I have been inspired by the love of my life, my soul mate (aka SP) and my sister (aka CC), who has a great blog, to write this blog and share my experiences with you. At this moment both are quite surprised I have agreed to this as I am very anti blogs, but at this point in time I think they may be right when they say that it is the best method to share my experience with our family and friends. So let us begin on this Wednesday, April Fools Day 2010 ...............
This is the story of a journey one which so far has had highs and lows.
Almost 18 months ago, I found a house, it was a "Pink House", in every essence of the word, tucked away on 3 acres of land off the main highway in Rock Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas. It stood silent except for the breeze that rustled through the trees and the birds which hummed in the background, and at that very moment time stood still for me as I was transported back to an era I knew little of.
You see this is a Bahamian house, a house that has been empty for several if not too many years. Her most recent residents have been termites, mice and dare I say probably a few rats, all of which have left there calling cards. Now days most people would look at her and let the bulldozer do its job but for me there was something different, it was almost like I connected somehow with this house.
I had to find out more, for starters one could say I was trespassing on some ones land, but, the think you learn about being in the Bahamas is that on so many blocks of lands are houses that have been beaten to death by hurricanes and there owners have been beaten by one to many hurricanes themselves and have walked away, so to me it is an adventure when I go off the highway, down a road with pot holes that I am sure could reach if not see China, and find a pearl behind the bushes.
Like everything in life you need to find the beginning of the adventure and mine will now start with the real estate agent (aka AB). You see it turns out that the property is for sale and has been for sale for some time, the price they are requesting is way beyond my means so all I can do is dream about what I could have done to the mysterious "Pink House".
I did dig around a bit and did find out a snippet of history, which I found interesting. The house was built around 1939, in the traditional Bahamian method by traditional Bahamian builders, its architect was a gentlemen by the name of Arthur Vinning Davis, an early developer of many Eleutheran properties. Adjacent to "The Pink House" sits another of Mr Davis developments known as The Rock Sound Club, which was the home of Pan Am Airlines founder Juan Tripp. It was an era of adventures and society ladies that would fly in on Mr Tripps planes and land on his private air strip, now known as the Rock Sound airport, the ladies would idle there day away around the pool while the men would tackle the endless supply of fish that surrounds Eleuthera, all in preparation for the evenings cocktails and entertainment. It was the era of The Great Gatsby and they were living it right here at the Rock Sound Country Club and at the little "Pink House".
The adventure now comes to an end as we will be leaving in a couple of days for our own adventure around the Mediterranean , my interlude with "The Pink House" and the Gatsby era although brief, was visual and mentally exciting, as every adventure should be, it took to me somewhere I had never been and it made me want to have more adventures .......
Now you would think that, that was that, but when we get back some 6 months later the property was still on the market, unfortunately at the same price. We are now here for a short time so of course I now have to see inside the house. The date and time is arranged for the viewing, we all gather the agent ( aka AB), myself and my soul mate (aka SP). At this point he is looking at this house bemused, and he soon begins to think we are at the wrong address, but we are not, which I think adds to his surprise and bemusement, it is just that the caretaker is 1 hour late to our meeting.
When the caretaker arrives he literally pushes in the door to grant us access and from that point it is a whirl wind tour of sorts. Let me paint you picture, if I can, the animal kingdom has left calling cards in every room, the walls in the lounge and dinning area are painted a dark emerald green, in the master bedroom we have a bright yellow, in the second bedroom we have a bright blue and in the so called 3rd bedroom, not enough to swing a dead or alive cat, we have the remained of paint that was used in the master bedroom. We then move into the kitchen which is, um, well, in tune with the rest of the interior.
At this point SP turns on his heel and says "well we have seen it can we go now". Now you can't be to hard on him for wanting to leave, after all he could of gone fishing but he came with me on this day 12 months ago, and he waited 1 hour in the noon sun to view a property that well, was not what he was expecting, to be honest I was not expecting what we got either. On a positive note he did find the grounds a redeeming feature of the property, the property sits on 3 acres of land with a variety of vegetation from palm trees to citrus and mango trees. The only negative is that it is not sand we have to deal with but rock which lies beneath the ground and the grounds have not been touched in who knows how long.
I remember the ride home it was like my dream had been shattered, you see I had visions of this property being returned to its original state, my Gatsby Era, with the grounds abundant with fruit, vegetables and flowers and "The Pink House" shinning with pride at the top of the hill, a celebration and statement to the great workmanship of the old Bahamian builders. In the car sitting next to me is the person who I trust and value there opinion like nothing else in this world and he was looking at me like with wonderment, but no matter how I tried I could not do justice to the vision I had for this "The Pink House".
Over the coming months I returned several times to "The Pink House" and just sat there, it may sound crazy but you do get transported to another place, there is so much peace there, that when you come away you feel refreshed and incredibly calm, I wish I could explain it another way, but how do you explain a feeling? At first I thought it was just me but I have had several conversations with my agent (AB) on this "feeling" and she gets it when she goes to the property, as does every other woman she brings for a viewing but the men do not get it, there was one exception to this but he batted for the other side.
So off to Australia we go to begin our adventure there. For the following year we will be sailing around Australia so we will spend little time in the Bahamas. I leave with the knowledge that when I return someone will have bought "my" pink house and I will not be able to duck up to her anymore and reminisce about what could have been.
We are now 14 months into this journey and we are back in the Bahamas again, and you guessed it the house is still on the market. Now many of you at this point would have surmised that there must be a reason for this and yes you are right. In my belief it is firstly the price and then the renovations that need to be done, you see right now you really could not just move into her. Renovations, um, not a good thing in the Bahamas as it is expensive and time consuming.
Several weeks into our stay my agent (AB) gives me a call the Vendor has dropped there price. Now normally this would be silver lining, but now the world is now beginning to hurt and although I do love this property I am also very practical when it comes to my life savings. In saying this I seek council on the property with my family and SP, and as with every "intervention" they do ask the right probing questions - "Why do you want this property?", "What will you do with it?", "Will you get a return on your investment?", "This house is the setting for the remake of the movie Money Pit" How much will it cost to renovate?" "How long will the renovations take?""Why do you want to do this when you are about to build a house on the same Island?""WHY?". All great, great questions I wish my answers had been as great as there questions.
Then with these great questions and my poor answers ringing in my ears, I do what every insane romantic property person does, I made them and offer.... and they rejected my offer.... once again my dreams were squatted like a bug on the dash board. All is not lost as we now head to Oman, China, Australia and New York, I will be kept busy.
This adventure now reminds me of the movie "Ground Hogs Day" with Bill Murry, we are back again and "my" "Pink House" looks more rejected than when I first say her almost 18 months ago, the weather in the Bahamas is very harsh especially to old houses that need love.
The Island has had no rain for the last 12 months and the smell of bush fires hang in the air confronting your nostrils at every turn. We currently have 5 spot bush fires located next to the settlement at Palmeto Point and reaching up to Rock Sound. Everyone is praying and holding there breath that the winds do not change and that we get some rain soon.
There appears to be a confidence in the air here that the recession may be coming to an end but I feel that this is a false confidence, I wish things were changing but my gut tells me otherwise. Good news is that the value of my currency has increased against the USD. The bad news is that there are a lot of "visitors" on the island who want there piece of the Bahamain dream and they are looking at "The Pink House".
I am conflicted, this is a property that still draws me to it, I have had contractors through her worked through proposed budgets on paper and in my head, I have been able to answer some of the previous great questions with not so bad answers. SP and I have walked the site and drawn up housing and landscaping plans, he sees the vision and I love him dearly for this. I think when my last offer was rejected he too was disappointed.
A lot has happened since my last offer, we have bought a wonderful 1.5 acre block of land, 2 blocks down from our existing house, and SP intends to build me our house and I have tons of space to grow my garden and experiment. We will be able to continue to live in our house while our new home is being built, which is a perfect arrangement.
But, just when you think everything is perfect you can be guaranteed that something will happen to shake things up, and yes I have done that. You see I went to see "The Pink House", something I did not mention before is that on the property there is a tree that has been carbon dated to an age of 285 years. It has a sister tree that is a tourist attraction on the main highway the same age, but some 6 months ago some idiot decided to set fire to it. Fortunately a driver on his way home stopped and put out a lot of the flames but she is now a shadow of her former self. It amazed me how upset I was at such blatant destruction to a living thing that was giving beauty and pleasure to everyone. Today I sat under the sister tree at "The Pink House"and thought of all the history that had happened on this spot and decided I had to give it one more shot. I think I am trying to save a little history for the future, I am not sure but I know I have to do this.
You see you are almost at the end of my "Pink House" adventure, I have gone in with another offer, and now I wait. If the Vendor does not accept my offer then I have resided myself to the fact that I did all that I could and I am prepared to say goodbye now, never to go back to "my" "Pink House". You may think that my adventure, and this blog is silly and frivolous, but I have enjoyed every moment of this adventure, "my" "Pink House" allowed me to see the Great Gatsby era was also here on the island of Eleuthera.
As to what will happen in the following days only time will tell, but rest assured I will keep you "posted"..............
