Now it starts
What a feeling after a long wait to finally start building. When we agreed with Danny and Joselyne from Z.Sanchez on 11 December 2023, it was supposed to take one year after the building permit was granted (at that time it was said to take 3 to max. 6 months) until we could move into the house. So we can move into the house around May 2025. Our final deadline – celebrating Christmas 2025 in our houses hould have been easy to reach.
Then we changed the plan. Our dreamlike hillside property with a magnificent sea view didn’t really fit in with our plans: one floor, a medium-sized garden with trees. Basically, our house would have been accessible without steps, but we would only have been able to look at our garden, not walk through it. However in a call with Jocelyn and Danny, both re-offered us another plot – our previous A2 choice – which was more suitable to our construction plans. So we chose this different property and gave away the first one, despite the stunning view.
And the four of us (the builders and ourselves) were in agreement. The other property was much better suited to our ideas. Wonderful – and great support by Jocelyn and Danny.
There were then the first delays with the plans and the submission of the building permit. The architect was unable to work for a few weeks for personal reasons. So the papers didn’t go to the building authorities until the beginning of May 2024.
We had a quick shake-up and updated our plan. May + 6 months approval + 12 months construction would then not be May but – worst case – October 25 in the house. Our Christmas plan was still alive.
But then came the next really annoying delay. While the authorities in this community are known for being very quick and buddies received their licence (same time as ours) after just 2 months, we waited 10 whole months. The Christmas plan was now officially dead.
That causes a lot of upset. The construction work is also a lot of organisation for us. We simply have a different living situation causing so much more consequences. When exactly do we sail, when do we have to be in the neighbourhood, where do we leave the boat? Will we get a berth? And above all, where will we live when the construction enters the final phase? Do we really want to wait any longer or are we cancelling our plans? For now, we remained brave.
Finances need to be reorganised. Lots of thoughts and conversations with each other, friends and family. And just as we were looking at a nice villa for an exit, the news came. At the last minute, so to speak. We had already announced that if we didn’t get the permit on 28 February 2024, we would pull out. Incredibly, the permit came on that very Friday.
Here we go
Now we are in good spirits, because the diggers were already on the site the following Tuesday. Great accomplishmend from Danny. And work has been going on ever since. Of course, it’s not just the excavators that are on the site, the site is being marked out, the level is being determined, excavation is taking place and decisions are being made about which trees can remain.
And people talk. It’s Gosip time at the weekends. We meet people at or sometimes on our property who give us hot tips. ‘Just make sure you keep the distance from the swimming pool to the road.’ ‘This builder is notorious for not taking levelling very seriously.’ ‘You certainly don’t have a sea view from here.’… And, and, and.
So to put it bluntly. I’d much rather have our builder on the property than the uninvited surveyors. And it takes trust upfront to realize such a project. If we didn’t have this trust, we wouldn’t have chosen to go with zSanchez. We truly hope our loyalty will be rewarded at the end.
Of course, such rumours make me nervous. But I won’t be able to say how everything went until the end. Until then, there will be UPDATES and we will of course share our experiences here.
