Bo and Dyan Go House Hunting

Bo and I decided to go looking for houses together since there was limited availability and the company has hired the same relocation agent for all of us.  We went out on a Saturday to take a look at everything available.

We are given an allowance for our rent.  Unfortunately, one of our team mates had paid a very high rent for a property.  Thurso is a small town and everyone knows everyone and their business.  It seems that most of the rental property is managed by a couple of families.  Once the news of this rent got around,  the rates started to creep up.  This coupled with the time of year meant there just wasn't much available in our allowance, which required a lot of paperwork, e-mails and pleading to revise the allowance. 

We saw a couple of places that day and the place that Bo ultimately picked for he and Leslie.  It was my favorite too, but just a little too remote for me to be on my own.  It was right on Dunnett Beach and as you can see, it was a glorious day to be looking at a beach house.  This home has 1 bathroom, and it's super cute.  The floor is made out of pebbles - like real pebbles.  Bo has confirmed these are a bit unpleasent in the morning on bare feet.

House hunting is fun as each place is completely unique - no mini mansions here.  We did see one house that was an episiode out of hoarders, and we saw a kitchen that was so tiny you couldn't even make cereal in it.  But it's a great way to see the different villages.

The following day, I went to look at a house in the village of Halkirk.  It was way out of my price range, but the house was incredible, perfectly located and with really nice people.  The house belongs to a  retired doctor, they lived in the main part of the house and had a doctor's office on the side.  They have done some fairly incredible renovation to the house and portions of it are very modern, while it still retains it's original character. 

The relocation company wrote an e-mail to the CH explaining the lack of properties, and the issues with the rent/allowance and my lease got signed this week.

If everything goes as planned, Bo will sign off on the house, set up my internet and receive my shipment from America while I am in Phoenix.  I'll come back to my own place and Maggie and Thatcher will have their own garden with a koi pond that I hope Maggie doesn't think is a super fancy Labrador recreational snack bar.