Life and relocation to Spain

At 8AM yesterday morning Jason turned up to begin work on the bathroom floor and kitchen ceiling replacement. It always amazes me how even an honest and reputable company manages to overcharge on an insurance job. In this case the bill of nearly a thousand pounds included three days labour and I had been told that they would need to take all the bathroom furniture out so it would involve two people. Infact, the bathroom furniture has remained in situ, thank goodness, the idea of the bath spending a couple of days in the front garden wasn't a pleasant one, and Jason thinks the job is marginally over two days work.

By about nine yesterday morning I had managed to tune out of the hideous noise of echoing power tools and it had become a constant white noise that could just about be ignored. That is until I heard the gushing of water in the kitchen.
"Jason" I called up the stairs in the concerned voice of the house owner who thinks things may have got out of control, "are you aware we've got water dripping...well pouring through the kitchen light fitting and the floor is now awash with gallons."
It turns out Jason was aware. He had become aware as soon as his power tool had sliced through the pipe beneath the floor boards but was now hastily trying to fix the pipe upstairs before more water escaped. The tone of his reply contained an edge of concern that the content of his reply disguised. "Yes, no problem sir, it's probably just making its way safely out through the light fitting." Ah, the old 'direct the water along the electrics to get it safely out of harms way plan' ... "ah, absolutely Jason...cup of tea".

The noise began to take it's toll towards the end of the day though with tiredness hitting earlier than usual and my patience feels a little thin this morning. Why did Emily plant a bomb underneath her scrambled eggs instead of eating them? That surely can be the only explanation for the explosion of eggs that covers about a six feet radius of her breakfast chair. Why did she then choose to lean out of the window that had the huge tray of Hamma beads infront of it and how do Hamma beads, which after all aren't even round, manage to roll ten feet in every direction when they drop?

Alongside this is the hope that I may get out of laying the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor is not included in the insurance claim but is definitely in need of replacement before we can let the property. Jason, due to his manager's efficiency in time scheduling jobs, now has an extra day on his hands and therefore I have asked outright if for a cash bung he will use that day replacing the kitchen floor. He seems slightly reticent but has not yet said 'no'. Here's hoping that I can avoid having to botch another DIY job myself by employing the pipe slicing Jason in my stead.

I also had a visit from our Independent Financial Advisor yesterday. He's a tremendously knowledgable guy and his advice is free but always of course involves a recommendation to purchase an insurance or mortgage product that gives him a slice to keep him in his expensive looking BMW sports cars. Yesterday though I felt not at all pressured and received great advice:
- Rent the house out, don't sell it. Any drop in prices will be short term and will be made back.
- If you are going to sell the house it must be sold within three years to avoid capital gains tax (20% of the profit made) and therefore market the property after two years.
- Don't tell the mortgage company you are leaving and keep the same bank account so they don't know you're gone. If you leave they will charge you to transfer you onto a really lousy 'buy-to-let' mortgage deal that is not even close to the brilliant rate you currently have.
- Take out a landlord's buildings insurance which covers buildings and fittings and is quite cheap - probably less than £20 per month.
- Take out life insurance as all my life insurance through the Teacher's Pension Scheme will stop as soon as I leave the country. (£100k - £150k should cost less than £40 per month for both my wife and I to be insured.
- Consider taking out a UK private pension because even though we are in Spain, the tax relief is added at source so to save £1000 only costs £800. The ideal would be to see what money is left over from the UK property at the end of the year and transfer it into a private pension.

All monumentally dull but nevertheless handy to know and part of the planning process. As far as the financial advisor is concerned the home we have lived in for eight years is no longer a home but is a business asset and we must run it as such. If we can afford to keep hold of it for the long term, for which he means ten years plus, then we should do so.

Jason is, as I write, power tooling his way through the day but thankfully is still in the bathroom. I have a car full of accumulated 'might come in handy one day' items from the shed to drive to the tip and the final estate agent/letting agent visit is booked for 4PM today at which point we should have enough companies to choose from when we start marketing the property for rental.

Getting away on a holiday always involves a little airport trauma but despite events conspiring against us the airport was remarkably calm if boring. My dad had offered a lift to the airport but due to having my sister's graduation ceremony to go to dropped us to the airport at 7.30 in the morning. When we booked the holiday the flight time was 11AM but a few weeks before going we received notification that the flight time had changed to 2.45PM. When we arrived to check in the time had moved further back to 3.30PM and the final delay meant that the take-off time of 4.30PM had given us a delicious nine hours to explore Gatwick airport. Its funny but the success or otherwise of these travel trials inevitably hinges on the youngest member of the party and with Emily at six years old happily looking forward to holiday and involved with the colouring books and games we had taken along the day was quite pleasant.

At the airport we had the benefit of a taxi transfer to resort which meant that a little over an hour after landing we were sat enjoying the salad that the restaurant at the hotel had saved back for our late arrival.

Mallorca is a real mix of an island for those considering a holiday there. The area around Palma, the capital not just of Mallorca but of all the Balearic islands, is a combination of club resort and family resort. Moving to the north of the island Alcudia is all things to all people; a busy bar area for the 18-30 crowd, a range of competitively priced family hotels, and an old town area more suited to the more mature and better heeled. The south-east of the island is relatively undeveloped and is home to arguably the most pretty beaches and bays if you can be troubled to hire a car and explore. We stayed in Cala Bona on the east coast of the island. Cala Bona is one of three resorts that almost merge into one, the other two being Cala Millor and then Sa Coma working south along the coast. The resorts are just a short bus ride to the north of Porto Cristo, a pretty rocky bay that is home to the Caves of Drach - one of the more famous attractions of Mallorca.

The week was a mixed weather batch but with the imminent move to Spain the weather wasn't as important as finding a space to relax together as a family and we managed to do just that. A couple of days were warm enough to lay by the pool for the day but most of the week there were clouds and a cool breeze blowing. This had the advantage of getting us out and about on local buses and trying out our Spanish. By the end of the week it was clear that our Spanish is good enough to grasp meaning but lacking in conversational speed of understanding. Definitely securing further Spanish lessons will be essential when we move out later in the year.

Like all holidays though the return home is a bit of a bump after the relaxation of the holiday. In this case we spent a couple of pleasant days with family in Sussex and then came back to Plymouth on Tuesday ready to start afresh on the tasks essential for moving. I had considered with the house prices looking like they might slip that it would be worth talking to both estate agents and rental agencies and getting a clearer picture of whether we would be better off selling our house and investing the money or renting it out. Therefore this week is a diary full of estate agents and letting agencies coming to value the house and discuss the service they provide. This morning I met two agencies and at the risk of sounding nieve, an honest estate agent. I spent some time talking over our family plans and mentioned the idea of giving the Spain move at least two years before we return, even if it appears not to be for us. At this point he suggested that he wouldn't be selling property with that time scale but would be renting as he was sure that over a two year p-eriod prices would at least hold up and may even be growing again. He had lots of reasons but felt that the rental market was a better bet and that it would still offer long term security. Then, ideally timed came a rental agency who only wanted 10% to manage the property which compared to previous figures of 15% or the guaranteed rental scheme of nearly £200 per month seemed like a good deal.

As if that wasn't enough I sat down to begin writing and the phone rang. The construction company that are replacing the bathroom floor and putting in a new kitchen ceiling where water has slowly leaked over time are able to start work tomorrow so for the next two days the house will be noise and dust as one of the essential insurance repairs gets underway.
Holiday...what holiday I will be thinking as the floorboards are ripped up and the kitchen ceiling collapses in a plaster dust cloud.

Both Sally and I though felt really positive when we came back to find an envelope from the head of the school in Spain which included some paperwork about the school and a copy of a local newspaper that indicated rental at €500 euros per month is a real possibility. Now, we just can't wait to get out at the end of May to meet our new colleagues and look around the area and who knows, maybe even secure our living accomodation.

A couple of years ago somebody pointed out to me the way Tesco, that great encourager of consumerism, can help you towards a free holiday. Basically Tesco clubcard points can be stored for upto two years and then transferred for four times their value to be deducted from the price of a Cosmos holiday. And so, tomorrow, courtesy of too much spending at Tesco and just a very small donation into the Cosmos coffers, we're off to Majorca for a week.

When we booked the holiday it seemed like a great idea because we'd get a chance to use the language and a week in the sun when it was still chilly back home. As the holiday approached though we began to wish we hadn't been so hasty - Airmiles for example would have got us to the area of Spain to which we are moving in September. Now though it seems like an ideal chance to not think about moving for a week. To take a whole week off from discussing all the minutiae of moving and the associated emotions. Certainly it is coming to a point now were we realise we will miss our extended family and that we may have a few tough weeks of acclimatisation. The process of relocating to Spain, and I expect this is probably a reflection on the type of character's we are anyway, seems to have taken over every minute of every day. It fills dreams, daytime conversations, conversations with colleagues and friends, and then consumes all our weekend time in preparing in one way or another. It seems a long time ago when at the start of March we got the offer of a teaching post in Spain. The day itself was peculiar. I had two interviews scheduled for the one day. Having interviewed at the first school I then had hours to fill in crossing London for an interview with the second school. In the evening we went out for a meal with family on the banks of the Thames in Staines. By the time half past eight had come I was convinced that the second school, who had told me they would let us know one way or the other before the end of the day, had employed somebody else and were only going to phone if they got around to the 'also rans'. So, when the phone rang at quarter to nine I didn't expect anything positive. Needless to say when I returned to the table having taken the call and delivered the line "we're moving to Alzira" everything became a bit of a blur. There was a general outpouring of different emotions. Laughter, holiday bookings and even tears from Sally's mother who was in Plymouth and I think at the time secretly hoping the move may just be a pipe dream. The last four weeks have been spent wrestling with the aftermath of that moment with our every breath. Those family members concerned about the move seem to have come round more positively. Infact, my in-laws have already booked a holiday in October in the area to which we are moving. More people have pencilled in dates for their trip out to the point where our first visitor is likely to come in the end of August and between then and Christmas we have at least five weeks of visitors.

And so, Majorca, which had seemed like a rash decision is now a welcome break and we have an agreement not to talk about any details of the move at all. To lie by the pool, relax and drink sangria ready to come back refreshed and ready to give the final 15 or 16 weeks the energy they will need.

This is destined to be a shorter entry than usual as a result of the medium being used. I am writing the blog on a PDA. I don't know why but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I spotted the sale on Ebay and as I so often do with technology, managed to convince myself that it would be a financially expedient purchase. In this case, the features that persuaded were the included satnaav (how will we ever find the Iberian peninsula without) and the wireless connectivity. I don't know how long it may take to get online in Spain but with a wireless PDA we will never be offline - or so my theory goes.

The first test will comme this weekend as we take a break from all the moving preparations to laze by a swimming pool in
Majorca. The holiday was booked before the job came along but will be a great opportunity to put moving thoughts on the back-burner and relax for a week...whilst checking the new PDA is successful in keeping us in touch with t e rest of the world. With that in mind, tomorrow's blog entry may be the last for a week or so.