Well, the big moment has finally arrived. Today I signed the contract of sale, albeit in Ilze’s absence. She was in Dublin on a jaunt, and the seller was on his way to Lyon, so we had to improvise and act quickly. The trouble we European jet-set have, you just won’t believe!

The contract stipulates that the sale is dependent upon a loan from Citibank, which should hopefully be a formality. If everything goes according to plan, actual ownership of the mill will be transferred to us within a week or two.

I’ve put some champagne on ice to celebrate this big step, although it’s only cheap sparkling wine in view of this not being the actual ownership yet. Ownership will certainly call for a glass or three of the good stuff being drunk in the mill itself, probably followed by me thundering off a ladder and breaking my neck. At least, now I have something in my will worth inheriting.

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Here’s a site that’ll tell you everything you need to know about the history and technique of Dutch windmills. Now, our mill is well and truly located in Flanders, but I expect there will be many similarities.

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Today we went to see the mill. It’s a very impressive structure, 14 m high, with a small earthen hill around the base giving the impression that there lives a very fine hobbit indeed. Our friend David from Cologne came along to give a second opinion. He likes it as well.

There’s a barn on the property, a very ugly one. The ugliest part (grey cinder blocks visible on the photographs in my previous post) dates from the 1940s, while the red brick part was built in the 1950s. I would to see these torn down, as I don’t think they would ever contribute to the aesthetics of the mill. In fact, they partly obscure the view of the mill, which should be the first (impressive) thing you see as you enter the property.

Unfortunately, while there is an allowance for converting the barn into a house, no such allowance exists for the windmill. This is Belgium, paperwork takes for ever, and nothing is ever a given. According to the seller, Jan, the Flemish Parliament are close to a positive decision on allowing the rezoning of the mill from agricultural use to rural use. Once this is done, there will be nothing stopping us from applying for permission to convert the mill into a house.

Paperwork, paperwork and ever more paperwork.

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So today I get e-mail from Ilze with “Anton’s Mill” in the subject line. It’s a link to the Immoweb website, with a windmill for sale:

Molencomplex met een oppervlakte van 15 are 63. Gelegen op 7 km van Leuven stad.
Mill complex with an area of 1,563 m². Located 7 km from Leuven city centre.

Mmmm…

We had been discussing buying property for years. We had also agreed that we would like to buy something special, perhaps an old farmhouse or (my idea) an old factory. A windmill would most certainly qualify as something special.

The location was ideal as well. We currently live in Kessel-Lo, a suburb of Leuven. Neither Ilze nor I relished the idea of moving away from this general area, including the towns of Linden and Hoog-Linden. The windmill was located in Lubbeek, less than 5 km from where we live, and right where we would want to buy property.

So, nothing to do but indulge Ilze and go and have a look.

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