Monday 25 June 2007

We finally moved


Finally the process of finding and moving into a home in London has ended, it took us officially 8 weeks to achieve this but finally is all done. Letting a property here is significantly different than in Canada or in Colombia. The market conditions were not ideal, everybody wants to sell and fewer properties are available to rent. Once finally we decided on a house, the negotiation process took a long time. There is a "listing price" and you make an "offer" with different conditions, and the landlord can decide to take your offer, make a counter offer or amend the conditions. Once a "number" is agreed then the real fun starts to try to agree on a letting contract, not sure if everybody goes through the same but this was true for us, a very lengthy process. At the end the contract was signed on the moving day.

The house was built in 1936, it was built in the Elizabethan style, timber framed, black and white, vertical timbers supported by diagonal timbers. Very English in my opinion. It backs onto a golf course and has a beautiful garden on the back. I really hope that we will have some guests during our stay in this house. My favorite thing about the house is the garden (see picture).

It will take us a while to get Internet access up and running in the house, so for now I have to keep it short. But, soon we will be updating the site with some more pictures.

En Espol: Jardín con casa

Finalmente ya encontramos y alquilamos una casa en Londres, nos tomo oficialmente 8 semanas, fue difícil porque todo el mundo quiere vender y hay pocas propiedades en el mercado para rentar; y cuando te decides por una casa, entonces comienza el proceso de negociación, donde puedes hacer una “oferta” de cuanto quieres pagar mensualmente por el alquiler y cada parte pone condiciones, a través de dos agentes. Es complicado y demorado. Finalmente firmamos el contrato el mismo día que nos la entregaron.

La casa fue construida en 1936 y el estilo de la construcción que parece común de la época se llama Elizabethan, con columnas verticales y diagonales de madera, fachada blanca y negra. La parte que mas me gusta es el jardín (Foto) y da contra un campo de golf en la parte de atrás. Esperamos que nos visiten mientras estamos aquí.

Aun no tenemos conexión a Internet en la casa, así que no puedo escribir mucho pero una vez estemos conectados pondremos mas fotos. Un abrazo.

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