¡Vamos a España!

Well, we signed the contract on the flat in Barcelona yesterday. We weren't able to send the reserve payment due to security restrictions with the web and mobile app: I didn't have my one-time password card for our Spanish bank account here in Peru, so that'll wait until we return home tomorrow.

Our folks at Address.Properties and the project's architect have been vary patient and helpful as we've been ironing out the details. The floor isn't built yet, so we've changed the layout of the flat, and will be heavily customizing the kitchen (big surprise there!).

Which reminds me, I owe them some diagrams showing where we want the radiators so they don't interfere with our planned furniture layout. Something like this:

The windows on the left side look out directly over the marvelous Mercat de Sant Antoni and over the city to Montjuïc.  The ones on the right open to a meter-deep balcony looking into the interior of the block.  The stairway in the center will go to the private roof deck, and stairs and new elevator go down to the lobby. We expect the flat to be finished late Summer 2016.

Sadly, we're still working-class stiffs so can't just pick up and move to Spain. We expect we'll have to rent it out for a few years before we move permanently.  We hoping to rent it out for about a year at a time and spend a month there each year until that time. Barcelona's stopped issuing permits for short-term "tourist" rentals, in an effort to prevent tourists overrunning the city, so the minimum rental period we could offer would be a month. We'd prefer long-term renters to hen-nights and party-hardy folks anyway.