The procedure of purchase

Previously, I said I'd go through what happened with the purchase of the house. It was quite a while ago now, so the memory is a little rusty - I'll do what I can if you can stay with me.

We had already sent a deposit to the agent via the bank, which arrived safely. When our remortgage money came through, we had to wire the balance over in the same way and this happened about a week before we were about to leave. There was some frantic communication between the agent and myself as it seemed the money had gone missing! Eek! I reconfirmed the IBAN and SWIFT numbers we had sent them to, and the agent investigated his end. Disaster...there was a number wrong. It turned out the money was sitting in a 'holding' account with our bank as it had nowehere to go (thanks for letting me know Lloyds TSB :/). We managed to get it sorted with a promise from the bank that it would be sent that very day. Phew. Crisis averted.

After spending the usual wonderful first weekend with our friends in Uusimaa, and loaded the car up with Ikea essentials; we were really excited to take the drive to Mikelli to meet the agent and sign the paperwork. Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by the agent, with a handshake and a hug! So much for 'cold' Finns! He provided us with coffee and said we were waiting for the sellers and the local notary. I tried not to look puzzled....the sellers were coming? This would be interesting.....

The farmer and his wife (ee-i-addi-o) arrived and we shook hands. Neither spoke any English (and nor should they) as the agent made the introductions. There was much nodding and smiling so much my teeth dried up. Then the notary arrived. It was explained that this was the person who would handle all the legalities of the paperwork; overseeing our signatures, checking ID on both sides - passports for us and ID cards for the sellers. The agents quickly translated the paperwork and everything was soon completed with payment to the notary being made also. The notary appeared a bit fierce to begin with, until after the deal was made; and then he warmed up a little, asking us whereabouts in the UK we came from and what that area was like. After he left, the agent informed us that the notary was somewhat fascinated with England - maybe he was a little wary of us instead!

Our agent (oh, I'm going to use his name now - Arto) accompanied us to the electricity company to help us set things up for billing, and took Dom to the land registry department where he was given a map of our fishing rights in the area - we have loads! Dom told me that Arto seemed to have a lot of swing in the area, virtually commanding the registry office to hand over the map to Dom! It transpired that he is also the pastor of the church in Mikelli. An estate agent with a religious belief! No wonder he was so wonderfully helpful We certainly could not have had such a smooth process if it hadn't been for him. After that, we each got into our cars and he offered to lead the way to the house. I had the sat nav, so said I'd be alright and off we went.

I still remember that feeling as we drove up to our new 'holiday' abode. It was a LOT bigger than I'd anticipated. I swore and turned to Dom saying, 'What have we done?' Arto unlocked the door and ushered us in, giving us a guided tour and showing us how things worked, before shooting off and leaving us alone.

You can see from the picture, left, how huge the house looked next to our little hire car! I spent the first week constructing furniture and arranging everything to my satisfaction. We did get a chap in to put our television ariel up - again through Arto, as the chap spoke no English!

Please don't think that we expect everyone to talk to us in our native tongue - it's just our Finnish is extremely poor and the call for Finnish language lessons in deepest, darkest Devon is not a large one, as you might imagine. Most of the time we do quite well with the odd Finnish word and plenty of mime.

But as you can gather, no waiting six weeks for solicitors to 'do their stuff', just a plain and straightforward transaction. Just like that (as Tommy Cooper used to say). I can only speak from our own experience. Also, I have heard that valuing over there is different too. I understand that it's not estate agents who value the property, people ask what they need for their houses. Sounds cool to me.

What shall I write about next? Maybe show you the area which we are attached to? Yes, that sounds like a plan, Stan.

In the beginning....

...which is the opening line of a very fine Slits song. However, I get asked loads by both UK and Finnish people WHY we decided to buy a summer place in Finland. It's a long story. Have you got time?

I got together with my SO (significant other) about six years ago. He's a tad younger than me *coughs13yearscoughs*. He went to university in Brighton, and while there shared a house with an English bloke and, by accident, a Finnish bird. These friends got together and are happily still together awaiting their second child. Aaaaanyway, in a bizarre twist of fate, Dom came away from uni with his friends wooden egg cup that he had made at school. I 'egged' him on (see what I did there?) to send it back and Dom got in contact with his old friends. They invited us to go and visit them 4 or 5 years ago and off we went.

We fell in love with Finland, although not immediately. We initially started in Helsinki, which I found rather drab and industrial. Building projects appeared to have been abandoned, there were lots of blocks of flats. At first glance it appeared to be another city. They showed us around and we gradually warmed to the beauty of Helsinki; the Russian Orthodox church, the older buildings of the city which were grand and splendid. And then they took us to their 'summer' cottage....

For me, that's when it clicked. When it felt like I had 'come home'. The houses we passed on our way to the cottage were beautiful, different colours bright against a lush green backdrop. There was no uniformity to the houses. All individual shapes, characters and sizes. And the most important thing of all, space. Just walking alone back to their place through the woods and seeing a woodpecker watching me, flitting from tree to tree, just out of reach. The quietness, the beauty and sense of tranquility struck me hard.

We had a great time, messing about on the lakes, sauna, great food and total relaxation. When we returned to England, I felt a loss that I couldn't explain. I got itchy feet. I wanted to move from the place we currently reside in. I hunted the internet, I saw a mortgage advisor and became depressed again. We were priced out of our own country. Don't get me wrong; the place where we live will 'do'. But we have no garden and most of the properties around us are rented out. I started to wonder and think more about Finland. Could we?

Obviously, with no grasp of the language and no particular skills to speak of, an outright move was out of the question. I asked our friend for property websites to look at and found out how much we could remortgage our property for to raise funds.

This was one of the most frustrating times. I found Finnish estate agents nowhere near as aggressive as our own. Every time I saw something I liked and contacted the agents, they took so long to reply, the property was sold. And that was if they bothered to get back to me at all. We lost so many opportunities and people were advising us to wait and look when we returned the following year.

I happened to pop home one lunchtime and was casually browsing through the property sites again and my heart leaped as I saw the pictures of what finally became ours. We were having to look further out from Southern Finland as we couldn't afford those prices. Instead of waiting or e-mailing, I telephoned the agent after sending a text to Dom telling him to get home quickly if he could. Luckily, the agent (who has since become a good friend) spoke excellent English and told us more about the property. As we couldn't get out there, he volunteered to go and take some more pictures to send us. Dom came home and I excitedly showed him the pictures. We agreed. We didn't want to lose it. It was not a cottage, but an old farmhouse. I telephoned the agent again and we put in an offer below the asking price. By the time I returned home, the agent had e-mailed me to tell me our offer had been accepted!

So, did I answer the question? We chose Finland because I feel, for me, it's the right place to be. I miss and think about it every day when we are in the UK and feel truly unsettled when we're not there. Maybe there's something deep in my heritage that links me to the country; I just don't know. All I can say is when we're there, I refer to is as 'home'.

In the next week or so, I'll write about the actual process of purchasing a property there.