Thanks Keith. Now the hard work begins getting builders and tradesmen to commit to schedules and prices! But generally we have found that outside Vienna people have more time for us. A lot of professionals (interior designers, architects etc) will give their time largely free of charge in the hope that they will get the contract. At least the preliminary meeting is free (and can be several hours). This would be unheard of in UK!
It has been difficult to find a small town or village which is still alive and has facilities like restaurants, supermarkets, doctors, dentists and hotels. We also wanted somewhere out of the Vienna basin (and the fog) but not in the mountains so the Rosaliengebirge is a good compromise. I have trouble enough with German so I also did not want to face learning Croatian, so we tended to avoid the Burgenland Croatian settlements. The Magyar communities seem to have always been German speaking – hence Deutsch Westungarn.
We look forward to becoming Burgenländer in the first year of its new century!