You've got to have a dream... if you don't have a dream.. etc

Today it all changes.

We are now legally bound to buying our new home, and the seller is legally bound to selling it to us!! We have exchanged contracts. It will be ours TOMORROW!!

So how about a bit of an unveiling? :)

We have bought a place in the country... specifically a little hamlet called Keltneyburn, near Aberfeldy, in Highland Perthshire.  The name of the area is Upper Blairish, and our property is Upper Blairish Barn. So it's a bit like Windsor Castle, in Windsor... yeah... just like that ;) 

We're moving in on Friday.  It's going to be a bit of a squeeze at first though. Only half of the barn has been converted so we're once again downsizing for a year or so, until we get planning permission for the unconverted but and get the builders in.  But who cares about living in a little pigsty when it's your dream home?!

Bonus... separate from our barn is a two bedroom (2 storey) cottage!!

Wanna see some pics?

We've got a new home!

HOLY MOLY!!! Our offer on our dream home has been accepted!

I can't go into too much detail right now because it still might fall through... we haven't completed the contractual element of the purchase... but for now the main thing is WOOOOOOT!!!

It's been such a long haul to get this far, so I really can't tell you how happy we are that the offer has been accepted. We've done everything we could to buy this place, despite the oddities of the Scottish legal system and what can only be described as misunderstandings between ourselves and the vendor.  I really dislike having to communicate through multiple layers of solicitors and estate agents. So much is lost in translation and it's too easy for friction to generate unnecessarily.

Anyway, please keep your fingers crossed for us. In the meantime here's a taster picture.

We're looking at that barn again.

Two posts earlier we talked about a property that we put offers on, which were rejected.  The owners have now set a closing date (Scottish legal system), which means that if we do want the house we need to submit our best offer.  Sealed bids, so we won't know what other people have offered. Therefore, you bid the maximum you're prepared to pay... or to put it another way, the maximum price at which you'd be happy to lose it to another bidder because you wouldn't go any higher anyway.  Such a crappy system for the buyer, but great for the seller.  Even in today's terrible property market, where few people are buying, it's very hard not to overbid because properties like this are rare.  Anyway, we've revisited the place and decided that we want it!

So we now need to do several things:

1. Get a survey.
   We can't get a mortgage offer without a survey. But the crap thing is we have to fork out for a survey when we haven't even had an offer accepted, and might not win the sealed bidding process. So the £500-900 could just be wasted.
   We also need to be sure that the place is structurally sound, since it's an old partially-converted barn,
   We could make our offer 'subject to survey' but that would make us a less appealing buyer to the seller.
   
2. Perhaps get building estimates. But perhaps not. We want the place even if the work needed exceeds our current budget. We'll just take longer to do it.
   
3. Find a mortgage.  Which financial institution? What kind of mortgage?  What is going to happen with interest rates? What can we afford? Aaargh!  It's all Questions and no Answers!!
   
4. Get hold of (and read) various legal documents from the seller's estate agent. Urgh.

Good job I've resigned from my job at the local cafe.  It was taking up too much of my time, and I was training other people more than I was learning stuff so it was no longer beneficial to work there. Good experience for a while though.

Also, whilst up in Aberfeldy we spotted an existing cafe for sale.  This is potentially good news, as finding an appropriate unit in the right location, at the right price, with the right planning approval, etc etc etc is tough, particularly in a small village.  We need to investigate.

Exciting Birthday Presents

Today was my (Mike's) birthday. We spent the morning recovering from a great curry and what felt like about 20 bottles of wine with some friends Mark and Marion,. We managed to pull ourselves around at about 3pm and set off to our storage unit in Glasgow. We had a van full of equipment, bought yesterday for about £3500, but that's a bargain really since it's second hand but hasn't been used much. New, it would have been about £7000. Really exciting to be buying this stuff, as it kind of mentally reinforces that we're actually definitely going to open the café.  


Especially pleased about the espresso machine and a bit gutted to be putting it in storage but it needs a special type of electricity supply and also needs plumbing in, so I can't use it at home.  Tough work lugging around things like fridges, a jumbo electric griddle, and a panini grill that weighed like it was made from gold. Jan is a strong little lass! 

When we eventually got home the sun was shining so we gave the new hammock it's maiden outing (my birthday pressie from Jan... been wanting one for ages).  Aside from the midges it was a dream! A big handmade brazilian one ... the mercedes of hammocks!  A far cry from the pathetic one I tried in Indonesia that suddenly bust when I was just getting comfy, spitting me head over heels backwards... much to Jan's delight!

Offer made on a house

We've just about completed our location scouting, and decided that Highland Perthshire is the place for us, specifically around the Aberfeldy-Pitlochy-Dunkeld triangle. Glen Lyon is a beautiful valley just up from the head of Loch Tay, and we've seen a few plots/development opportunities. The most recent one was just about perfect, we reckon. It has about 20 acres of land, an old partially-converted steading (which would become our home), a 2 bedroom cottage (which would become the beginning of Jan's self-catering empire), and an outdoor swimming pool! (Oh, and a sauna, but we'd ditch that)

The Scottish legal system works in the favour of the seller. It works like an auction, with sealed bids from interested buyers. However, since the housing market is currently dead, buyers have more power. We therefore did what most buyers are doing at the moment and made an offer, just like the English system. Rejected. Another offer... rejected. A final offer.... "Yes", the seller said. "We would accept your offer at that price...." (hurray) "... but we're not going to. We're going to let it go to a closing date (i.e. auction)."
Unbelievable!
So we withdrew our offer, as we're neither willing nor able to take part in an auction, for various reasons.  Shame to see this property go, but there'll be others.

On the other hand, Jan and I have both been working at a local cafe to get experience before opening our own place next year. Great fun and very educational.

Location Scouting

Now that the weather has warmed up and Easter has passed, we've been spending some time viewing properties and building plots for our new home.  We have a good feel for The West Highlands, Stirling and Perthshire now, and are leaning towards the latter. There are some really good places around there, like Pitlochry, Aberfeldy and Dunkeld, as well as some nice big moontaaigns.  We're also going to look around the Cairngorms over the summer.

Of course, finding a house is coupled with finding a site for the cafe business.  Last weekend we looked a a place in Aberfeldy.  Great location right in the middle of the town square with a big pavement just ripe for a bit of outdoor cafe culture.



Rather than lease, we're hoping now to find a place that we could buy.  There was a leak from the upstairs flat recently in this one, which would help us negotiate the sale price downwards.  But the leak was still dripping, which is a big concern when it's coming from somebody elses property (we wouldn't own the flat) and we would have no control over it.  There are also some issues regarding the positioning of the stairs up to the upstairs flat... i.e. slap bang in the centre of our shop frontage! Who's silly idea was that?
So we've talked briefly, and it's not looking like a good option... certainly not to me.  We'll ask a few more questions just in case though.

Latte Art - Take Two

Haggie's Latte Art #2

Here's an interesting snippet regarding my best crack so far at what's called Latte Art (see pic).  Turns out it's not just about how it looks.  The art can only be done when the milk has been steamed just right - temperature, volume, texture etc.  These things matter because they do actually affect the taste of your cup of coffee. E.g. you need to make ultra-tiny bubbles. Big ones stop the coffee flavour hitting your taste buds.

If you get it right, the coffee's flavour, mouth-feel and appearance improve, and being able to do it shows a certain degree of dedication from the barista.

I'm not there yet, not by a long way. But I'm slowly getting there and loving the journey.