Sunday, August 30, 2015

Location location location



Barely two week after we put a sign on the gate, we have sold Sea Neuk. At least, the sale is agreed in principle and it's in the hands of the lawyers. The Scottish system (which I've never been involved in before) doesn't seem quite as different from the English one as it is sometimes said, and there is no legally binding contract at this point so I'm not going to say too much about it in case it falls though. But at the time of writing both sides seem very keen to see things through to completion fairly speedily. Having the survey and valuation done in advance does mean there is less to go wrong at this point.

It turned out to be remarkably easy at least in some respects: all we really had to do was to hang a sign on the gate and wait for the crowds to flood in. We also had a short list of people who had said over the years "if you are ever thinking of selling..." and several of them were still seriously interested. We originally set out intending to use an agent, but that didn't work out for various reasons. Of course it was hard work doing the viewings (my sister did the bulk of this), but the whole process only took 2 weeks from start to finish. A standard way of arranging a sale in Scotland is to ask for sealed bids by a specific closing date, but since we were there and able to talk to the hopeful buyers directly we ended up just accepting a verbal (actually emailed) offer which was then repeated formally through the solicitors. I wouldn't necessarily recommend our course of action to everyone trying to sell a house, but it seems to have worked out reasonably well given the circumstances.

Still got the house clearance to think about, but perhaps life will return to normal soon after that...

Monday, August 17, 2015

Boing

Just in case you needed another reason for buying Sea Neuk, it comes with a limitless supply of tasty wild rabbit, like this one which has just had a few hours in the slow cooker with some red wine and a large bunch of rosemary.



My bloodthirsty hungry sister tells me that she's bagged one since I was last there. Actually, before I get savaged by the bunny-huggers, I should let on that I didn't shoot this one either.


Sunday, August 16, 2015

Spot the difference

This Greek thing seems to be all the rage on some blogs I could mention, but I struggle to get excited by it. According to the Grauniad website today, The IMF views a debt-to-GDP ratio above 120% as unsustainable. Here, for some context, are some recent data for a couple of countries:



I won't be offering prizes for guessing the identities of Countries A and B. One of them has a collapsing population (1 million down in the past 5y, will be dropping at a rate of 1m per year by 2030), a flatlining economy, and a skyrocketing worker-to-dependent ratio that will exceed unity by the middle of the century (and keep on getting worse). The other is Greece.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Sea Neuk is for sale


Just along the shore from the glass eyesore mentioned in this post, (which incidentally is down to 1.25 million but is still just as ugly and hopelessly overpriced) is a beautiful Victorian villa, which was the first house to be built in the area in the early 1860s. My grandfather bought it in 1953, and for many years my grandmother spent all her summers there (living a short drive away in Edinburgh). 


seaneuk.uk


More recently, we've all been living much further away and it hasn't seen so much use. So after a bit lot! of dithering, we have finally and somewhat reluctantly decided to sell it. See more at seaneuk.uk. Serious enquiries welcome.


Sunday, August 09, 2015

[jules' pics] garden

flower-1
Almost a year since we completed on our house in Settle. The garden is a bit over-occupied. Being not that large and yet with 5 woodland trees it has an almost continuous canopy to offset its unremittingly sunny aspect. It is similarly full of flowers. They are mostly new to me so I have been mostly just watching them this year. I think the previous people planted a lot of stuff, and there could also a villageurbia effect of things escaping from nearby gardens.

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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 8/09/2015 03:47:00 PM