by the Spanish health service to take out private medical insurance. We pay about €600 each per year for full cover.

 

 

Where To Save Money:

 

This is a funny one because you'd be surprised what people believe they can or can't live without!

 

We have the cheapest reliable car that I could find. I bought a £500, 15 year old Mazda 626 estate car in the UK. Aside from fuel I've only had to spend money on 4 new tyres (as suggested by a local traffic officer) and a new part for the exhaust pipe. We don't care if people want to judge us on the car we drive.

 

No new bikes, no new kit, no new nothing! I'm using drink bottles from the Argus and the 94.7. The only money we've spent in 12 months on any of our four bikes was a new bottom bracket for my MTB. No race fees, no MTB Park entry fees, no gels, no power drink, no "coffee and breakfast" after rides . . . nada! Once we have some cash flow things will be different but for now this is how we roll.

 

No new "normal" clothes or shoes. I'm wearing all the clothes I had in SA and so is Wendy. All those old "gardening clothes" I had but never wore I'm now wearing when I work on the house or Ramons farm.

 

No eating out! When we got here, before we knew how long things would take, we we're eating out occasionally. I think we've eaten out once this year so far - pizza & beer with some friends. In SA we ate out or bought takeaways three times a week minimum. Not any more.

 

Trips to places - we used to drive around all over the place to explore (and eat lunch out!). We enjoyed it and it was also for the benefit of future guests, but now we explore closer to home and eat sandwiches or eat when we get home.

 

We eat well at home - Wendy does a lot with local produce but we have cut right back on the luxury stuff. I have some beers in the fridge that I bought at the end of last summer and I'm "making them last". And I do LOVE beer!

 

Our last trip to the UK was July last year. My son and grand daughter are only 12 hrs drive away but we Skype instead of visiting. Petrol. tools, channel crossing . . .It all adds up

 

I'm sure there are other things . . . but that's it for now.

 

 

Summary:

 

If we had known the full extent of what we were getting ourselves into at the beginning of this adventure, we would almost certainly have talked ourselves out of it. Through fear of being financially ruined if nothing else! Ignorance was bliss though and we took the chance and made the jump.

 

Harder than expected but not yet impossible . . .we love the good bits and cope with the difficult bits. We've made some lovely friends, we have people waiting for us to open to come and support us, the sun shines 322 days a year and Wendy knows how to make a great Tapas meal out of economical ingredients.

 

Of course there is a limit to the funds we have, but we're ok for now. We deliberately didn;t put our own money into the project before knowing that we have some bank money promised to finish it. My biggest fear was always a half finished but unusable property and zilch left in the bank. That we must avoid at all costs!

 

Bonus.

[HOEKVLAG]

OK here's a more serious post for my buddy Dips and anyone else curious to know what our budget was going into this and, quite frankly, how on earth we are managing to keep this going with no apparent income etc. . . .

 

 

Remember, none of this happened overnight. It took lots of planning, saving and no small amount of self confidence!

 

 

Budget & Costs:

 

Trips:

 

Each of our exploratory trips to Spain cost approximately R50 000, and we made three trips.

 

Trip 1: Check out Northern Spain/Southern France to find a suitable area.

Trip 2: Look for property in specific area and put in an offer.

Trip 3: Sign and pay for property.

 

Our trips to Spain were for 2 adults and all went via the UK, so that we could visit family & friends. Via the UK certainly added to our costs but I think that what we lost on going via the UK we gained by my having a good basic knowledge of Spain/France to start with, from my previous holidays. We spent less time on the road here exploring than someone with no prior knowledge would have done. So it balanced out in the end.

 

The cost of the trips included everything. Flights, car-hire, petrol, channel-crossing to Europe, toll-roads, meals & accommodation, presents for my grand daughter . . .

 

 

Property:

 

Our Budget for buying a property, based on what we'd read about property prices here and what we'd see on-line at estate agents was around €120 000 and that price was to be split between buying and renovating. The theory was that the more we spent on the initial property the less we'd need to spend on renovations. The property needed to be suitable for conversion to a B&B Guesthouse.

 

In the end we spent more than we budgeted for on the initial property AND the property needed more renovations than we would have liked! This didn't happen by accident though - we made a decision to stretch ourselves when we found a property that we thought was worth it. We knew that It meant that life would be a tighter for us whilst renovating, and it would take a little longer once completed for us to move from the red back into the black. We just made the decision.

 

Having said that, of course you can only make this sort of decision if you believe you have some funds behind you that allow it. You can make life harder and cut certain things but there is a finite limit to how far you can stretch.

 

 

Belongings:

 

We had a house full of stuff in SA and we had to decide what to take and what to leave. This decision will be different for everyone. In summary - I would say a young family with mostly cheapish furniture should probably sell for what they can in SA and start again wherever they go.

 

For us, with some slightly more expensive/quality furniture we decided to bring what we could with us. This was based on us being offered almost nothing for a "house clearance" in SA, not having the time or enthusiasm to try to sell stuff privately and knowing that we had a big house to "refill" asap in Spain. If you move somewhere, get jobs and it takes you 5 years to restock a house that's fine. But if you plan on opening a B&B you're going to need all the furniture you can get immediately. The cost of replacement versus the cost of shipping meant that we chose shipping. We could have sold everything we had in SA and barely refurnished two rooms in Spain. Whereas we used our SA money (rather than exchange it) to pay for shipping and now we have a house full of furniture ready and waiting :-)

 

We got a quote for shipping and then when the guys came to pack I added loads of stuff that I said "we might as well take with us now that we're paying for a container". This wasn't necessarily a mistake, everything we bought over we need or will use, but it did bump up the cost of shipping somewhat (by about a third!)

 

 

Additional Expences:

 

By buying a Barn that needed converting instead of a house that needed "modernising", we suddenly brought architects fees into the equation. The fees are calculated based on the value of the property when it's finished and a few other variables - as set by the "Institute of Architects". The fees ended up being more then we would have liked, but we believe it will be worth it in the long run because we end up with a better property than we would had if we had bought and modernised an existing house. Again, makes life tougher now but hopefully worth it over all. We paid around €15000 in architects fees and I'm happy that we got more than enough work and help out of him to justify that. (as I've detailed earlier in the thread)

 

Because our planning permission took as long as it did, we have ended up paying rent for an apartment for much longer than we had ever imagined. We've been here a year so far and I expected us to be rented for 3 or 4 months! We have a lovely comfortable apartment, but it comes at a cost. Wendy will have the monthly figures I'm sure :-)

 

Planning Permission / Building License - a percentage based on the value of the property when it's finished. We will pay about 3.5% of the value of the finished property.

 

Medical Aid - it is compulsory for people not covered by the Spanish health service to take out private medical insurance. We pay about €600 each per year for full cover.

 

 

Where To Save Money:

 

This is a funny one because you'd be surprised what people believe they can or can't live without!

 

We have the cheapest reliable car that I could find. I bought a £500, 15 year old Mazda 626 estate car in the UK. Aside from fuel I've only had to spend money on 4 new tyres (as suggested by a local traffic officer) and a new part for the exhaust pipe. We don't care if people want to judge us on the car we drive.

 

No new bikes, no new kit, no new nothing! I'm using drink bottles from the Argus and the 94.7. The only money we've spent in 12 months on any of our four bikes was a new bottom bracket for my MTB. No race fees, no MTB Park entry fees, no gels, no power drink, no "coffee and breakfast" after rides . . . nada! Once we have some cash flow things will be different but for now this is how we roll.

 

No new "normal" clothes or shoes. I'm wearing all the clothes I had in SA and so is Wendy. All those old "gardening clothes" I had but never wore I'm now wearing when I work on the house or Ramons farm.

 

No eating out! When we got here, before we knew how long things would take, we we're eating out occasionally. I think we've eaten out once this year so far - pizza & beer with some friends. In SA we ate out or bought takeaways three times a week minimum. Not any more.

 

Trips to places - we used to drive around all over the place to explore (and eat lunch out!). We enjoyed it and it was also for the benefit of future guests, but now we explore closer to home and eat sandwiches or eat when we get home.

 

We eat well at home - Wendy does a lot with local produce but we have cut right back on the luxury stuff. I have some beers in the fridge that I bought at the end of last summer and I'm "making them last". And I do LOVE beer!

 

Our last trip to the UK was July last year. My son and grand daughter are only 12 hrs drive away but we Skype instead of visiting. Petrol. tools, channel crossing . . .It all adds up

 

I'm sure there are other things . . . but that's it for now.

 

 

Summary:

 

If we had known the full extent of what we were getting ourselves into at the beginning of this adventure, we would almost certainly have talked ourselves out of it. Through fear of being financially ruined if nothing else! Ignorance was bliss though and we took the chance and made the jump.

 

Harder than expected but not yet impossible . . .we love the good bits and cope with the difficult bits. We've made some lovely friends, we have people waiting for us to open to come and support us, the sun shines 322 days a year and Wendy knows how to make a great Tapas meal out of economical ingredients.

 

Of course there is a limit to the funds we have, but we're ok for now. We deliberately didn;t put our own money into the project before knowing that we have some bank money promised to finish it. My biggest fear was always a half finished but unusable property and zilch left in the bank. That we must avoid at all costs!

 

Bonus.

Tx for the honesty and perspective. Good luck going forward!