As promised, I’m providing a brief translation of the mainly Dutch information about the castle located close to the windmill.

The origins of Horst Castle can be traced to the 13th century, when its proximity to Leuven and location in the Winge valley made it of strategic importance. Travellers (and approaching armies) from Germany and Liege had to pass through this valley on their way to Mechelen and Antwerp. Part of the castle structure was built in the early 15th century, although some recently excavated parts of the structure date back to the 14th century.

The castle once probably formed an artificial island in the Winge valley, surrounded by wooden buildings and a palisade. The current structure stands as it stood in the 17th century, when Maria-Anne van den Tympel had decorative work done by J.C. Hansche, depicting various scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Hansche’s work on the castle supposedly include imagery from Gabriel Rollenhagen’s 17th century work, although I haven’t seen this yet.

After brief use as a school after the Second World War, the castle has not been occupied. A gallery of photographs of the castle can be found here.

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An interesting discovery in our new neighbourhood: Horst Castle, just up the road a mile or three. Dating back to the 13th century, the castle is currently undergoing extensive restoration. It’s a lovely big domain, with lots of space for taking walks, and there’s a tavern on the grounds. Real incentive for walking up there and having a beer!

There’s a nice summary of the restoration and facilities available on the Flemish government’s website (in Dutch):

http://www.monument.vlaanderen.be/sve/nl/monumenten/horst.htm

The University of Leuven as some more information on the archeological excavations (also in Dutch):

http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/wea/Horst/

I’ll write up a short English summary of the history of Horst Castle sometime.

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We attended our first building and renovations expo over the weekend, Kbouw in Kortrijk in Western Flanders. I saw some interesting things, but mostly just ideas I would like to explore in further detail. The only item which really caught my fancy was a gas-powered fireplace, sealed off from the room with a glass pane, with the flames spurting from amid white pebbles. Like a pyromaniac’s zen garden. A framed, animated work of art radiating heat. Yes, I can picture myself relaxing in front of that with a nice glass of whiskey…

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Fortis approved our loan this afternoon. Ilze and I are now the proud owners of a windmill, albeit one Growweblaar and Akeva do not approve of on strict principles of windmills having sails. Time to break out the good champagne.

Categories: Finances
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And still the torture continues: do we have a bank loan or don’t we? Citibank have refused the loan application, presumably because their assessor did not estimate the renovated value of the property to be commensurate with the loan amount. Which is a pity, as I’m convinced that — if properly renovated — the property will be an excellent investment. Of course, Citibank have no guarantee that the renovations will be properly done, so I understand their reservations.

Fortis have yet to give an answer. Their assessor’s report was due at 14:00 today, but there’s been a delay. We have a contractual deadline to confirm our purchase of the property by today, which we can’t do without a bank loan. Our consultant at Fortis spoke to the seller, and convinced him to give us another 48 hours, so hopefully this is a good sign that Fortis are serious about the loan.

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We’ve had a preliminary quote from Kristoffer Gielen, our architect, and the costs for renovating the barn/shed on the property (no windmill involved here) will break down as follows:

* Preparatory work and demolitions: € 2,000
* General construction work: € 30,000
* Adding a proper roof: € 24,000
* External carpentry: € 20,000
* Plumbing and heating: € 16,000
* Electrical works: € 8,000

This comes to a neat € 100,000, so we could probably shave off a euro here and there, but this will always be a high-budget project. I need to go over this in detail with the architect once the financial side is sorted out (we should get a green/red light from the banks by Tuesday). I’m not sure what “external carpentry” entails, for example. Doors and windows I can’t really see as being external. Perhaps some cockamamy request from Ilze to turn the shed into Heidi’s grandfathers hut, who knows?

As long as we’re doing a lot of things from scratch, I would also like to explore a more high-tech or innovative approach. I’m already looking into LEDs and fibre-optics for lighting, so why not extend this approach to plumbing and electricity? Like adding a stainless steel reservoir for water supply, so that we always have a stored supply and higher water pressure.

Ilze and I have also discussed the possibility of solar panels for generating an ancialliary/backup electricity supply. This is Belgium, so sunshine isn’t the most logical source for a steady supply, but by adding a battery of… erm… batteries, we could recharge them whenever there’s a spot of sunlight. However, I don’t think the budget will allow for luxuries like this. I’m also worried about the fragility of these things: when you have a two ton diesel engine in the next room, everything seems a bit fragile by comparison. But I expect to see more frequent and more severe storms in the area, and I don’t know whether the average solar panel will withstand high wind and/or severe hailstorms. More research to do, I guess.

Categories: Architecture
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Today is assessor day at the Crazy Windmill Ranch. Assessors representing both Fortis and Citibank will be visiting the property today, firstly to determine whether the amount we’re lending will be covered by the value of the property. Personally, I believe not only in the current value of the land, but in the future increased value.

A second part of the evaluation would be to determine whether the renovations we intend carrying out will sufficiently increase the value of the property. This is what I worry about most: will our megalomanic idea of living in a windmill be worth the money we want to borrow?

Update: the assessors have been. Both were optimistic about the value of the land, but it remains to be seen whether they were able to translate Ilze’s description of what we want to do with the place into actual value. We should know by Tuesday, and Wednesday is our deadline for paying up or breaking the contract.

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Ilze visited the windmill with an architect yesterday. He’ll be drawing up plans for converting the shed/barn into a loft-like living space. I should probably take a more active role in this if I’m to avoid living in too much of a Barbiefied environment. (Yes, “barbified” is a real word, the Internet says so.)

The architect apparently really liked the idea of having a go at converting the windmill itself as well. An inspired architect is a good architect, so that’s a positive sign.

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As promised, I’ve generated several images from a video I took of the mill. It was a cloudy day on and off, so some of the stills are very dark. (An alternative theory is that I captured the video with my brightness set too low and my contrast set too high, and I’m just too lazy to do it all again.)

Show me more… »

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We went to see Fortis bank this morning to discuss what they can offer us. An interest rate of 3,1%, readjusted every 5 years, payable over a period of 25 years. Now we just have to wait for their assessor’s judgement: is the property worth the buying price, and will a renovated house on the property be worth the additional amount we want to borrow for renovations? It’s a question I can’t answer in all honesty either, so we’ll have to wait and see what the experts think. We should know by late next week.

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