Arrived in Stornoway Monday luchtime and headed straight for the Hebridean Estate Agency who had a rental property I wanted to see and who state on their website that they have other properties available that are not advertised. That turns out not to be true! Enquired about the one I had seen on the web and was told that the landlord didn’t want anybody viewing for at least another two weeks, even thouugh it has been advertised for at least two months. Another at Garrabost wasn’t available for viewing until next week and another ‘will be coming soon’ but not not yet. Truth be told the young lady didn’t seem too interested and I came away thinking that this was going to be a wasted trip.
The other two agents were closed for lunch so I retired for coffee and tried to quell thoughts that I’d wasted my time. Western Isles Properties had four rentals available three of which were not suitable and the other which was way, way, overpriced. For £700 a month I could get a flat in London! So, dragging my heels, I wandered into Kenneth MacDonald who don’t mention at all on their webiste that they do rental properties so I was expecting little. Lo and behold they had more rentals than the other two combined. So I made arrangements to see three of them today (Wednesday). They were all over the island at Bernera, Shawbost and Scalpay so I needed to hire a car. That’s when fate stepped in and I didn’t get to see any of them!
I wandered up to Lewis Car Rentals and found a notice ‘Shop Closed - for rentals phone ….’. I didn’t want to waste my precious mobile credit if it wasn’t necessary so I turned round and headed for MacKinnon Self Drive Hire. They didn’t have a car but had a small van for £20 a day which suited nicely. I booked that on Monday and came back Tuesday morning to sign the form. It was Mrs MacKinnon herself who saw me and as she was taking the details she asked if was up here on business. ‘No, I’m trying to find a house to rent’ says I and she says ‘We’ve got one, if you come back when I go for my lunch I’ll run you up there’. So off I went on other business (of which more to come) and I returned at 1 pm. The house was a three bedroom with the usual other rooms plus a large dining room (which we wanted to store all our boxes that we didn’t need to unpack). They were in the process of completely refurbishing and the house was immaculate - looked like a new build - and then she took me into the living room and I stared (almost open-mouthed) at the view right across the whole of the Eye Peninsula (Point) and way over the Minch to the mainland. For those who know Lewis the porperty is in Newmarket. ’How much do you want?’ I asked. She quoted £100 a month more than I really wanted to pay. I said ‘Yes’!!
The Estate Agents’ all said ‘We’ll need two references’. I don’t have references having last rented a property in 1973 so I though that might be a stumbling block. ‘I don’t have any references’ I said to Mrs MacKinnon ‘but I’ll pay you the whole six months in advance if you wish’. ’Och, no’ she said ‘ that’s not a problem, I’ve met you’. That’s why I wanted to come up here and sort it on a face to face basis, the folk here quickly know who they can trust. The upshot is that from 1st July Sandy and I (and her mum) will be (almost) fully fledged Lewis residents - a month before the countdown date! If Lewis car Rentals had not been shut it would never have happened. Praise be the hand of Fate!!
There’s more to come but I’ve just got a message that my time’s up in five minutes. How come you can borrow a book for two months but only get half an hour on the Internet?
I’m off home on the 7am ferry tomorrow morning and should be back home before 6pm so I’ll blog about the really exciting news then!
Well this is something I’ve never done before - blogging as a traveller! Yes I know everybody does it but it’s new to me!
Right now I’m in The Kings Highway in Inverness surrounded by young folks with beautiful Scottish accents. It’s a Wetherspoons pub which means that the food is so-so, but it’s cheap and there’s free wifi. The alternative is to go back to the B&B and watch TV but there’s nothing on, I’ve checked online.
Left Stafford at 12:00 in sweltering heat - 26 degrees C inside the house and hotter outside! Sandy drove me to the station (once she could stand the heat of the steering wheel) and I then took a sweltering train ride to Birmingham International for the airport. Then a Flybe prop to Inverness where the glorious Scottish wind finally cooled things down! Nice little plane journey - I’ve never been on a small plane before - made even better by having nobody sitting next to me. Come on! Are you really going to find 78 people who want to fly to Inverness on a Sunday! Had to wait almost an hour for a bus from the Airport and then had a right miserable git of a bus driver. I asked him to let me know when I arrived at the stop I wanted but, even though I got up and went to the front where I thought I wanted to get off, the sod drove straight past and right into Inverness. Not a great problem as it was only a ten minute walk to the B&B but not my usual experience of Scottish hospitality.
Tomorrow morning I get a bus at 08:10 (early breakfast!) to Ullapool to catch the ferry to Stornoway. Already booked the ticket which is £5 all the way so I was a bit startled to be charged £3 for the six miles from the airport. Takes an hour and twenty minutes which is not too bad especially compared to almost three and a half hours on the ferry.
Now you may be wondering why I didn’t take the easy option and fly to Stornoway. 130 quid, that’s why. Even with paying £36 for a B&B in Inverness it’s that much cheaper to come the long way. There’s also an added bonus that I can get to Stornoway tomorrow lunchtime whereas the flights to Stornoway don’t get me in till after all the estate agents have shut.
Don’t know if I’ll get a wifi connection over the next few days - Stornoway library maybe?
Those Runrig tickets seem to be a catalyst. Is it worth a 1,000 mile round trip and £250 in petrol to see a band we’ve seen several times before? Die-hard fans wouldn’t bat an eyelid but sensible people with not much money?
So - on Sunday I leave Birmingham airport bound for Stornoway via Inverness to see if I can find us a house to rent from 1st July - got to be there by the 17th when Runrig are due on stage! There’s even a house for sale that might suit our (new, unexpected, unwanted and intolerable) situation so I’m hoping to get a look at that to see what might work. One thing’s for sure I shall make it clear to the agent and to the seller that we are not quite yet in a position to buy before I view. If they say no then I’ll forego the opportunity. I won’t piss anyone about as we have been pissed about for these past four months. Actually we might well be close to being able to make an offer as, although our house is nowhere near selling, the one down in Essex is ‘definitely’ sold - to a cash buyer at £5,000 more than the offer that fell through and they ‘want to complete quickly in order to get a tenant in’. Until the cash is in the bank though it’s not sold.
Lots of re-thinking required now. There’s always the ‘fall back’ though - if we run out of money in 18 months time our house will probably still be on the market so we can come back to Stafford! Either that or a suicide pact at The Butt of Lewis!
Well, we’ve booked our tickets to see Runrig at the HebCelt Festival in Stornoway on 17th July so we’ll be in Lewis this year as planned.
What we don’t know is whether we’ll be popping down the road for the gig or whether it will involve a 1,000 mile round trip. Somehow I suspect it will be the latter.
Getting rather sick now of being nice to people who have no intention, or means, of buying the house.
Tags: boredom, depression, Runrig
In the last post I mentioned the ‘adverse’ survey report that had been done on mother-in-law’s house. Since then we’ve spoken further to the estate agent.
The potential buyer is a single woman, not sure how old but she’s on her own. Fair game eh? The survey she had done basically said the house is in danger of falling apart so she was, quite naturally, rather worried. The estate agent was a little concerned as well so he sent his own surveyor round and - guess what - he says there is nothing at all wrong with the house apart from a few minor cracks in the plaster. I knew that already. Estate agent man is so riled at losing the sale that he has submitted an official complaint to whichever organisation regulates surveyors. Quite right. He says he feels quite sorry for the buyer as she has not only been put off this sale (and has probably had to fork out around £600 for a bogus report) but she may well have been put off the buying process altogether.
On a brighter note, the house went back on the market and there was another offer made within days for the same amount as the original. The chap concerned has said he will not bother with a survey because the house looks okay to him and if there was anything seriously wrong then the building society’s surveyor won’t approve the mortgage and, of course, they pick up the tab. That’s the sensible way to do it. That’s the way anybody should do it on a house that’s only 40 years old.
So there might be a good outcome after all, but we still haven’t had anything positive on our house so it’s all to little avail.
We did have a viewing last week from a Chinese lady called Mrs Soo who ‘absolutely loved this house’ and ‘will bring my husband to see it’ but that’s the last we heard. I was looking forward to a second visit from Mr & Mrs Soo especially if they had a son as I could then get to meet the famous boy named Soo!!
