Saturday 27 September 2008

19 Sept 2008 Friday – viewings and increased renovation costs

Builders turned up at 9.45am so we left them a key and set off for our property viewing appointments. The first property had a small pizza / takeaway restaurant on the ground floor, which we duly inspected. The business had started up earlier this summer, so it was all sparkly white tiles, pizza oven and a humungous mixing machine. Then it was upstairs to two or three tiny apartments, all with teeny shower type bath. All apartments were the same size, so it was interesting to see the difference a curtain dividing the living room / sleeping area made. The pizza man lived in one of the apartments and it was a bit of a mess. Then up some rickety stairs to a tiny roof terrace which had a stunning view over the town and of the castle. The castle seemed to loom over the terrace and was a spectacular sight.
The next building had a bead shop on the ground floor. The first floor tenant, not moving out anytime soon, was living with his very barky dog. The place stank of, hopefully, dog pee and was manky. The next floor up was empty and it was useful to see what the apartments were really like. The top floor tenant was at work, so we did not see that one.
Next was the mystery viewing. A house that had not been lived in for 2 years. The owner had gone into a retirement home and the children were now selling the house. This place was just habitable, if you installed proper electricity. There was a cellar, and four floors. Once the work had been done to remodel the floors into apartments the estate agent thought it would bring in a maximum of 1,500 euros per month. There were also nice views of the mountains and the abbey, but you had to lean out of the windows on the top two floors to see them.

Viewings completed, we headed back to the fruit and veg market next to the abbey and bought pears, yellow plums, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumber, peaches etc.
Back to the ranch and the second layer of bathroom floor has been lifted to expose more poor floorboards, but only a few holes in them. The extra work involved, plus tiles and other materials to make the floor sound will come to around £800, but the work has to be done.

After returning home a gentleman arrived in his car and started poking about. It turned out that he is the insurance salesman who currently insures my building. He had a look around, and said that he will send me a quote for the building, contents, personal liability etc etc policies that I will need. It seems that me living on the premises confuses things a bit.
It rained off and on during the afternoon, but he sun made its appearance at last at 5.30pm just after the builder had left again, clutching his latest signed works order.

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