Our Spanish Dream - Part 11: Chance Encounters

The decision to buy a house when we did was actually our 25th wedding anniversary present to each other, so losing our first choice of present was obviously disappointing.  But I’m a great believer in things happening for a reason and if we had lost that house there must be a better option waiting for us somewhere.

In the sweltering August sun we recommenced the impossible search.  The first two days produced nothing of interest.  By now we had viewed over 40 properties – an estate agent's worst nightmare!  However had they have paid more attention to our requirements that list would have been halved.  The third day we returned to an area where we had previously seen a three bedroom house.  We had liked the house but not the location.  This house was identical but in a slightly different location.

“I just need to collect the key from the neighbour” our agent said.  The neighbour turned out to be a couple who were former colleagues of Dave and people I knew slightly as we lived near each other until they had moved.  It’s a small world!  We knew they had moved to Spain after retiring a couple of years previously but didn’t know exactly where.

The house was great, the location pretty good but there was still something holding us back.  That evening we returned to the street and had a walk around, then headed for a local bar/restaurant where to our surprise Dave’s former colleagues were having a drink.  Just to make things more interesting another retired former colleague was joining them for the evening!  The bar was holding a quiz night so we formed a team and called ourselves ‘Chance Encounters’.  We didn’t win but we did have a lovely time.

Dave and Bev Townsend have two homes, their main one in Norwich and a second home in Playa Flamenca in south Costa Blanca, Spain which they also let as a holiday rental www.house-by-the-pool.com   They run a property finding business offering a free service for those seeking to buy a property in the Costa Blanca (Alicante) or the Mar Menor area of the Costa Calida (Murcia) www.SpanishDreamProperty.com   Bev has family in Spain and they intend to move there full-time in a couple of years.