It just took a moment
After what seemed like forever our Spain trip was finally approaching, with new travel regulations due to COVID we were holding our breath we could still go. We downloaded the Spain travel app, had our fully vaccinated, boosted card and two rapid negative COVID tests later, we were on our way. A few weeks before our trip we coordinated with Lucas Fox to schedule a few home viewings throughout Galicia while we were there.
Spitting in a tube for a PCR test in a parking lot of a former restaurant. #pandemiclife
We had some criteria, we didn’t want to live in a city, we wanted more land to garden, less noise and less population. With over 2.8 million people living in the Denver metro area in 2022, us both working in the service industry, we were looking for a change.
When we first arrived in Madrid, we quickly remembered how traveling in Europe has always been thrilling. The architecture, the diversity of people, different languages, landscape, culture, and the food. Even after traveling for around 11 hours with no sleep, we had the excitement like a child on Christmas Day! Eager to explore, people watch, check out the architecture, and eat!
Traveling for us reignites the sense of wonder, and imagination, that gets dimmed from the days of adulting & endless responsibilities. In Madrid we stayed in an area called Lavapiés, not pronounced lava pies btw.
It’s a multicultural area that has every type of cuisine, art, music, markets, and it didn’t disappoint. We stayed in a quaint AirBNB, with a great street view. You can sit on the balcón with a book and watch people stroll by.
We were only in Madrid for 2 days, we walked around for 12 hours, taking in everything we could. It’s a wonderful area, and we’re looking forward to returning on a visit in the near future.
We were off to Santiago de Compostela, where we booked the most beautiful AirBNB we have ever stayed in. We rented a car and checked out the town of Santiago before going to our BNB.
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of northwest Spain’s Galicia region. It’s known for the camino pilgrimage and the alleged burial site of the apostle St. James. I’m not a religious person, but I highly recommend visiting. I am so thankful we waited in line to check out the inside of the cathedral and to take the tour on the roof to check out the Spanish rooftops and the breathtaking views.
Santiago is an old medieval town, dating back to around 1075. It was refreshing to see rainbows painted on the streets, to also be queer friendly.
The live music played in the walkways echoed through the area and it was such a charming and romantic village. I really fell in love with that area, we returned multiple times throughout our stay there.
When we arrived at our AirBNB “Casa do Cebro” we were shocked to see the amount of space we rented, 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths for such a reasonable price at $151 a night! The owner Maria Jose, and her son greeted us at the front. They made us a danish, provided wine, cheese and you know the necessities to make our stay more pleasant.
They did an amazing job renovating an old barn which is where we stayed, it also had a pool, and a jacuzzi that overlooked the valley. The soft fragrance of eucalyptus, and the country views were breathtaking. We both really fell in love with the landscape, the pace of life, and each other. We were very excited to continue to explore Galicia, and to see the listings. I couldn’t believe this is where we were staying to celebrate my 40th birthday, definitely a life changing celebration I will never forget. On my birthday the owner gave me a bracelet as a gift, and we headed off to check out a listing our realtor gave us to view on our own before meeting with him the following day.
The first house we checked out was in Santiago along a camino. There were people with walking sticks, constantly walking by and waving. The owners of the property were so nice, they gave us kiwis growing from their pergola, and chestnuts that covered their grounds.
Although I don’t speak Spanish yet, and Kyle only speaks a little, the people in Spain are very delightful. Kindness is a universal and forgotten language we can all learn how to speak.
It was great to check out our first house viewing, it was a cool home, big yard, but out of budget, and didn’t quite do it for us. The second day we met up with our realtor, it was great to finally put a face to the name all these months.
There were three homes throughout the area we were viewing, they all had a bigger yard in the countryside. The first house we thought it could be really perfect for us when we saw it online. We were happy to see it in person, not only was it very small it was hot, a louder area with chickens, roosters, sheep and lots of car noise since it was right off the highway. Hydrangeas were everywhere, that’s the state flower and it grows to the size of a basketball.
The second home was located in the wine country with a winery on the same block. The house was used as a former airbnb an old stone barn that had been renovated. It had a larger garden, not that much privacy and the space indoors wasn’t efficient for our lifestyle.
I really had my heart set on the last one, which is the one we decided on. When we pulled up the street was narrow with tall stone walls on either side. The property had potential to be a perfect Spanish style villa, with beautiful views, and different areas to view the garden. Walking through the archway as we approached the main house reminded me of what I really love about our current Denver home.
Photos of our garden in Denver
The former resident was an antique dealer and an avid collector, there was so much to look at it was overwhelming to envision ourselves there. Just the two of us, what are we going to do with all this land and all these properties! With a main house, laundry house, sitting areas, a large military style dome with table tennis, a chicken coop, compost room, outdoor kitchen, soaking pool, apartment, a ruin and so many fruit trees! The amount of fruit trees on our land changes depending on which one of us you ask. (Kyle thinks we have like 30 or 40!)
There were 2 friendly cats, a dog and a lonely chicken. When I walked down the hill from the chestnut tree, I was blown away by the views of the Portuguese mountains. I really felt this could be our place.
We left feeling unsure of what to do if it was possible or if we were totally in over our heads. The street the house is on is incredibly tight and scary to drive down and that seemed to really stick with us. Is this going to get on our nerves? Will we get used to this? Is it too much space for us? What are we going to do with all those fruit trees?
We just kept thinking we’re moving to retire, what a fantastic opportunity to have these properties to fix it up and do an AirBNB if we wanted, juice, have farm to table meals. We could have all the areas we’ve dreamt of, plus there's an abandoned ruin on the property, how cool is that!
We hung out in Vigo for a bit, and went back on our own the next day to check out the area, and see if we could drive down this nutty narrow street. We took pictures standing by the wall, and looked through the gate. I saved the images as a screensaver on my phone to try and manifest as reality when we got back to Denver.
Everything we’ve accomplished from opening the salon, getting on Project Runway, the coffee shop, our now Spain property, saving a picture and really visualizing that it’s yours seems to help with manifesting what you want. Maybe it becomes front of mind, and it motivates you to take action.
We couldn’t stop thinking about the house, how wonderful it would be and all the possibilities, if we could get it in our budget we could make it work. We left Santiago, and headed for Zaragoza, then our last part of our trip to Barcelona.
View from our Terrace in Zaragoza
Our realtor informed us his attorney would be in Barcelona while we were out there if we wanted to give him the power of attorney. To purchase a property in Spain you need to have a bank account there and an NIE number. If you sign a power of attorney they can do all of that for you on your behalf. It was a really hard decision to give someone we don’t know power of attorney, if we chose not to we could lose the opportunity to purchase that property. We would have to come back out to Spain, open a bank account, get an NIE number, be there to make an offer, sign all the paperwork and go to closing. Although we were uncertain, this entire journey has been about embracing the uncertainty. As long as we are doing our homework, being smart about it, we have to learn to put trust in others, to trust the process, and that’s just what we did.
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