The best things in life are free
But you can keep them for the birds and bees
Now give me money

Today we signed a second mortgage agreement on the property. What was supposed to have been a simple short term loan to cover invoices by the current contractors (excellent Polish builders) turned into a full mortgage application. Instead of the week or two we assumed the process would take, it’s been two months with at least another two weeks to go.

Hopefully the Poles can resume building by the middle of September, and if all goes well we might (might!) just be able to move in before Christmas. But as this is Belgium, optimism usually goes unrewarded…

Categories: Finances
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This past Saturday we had a meeting with the architect and our (former) builder. Not in a very friendly mood, our brick-stacking friend, but perhaps he was intimidated by the team of Polish builders on site now finishing his work at lightning speed. The long and short of it was that he doesn’t have the money to pay us back the full sum he owes us (being about €30,000). However, he is more than willing to pay the money back in instalments of €5,000 per month, over six months.

I can fully understand anyone not having €30,000 cash lying around, but if you don’t have access to that kind of cash I don’t see how you’ll be able to spare €5,000 per month. That’s a lot of money to have left after paying for rent and vittles. The first payment is due on 1 August, and I’m quite anxious to see if it materialises. I have a sneaking suspicion the builder’s enthusiasm for this scheme is merely a way of buying time.

Meanwhile, we need this money to pay the Polish builders. Their bills run at around €5,000 per week, so we’ll need to get the bank mobilised as soon as possible.

Categories: Construction, Finances
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So where are we? Somewhere up Shit Creek and arguing about who lost the paddle, basically. Our builder has, apparently, run out of funds, a sizable portion of which fleet-footed funds having been intended to finish this phase of our construction work.

So we have walls, which nearly reach the empty space where the roof should have been by now, and an impressive collection of rubble and bric-a-brac. We have a replacement builder lined up, but of course he would like to get paid as well.

The architect estimates the value of the outstanding construction work at around €30,000. Somehow, we have to find a way of transferring funds from builder 1 (who does not have them) to builder 2 (who would very much like to have them).

We have a meeting with builder 1 and the architect this coming Saturday, and we’ll see what can be sorted out. I don’t have high hopes, but presumably one of these options will be the outcome:

1. Builder 1 finds a way to repay us the full amount of the outstanding construction work.
2. Builder 1 and builder 2 agree upon payments directly between them in installments.
3. We instruct our lawyer to swoop in and try to squeeze the full amount from builder 1.
4. I bean builder 1 with the first handy bit of rubble I can lay my hands on, and hide the body in the windmill.

Of all the options, number 4 appears least likely to get us our money back, but should be the most satisfying of all by far.

Categories: Construction, Finances
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A bad storm on the night of 29 February caused some serious damage to the house. An original roof truss (due to be replaced) blew down, in the process knocking over a section of the front wall (not due to be replaced). Luckily the wall fell outwards, without damaging anything else.

This underscores an argument we had with the town planning people in Leuven when we applied for a building permit. The sensible thing to do would have been to knock down the existing walls and build from scratch. Not only would this have been less expensive, but it would have resolved the doubts everyone on our side had about the strength of the walls.

Let’s be clear about the walls: this wasn’t Hadrian’s Wall, or the Great Wall of China. These were walls built to keep “inside” from being “outside”, and possibly hold up the roof at the same time. These were functional walls, never intended to do more than they were built for. They weren’t built to keep out the damp, or the cold. They weren’t built to last a hundred years. They were simply built and added to over the last 80 years or so to encase an animal feed mill. So when someone intends turning this feed mill into a house, the walls shouldn’t have to be part of it.

To this day, I still don’t understand the rationale of the town planning people’s decision to make us retain the original structure. There’s no point. If the building was of potential historical interest or value (which it isn’t), we’re messing it up anyway, even if we don’t change the outside skeleton. If the building was even just slightly aesthetic or important to the local architectural landscape, I would understand. But it isn’t, and the local architectural landscape can only be diplomatically described as eclectic. Even if the building tied in to the windmill in any way, I would understand keeping a matching set, but the building was designed in a very functional way to mill animal feed. It has nothing to do with the windmill, and only served as a carbuncle on the landscape.

So today, due to the inscrutable wisdom of the town planning department in Leuven, we have walls that might or might not fall over in a storm. At least now we have one section of wall less to worry about, as we rebuild it using proper bricks and cement.

A large wooden hopper/sorter we hoped to have in our living room was also badly damaged, as the wind blew it hard enough to break both front legs. The original can be seen here on Flickr, and this is what it looked like after the storm:

More photographs, as always, on Flickr.

Categories: Construction, Photographs
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Some exposed wood in the windmill.

Categories: Photographs
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It’s taken some time, but actual construction has started. These are some photographs of the state of the site before the actual building work started.

Categories: Construction, Photographs
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Construction continues, in its way. Most of the demolition work has been completed, and a crane has deposited the lovely old Ruston & Hornsby diesel engine, a wooden feed sorter, several millstones and some assorted bits of industrial debris in the garden. This is where my pond / Ilze’s swimming pool will be, so until there is a clear winner we’ll pretend it’s a modern art exhibition.

Categories: Construction, Photographs
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There are a dirty great pile of old feed bags lying around in the windmill, most of which have now been classified “rubble”. I am allowed to hoard “collectibles”, but “rubble” is to be consigned to the appropriate bins provided by the building contractor. If I had my way, nearly every little screw and half brick will be reclassified as a collectible and consigned to my growing collection of junk, but Ilze is keeping a tight rein on the definitions.

Categories: General, Photographs
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Demolitions have just started, so there isn’t much to see yet. Apart from the obvious great big ruin which is supposed to be our house, but let’s just leave this elephant and never, ever speak of him again.

This should be a bedroom one day, with a lovely large skylight looking out on the green fields of Flanders:

This is my bedroom. Will be my bedroom. Unless the wall falls down, in which case my bedroom will be a nasty cardboard box under a nearby overpass:

Another view from what should one day be our bedroom window:

More photographs as always on my Flickr set.

Categories: Construction, Photographs
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Regional television station Robnet reports that Lubbeek and four surrounding villages have an unemployment rate of merely 3%. That, according to the Robnet news report, means that everyone able to work is, in fact, working. Figures just released by the Belgian Department of Economy (or FPS Economy, SMEs, Independent Professions and Energy, if you want to be verbose about it) also lists Lubbeek at number 6 on a list of Belgian towns with the highest average fiscal income per resident for the tax year 2004. The average income per resident was €17,964 per year, a decent increase on €16,681 for the tax year 2003. Lubbeek clearly has enormous potential for the future, with a stable and affluent populace to grow on.

Categories: Lubbeek
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