"Readallabahdit!"

Does that work phonetically? Anyway...I've decided to try to put my journalistic experience, such as it is, to some sort of use and have come up with the not so very novel idea of perhaps a column or feature for a newspaper or magazine all about our adventure.

I've contacted the Sunday Herald, Glasgow Herald and the Times Educational Supplement to see if they're interested.

I've had a few replies so far and some people seem quite keen to talk about it, at least in principle. We shall see...I wonder if there's a book in there somewhere?

Gail has set up a website, which may someday become a portal for her creative talents in the jewellery design arena...she's blogging too now, not too sure about the look of that blog though: Gail's wee hoose.

Did someone put that light out?

Damn and blast. The valuation report has arrived from the surveyor and the property's valued at around fourteen grand less than the seller is asking. Fourteen grand. We're a bit stuck now as that would mean putting around twenty thousand pounds towards any purchase, leaving nothing to do upgrading work...and even then that's assuming we'd make enough on the sale of the flat we're in.

This is a real low point. It feels a lot like opportunities are being snatched away again and that we're really up against it. Anything worth having's not going to be easy I suppose and the struggle will just make us appreciate it all the more when we eventually get organised...but does it have to be this stressful?

On top of that, we'd hoped to get a removal company to come and move us...when we sold the flat in town after Ben was born, we had two moves in the space of eight months - both of which we did with the help of the in-laws and a rented Transit - and pretty much decided then that we'd not do it ourselves again. A few phone calls later and the thought of paying between 700 and 1200 pounds means that the in-laws and the white van may have to be called into action once again.

A bit new-age perhaps but there you go:

Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind.

Alice Meynell

There is a light...

We hope.  Looks like we're going to go for the Strontian property - it's a good price and a reasonable property - a few quid will make it better but in the meantime it will get us up there and get us started.
 
(Re)Decorating at our own house is progressing nicely, and there's just the mammoth clear-up and packing operation to contend with.  We have slight concerns over the apparent downturn in the Edinburgh property market and the fact that there are two very similar properties in the next street to ours currenytly up for sale.  We shall see...
 
Anyway, we went to arrange a hypothetical mortgage yesterday and chased surveyors and the Highland Council (no contract yet!) to get things moving along a bit quicker.  Hopefully things will start to come together this week and we can gear up for the big move.  There are times when it all seems so far away again, not Ardnamurchan physically, but the whole project - there's so little time and so much to do.

If you notice this notice...

I handed in my notice today.  Traumatic and difficult but it feels like a weight off... Gail has given notice of her notice, as her boss will be away for a few weeks.  I think they'll really struggle without her but, like me, she feels a lot better about the whole thing now.  Fingers crossed...

Looking up?

So, on Wednesday we left Gail's mum's in Old Kilpatrick and whizzed up the A82 towards Ardnamurchan.  A mere two and a quarter hours later - including a stop at the Green Welly Shop in Tyndrum for coffee and a scone - we were at the Corran Ferry.
 
25 minutes later we hit Strontian, where we were to go an see the local shopowner.  He'd invited us to come and view his property "which is just about to go on the market but I wanted to let you see it first..."  So see it we did.  It wasn't exactly your idyllic, rural Highland hideaway, but it could be a start.  Certainly at the price it would be a great stopgap until we get ourselves settled and maybe, somewhere down the line, think about that self-build project...
 
The cottage was basic but pretty big, with scope to convert the fairly cavernous loft into another room.  There's a tiny kitchen, which would once have been referred to as more of a kitchenette, but with estate agents being what they are it's probably now a "compact and functional food preparation area."
 
Pros:  cheap, structurally sound, early move-in date, huge potential, central for all the peninsula's schools.
Cons:  needs double glazing, newer heating and it's not quite what we had in mind.
 
Onwards, then, to Acharacle to have a look at a house & nursery (as in garden nursery) combination - though to be fair the nursery was just the remnants of what could once have been a great idea - 3 dilapidated poly-tunnel frames and a potting shed were pretty much all that remained.
 
It was in a stunning, hillside location overlooking Loch Sunart and the view alone would be worth the price.  The house itself, however, was a different matter - first impressions were okay but on closer inspection there were a lot of bodges here and there and it was clear there was some work to be done.  At offers over 95k for the house & nursery (and there'd be little point in taking on the house without the nursery) it's going to go for somewhere in the hundred and twenty grand region - well outwith our budget.
 
The frustrating thing is that areas like this, where teachers are needed, simply don't have the infrastructure to cope with such housing issues and if they aren't able to attract new people to (a) live there and (b) work there, then they will die out...which is hardly a very sustainable way to go about things.  Thought, to be fair, this is worthy of a whole blog on its own...
 
Next stop - Kilchoan.  Having holidayed here we're more than aware of how lovely it is and, potentially, what a great place it could be to live.  However, as it's a 45 minute drive just from Salen, you're then looking at Kilchoan to Achaphubuil being about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half - hardly ideal.  Kilchoan's very magic is in its location - right at the edge and out of the way, which makes it perfect for a holiday but not for commuting...though if the job at Kilchoan ever came up...
 
We looked anyway at the "project" - at offers over 70k, any project was always going to have to be cheap but this would have needed upwards of fifty grand spent on it.  There was wet rot, dry rot, no kitchen or bathroom and no heating either.  It could - and no doubt will - be stunning.  As with Acharacle the views are breathtaking but it needs lots of money and time spent on it as well as someone who alreay has a house nearby taking it on, so there'd be somewhere to live whilst work was done.  Oh well.
 
After the disappointment of this house, we went - as arranged - to see the Laird of the Ardnamurchan Estate (you'll recall that a relative knows someone, who knows someone) but he wasn't in.  His secretary allowed us to go and have a look at one of the potential lets.  Although there's no garden, there are acres of fields round about and the house itself is lovely - if slightly hard (we suspect) to make one's own.  I don't imagine we'd be allowed to do much with it and, being a holiday let, there's not much by way of storage space for all our junk.  We'll need to do a bit more thinking on this one, and we still don't know what we'd be charged for it.
 
Drove home feeling slightly more positive but with an overwhelming feeling of stress and nausea.  No doubt partly induced by the knowledge that in the morning I have to hand in my notice.

Nothing much...

...turning up by way of property at the moment. We'll need to put our flat on the market very soon and there's loads needing done - mainly cosmetic, but still...

We're taking a trip to Ardnamurchan next Wednesday to look at a couple of places as well as some potential lets. A relative knows someone who knows someone as it were, and the someone owns much of the peninsula. He may be able to let us have one of his holiday lets on a long term basis at a reduced rate, which would be ideal.

I don't really fancy the thought of uprooting the family without anywhere to go to so we'll need to sort something out soon.

Fingers crossed.

Still looking for that elusive rural idyll...

Hopefully the cards in shops will pay dividends - we had a call yesterday from the owner of the shop in Strontian who may have something coming up for sale in the next week or two, whilst Gail located a potential project somewhere slightly more rural, over in Kilchoan.

We shall see...

Ardnamurchan update

On our huge road trip last week we took the opportunity to stop in on the Ardnamurchan peninsula to look for somewhere to live. The news was not great and we left discouraged and disheartened, though we did take the opportunity to put some cards in shop windows in the hope that someone would have something for us...