(no subject)
The property is beautiful.
Robert and I took another look. I still find it difficult to conceptualise how much land 127acres is. Suffice it to say, it's a lot.
The olive trees they planted are growing well. The creekbeds are puddled rather than running, but there's plenty of moisture in the soil and lots of diversity in the little plants coming up.
The land is very rocky, which I find pleasing. Not only do I like that bit of solidity in the ground (that's as well as I can explain it today, sorry) but I have visions of using the rocks we uncover whilst excavating the house site for some fabulous purpose. I've seen plans and photos of quasi-outdoor bathrooms that give me vapours and I'd love to put the concept into practice.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept (and frankly, I think many of us are), one option is to have the bathroom as a kind of glasshouse. I'm visualising a rock wall to about two feet and then opaque glass walls. The roof would be normal glass. The shower head would run into a base of river stones and then drain off either to storage or a glasshouse pond. Plants in the glasshouse would benefit from the heat and moisture and I would never need to clean bathroom fittings. Bliss and double bliss.
The two dams on the property seem full enough and there's a nice mix of cleared and uncleared land. If I had my druthers there'd be a bit more uncleared vegetation, but we can fix that.
There are a few good house sites and stockyards. I'm not sure what I would use stockyards for, but it's nice to have them. There also don't seem to be too many rabbit or other holes and all in all it seems to be a perfect horse-riding property.
We've got some fabulous tips from local friends about negotiating tactics. There's a good chance that there is a wind farm going on the nearby hills. This doesn't worry us in the slightest, in fact, we find them quite visually appealing - but we can always pull a NIMBY and claim that we're very distressed by the possibility in an effort to drive the price down. We can also use the fact that the vendor bought the property fourteen months ago for less than half the price he's asking us. Last, and quite possibly least, one of the neighbouring properties is apparently used for nudist activities. I was trying to use that in the negotiations as well but it's really quite difficult. I can't keep a straight face whilst pretending to be concerned about naked people next door to a 127acre property. Good forbid my son should see a willy that isn't his own before he's 21.
Of course, I'm doing my usual flimflam thing. Robert and I have quite an established pattern of moving forward in our relationship. I get the brilliant (and often quite outlandish) ideas and push, push, push until we consider them. Once we've made a brilliant and outlandish decision I push, push, push to enact it. And then I get nervous. I question the idea, I question us, I question myself. But by this stage Robert it totally resolute and committed to the idea. He reassures me, and we plough on.
Thank god he loves me, because I really am very demanding (not to mention, unrepentant).
Robert and I took another look. I still find it difficult to conceptualise how much land 127acres is. Suffice it to say, it's a lot.
The olive trees they planted are growing well. The creekbeds are puddled rather than running, but there's plenty of moisture in the soil and lots of diversity in the little plants coming up.
The land is very rocky, which I find pleasing. Not only do I like that bit of solidity in the ground (that's as well as I can explain it today, sorry) but I have visions of using the rocks we uncover whilst excavating the house site for some fabulous purpose. I've seen plans and photos of quasi-outdoor bathrooms that give me vapours and I'd love to put the concept into practice.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept (and frankly, I think many of us are), one option is to have the bathroom as a kind of glasshouse. I'm visualising a rock wall to about two feet and then opaque glass walls. The roof would be normal glass. The shower head would run into a base of river stones and then drain off either to storage or a glasshouse pond. Plants in the glasshouse would benefit from the heat and moisture and I would never need to clean bathroom fittings. Bliss and double bliss.
The two dams on the property seem full enough and there's a nice mix of cleared and uncleared land. If I had my druthers there'd be a bit more uncleared vegetation, but we can fix that.
There are a few good house sites and stockyards. I'm not sure what I would use stockyards for, but it's nice to have them. There also don't seem to be too many rabbit or other holes and all in all it seems to be a perfect horse-riding property.
We've got some fabulous tips from local friends about negotiating tactics. There's a good chance that there is a wind farm going on the nearby hills. This doesn't worry us in the slightest, in fact, we find them quite visually appealing - but we can always pull a NIMBY and claim that we're very distressed by the possibility in an effort to drive the price down. We can also use the fact that the vendor bought the property fourteen months ago for less than half the price he's asking us. Last, and quite possibly least, one of the neighbouring properties is apparently used for nudist activities. I was trying to use that in the negotiations as well but it's really quite difficult. I can't keep a straight face whilst pretending to be concerned about naked people next door to a 127acre property. Good forbid my son should see a willy that isn't his own before he's 21.
Of course, I'm doing my usual flimflam thing. Robert and I have quite an established pattern of moving forward in our relationship. I get the brilliant (and often quite outlandish) ideas and push, push, push until we consider them. Once we've made a brilliant and outlandish decision I push, push, push to enact it. And then I get nervous. I question the idea, I question us, I question myself. But by this stage Robert it totally resolute and committed to the idea. He reassures me, and we plough on.
Thank god he loves me, because I really am very demanding (not to mention, unrepentant).