After a stressful day waiting for a phone call from Vaux-sur-Sûre I got the lovely and helpful Sandra on the line.

She said.., and I quote.., “I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you”.

“It” being the order to remove our temporary home before Christmas. The local council has gotten together again discussing it and they will not take any action, nor will they give any order regarding our situation.
And.., although we’ve had a confirmation that what we did is illegal.., as soon as we have the permit it isn’t. Even if Arlon would decide to take any action it would take such an amount of time that it will be in vain.

So.., we’re good then I hear you ask.., and the answer is yes.., we are. Now all we need is that bloody permit.

Yes.., it is true.., we are almost there. And by “there” I mean we almost have our building permit.

Of course, this has not gone and still is not going without as smooth as we hoped.

Illegal

When we first talked with the local government we asked whether we could put up a temporary home.., we could. We do not need a permit to put a temporary home.
What was neglected to be said, or what I didn’t understand or what was simply lost in translation is that no, you do not need a permit for the temporary home, but you do need a building permit.

So we enter our request for a building permit and than we put up the temporary home. We did this with the best intentions.., we want to learn the language, integrate in the community, find local suppliers and contractors. And most of all, it really is a temporary home, we fully intend to remove as soon as possible (although that might be a few years).

Trouble

The first real bump came with a phone call from our Belgian architect.., the local government was not pleased with us putting up a temp. home before we had the permit.., this came, needles to say as a huge and shocking surprise to us and we were hurled into a bureaucratic nightmare we so desperately tried to avoid.

After some talk back and forth it was decided that our mistake and intentions were genuine. The temp. home could stay, we were relieved.

Double Trouble

Imagine our surprise when we received a [official] notification from the province (one authority higher than the local government) that our temp. home was illegal and consequences would follow.

And.., low and behold.., on 25th September the police visited us and handed over an order to remove the temp. home within 3 months.

So okay, by now we know the temp. home is illegal.., we get that.., but we believe we have a fair point in putting it up, and it is there, and we are applying for a permit.., so.., what is it? Why so hard on us?
Well.., it turns out we did it too well.., we put up too nice of a little house.., it just looks too permanent.

So it’s not the fact that we put something there.., the problem is we did it too well.

And sure it does.., we intend to be comfortable in it for quite a while.., but it doesn’t mean it will stay there.

Pleading

Laila went over to Vaux-sur-Sûre to pick up a sign we had to put on our property, a sign that explains what we want to build and ask if anybody objects.
While there.., she might as well have a talk about our predicament. After some sobbing and being sad they agreed on making a phone call to the person who gave the order to have our little house removed.
Turns out he’s not a total bureaucrat after all and sees where we’re coming from.., he agreed to take it up with his boss and see if they could drop the “charges”.

Legal

The local government is done with the permit, they build a beautiful dossier (we hope) and they are about to send it to Arlon, the capital of our province. There somebody has to sign off on it. They have to do this within 35 days of receiving it. As of this writing we still have no confirmation that it is actually send nor do we have confirmation on our stay of execution.

Point is.., when the permit is given.., the temp. home is no longer illegal. So we’re kinda fixed on getting it before 25th December (that is our deadline). And we should get it before x-mas.

So we hope, and wait and try to get information and confirmation, but it’s getting down to the wire…

Last Thursday we visited the local government in Vaux-sur-Sure. These are the people we have to convince that we have a good idea . We were a bit nervous about the whole thing, it was our first talk and everything hung in the balance, they could say no to pretty much every idea we had.., they didn’t.

Shed

The main thing we wanted to ask was, if we can build a shed before we build the house. Normally this is not done, but because we’re such nice people we can. Condition is that we put the shed into the final drawing, we will.
The only thing is, we have to build within the building zone, we wanted to build it in the agricultural zone, but hey, who’s complaining. 

So, for now it seems that the shed build for August is still on!

Design

Lotte’s design of the house is also on par. There should not be a problem. Just a few minor alterations, but mostly, the design stands.
The alternative materials, extra windows for sunlight and solar panels are not a problem, either. Just as long as the house fits in the neighborhood and is finished within 2 years.

Windmill

This is the only thing we have to drop. We cannot build a windmill (or turbine) in the agricultural zone. The highest, and clearest, part of the land is in the middle. But, we can only build in the building zone and a 6 meter high windmill may not have a building within a radius of 6 meters… on top of that, the turbulence of the building would render the windmill practically useless.

Good Start

We are very relieved that the first talks (which were in English by the way, not French), went so well. Nice and helpful people.
We still have a green light on the project. Now, for building the shed, our second challenge (finding the land being the first).

A very modest Woohoo is in order. We found a piece of land which matches pretty much all of our criteria.
In a way it’s liberating. It’s also stressful, exciting and stimulating, pretty much like a rollercoaster.

Chenogne was our first stop last Saturday. After finding the lot (only 10 minutes from Bastogne) we joked about the fact that the first was the best one, it turned out to be the only one, and we didn’t look any further. This lot fits the bill.

 Now, I can write down all the details, but I’m not gonna… There are quite a few obstacles with which we have to deal before we can celebrate. The local government has to answer a few questions, the bank has to give a loan and then we actually have to buy it.
Until the contract is signed, we stay focussed and keep our heads out of the clouds.

Our architect is happy, and that’s one for the home team.

Update:

We made an offer on the land!

Update #2:

We made a final offer on the land! Lets hope it sticks…

Update #3:

Our offer has been accepted. Now to make everything official, almost there!