Just to recap, I left work 6 years ago, moved here over 5 years ago, experienced the Great Departure (GD) 4 years ago and since then, The Plan has been under review and modification!

The Plan was to move to a Rock in the Caribbean, with a wife, and to spend my declining years with adequate funds, make local friends and host those friends, mainly still working (poor buggers) on their holidays.  Obviously loss of wife, being both careless and expensive led to a revision of The Plan.  Until it was all settled, there were doubts on the accommodation front of where I would live and my ability to host friends.

However, that was all sorted and I ended up with my share being a 4 bedroomed house and a 1 bedroomed apartment with pool, all on a lovely big plot totalling 2100 m².  So life was good but exhausting, as being an old banker with a reduced income stream, I couldn’t really afford a regular gardener.  Yet I was still young, just in my Sixties, but thoughtful of the years ahead.

So too much work, not enough cash!  I could always try to earn money, looking in the mirror led to discounting being a male gigolo, researching the local press which are in foreign languages (Dutch and Papiamento) didn’t lead very far.  So logically, reduce the work!  Also, quite honestly, I was done with work after 40 years!

The Plan was revised to make it more cunning!  So I put my house on the market! Sell the house, thereby dividing the garden by around 50%, move into the Apartment and build a small house next to it.  So the current situation of 5 bedrooms would be reduced to 3.

And WOW!  The Plan is working!  I have buyers who have signed a purchase agreement, but not yet notarised.  But that is just a hop, skip and a jump away!

Plans are brilliant at the top level until you refine them down to the details.  Then all the bloody work starts!

So selling a house:  got to transfer all the utilities or cut them off, empty/pack the contents, store them somewhere, some legal stuff, household insurance etc.  All pretty manageable, even including the fact that the EX is listed on all the utility bills as the owner although I pay them.  So production of Divorce Papers and Legal Transfer documents will be carried around for a while until I convince the Utilities that I have been paying, I want to cancel and no, She won’t pay!

Most of this stuff, you will have experienced!  But then I remembered, I have to design and build a house.  The house that I need and want to live in!  So I spent ages with some thoughts but not really going very far with them.  Here, being single, at least in my case, could have been a problem.  Having been a serial married person, I was always able to discuss such matters with a partner, who was almost always around.

However, Lady Love has shone brightly on me!   My GF/Partner/Other Half used to own a construction company, has built several houses and is more than willing to give her sensible views on my silly ideas.  So many evenings have been spent trying to interpret upside down design documents on scraps of paper or fag packets.  But this has been very worthwhile, as I recently sent my design drawings, compiled on a simple Mac CAD program, to my Architect.  He received them quite positively.

I have been a little busy on the peripherals as well.  I cannot really start much as my capital is locked in the house, so I have little extra.  But I need to build a dividing wall between the plots, thankfully co-funded with new buyers and will convert the Apartment to Solar, including the Swimming Pool and its pump.  The Solar installation will be expendable to take over the demands of the house once built.  So despite my advancing years, I am still thinking and thinking ahead.

My most immediate need is storage.  As I tidy up the house, opening drawers seldom visited since The GD, I find my pile of belongings destined to the Animal Shelter growing and boxes requiring storage being occasional.  However, the Storeroom of the Apartment is cleared out, extra shelving installed and my 4 leather jackets (For use in Northern climes) all cleaned of the mould they had gathered over the last 4 years.

On Friday, the BIG Store arrives!  A 20 foot shipping container, bought locally will be transferred to my Apartment Plot.  I understand it has a couple of leaks which will need to be fibreglass patched and then also the interior may benefit of an upgrade to ensure that moisture does not get at the lower contents. So I can see a few days of being hot and sweaty in a metal box coming up!

Once that is done, spare furniture that is not needed for my guests in Nov/Dec/January can migrate to the container.  The Project Mission Statement reads “To effectively migrate from the House, building a New House, utilising as many existing resources in a cost effective, timely and personal low stress manner“.  So the more I front load and move the odd box/bed side table in the coming days, the less will part of the Big Move.

Oh, just as background, this is all still based on my uncertainty of being a resident on the Rock.  The requirement is to live more than 5 years as a temporary resident, completing all forms on time, not breaking laws (√), then in your 6th year applying to become permanent (just heard today that 6th year is granted – so gotta fill more forms).  The risk remains that I do not secure permanent residency and I could be mid way in a building project with all my money tied up.  However, I hope to secure permanency before I break ground next year in February.

 

Hello!!!  Just checking I haven’t bored you to death.

So my Millstone has been my share of the divorce.  Without it, I would have been buggered; with it, I could struggle for the future.  It’s a lovely house and I will be sad to leave.  But upkeep and maintenance for the future are a worry.

I think that is the only Millstone.

My Milestones:  here I think I may have many, but I write as I think so my thoughts are not at a conclusion.

1. I guess my GF has to take top slot!  Not just for her building advice and constructive advice but making life so good!  It’s just over 3 years we have been dating and despite being a grumpy old bugger, she sticks with me.  So wonderful to be able to ask her opinion, which is mostly in line with mine.
2. The Plan seems to be coming to a reality!  The house is nearly sold and so many things are coming together.  It could work!
3. This is really part of the above but my positive and realistic aims in life have replaced the depression of some 4 years ago. For those who read my old blogs, My Voices have been relegated to an advisory role.  I still have concerns but less doubt in life.  How could I have a Plan if I did not believe!
4. My residency continues on this beautiful Rock. I was walking Sara The Dog this morning on the top of a nearby hill, Seru Largu which has beautiful views to the South, and I thought how lush and green it is after the recent rains.
5. I think My Life is Good!

 

Should I add Brexit as a Millstone as it does drag me down but will have little effect on my future?