It New Year over time 4 years ago that my husband and I made the decision to move to Spain. Some people would probably call us flighty and impetuous. I’d rather call us spontaneous and a little whimsical! It seems that when we make a decision to do something we don’t sit and think about it for years, but just go ahead and do it. Most of our major decisions in life are made quite rapidly. At 5 months pregnant I made a passing comment to my then boyfriend, about marriage. Three weeks later we eloped to Newton Abbot and I became Mrs Newell. We didn’t even have enough money to buy our wedding rings. I had to give some story to my brother to loan me the money!
I suppose having two sets of parents living in Spain helped, both lived on the Costa Blanca within 30 minutes of each other and at this point our spontaneity had resulted in 4 kids, so grandparents nearby would be great. We came to Spain for a weeks holiday for New Year and headed to Baza to view some property, I must admit at this point to being a little disheartened as with our miniscule budget we would be lucky to get a ruin with electricity about 5 km’s away. But hey if we let all the negatives get in the way we would probably still be in our very nice, large terraced house in Brighton, with central heating and double glazing instead of here, in a falling down Cortijo with a chimney that smokes - inside not out!
On our return to Brighton, I spent two weeks painting my house, I was a big fan of ‘How to sell your house and get the most money for it’ type programmes and I must admit the effort paid off. The house went on the market on the Wednesday and by Saturday we had two offers for the asking price. Our only stipulation was that we had to complete within 8 weeks. Roxy, my youngest, was only 3 months old and I was in the middle of a garden design and horticultural course which I was determined to finish. Things were therefore a little manic. I wanted the move to be quite cathartic, the only real thing I wanted to take was my sofa which 4 years ago I really loved, now, I could take it or leave it! This was probably our biggest mistake. We practically gave everything a way and in hindsight we should have bought it all with us. Our finances were going to struggle to fund furnishing a new house. But I’m not proud and actually have managed to acquire most of my furniture from next to skips (people throw some really good stuff away) and other peoples’ cast-offs! I think I had a reputation where my mum and dad lived as a charity case, as people kept giving us stuff!
On Thursday 11th of March 2004, I walked out of my RHS exam halfway through, thinking, shit! The completion on my house takes place tomorrow, I have a million and one things to do and here I am taking an exam that I haven’t really studied for, a house that needs sorting and cleaning and a move to a new country on Monday with my four kids. My husband Ross, was taking our people carrier on the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry stuffed full, the following evening, so we had to get that ready too. The funny thing is I passed the exam, which to be honest is actually quite ludicrous. My life cycle of an aphid, which oddly enough my lecturer had only gone through the day before, must have made some sense!
We arrived in sunny Spain at Alicante airport to rain, and more rain, in fact I think it rained almost solidly for 6 weeks. My parents have an under build and we could stay there indefinitely until we had found somewhere to buy.
I have a very good relationship with my parents and they were very patient but with 4 kids being very noisy and chaotic we felt the need to move as soon as possible.
At this point my spontaneity almost got the better of me. We saw a house that was slightly over budget in the middle of no where but with lots of land, I got swept away by estate agent talk and managed to convince Ross that we should go for it. We handed over our 10% deposit and took our parents to see it. That night my mother didn’t sleep due to crying with absolute fear and horror at what we were about to buy. Believe me it wasn’t that bad, it had a lot of potential but in hindsight, we couldn’t have afforded it and by some stroke of luck, the sellers (two brothers) fell out over it, one wanted to sell and one didn’t, the downside was that they had refused to take the deposit so we only got that back and not double which is normally the case if the seller pulls out, which would have been a nice little bonus!
Because of our limited budget, we had to start looking much further a field, I was hesitant about moving too far away from my parents but financially we had no choice. We looked in the Ricote valley and quite liked it there, we even came as far as Castillejar and that area but it seemed so far. A month or two down the line we were feeling a little frustrated so we contacted the Ricote Valley agent and they sent us a more extensive list of the areas they covered, the Mula region was one area and on the very back page the Altiplano de Granada was listed, I think at that time there were 6 or 7 properties of which 2 or 3 were in our budget. We booked to see property in the Altiplano on the Friday and Mula on the Monday. I must admit I do love looking round property, those descriptions are so misleading, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen etc, could be lived in, yeah right, if you use your imagination and 100 K converting it!
We arrived in Huescar with Roxy in tow, on a dull and wet May day. Bad mother that I am, was totally unprepared for the changeable weather, as on the coast it was roasting. The one property in Huescar in our budget had just been sold, so after a very nice tour of the area we headed towards Fatima, a quick look at some new builds, very nice but not my cup of tea, I really wanted something I could put my mark on, although Ross could have moved in straight away, my husband, don’t like mess! We headed towards Castril and what would eventually be our house. To be honest it was the view that sold it to us, I think we had bought it in our heads without seeing inside. The fact that it was 15 thousand less than anything else we had seen and had a bathroom which was a bonus! Ok you had to go outside to use it, but a bathroom, running water and electricity! More than we had hoped for and we hadn’t even seen Castril, knew nothing about the area, what the schools were like (I told you, bad parents). We still had our deposit from the last house, in cash, in my bag. Yes I know, sometimes stupidity and spontaneity go hand in hand. Look I was desperate, I wanted a house, in fact I literally chucked the money at them. We did all the things you shouldn’t do, and the worst thing, knowing we were doing it.
My house, two and a half years down the line, is slowly getting there. I laboured on a couple of building sites for a year, needs must and all that, I’m now a dab hand at mixing cement and a reasonably proficient bricklayer. I will put my hand to anything if it means I don’t have to pay anyone else to do it. What makes it difficult is having kids running around, especially if your tiling in front of the only entrance to the bathroom! If it says ‘Needs reform but could be lived in’. Don’t!!!!!