I sell a house!

Interesting week: I sell a house, but get no closer to buying one of my own. Rain stops play in the garden, but means I make great progress with Live Istria.

Monday, 25 July

Tony and Ruth want to see the Losari house with Damir. They went up on their own yesterday and loved it. I called Damir for them and set a meeting for tomorrow.

Weeding round the water feature this morning, I nearly put my hand on a frog. Amazingly, it seemed quite relaxed about it and even stayed while I took this photo. Honest there is a frog there. Then off  to see Tourist Classification lady with Martina about the Zbandaj house. Bad news. As I suspected, the only way we can get a classification is to revise the building permit, which usually takes at least a year.  Both Azra and Martina told me everything would be OK – sometimes being right is NOT what you want! But hey, as P said, Zbandaj’s still a great deal and this would only delay us one season … probably. On the positive side, got Miro’s price quote, it looks really good.

Had one of those big ‘what do we do’ discussions after lunch. Does the delay in Zbandaj tip the scales in favour of buying the Babudri property? That would put any major travel plans on hold again for some time (and that was one reason we moved here in the first place). And as P says, he’ll be fifty this year and the clock is ticking. It seems a pessimistic view, but I know what he means. At least my head does, but my heart says Babudri is too good an opportunity to miss. And with this new website, will I have time to travel anyway? Need a crystal ball …!

Tuesday, 26 July

Sold a house today! Took T&R to Losari to meet Damir. His leg was in a brace from a knee operation, so I showed them the house and explained his plans – great fun. It’s a big pity it’s too far away and too expensive for us, but I’m really glad it’s gone to T&R, who will live there. Such a beautiful place deserves to be lived in, not just rented out as an asset on a balance sheet.

Spoke to Azra about the Zbandaj house. She’s contacted a ‘good’ architect, who will know what needs to be done with the paperwork and how long it will take. But from past experience, I wonder when we will hear from her and, with property laws changing again, what she can do that others can’t?

Wednesday, 27 July

I think I’m becoming obsessive about this website. Hit my keyboard with breakfast (not literally) this morning at 7 am. Baggy and Tally (my cats) not pleased, came and complained. Get used to it, I say! (Yup, it’s getting to me.)

Anyway, it poured with rain all day, so I stayed indoors and focused solidly on Live Istria. I shortlisted 48 garden photos for ‘Nicky’s Garden’. P was a bucket of cold water – says he’d never look at so many. Sigh. 🙁 Cut list back to ten (actually put in 20 – so I guess I won that argument :)). Wrote layout planning document and finished Valamar Jazz Festival piece.

Rather than shepherd T&R through the full buying process, which has many potential pitfalls, I put them in touch with Karlo. He met with them and it really does look like I’ve sold the Losari house. I can’t believe it! I also wonder if I’ll see any money from anyone for this? You never know!

After a break from the garden, the weeds are starting to mock me – so decided to get back out there first thing tomorrow.

Thursday, 28 July 2011

Woke to pouring rain – oh well, the best laid plans… Started looking at WordPress instead, as a possible website production tool – looks great (thanks Vera!). I’ll get P to have a look before I get too excited.

Good news: rain stopped and I got two hours weeding done. Bad news: found I had a lot of ‘life’ chores to catch up on – call Belgian bank, visit Istrian bank, go to supermarket, unpack shopping, etc. While work on Live Istria’s stalled :(, P confirmed we’ve probably found our design solution with WordPress – a huge step forward :). He’s installed a copy on our domain and we’ll have a play tomorrow.

P had a brainwave today (yes, it happens). If we can sell Ciritež, we’ll have enough money to buy Badudri and ride the gap until we sell our house. That’s a huge ‘if’. P’s going to run some figures and I’ll call Karlo to see what he thinks – he didn’t have time for me. He was too busy selling a house to some Germans.

Friday, 29 July

Overslept big time, didn’t wake until nearly 10 am. Weather finally cheering up, so ought to get in the garden. Hit my keyboard instead. Decided to call this Blog ‘My Life’ rather than just ‘Blog’. Got most other little bits and pieces tied up and decided initial content is about there.  Wow – two decisions in one day! 🙂

P impressed with WordPress and kept distracting me all morning with snippets about it. (Friday is supposed to be his ‘admin’ day, but it seems he couldn’t stop himself tinkering.) He suggested testing WordPress by building a site for our rental cottages (IstraCottages.com) rather than jump straight in with Live Istria – another good idea (that’s two in two days – I am impressed! :)).

Saw Karlo about Ciritež. It doesn’t look good. Land prices are too low at the moment to make it worth selling. P wonders if they’ll ever rise high enough in inland Istria for us to see a real profit. It looked such a certainty back in 2005. How the world’s changed!

Saturday, 30 July

Poured with rain again over night, but dry all day. Garden’s sure getting a regular soaking at the moment – I’m sure the slugs love it. The ‘daft’ cyprus out front is looking very battered, with branches drooping in every direction. Why does the one in my front garden have to be such a scruff? It’s certainly not the elegant ‘sentinel’ it was planted to be!

Life felt almost normal today. Spent a few hours weeding and tidying veg patch this morning. Even got a swim! (Okay, only short one, as I’ve got amazingly unfit, amazingly quickly.)

Started with WordPress after lunch and by 7 pm(when P kicked me off my computer), had most of Istria Cottages site worked out. Amazing!

Sunday, 31 July

A beautiful morning, after yet another overnight monsoon. But it feels different: maybe we’re heading out of this patch of unsettled weather.

P’s banned work, to stop me burning out, so no gardening or web work today. Instead I looked into New York hotels for his 50 birthday this morning. Then a relaxed afternoon: BBQ, red wine and fell asleep by the pool – bliss.

The tale continues when I make progress – what progress?

Read my blog in the right order – from the start in July.