The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men…

In my last post I listed what we needed to do prior to our move to Spain planned for mid August and amazingly we managed everything including a lovely party for friends and family to say goodbye.  We were due to exchange contracts the following day and move four days after that.

However, to cut a long story short, the individual at the bottom of our chain pulled out one hour before contracts were due to be exchanged leaving the rest of the chain devastated, frustrated and significantly out of pocket.   In this emotionally fraught situation some of the companies we dealt with were understanding and helpful and some, bluntly, were not.  Our removal company who stated in their literature that cancelling the move would cost 60% of the original price were very sympathetic, offering us a range of options, none of which would have cost us the 60%.  We chose to send half of our possessions to Spain to be stored and to demonstrate to ourselves and our vendors in Spain that we were committed to the move.

I have been a customer of BT for all of my adult life but their reaction and the way I was dealt with on one of the most stressful mornings of my life means I shall never be a customer again even if we ever do return to England.  Unbelievably, at the end of a conversation during which I pleaded for help and was told that nothing could be done to reconnect either phone or broadband without my taking out a further year’s contract and even then it would take up to 5 working days I was told to have a lovely day.  I sincerely hope that the entire call is used for training purposes.

All parties in the chain put their houses back on the market hoping that the chain could stay in place if a good offer was made but resigning themselves to at least a couple of months hiatus before being able to move their lives forward.

Living in limbo is extremely uncomfortable and whilst we seem to be on track again as our buyers have sold their house to a couple who have already completed and our vendors in Spain have generously agreed to honour all agreements made, if we continue with the purchase, we are finding that the days are dragging without a real purpose and with a significantly reduced income. Thank God for the local library.

The latest news is that we are on track for completion in early October and good news though that is, we are finding it hard not to feel cheated out of six weeks of Spanish summer and the opportunity to get the house ready for potential B&B customers as we had a booking for mid October and have had to cancel that as with the best will in the world we don’t feel that we would be up to providing the sort of experience we plan to provide, a mere ten days after moving in.

In an effort to achieve something positive in this difficult situation, we have used the time to sort out some of the “get around to it” jobs that needed doing around the house and garden together with a few administrative niggles.  Steve has played quite a bit of tennis for his club and I have started a running programme to keep both weight and fitness under control as the temptation to sit around reading and both eating and drinking as if we are on holiday is strong, not helped by having a large supply of wine and beer left over from our party and the knowledge that we can’t take it with us.

I am returning to work at the boarding school for a month or so, giving me a reason to get up before 9am and to bring in some extra income as well as keep my brain in gear.

Things could be better but they really could be worse and with luck and a positive frame of mind my next instalment will be written from our Spanish terrace.

 

Update

Our house in UK has been sold STC and we have found a wonderful property just outside of Sax which we plan to rent out and also do B&B – we should get the property at a good price which will give us a good cushion of cash to see us through the first few months.  We have also both completed a TEFL course which should allow us to do some tutoring in the area.  I visited a house recently where the owners both did this in Petrer, in fact we could have stepped straight in to their lives such were the  similarities in our situations.  I have qualified in Zumba Gold – ideal for the expats in a couple of nearby towns and established that there aren’t any instructors in the immediate area although it is creeping in from the coast.  We learned a long time ago that income doesn’t have to come from one stream only and are prepared to be flexible. 

We have done a vast amount of research on holiday properties and what the best of them offer their customers and made plans accordingly – my 13 years experience as a weight loss coach means we could offer a weight management programme that starts with a week at the property and continues with online support for a month. 

We are learning Spanish – we always felt that it would be the height of rudeness to go to a foreign country and not learn the language.  Steve is more self conscious than I am about being correct – I’ll give it a go and in fact was very pleased to be able to ask for and understand directions when I got lost on my way back to the airport last week! 

We are currently looking into the logistics of the actual move and seriously considering the long drive ourselves.  Our buyers in UK want most of our white goods and the property we want has most of the white goods in situ so we won’t need to move too much stuff ( although there is always more than you think).  All part of the adventure – I’ll need to polish my rusty French as well as get a bit further with coffee break Spanish.

With the weather as it has been this “summer” we are even more pleased to be making the move  – I came to Spain for the day last week  – the contrast was dramatic and the views from “our house” in the hills above Sax reinforced the decision.  Incidentally, the property has been “ours” since we first saw it on a rainy day in March.  I immediately had a conviction that we are meant to be there and that everything would work out.  Very funny as I went to Spain on that property searching trip with enormous reservations and doubts.

We read last months newsletter with great interest.  My mother in particular has been very worried about the financial situation in Spain and I was able to show her that our plans should mean we are in a better position than most – in any case we know we will have to work hard to make a success of it and are looking forward to the challenge.

Sold!

SOLD!  We have accepted an offer on our house and the adventure on which we are embarking comes a step closer. 

Six months ago we were close to finishing the renovation work on our 200 year old cottage, Steve was contemplating his final two years of teaching and our life seemed settled for the next couple of years at least.  Friends of ours living in Spain had been encouraging us to move out when Steve retired but that seemed a comfortable distance away with plenty of time for discussion and planning however, the independent school where Steve had been teaching on and off for the past 15 years was struggling financially and after many meetings of the senior management team  a notice of redundancy letter was received by all staff.  

Christmas is not normally celebrated in the Bosworth household to any great degree but this year I couldn’t raise the enthusiasm to make even my usual token gestures to the festive period.  January, February and March seemed especially bleak and in mid March the school revealed its’ plan for the future.  Jobs could be saved but working terms and conditions would change considerably , so considerably and without any choice or other options that after some research into the pension situation, Steve and I decided that early retirement WAS an option – in fact, the only option.  The tentative plans to move to Spain started to seem a lot more likely and we booked flights for the Easter holiday to go out to Spain to have a preliminary look at possible properties.

Steve’s resignation was accepted with regret and an extremely nice letter from the new  Head Master and his sense of relief was palpable.  My feelings were somewhat mixed and hormonally influenced.  Whilst I wasn’t against the idea of moving to Spain per se, I was happy in my work and life in Frome, very happy in our lovely house which we had spent the past four years renovating inside and out and didn’t feel ready to give it all up.  Steve and I discussed the idea of moving somewhere else in England but I felt that if we were going to move at all we may as well go somewhere  sunny where we could enjoy the outdoors.  We also discussed how we might manage if we stayed in Frome, Steve loves our house as much as I do but has more of the “wherever I lay my hat that’s my home” mentality. 

Our house hunting trip to Spain was complicated by major back spasm  striking Steve on our second day but we managed to sort out medication, changing the insurance so that I could drive and set off south from our friends’ beautiful home near to Valencia.  We had seen several houses on our first day in Spain, a couple had possiblilites but none had the WOW factor that might convince me that I could happily move to Spain but on our second house hunting day we drove to Alicante, met our estate agent and drove north for nearly an hour to the small town of Sax.