Well,
we have got into a bit of trouble here in Turkey. We didn't mean to
do it, it just sort of happened.....
So
now we are the proud owners of a villa! Yes, we have bought a
gorgeous 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom villa with it's own pool in Ovacik, a
10 minute drive from Fethiye, up in the mountains. We were looking
through a free English language newspaper and there were some
classified ads for property and they seemed very cheap. So for a
laugh we rang an agent and asked to look at a few properties to see
what you got for your money. We started looking at apartments in
Fethiye (really cheap ones) and while they were really perfectly
fine, they were nothing special. Then the agent took us out to Ovacik
and showed us some villas, and we were really hooked. It hadn't
occurred to us we could afford anything this nice. So we started
looking in earnest and found Kedi Villa. Kedi means cat in Turkish,
and we thought we should own Sunflower villa, but Sunflower is
Ayçiçegi in Turkish which is a bit of a mouthful, so we may have to
re-think that one.
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There
is a lot of new development going on at the moment and the trend
here, as with developers everywhere, is to cram as many villas on to
one plot as possible. So there were loads to choose from but the new
places had tiny bedrooms, shared pools and no privacy. Then an agent
showed us Kedi villa which was built by an English couple in 2003
(foreigners have only been allowed to own property in Turkey since
2002) They lived in it all year around as their permanent home until
the husband died and the wife returned to the UK. It had been on the
market for about 18 months and the garden had become very overgrown
and as the house had a long term tenant (friend of the owner) it
wasn't looking it's best. It is also a bit dated looking with all the
pine cupboards in the kitchen, but otherwise in excellent condition.
The agent told us the owner was desperate to sell (music to our ears)
so we did a deal and bought it a bargain price! It is nice and
private but has buses at the top of the street to Fethiye and
Oludeniz beach (the most famous in Turkey). It has a lovely garden
with mature trees including; peach, lemon, olive, mandarin and orange
trees. We plan to rent it out as holiday lets for a few weeks in the
summer to cover running costs and will live there during winter while
we are in the Med.
No,
we're not giving up Sunflower. We will carry on cruising but at least
we will have a base in Europe. We love Turkey and the people, so
would be happy to live here one day when we're too old and doddery to
sail. So the past few weeks have been a bit manic, organising money
and opening Turkish bank accounts etc. As we are foreigners, the
military have to do a police check on us which can take up to 3
months, so that would have us settling on the property at the end of
Nov. So we plan to spend Christmas in our new home!
We
admit that poor old Sunflower has taken a back seat while all this
has been going on and to voice her displeasure she decided to cause a
problem with our water maker! She now has our full attention once
more, especially as our visitors will be arriving in a few weeks!
Luckily the spare parts for the EchoTec water maker are covered under
a 5 year warranty, and they even payed the Fedex to the UK as a friend is
coming out to his boat in this week.
Having
got that sorted we got distracted again and rented a car for 2 days
to go window shopping for furniture and second hand cars! Although
the villa comes furnished, it is not the best and not really to my
taste, so we thought we would see what was available. Some of the
lower end furniture shops were very funny as the furniture was so
hideous it was hysterical! Diamante strips along table edges and
chair backs, purple velour sofas with silver cushions and silver
metal curly bits on the sides. All very 1970's! We did manage to find
a couple of shops with reasonable lounge suites, but a wooden dining
table seems to be impossible to find, although Formica abounds!
Next
it was on to cars! We don't want to waste money hiring a car for 6
months or more each winter so have decided to buy. Cars are very
expensive in Turkey, even old ones, but they do hold their value
well. Importing a car is possible, but extremely difficult and
involves paying a bond to customs. You can only sell the car on to
another foreigner who has to be prepared to take on the bond. So it
was off to the car dealers. We had decided on a 4x4 as many of the
mountain roads are not sealed. We plan to do some exploring and also
want to go to the snow fields. A new ski resort has opened about an
hour from Fethiye, so we would like to see the snow again this
winter. (it was Newfoundland last winter) We test drove several types and are going to see another
today (Alan is picking up our rental scooter as I type!) That's going
to be fun in 36 degrees! We shall probably have heat stroke this
evening!
While
we had the car we also drove up to Marmaris, which is about 50 kms by
car or a 9 hour motor in Sunflower,assuming wind on the nose. We had
been planning to head that way before we got caught up in the villa
purchase, as it is a Mecca for boaty bits. However as a Westmarine
store has recently opened here, some of the urgency disappeared.
Still we wanted to see the place, and very disappointing it was too!
All modern buildings, even the 'old town' was just a collection of
covered walkways with 100's of tourist tat shops! Tourists seemed to
be a mixture of Russian, German and English and prices were much
higher than we are used to here. We stopped for coffee, and a Turkish
coffee was 4 lire, here it's 1.5 lire or free with a meal. While we
are only talking a dollar or 2 it is still a big price hike on a low
cost item! We left the town centre and headed for the famous
chandlery alley where all the boat shops are. There was certainly a
good selection and plenty of workshops making everything from wooden
items to canvas and stainless steel. Looks like we may have to go
there after all next season if we want anything made for Sunflower.
For now we will settle for fixing the water maker and getting her
into her winter berth in Finike and worry about everything else next
spring.
We
are still finalising our Turkish bank account and hope to have debit
cards and internet banking sorted today, then it will be back out
into the bay for a week to carry on with getting ready for guests. I
have made all new cushion covers for the salon with fabric I bought
in Newfoundland! But there's still lots to sort out. It has turned a
bit cooler (33 is cooler than 41!) and we have become acclimatised,
but it's still nice to be able to hop in for a dip in lovely clear
water! Then we'll be back in a week to collect our guests!
