It’s now January and we’ve arrived for our update visit after a nice Christmas break and New Year. We can’t say we weren’t a little disappointed with the lack of progress but many have said to us that not a lot goes on down here from December to January. It was certainly not something that was made clear to us back in October at any rate. But we have builders here and things are progressing.
Inside the new extension, the new block work has been replaced by a nice smooth layer of plaster. Somehow when the plaster goes on it starts to feel like a proper room at last. We have to pick the door through to the bathroom, the door from the house to the bedroom and the window/doors that lead outside to the patio. Although fairly standard items we were quite shocked to find that these were not included in the original quote. Completely missed by us but worth bearing in mind if you yourselves are thinking of embarking on a project such as this. Some might consider the inclusion of a bathroom door a fairly reasonable assumption to make. Not so in this case so beware.
As can be seen from this shot here, a gap has been created in the wall up front so it is easy to walk from the house to the swimming pool. This cladding you see here is an added extra that we have chosen for cosmetic purposes as it looks so much nicer than a whitewashed wall. These are the kinds of additional expenses that tend to crop up hen you visit the property because, as building progresses, you begin to see areas where improvements can be made. Our estimation so far is that for every visit we make to the property while renovation is in progress, we add about another €3-4K to the bill. But, you only do it once so we want it done right.
Sadly on the subject of the swimming pool we now have to wait until February for the pool to be approved and for work to start. We desperately hope not to be writing in March saying this has not happened but it’s fairly par for the course. The Commune at Martina Franca made the decision at the beginning of 2020 to move whole departments around to new areas of responsibility. Hence in January they are doing no work at all while they get used to their new jobs. Which of course means we’ll have a whole new set of people who have to go through our case and get to know it before approval is finalised.
More here as it happens.