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The joys of homeownership!

Apreggiator said:
P.s. Thinking more and more about moving to rural Spain or Italy to join in a 'property for free' initiative (if you can secure funds for- and commit to renovation). Properties are virtually worthless, so;
A. The taxman will leave me alone until your sleepy village turns into a desirable location again after a few decades. At which time you can sell at a handsome profit.
B. I spend the money to make the place livable, be left alone by the taxman and live out a peaceful, if somewhat solitary rural life.

Note: There are assumptions in the above scenarios.
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Property for free in Spain ... depending on where in Spain, I could go for that.
 
Mystic said:
Property for free in Spain ... depending on where in Spain, I could go for that.
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It's always in villages/towns in 'empty' Spain, which is sizeable as you can see below. There's not always a repopulation initiative going on, they pop up from time to time.
Cheap real estate is always possible in much of the empty part of course..
To live my preference would be the Asturias region, or another place in or close to the north of Spain. To visit; All of them! ;)


Empty spain.jpg
 
Apreggiator said:
It's always in villages/towns in 'empty' Spain, which is sizeable as you can see below. There's not always a repopulation initiative going on, they pop up from time to time.
Cheap real estate is always possible in much of the empty part of course..
To live my preference would be the Asturias region, or another place in or close to the north of Spain. To visit; All of them! ;)


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Hey, the Empty Spain area around Barcelona and the area @ The Atlantic side might be okay.
 
Apreggiator said:
It's always in villages/towns in 'empty' Spain, which is sizeable as you can see below. There's not always a repopulation initiative going on, they pop up from time to time.
Cheap real estate is always possible in much of the empty part of course..
To live my preference would be the Asturias region, or another place in or close to the north of Spain. To visit; All of them! ;)


View attachment 3741592
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But I'd have to lay outta the space around Madrid. Don't like that place and have tried more than a few times.
 
Mystic said:
But I'd have to lay outta the space around Madrid. Don't like that place and have tried more than a few times.
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I don't like Madrid either. I also don't like Barcelona. At all. Even as someone who's into Architecture..

The cities in the north of Spain however, are fan-tas-tic to visit. San Sebastian for the food (& drinks) especially.
Cities in the Andalusia region are amazing too.

But roadtrips are the best way to explore Spain (and Portugal)!
But anyway, just my opinion. :)
 
W9TR said:
Cheap real estate is the most expensive real estate I’ve ever owned.
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True enough!
I bought two cheap old houses that required renovation.
The main thing about renovation to me is, if you have to do (part of) it yourself, it becomes harder to enjoy the house as a place to live or view it as your home, because of the never ending stream of projects..
Through some process I still don't understand myself, I did learn to enjoy that aspect of it as 'part of life'. I miss it now, living in a modern house which is perfectly comfortable but somehow has 'no soul' to me.

Oh well.. At least there will be no 'rose tinted glasses' effect if I step into it again. :rolleyes:
 
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You put sweat equity into a place then there is more ‘there’ there and it becomes yours. A part of you is in the structure. Hard to explain to someone who hasn’t done it.

We just hired a contractor to refurbish our 1970’s house. I had remodeled both baths myself, and one bedroom prior to this big remodel. In retrospect it would have been cheaper to level the sucker and start over. But I just couldn’t bring myself to demolish all the work I’d done previously.
 
Dug up 25-ish feet of hedge in the back yard and a small tree that didn't make it through the multiple freezes we had in FL this past winter.

Not sure why the PO of this house put hedges up against the screen room.
They made repairing the screens and cleaning the gutter way more difficult jobs than they should have been.
I hate killing living flora, but I'm not super upset to see it go.
 
The house I live in now was built in 2015. Have had more plumbing problems with it than any home prior dating back to 1986. Water supply line pulled apart twice underground at joints (clay soil). Main shut off water valve to house developing a hole in the valve body. Hot water supply leaking under a sink. Toilet separating from floor and leaking when flushing. Hot water supply line compression fitting in a shower wall cracked and started leaking into wall. Utility sink water faucet body cracked and leaked water onto laundry floor.
 
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Mr Boochie said:
I'll do electrical, woodworking, mechanical, pretty much everything except plumbing! Seems like every time I try, I ended up with sore knees, a dent in my head, soaking wet, finding out that I don't have that washer I thought I had, or having broken something that I then have to call a plumber for. And I finally decided, if someone is going to burn down my house using a torch, it better be on someone else's insurance. So respect to those who are willing, but that's where I draw my line.:thumbsup:
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Waiting for the gas man to show in the 4 hour window so he can bleed inside gas line. They installed a new gas meter, probably because the old one wasn't showing any gas use, and now have me on service disconnect until they bleed the inside line. At least that's the story line.

I think joke's on them though. All the gas has been stuff shut off inside, including pilot light, for many years. If no reading on the monthly bill was their reason to replace the meter, the new one is going to read exactly the same; zero. LOL.

(Using electric heat and furnace is the only gas appliance.)
 
Yeah, electric water heater. Works fine, although I've never lived in a house that had gas water heater except in one case where it was tied into the boiler that was for heating the house.

They've been the conventional tank style electric water heaters not the on-demand type.
 
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