Hi all,
It was suggested, after my first post, that I start a moving diary. After much deliberation I have decided to do just that. So here it is in all its glory:
THE BACKGROUND.
It all kind of started last year. I had always wanted to retire somewhere with a better climate than the UK. and Australia was always my favored destination. However when the Aussies removed the retirement visa option, that possibility went down the toilet.
My partner, Steph, had always fancied Italy but quite honestly, although the price of houses is very cheap, the cost of living is horrendous.
Steph had a flat in the UK which it was no longer financially sensible to keep, so the decision was taken to sell it and release some equity.
We then planned to use this money to purchase a holiday “bolt hole” somewhere with the intention of moving out permanently in a few years time.
Cyprus, it was felt, could be a possible. Flights were duly booked, with the intention of ascertaining which general area of the island we felt would be right for us.
We came over in July. We had booked a rental in Paphos for the first half of the holiday and another on the eastern side of the island for the second week.
Our reconnaissance mission very soon changed into a house hunt. I’m still somewhat bewildered as to how this happened. All I do remember is that we drove over to the East stayed one night and came back to the West. Fortunately Rachael (the person we rented the apartment from in Chlorakas) didn’t have anyone in for the next week so we just moved back in. Our house hunt took us to many villages to look at plots, re-sales and new builds.
During one particularly long day with an agent we fell in love with a 90% completed new build by a small family developer in the village of Kathikas.
The decision was taken there and then that this was the house for us.
The next day the deed was done and we signed on the bottom line.
There then followed 2 days of frantically dashing round various showrooms choosing sanitary ware, Kitchen door finishes, tiles and other general decorative items. We also had to agree certain extras and other finer points with the builders.
I don’t think it was until we arrived back in the UK that the enormity of what we had done finally struck home.
ALL CHANGE
Later in the year, without going into too much detail, I had something of a falling out with my current employer. This prompted us to sit down and take a hard look at where we wanted our lives to go in the immediate future. To cut a very long story short we decided we could afford to take early retirement and accelerate our long term plans. When we were out house hunting I had met a guy who had offered me some part time work and Steph had already had an offer of work from an old friend and work colleague.
Although our original plan wasn’t to work in Cyprus it is nice to know we can if we want to.
We simply want to leave this “sinking ship,” we “lovingly,” call The UK at the earliest possible opportunity. If ever a country and government has got it wrong then this one certainly has….
Within the week the house was on the market with a local estate agent. It was now early October.
Unfortunately from this point on it seems that various things have conspired against us.
Firstly the time of year to sell a house was not the best. Secondly the agent was, ”how can I put this?”….Useless!.... In 3 months they put 3 people through the door and one of those was an employee! The third thing is of course the general slow down in the global economy which is making house sales that much more difficult.
The next thing that happened was we tragically lost my sister to cancer in December.
Undeterred we came out to our new house over Christmas and new year.
We had already sent over a 20 foot container with M&S which contained the contents of Steph’s flat. Our lovely new neighbors had organized the unloading of that for us.
Christmas was spent sorting through box after box of personal belongings and turning the house into something that resembled a home.
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
Since returning to the UK we have now changed from our original agents and gone with 2 new ones. Things are looking up on that front as we seem to be getting a steady stream of viewers. We even had our first offer at the w-end. We have turned it down however as it was both too low and the people had 2 houses to sell to finance their purchase.
Steph is still working and in theory so am I. the reason I say in theory is that I have had an operation on my foot and am off work for 6-8 weeks.
We are still optimistic that we will sell the house soon and that will put us on target to spend this summer, as the first of many, in our new home in Kathikas Cyprus.
TOO BE CONTINUED……..
Blatant advert follows:
Our house for sale in the UK.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails- ... 1&tr_t=buy
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