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.

The Tourists Are Here

Thanks for all the comments and support on Facebook, everyone - it really helps to know you're all behind us in this scary and exciting adventure! (Don't forget, you can write comments on this blog too.)

It's getting warmer now, and Scotland is coming back to life after the worst winter anyone can remember up here. I was here back in December doing some location scouting and almost ran out of diesel four times, because garages were either completely closed or would only let me buy £5 of fuel.  They hadn't had a delivery for weeks because of the weather.

But it's wonderful to see the country start to bloom again. Every day you notice a new change.  We have hundreds of frogs in the pond, crawling all over each other.  There's a part of the garden where the buzzing of the bees is worryingly loud for early April. And already it is bloody impossible to get parked in Aberfoyle on a weekend, amidst the throngs of folks who are seemingly obsessed with wool and the procurement thereof! I never cease to be surprised at what attracts people on a daytrip to the countryside. I reckon I could advertise that the ash from our fireplace was actually Robert Burns' cremated remains and get 200 people through our front room every day.

Meanwhile, I've been continuing the cafe stuff.  I'll be meeting with several banks soon to discuss our budget for the business and our home purchase/build. Leasing appropriate retail property costs anything up to £50,000 per year where we're looking, so if possible we may want to buy the place instead. (It's actually more complicated than that, but I'm keeping it light!)  Also need to find a property surveyor, solicitor, accountant etc etc. Apparently it's best to have these lined up before finding the perfect site for cafe.

And on the fun side, more coffee and cakes.  This coffee lark is so complicated.  I want our coffeehouse cafe to achieve a reputation for the best coffee north of the Edinburgh/Glasgow line - to be THE place to go for an amazing cup of the hot stuff - so this barista training is serious business. At some point I'd like either myself or one or our staff to be good enough to enter the UK Barista Championships. It's a massive challenge and perhaps too high a target to aim for, but even if we don't make it just the process of trying to will make us a damn site better than 90% of cafes.

Cakes - I piped my first cuppies today. Frosting needs tweaking, and I overfilled the casings with cake mix, but these are minor teething troubles. What do you think?

First Espresso Equipment Acquired

"How hard can it be to make coffee?", I thought back in November 2010.  I soon found out.  Jon Skinner, one of the judges at the UK Barista Championships, came to our flat in Wimbledon to give Jan and I one-to-one training in basic barista skills.  I think it was a real coup getting Jon to train us - his credentials is the industry are fantastic.



We soon learned that it's not just about pushing a button on a fancy espresso machine.  There are tons of variables, and if just one of those is not right then the drink is bad - weak/sour/bitter/watery/etc.  It turns out that ultimately the biggest factor in making a good coffee isn't the coffee itself, nor the machine, but the person making it.  I guess that's why they have the rather glamorous title of "Barista" rather than just '"coffee-maker-bloke".  And if you're thinking 'what a load of smoke and mirrors, machines can do everything automatically that a human could do', then that's completely natural.  You're right where I was before I began learning all this stuff.  But I was wrong.  (At least I hope I was!)

There was a fair bit to go through in the session, and strangely I'm more proud of my Basic Barista certificate than I am of my MBA Degree one! But really it was just enough to get us started.  We still have a long way to go.  (I say 'we' but I'm not sure how much further Jan will take it once she can make herself a skinny latte in the morning!)  I always remember reading of the actor John Turturro saying of Cafe Arriba in Portree "the reason I keep coming back is that it is the best espresso on Skye".  That's very inspiring.  I want my espresso to be the best wherever I am.

So to continue the training process I've bought (aah...ebay) the Gaggia Classic espresso machine and bean grinder that Jon recommended.  Apparently the machine's design is a lot like a commercial machine on a smaller scale, which makes it perfect for learning barista skills.  And there are plenty of forums out there with helpful coffee geeks happy to share their knowledge.  I've discovered that barista-ing (a word?) can be fairly techy too.  The coffee machine and grinder have already been in bits, and I'm going to do some modifications today.


 But the best news of all is that today I achieved my very first Latte Art.  Its a slightly blurry rosetta, and there are bubbles on top that shouldn't be there, but I think its a thing of beauty!