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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
We had had the great news, that there was a strong possibility that Frank would be able to retire at the end of June 2002. A whole year ahead of our original schedule.
So now was the time to gamble on the builder being able to start work sooner than planned and get the house ready a.s.a.p.
So we, tongue in cheek, put our house on the market in U.K., grabbed a flight, booked in at our favorite hotel, “The Hideaway” (also: www.hideawayclub.com" target="_blank">www.hideawayclub.com/">www.hideawayclub.com) and set off for discussions with the builder.
We arrived off a Thursday night flight to find our hire car waiting at the airport, thanks to Unwin's organization. The idea was to breakfast and then sleep by the pool to recover, but we couldn’t resist a site visit. We found that two of the other houses were almost ready for occupation and room left for our house to fit in the gap.
A meeting had been arranged with Dennis the builder for Monday morning so we were able to relax for a few days.
Brian and Lil, our neighbours to be, the first inmates of “Chandlers” lane invited us to a BBQ lunch on Saturday. An opportunity to quiz them on their experiences and what to look out for. They had also invited Ian Betts, who had contacted them through their website, www.thechandlersincyprus.com (site no longer running), and who had come over to buy a property in Ilgaz.
Now I know people talk about it being a small world and neither Joan or I recognised the name initially, but Ian had worked at NCR, Sheffield in the early 70’s, the same time as Joan and I had worked for NCR in Liverpool and Preston. We very soon started to bore Bri and Lil by reminiscing about people we knew. No doubt, when he and his wife, Dorothy, do finally arrive here we will be able to have an old boys and girls reunion!
The rest of our “holiday” was a mad rush to agree site plans, select fittings, tiling, colour schemes etc. as Dennis had agreed to start building early June. The lucky thing was that planning consent for our plot had been approved the day prior to our arrival.
Dennis whizzed us round Nicosia to bathroom and tiling shops, with a meze lunch in between. We were like two kids let loose in a chocolate factory, you spend all this money on fittings that you really like and it doesn’t seem like your own money, and guess what, we had chosen way above our building allowance.
We both agreed though that this was the one opportunity of a lifetime, to build the house that was to fulfil our dream of retirement in the sun, so having selected the fittings, we now selected the swimming pool.
Fuat at “Cyprus Pools” was very helpful in explaining the different pool types and the most suitable for our site, so in the end we signed a contract for the same pool as Bri & Lil (copycats!) and we were assured that it would be ready at the same time as our house.
Somewhere in the middle of all this we managed to get a few days on the beach or around the terrace at the Hideaway. One day, whilst lying on a sunny beach, we got a call from the U.K. estate agent to say they had exchanged contracts on our house. The one major factor was that the buyers had to be in at the end of May. Did we panic? You bet your life we did. Now we had to get home, complete on the sale, arrange furniture storage, and find somewhere to live until about mid-July. Jill and Les help!!
We also needed somewhere here in T.R.N.C. until about the end of October. Again Unwins came up trumps, they found us this rented villa in Catalkoy with air.co. in the bedrooms, an essential in July and August, no swimming pool at this one, but anyone for tennis. We signed a contract for 6 months, to mid-November, so this should cover the building period.
The other advantage was that we were able to use the washing machine and leave most of our summer clothes here. Joan travel with an empty suitcase, that’s a first.
Finally we had to agree exactly, the position on the plot that the house should be built.
Joan checked her site planning very carefully and made sure that the current facilities were going to be removed. Then it was back to the U.K., start to plan and dream of retirement. I also had to part company with the Land Rover as it would have been too costly to transport and pay import duty. Besides which it also had no air conditioning.
One other thing we almost forgot. A postal address. Post does not get delivered to your door here so you need a Post Box No.. We went to Lapta village post office to ask to buy a P.O. Box, but there were non available at this time, sort of all sold out. The village postal manager said "No Problem" just have all your post sent c/o of The Post Office, Lapta and we will keep it here for you to collect. Could you just imagine that happening in U.K.
Look on the Intro tab for the correct address.
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