#puebloblanco

A long overdue post about our house and vacant lot purchases. It’s a book length story, and since I don’t have time for all that I’m going to give you the bullet points.

On March 11, we made an offer on a derelict patio house in a beautiful pueblo blanco called Medina Sidonia. After some back and forth with the sellers (called vendors here), we agreed on a price.

Between then and June 7, there were many many visits to our bank in Conil de la Frontera and the office of our (wonderful) attorney Juan Antonio. There was A LOT of drama with the vendors. In short, there was an embargo on the property with the tax office (like a lien) and several heirs to the property who had to be paid off in the process of selling. We were dealing with a new and inexperienced bank manager for our mortgage. The entire process was muy frustrante to say the least.

Finally on June 7, we went to the notary’s office in Medina Sidonia, along with the SIX vendors who would split up the sale price on the actual day, the bank manager, our attorney, the real estate agent, one of the vendor’s attorneys, some guy from the tax office, and various other characters who I never identified. We were there for several hours before the notary finally gathered us around a table and read out the deed to us. The bank manager had us sign a bunch of checks, which he handed out to the vendors (lots of bad blood and nasty looks flying around). The tax guy took his cut. And finally someone handed us the keys. Here we are with the vendors (the ones who like each other, that is). Francesca, the matriarch of the family and primary owner, is on my left with her hand on my shoulder, sweet.

So now we own a great big house on Calle Arrieros in Medina Sidonia. It needs a little work.

But before we get to that, Robert had to “carry me over the threshold.”