At 8AM yesterday morning Jason turned up to begin work on the bathroom floor and kitchen ceiling replacement. It always amazes me how even an honest and reputable company manages to overcharge on an insurance job. In this case the bill of nearly a thousand pounds included three days labour and I had been told that they would need to take all the bathroom furniture out so it would involve two people. Infact, the bathroom furniture has remained in situ, thank goodness, the idea of the bath spending a couple of days in the front garden wasn't a pleasant one, and Jason thinks the job is marginally over two days work.

By about nine yesterday morning I had managed to tune out of the hideous noise of echoing power tools and it had become a constant white noise that could just about be ignored. That is until I heard the gushing of water in the kitchen.
"Jason" I called up the stairs in the concerned voice of the house owner who thinks things may have got out of control, "are you aware we've got water dripping...well pouring through the kitchen light fitting and the floor is now awash with gallons."
It turns out Jason was aware. He had become aware as soon as his power tool had sliced through the pipe beneath the floor boards but was now hastily trying to fix the pipe upstairs before more water escaped. The tone of his reply contained an edge of concern that the content of his reply disguised. "Yes, no problem sir, it's probably just making its way safely out through the light fitting." Ah, the old 'direct the water along the electrics to get it safely out of harms way plan' ... "ah, absolutely Jason...cup of tea".

The noise began to take it's toll towards the end of the day though with tiredness hitting earlier than usual and my patience feels a little thin this morning. Why did Emily plant a bomb underneath her scrambled eggs instead of eating them? That surely can be the only explanation for the explosion of eggs that covers about a six feet radius of her breakfast chair. Why did she then choose to lean out of the window that had the huge tray of Hamma beads infront of it and how do Hamma beads, which after all aren't even round, manage to roll ten feet in every direction when they drop?

Alongside this is the hope that I may get out of laying the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor is not included in the insurance claim but is definitely in need of replacement before we can let the property. Jason, due to his manager's efficiency in time scheduling jobs, now has an extra day on his hands and therefore I have asked outright if for a cash bung he will use that day replacing the kitchen floor. He seems slightly reticent but has not yet said 'no'. Here's hoping that I can avoid having to botch another DIY job myself by employing the pipe slicing Jason in my stead.

I also had a visit from our Independent Financial Advisor yesterday. He's a tremendously knowledgable guy and his advice is free but always of course involves a recommendation to purchase an insurance or mortgage product that gives him a slice to keep him in his expensive looking BMW sports cars. Yesterday though I felt not at all pressured and received great advice:
- Rent the house out, don't sell it. Any drop in prices will be short term and will be made back.
- If you are going to sell the house it must be sold within three years to avoid capital gains tax (20% of the profit made) and therefore market the property after two years.
- Don't tell the mortgage company you are leaving and keep the same bank account so they don't know you're gone. If you leave they will charge you to transfer you onto a really lousy 'buy-to-let' mortgage deal that is not even close to the brilliant rate you currently have.
- Take out a landlord's buildings insurance which covers buildings and fittings and is quite cheap - probably less than £20 per month.
- Take out life insurance as all my life insurance through the Teacher's Pension Scheme will stop as soon as I leave the country. (£100k - £150k should cost less than £40 per month for both my wife and I to be insured.
- Consider taking out a UK private pension because even though we are in Spain, the tax relief is added at source so to save £1000 only costs £800. The ideal would be to see what money is left over from the UK property at the end of the year and transfer it into a private pension.

All monumentally dull but nevertheless handy to know and part of the planning process. As far as the financial advisor is concerned the home we have lived in for eight years is no longer a home but is a business asset and we must run it as such. If we can afford to keep hold of it for the long term, for which he means ten years plus, then we should do so.

Jason is, as I write, power tooling his way through the day but thankfully is still in the bathroom. I have a car full of accumulated 'might come in handy one day' items from the shed to drive to the tip and the final estate agent/letting agent visit is booked for 4PM today at which point we should have enough companies to choose from when we start marketing the property for rental.