Travelling On

edinburgher

@Karmacat - I'm sure you've explained this before, but do you ever consider selling the French apartment?

Parents own two houses in a sunny but not particularly trendy/popular place, I suspect all siblings dreading the day we have to help them navigate overseas real estate waters to sell at least one of them

*Edit: And a very Happy New Year to you - should've led with that!

Karmacat

Hi Ed - Happy New Year to you too  

As for the French apartment, I used to dream of selling it as soon as I could do so without handing back the VAT (there was an allowance that meant you didn't have to pay VAT on the purchase price, but you had to keep it for 20 years).  Plus the property market in France collapsed by 50%, and hasn't really recovered.

Now, the mortgage is paid off, and even though the amount of rent I get can vary quite a bit because of covid troubles (it's a holiday apartment in the French Alps, after all) I finally don't have to subsidise it with my own money, and money is actually accruing in my French bank account.  I'm loathe to disturb the situation when its running smoothly now ... I suppose I'll sell it eventually, and if I happen to pop my clogs before I do, my sister's told me she'll just hire somebody in France to do it.  Basically, I have other things I want to pay attention to - it's such a lot of time to de-risk, I just can't bear to start the process right now.  

edinburgher

That makes perfect sense KC - glad it is washing its face

Karmacat

Thanks!  It'll be a long time before it washes it's face overall, but it's definitely making an annual profit - a couple of thousand euros, something like that.  Over the course of a 15 year mortgage, I sent, oh god I wish I hadn't roughed this out now, between £30-40,000.  Oh my god   

PS I forgot about the trendiness issue - it's a 4 season resort 30k from Chamonix, so while not trendy, it's not awful.  And my sister has experience of selling her own French property, so she can hack dealing with estate agents, lawyers, and offers at 40% below asking price, which is what happened to her!

Anyway, moving swiftly on ... I'm so glad I had a to-do list for the last 24 hours, at least I knew what I had to do, and what might be most important, though I still over-committed my time.  I'm having to waste a tub of mushrooms, and possibly one of sweet potatoes as well, ordered in mid-December I thought I could do it, but I can't. 

Now, all I have to do is heat my lunch, put the dishwasher on, finish packing, refill my sanitiser at the front door, do a final security check so my usual Lovely Neighbour doesn't have to worry too much.  Get a flash drive from the new pack I ordered if I can, because I plan on doing lots of genealogy writing while I'm away. Tinkering with how to plan going forward, as well as *what* to plan.  I plan on this being an exciting year, as much as possible  

apple_muncher

I think it must be exciting to go away and do your plotting and planning away from home. Fewer distractions, fewer 'must dos'. More free time for musings and machinations. Enjoy yourself!

rtandon27

It's that time if year KC - I did some initial planning for the year yesterday & suddenly came to the decision that in the short term, I'm going to stick to one personal and one work goal a day! Any more than that, it seems, is currently too much! Small wins and all that!

As it is the weekend today - switched it to two personal - glass went to be recycled at the local bottle bank & meal plan is in the works - that will be followed up by a nap on the sofa - LOL

Enjoy your time bunny sitting! The change of scenery will be great😊

themadvix

I’m with RT - there are so many unknowns at the moment that plans can only be limited. One day at a time at least until we know what, if any, restrictions are going to be brought in, and in our case, if we move or give up, is all we can do.

Karmacat

apple_muncher said:

I think it must be exciting to go away and do your plotting and planning away from home. Fewer distractions, fewer 'must dos'. More free time for musings and machinations. Enjoy yourself!

Not with a late-middle-age rabbit to look after, sadly 🐇 apparently they're sensitive souls.  Like with sheep, they're basically looking for ways to kill themselves, particularly with Gastric Stasis.  Mind you, it turns out that I know how to stroke a rabbit best of all of us 💚 because of my cats. So this rabbit is a happy little rabbit, who's already learned to run towards me to be stroked

I've recovered from the handover period, which was horrendous because of the rigmarole you have to go through to travel abroad ... so I've been having a couple of walks through new territory, which is good.  Bit of genealogy work (family stories, some with proof attached, like ID cards, some ... not ) it's good to get it out there.

Watty1

Hope you enjoy your stay away KC

rtandon27

Petting cute furry pets is also therapeutic for their humans - so win/win for both!