The following day saw us back with Martinho of Madeira Property Centre and in a little village called Ribeira da Vaca. Slightly further north than we expected to buy, but as we explained to Martinho - we were in Madeira and really wanted to see all the properties that we could.
We met in Ponto do Pargo and drove north for a few kilometres - around more winding and twisting roads - further away from the developed areas. This appealed, as we are looking to live here and not vacation here!
We parked and saw the house! What a green surrounding. We walked down the track towards the house thinking about our options ... our choices ... our requirements ... our absolutes ... our compromises.
We walked down the steps at the side of the house and what a view! OK - but we were not buying this house to vacation in it, we planned to live here! So we started to look through the house and the grounds to see what we were truly being shown.
As we had talked Martinho into showing us this house in a gap in his schedule, we didn't have long. On our drive back to Funchal we talked about the house and couldn't find a reason not to buy it - so we turned round and went back.
After passing the pig sty which we both agreed would go ... we walked around the grounds. Sounds grand, but not at all. We understood that this house came with a lot of land and that ticked one of our boxes. It had a shed - another box ticked. The house itself wasn't big - another box ticked. It was a renovation project - and another box ticked. As we were walking around individually we found that we were mentally ticking all the boxes.
Standing away from the house we found that with all the overgrowth you really couldn't see what was there. So we had to get up close and really look at the layout of the house - a single story and a double story building. It was fairly obvious that it was a traditional house built many, many years ago. We later found that it had not been lived in for about 10 years, and this explained the state of the toilet and shower block (an obvious add-on).
After many hours of wandering around, sun shining, beautiful views, incredibly fertile land, we left and drove into Ponto do Pargo. We sat on the wall at the bottom of the lighthouse and talked about our own individual feelings about the house. In our own minds we had both said 'YES', but not wanting to put words into each others mouths - we didn't tell each other.
This gave us the opportunity sitting with the sun on our backs, looking due west, to talk about the positives and to raise the concerns. After a couple of hours, we both agreed that this property ticked all our boxes and more.
WOW! What a feeling - after so many years, so many disappointments, so many challenges, we both felt a little deflated. We had in a very short period of time found both the location we wanted to live in and a property!
Want to make a success of your plans to move? Want to work with someone who will not judge the reasons you want to make your move, who will not guide you down a specific path? You have this opportunity to work with a qualified and accredited coach who has done it!
Just email Barbara on [email protected]!
Find Barbara's biog on http://www.institute-of-coaching.org/coach_referral_service/display_detail.php?trf=91
