Chenogne, that’s the little village where we found it. You might remember that this was the first lot we looked at during our Great Weekend of Desperation. At the moment one finds something it is way too early for one to brake out the champagne and celebrate. Although we did put it in the refrigerator, we didn’t open it.

We only popped the cork after a trip to Brussels and a meeting to sign the contract and arrange the mortgage. And maybe it’s because it’s in Belgium, but everything went as smooth as.., well.., you fill that one in.

Details

So, a few details then. It’s 4100 m2, that’s about 1.013 acres for the imperial ones. It is situated pretty good on the east-west axis. The lot is 20 meters wide and 205 meters long (66 x 673 feet). The first 40 or so meters are for building the house. The rest can’t be used for building, it is strictly agricultural. Which means we have a freaking big backyard. This will be used for the vegetable garden, the chickens, bees, donkey, goats, fruit trees, compost, whatever.

Chenogne

Chenogne is a small village, maybe 40 or 50 houses. It’s ten minutes from Bastogne which is a small town, but has everything we need. It has quite a history too. Major highways are also near by and Brussels is only a 1.5 hours drive.
We’re on the edge of Chenogne, like we wanted, not in the middle of a town. There isn’t much more to tell, it’s just grassland for now, with a horse on it (we don’t get to keep it). It’s been agricultural for ever, nothing ever happens in that town (until now). We think it’s perfect, it took us 9 months to find it.

Fase 1 is complete, now for fase 2, getting a building permit, but that’s a story for another time.

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The search does continue, of course, but it is painstakingly slow and cumbersome. We search for land on the Internet, then we email for information (i.e. address) and then we travel to Belgium again to take a closer look, if we can find it. And almost all of the time the lots are not adequate. Mostly it’s a south facing issue. This is the most important factor and has to be near perfect, so no buildings, slopes or trees may block the sun, but the south will also be our main view, and we do like a nice view…

We figured that our current line of action isn’t working well enough, at least not quickly enough.

So, this weekend we are spending the whole weekend in Belgium. We leave Friday so we can have an early start on Saturday without having to travel for 3 hours before we can start. Also we keep going until it gets dark, go back to the hotel and try again on Sunday.
The area in which we want to leave is around Bastogne and that’s where we focus our attention. We’re going to drive around and look for “For Sale” signs. This may sound odd, but a lot of the land is sold without broker intervention and these lots you’ll never find on the Internet.
We’re gonna try our luck. Systematically browsing the web and playing it via the realtors obviously doesn’t work for us, so a change of tactic is prudent.

Sun Tzu said: “Security against defeat implies defensive tactics; ability to defeat the enemy means taking the offensive.”

We’re taking the offensive…

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It was a Saturday like many before, except now it was raining hard. We figured we’d beat the rain on our way south, but by the time Antwerp was reached the decision was made to head back home, it was to wet. Funny thing was that it was the second time that day we decided not to go on another quest.

After switching driver and finding our way back to the highway the choice to head south was made.., again. This time we stuck with it, and that was a good call.

As usual Laila prepared the trip by finding potentials on the Web. Feeding the information into the TomTom is as easy as pie and then we drive, in this case, for another two hours.

The first lot was messy (many, many tree stumps) and facing the wrong way (i.e. north). The surrounding area was beautiful and it did lie on a dead end road, but it just didn’t cut it.

The second and last lot, we wouldn’t visit the third, was hard to find. For some reason the brokers always give the wrong location on the map and/or the wrong address. Don’t know why, it just is…
Anyhoo.., we did find it and does look promising, I might sound a bit cautious and that’s with good reason. We do not want to get overly exited.., again.

But, it seems a nice big piece for a reasonable price, no utilities and facing south-east.

It used to hold trees and there will be some, or maybe a lot, tree trunks there. But the site has been.., ehhh.., dormant for quite some time. A lot of stuff is growing there for at least since winter. This is positive for us, ‘cause the longer a site is on the market, the stronger the need to get rid of it, we hope we can knock a bit of the price…

For now we will contact the broker, ask a few serious questions and if, or when, they have positive answers we will contact the local government and see if can actually do what ever it is that we’re gonna do…

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Turns out the land is to be cut up in several lots and our gracious realtor picked one out for us. This will not do… to many restriction and neighbours who’ll be to close. Ah well., some of the excuses to hide disappointment. Not necessarily about the land, but more the effort and time… so we move on, on to the next opportunity.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.   – Thomas Edison -

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While following the set rules and the predetermined route, between lot #2 and lot #3, we stumbled upon a “En Vendre” sign… which goes to show.., one can’t, or shouldn’t, plan everything.

With screeching tires we came to a halt. It looked promising. Because we were oriented properly all day we could tell it was facing south.., and it was on a hill.

Lotte (our architect) and Laila were out of the car first. After parking, I joined them.

It was big and it was indeed facing south, I know, I brought a compass. The view was clear, no buildings, no trees, no hills, a clear view for miles.

Just Maybe

There was a number on the sign, Laila called, the man even spoke Dutch. The land was for sale, big and affordable… the catch? So far, there isn’t one… it even takes a smudge under three hours to get there.

Lotte was already visualizing everything, Laila kept her sanity (and still does) and tries not to hope to much and I think this might just be real…

We contacted the local council (with a nice letter in French), they have to wait for the proper documents to come through in order to respond to our request. We have to wait… no choice but to wait.

So, has this story a conclusion.., sadly no. But, let’s hope that Seeking Land part IV will be the last…

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