So the second round of house hunting today commenced, with the weather still being unkind, although the rain had not abated it was not now torrential.
We left Nerja at 9.00am to keep our appointment with Tim Shepstone at 11.00am. We knew it would only take us about 55 minutes to drive up to Acequias where we were due to see him at his home but it would give us time to survey the village & area.
Arriving at about 9.45am we parked up & were really surprised at the really beautiful little village of about 100 inhabitants approximately doubling in the summer.
50 minutes later I decided to call Tim to tell him we had arrived. It transpired we had parked outside of his Villa & he directed us through the old tall gates to his door, where a big beaming Tim was waiting to greet us. This was so different to yesterday’s indifference & my optimism was repairing. After sitting for a while chatting over his home made delicious coffee we were beginning to realise that Tim was so much more than an “Estate Agent “.
“So”, he said, “it’s time to look at some properties” & he then proceeded to take us next door to a super old semi detached rebuilt house which was full of character which was rather large & rambling, but still within his garden area. He told us he was the one who had effected the rebuild, as he had the one adjoining which was also for rent soon in the future. (There were some Danish people in residence at the moment). They were quite good but, Umm maybe we were too close to the owner, or perhaps was that a good thing?
“Right, let’s drive to few villages” he said, so we piled into my hire car & off we went to Beznar to look at another rather large house. Three bedrooms, two very large patios, but no gardens, front or back, and only 5 metres from the road, perfect parking & a superb house but a couple of things not right. Tim owned this house as well and had yet again renovated it from a shell. Very unusual, he was telling us all the bad things about the houses as well as the good. Tim’s esteem was rising all the time.
So off we went to Jardines de Pinos & after again negotiating the small & narrow windy streets came across an almost new but small complex of 4 houses & 4 apartments. They were delightful but 4 of the eight properties were for holiday purposes. He had built these too, properly double glazed with full insulation; they had satellite television with full internet access. The patios & views over the reservoir were quite superb, we were 900 feet above sea level (something over 300 metres).
Finally we drove to Pinos where he proceeded to show us a superb 5 bedroom Villa, but with two of the bedrooms closed off for use as a separate apartment with bathroom & kitchen (if required). He had rebuilt this also from a shell & was very proud of it, no wonder I’d have been proud too! Loved this house but would it be too big!
So we drove back to his Villa where he invited us to climb up the hill to overlook the village. We eagerly agreed to this as the rain had abated some about 30 minutes ago. More surprises, as we walked through the village he pointed out the houses he had either rebuilt or renovated, & the owners or tenants of them, quite amazing. 50 houses he told us he had renovated in 20 years.
On top of the hill Tim pointed out all the surrounding villages, main roads & the reservoir to us.
Back down the hill it was time to drive back to Nerja, why does it take less time to drive back?
So...... food for thought, we had looked at seven houses of which three are well within my thoughts. Things are looking better all the time; we just need the weather to change now, not looking at anything over the weekend but we’ll look again on Monday.