...at first sight

The presbytery of the Sint Benedictus church in Mortsel had been abandoned for years. Once we heard there was a chance it would be sold, we knew we had to at least visit it.

The visiting period opened in February 2017. Once we saw the inside, the potential was obvious, hiding behind a lot of necessary renovation work. We visited again (and again). The task was clearly pretty enormous, but the possibilities were so tantalising, that we couldn't get it off our minds.

There were definitely much more rational house-buying options, but probably none as potentially spectacular as this one. Of course, none as potentially catastrophic, either. 

The auction was scheduled for March. As the auctioneer called for an opening bid, we looked around nervously. We waited. We looked at each other. Finally, we raised a hand. We were the only bidders. We won. We were on our way.