Friday 27 February 2015

Our Spanish Dream - Part 15: The Offer Is Accepted

Our Spanish Dream - Part 15: The Offer Is Accepted

Date Created: 25.02.2015
It took three days but eventually the agent talked the vendor into accepting our offer. I’m not sure who was most excited, us or our exhausted estate agent!  He must have worked very hard to talk her round.  We headed back south for the day to sign papers.  It had been planned to take the family with us so they could ‘approve’ the house, but the youngest was recovering from mild food poisoning, (nothing to do with my cooking!), so the older ones looked after him and they stayed north for the day.  We agreed with the agent to take the family down two days later, complete with their swimming gear, to spend a couple of hours at the house.  A good job we didn’t have a mileage restriction on the cost of the hire car, two hours each way and three visits meant we had spent 12 hours of our holiday just driving backwards and forwards between Moraira and the Orihuela Costa.
While the children swam we chatted to neighbours and made very long lists for what jobs needed to be done and what items we would need to buy.  I’m glad to say that all three children were more than happy with the final choice, and it really did meet all the criteria on our wish-list.
With the holiday drawing to a close we drove back to Mum’s to spend our final day with them. Our suggested date for completion was in ten weeks, timed to coincide with an already planned visit in October to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.  It would be tight but there was no reason why it couldn’t be done, our finances were arranged and the lady who had inherited the house just wanted to be rid of the responsibility. This time we were convinced it would happen, we couldn’t let this one go.


Dave and Bev Spanish Dream Properties
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.

Wednesday 25 February 2015

Our Spanish Dream - Part 14: Aqua Natura - Swimming With Sharks

Our Spanish Dream - Part 14: Aqua Natura - Swimming With Sharks


After our high flying escapade at the Terra Natura we moved to the neighbouring aqua park.  We had booked a session entitled ‘swimming with sharks’.  As one of the least adventurous people in the world I was again wondering why I was there.  We were handed life jackets, googles and snorkels, that latter two being items had had never worn, or even wanted to wear, before.  Dave was somewhat put out when they handed him a buoyancy aid instead of a lifejacket, telling him there were not any jackets large enough for his ample girth!
As the youngest is severely visually impaired he held onto his Dad as we walked into the pool and laid down on the salty (and to me, quite dirty!) water.  There was a slight current which moved us slowly along, rather like a lazy river.  I felt instantly that I would rather be in a clean lazy river instead of ‘shark infected waters’.  I struggled with the snorkel but got there in the end, whereas the children all seemed to take it in their stride.  It was certainly a weird feeling having a shark twice my size brush up against me in the water.  We had been assured that they were all strict vegetarians!  I had no idea until then that there were vegetarian sharks.   The sharks and fish came in all shapes and sizes, all totally unfazed by these odd creatures floating above them.  It is an experience I would recommend if you get a chance.
From there we moved onto the water slides, shoots and rides to finish the day with shrieks and laughter.  For anyone considering a trip to a water park, and there are quite a few dotted around the Costa Blanca, I’d like to give you one very important piece of advice – make sure you continually recover yourself in waterproof sun screen and wear a hat in between rides.  Constantly dipping yourself in water fools you into thinking you are not burning, but you will.  If you are in Spain for two weeks leave this trip until your second week.  Tomato is not a good colour on anyone.


Dave and Bev Spanish Dream Properties
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.


Sunday 22 February 2015

Our Spanish Dream - Part 13: Terra Natura Zip Wire

Our Spanish Dream - Part 13: Terra Natura Zip Wire

Date Created: 11.02.2015
We had a family trip to Terra Natura in Benidorm.  We walked around the safari area, divided into the continents of Europe, Asia and America. 
Then we headed for the zip wire.  We were taken by car up a windy road, it felt as if we were on the top of the mountain by the time it stopped.
 Why on earth had I agreed to this?
The zip wire is 180 meters high and 400 meters long, (that’s roughly a quarter of mile long so would take the average person 4-5 minutes to walk the distance on the flat), and at the time was the longest zip wire in Europe.  17 year old son went first, he was really keen, was strapped into the harness, pushed off and disappeared out of sight.  Daughter, next, seemed remarkably confident as she swung herself over the ‘abyss’ and got smaller and smaller before she too vanished from sight.  14 year old son, technically blind, was as confident as his brother.  He couldn’t understand my concern that I couldn’t see the far end of the wire, he had spent his life unable to see things beyond the end of his nose so what was my problem?  Off he went, with a massive smile on his face.
I was physically shaking as I got into the harness, was I totally out of my mind?  I don’t like heights, I don’t like speed and I don’t like not having my feet on terra-firma.  As I felt myself move forward I shut my eyes tight and started to scream!  I ran out of breath so stopped screaming, dared to open my eyes only to discover I was flying high over a herd of elephants, so shut my eyes and screamed again!  I was still shaking when Dave arrived down the wire.  Did I have a great sense of elation at having conquered my fear of height, speed and dangling in mid-air?  Not at all!  I just wanted to kiss the ground and have a calming cuppa.

Dave and Bev Spanish Dream Properties
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.


Saturday 7 February 2015

Our Spanish Dream - Part 12: Found at Last

Our Spanish Dream - Part 12: Found at Last


With the house near former work colleagues still in our mind we started the final day of this search.  We had come over to Spain for a two week holiday, planning to spend it in the house we had lost, so instead had stayed near Mum and Dad in Moraira.  We had left our teenagers in their care while we went house hunting so did need to go back to rescue my parents soon.
Our poor estate agent had not had an easy ride with us.  He said there was a property that had literally just become available, it was 9 years old, had been bought off-plan by a gentleman who had intended to retire there after working for years in the far east and only visited briefly twice a year, until three years ago when he’d become ill and had died the previous year.  His daughter had no interest in the property and was selling it ‘as seen’ – she had visited once to take personal effects and that was all.
We parked on the road and walked to the end of the private driveway. The gated pool garden was at the end and the house right next to it, slightly raised up.  It was the best view we had ever seen of a communal pool from the terrace.  It was the largest house we had viewed.  Three large double bedrooms, two bathrooms, large lounge, solarium with sea views, under a mile from the beach and less than 10 minutes walk to the shops.

Inside it was dusty, unloved and neglected.  We barely spoke to each other as we walked around.  Usually I made notes about the properties and then we made our final score out of ten based on those notes.  My piece of paper said just three words – ‘needs a clean’!  Our hearts had been stolen.

As always there was a catch, it was way over budget!  We already had our finances arranged so we made the maximum offer we could, a price the agent didn’t think would be accepted.  So we left it with him and headed back to Moraira for the second week of our holiday, determined to enjoy it whatever happened.


Dave and Bev Spanish Dream Properties
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.