Friday, April 9, 2010

Our House

(Madness, 1982)




And breathe... Today we got the phone call from the notaire telling us that nobody had put in a extra bid for the house we won in an auction on 24 March (we tried to keep it secret, though not terribly successfully - thanks all of you for keeping your fingers crossed). So it's ours! After an infinite two-week wait trying not to think about it, we can now unleash all our pent-up house renovation fantasies!

First, a few legal / administrative matters to attend to. Techincally speaking, the sale became definitive today, which means that we are the legal owners. (We don't get possession though until we pay the money, which we have 6 weeks to do). That means, that if the roof is blown off in a storm tomorrow, we are liable. So we need to sort out insurance and such like.

We also have to pay the taxes in the next 6 days (in Belgium these are steep - 12.5% of the house price) as well as the notary costs (about another 3.5%). Oh, and start talking to banks about mortgages.

Once we have dealt with that, we can get started on the fun stuff.

Want to see inside? Gory details to follow... I warn you, there's going to be plenty of work.

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