While I'm still doing the Food Cupboard challenge and trying to eat down the contents of the cupboard I've not really needed to go 'proper' shopping for a long time, but I do like to have a few treats in for the weekend and this morning while I was running some other errands I decided to call into Booths for this weeks shopping.
As you can clearly see it's virtually all treaty bits ... but hey, I deserve a treat. And YAY Ten Acre crisps are back in Booths. 😁
Dangerously for me our Booths now has a 'donated book' bookcase, raising money for local charities. I found these two on it this morning.
I loved the television series of 'This is Going to Hurt' so it will be interesting to see if the book is as good, or perhaps even better, and the other one well that's right up my street isn't it. Alan thought I already had it but he was thinking of Hovel in the Hills ... which is a real favourite of mine.
October 2017
Now after much searching on both of my blogs I have to hold my hands up and admit that I think I have given you a teaser that you would never be able to solve on your own. I was sure, in fact I was absolutely positive that I had blogged all about us buying our Welsh flat ... it would seem I didn't. I must have done it all on Facebook!!
I'm sorry ... well at least a bit sorry. 😏
November 2017
In early 2017 when we were living in North Wales, we received a sum of money that we wanted to use in a sensible way for our future, so we decided to use it to buy a flat near Llandudno. We had by this time already paid off the mortgage on our Welsh house, so we just re-mortgaged that to make up the rest of the money that we needed for a cash purchase.
Our idea was that once we were too old to be able to manage on the smallholding, we would sell the Welsh house, move into the flat and use the money from the sale as our pension top up money. In the meantime we would rent out the flat so that we could repay the mortgage as quickly as possible and not have any debt.
11th December 2017
We bought off plan, choose all our fixtures and fittings and the garden surfaces etc, and then on our way through to Llandudno to walk the dogs each week we would visit 'our flat' to check on progress.
27th December 2017
It grew quickly, and it was brilliant watching the progress and chatting to the workmen each time we visited.
11th February 2018
The day we got there and found that the scaffolding had come down and they had started on the pavements and roads was a good one.
11th March 2018
And on our next visit we could walk on the road and pavements and have a peek through the windows ...
... and even check on our 'garden'.
9th April 2018
And just a month later the tree was getting it's leaves and the soil had been covered in grass.
So that was the birth of our flat. Within a month of it being completed we had tenants in, a lovely young family who stayed for just over a year. Then they had a windfall and bought a place of their own, our next tenant was a nice young man who had a 'temporary' work contract in the area. He has literally just given his notice in this month and will be moving on. While he needed the flat and was happily paying his rent each month it seemed wrong to sell it so we held onto it. Our mortgage had been paid off after just over two years so it has been completely ours since 2020.
Our plan was to sell it as soon as he moved out, once we had repainted and re-carpeted it, but then I had a brainwave and we had a change of heart. With the property market being on a bit of a downer at the moment and sales slowing, we have decided to hold onto it for a while and use it ourselves as a sort of holiday base near the seaside. Which cuts out any need for me to buy a caravan!!
We will be revisiting the flat next week and deciding what it needs before we start to furnish it very minimally so that we and the animals can use it on a regular basis. After a while once the market picks up we hope to sell it on to a local couple or family as a starter home.
So it wasn't a cottage, or a narrowboat, a motorhome or a caravan ... it was a flat. And one that you knew nothing about it would seem!!
Oops!! 😎
Hope you have a great weekend.
Sue xx
I have a memory is that, once or twice, you DID mention owning a flat in Llandudno. But I figured it was just a sensible business investment, none of anyone else's business, and as you did not mention it very often it was possible you had sold it at some point in the past.
ReplyDeleteBut how lovely to have a nearly-at-the-seaside 'cottage' to go and visit. And now is probably not the time to sell and try to realise the best value on the property.
I thought I had mentioned it, but obviously not in enough of a way for me to be able to find the posts in the searches I have been doing. It's never been a secret and yes, it was a business investment as well as being our planned retirement home. We won't be retiring there now, well I should never say never I guess, but that's not the plan at the moment. We will use it for a while and then have a rethink. I am not comfortable with taking a property away from local people, having lived in Wales for so long I understand the viewpoint completely. But being a five minute drive from the sea will be lovely, we have really missed our doggy walks along the prom and our Welsh friends.
DeleteHaving your own holiday home, of whatever type, is fantastic. How lovely to make use of it yourselves for however long. I'm guessing it's a downstairs flat because of the garden - is the garden just yours or shared?
ReplyDeleteYes it is the downstairs flat of the two and the garden is solely ours and is accessed through our side gate or our patio doors. The upstairs neighbours have a garden next to ours but no access directly from their flat. This was the main criteria in us wanting the ground floor flat as we lived in a flat in Berkshire where we were the flat with a separate garden, we found we never used it except to cut the grass and weed the weeds, and our cat refused to go into it as he couldn't escape into the house if he got spooked.
DeleteOh, how fantastic - what an investment. I love that you have a holiday bolt-hole in a lovely part of the world and maybe it could generate a bit of income by renting it out weekly and occasionally to trusted friends as a holiday flat.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think it's brilliant and I'm definitely NOT just slightly envious! :-) xx
Yes, it's been a really good investment. We cannot rent it out weekly or as a holiday home to others as there are clauses in the lease that forbid this. We were however, able to rent it out on a long-term basis with six months being the minimum a tenant could rent for. We 'might' allow close family members to have week long holidays there in return for cutting the grass and cleaning up after themselves. Anything else wouldn't seem fair to the neighbours.
DeleteGood Book Finds!
ReplyDeleteCroft in the Hills is a lovely story and she wrote a few others as well . I had all of them at one time - long gone. Adam Kay was on Desert Island Discs this week - interesting man - sad story of the Health Service.
I know!! I was really pleased to see them ... the trouble is I'll be looking all the more now, temptation is a terrible/brilliant thing. ;-)
DeleteYou did mention your flat a few times on your blog - so it must be there as I am sure I didn't dream it. It will be a lovely place to escape to. The doctor book I read (or a similar one) when I was in hospital having my radioactive iodine treatment for my thyroid cancer and I never laughed so much - the bit about the new doctor on duty going to see a patient in the middle of the night and then not knowing if the patient was clinically dead or not and having to mobile his mate also on duty to help him decide. It took them well over 20 minutes and then needed the help of a passing nurse to be sure!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy those treats - we will no doubt call in at Booths on the way back down from Scotland on Monday so leave some for us!
I thought I had, but every search I did just brought up the Garstang flat and not the Welsh one. Oh gosh that was brave, reading a book about doctors and hospitals while you were in the hospital yourself. There were so many treats you should be fine on Monday. ;-)
DeleteWell Sue after you posted the picture of the gorgeous cottage for sale close to you, I thought you were selling up and moving (gosh I would have loved it) but lovely to now know about the flat, simply enjoy🙂. Jan in Castle Gresley
ReplyDeleteThere's no way we would move from our current homes at the moment as Alan still needs a large office space which he has here in his house ... but that little cottage was putting me right on the edge of temptation. Who knows, if I win the lottery tonight I might still snap it up!!
DeleteEnjoy your newly found books whilst munching crisps and wishing you lots of relaxing time in the flat - what a good idea to keep it and use it yourselves 😃
ReplyDeleteCountry Cook
That sounds like a very good plan for the weekend ... and perhaps a crisp butty too. :-)
DeleteI am happy to see your plan to sell it to a local person - it seems so sad that locals who want to live in beautiful areas can't afford to do so because of AirB&B/ holiday lets/extortionate prices. But I'm happy too that you have your own little holiday home for a while! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteExactly that!! I think we will only hold onto it if we find ourselves using it on a very regular basis, and while there we will obviously shop local and spend local not bring things from here with us, it's only fair. The clauses in the lease are designed to protect the homes on that estate from being used as Airbnb's or holiday lets and I for one think that it is a brilliant idea. As it is I think we are going to have to pay double Council Tax as it is classed as a second home, which will still make cheaper than buying a caravan and paying the yearly site fees, while at the same time adding finance to the local economy.
DeleteOh yes, I meant to say I recently read the Adam Kay book and found it both hilarious and horrifying in equal measure!
ReplyDeleteNow THAT sounds good. :-)
DeleteIt will be a nice to have a home away from home! I can't wait to have a tour of that area as well!
ReplyDeleteWe lived in that area for over eight years so it is very familiar to us, and also I guess to my blog readers. But don't worry, I'll be taking my camera out and about with me as usual to see if things have changed.
DeleteHow lovely..
ReplyDeleteIt is a lovely flat, I was sad to think that we might never get to use it ourselves.
DeleteHow lovely, your own little bothole. It's wonderful that you intend to sell to a local eventually but do enjoy it in the meantime, I certainly would. I've heard that there's some great chazzas around there.
ReplyDeleteI loved This Is Going to Hurt. If you haven't read it, see if you can track down Jed Mercurio's Bodies. Before he became a screenwriter he trained as a doctor and it's a semi-autobiographical account of his years as a junior doctor, it's absolutely terrifying. The BBC serialised it back in the 2000s and it was voted the most accurate medical drama ever made by NHS workers. xxx
I must be clairvoyant because I can remember you writing about buying a flat off plan and getting a tenant almost immediately. I thought it was in Lancashire rather than Wales. Good idea to utilise it until the property market stabilises.
ReplyDelete