The rebuild continues...

With the exception of June where work on the house progressed considerably in a short space of time, generally progress has been quite slow over the last few months. If the builders had worked as much as they did in June for the past few months then it's likely everything would be on schedule to finish on time, however it's now likely there will be some delay; hopefully this will only be an extra month or so. I have adjusted my intention to spend Christmas there to now spend the beginning of Spring there, when the weather warms up and the town opens fully.

Anthony visited the house in July and discussed at length with Statev (the builder) the need to remove both columns from the kitchen area and install a concrete beam 7.5m long to support the roof structure (as the existing beam is not adequate).

Statev was reluctant to do this due to the amount of work, even though he was aware of it before tendering for the project, but agreed during Anthony's visit that this would happen. I went to visit the house in August and was really pleased to see this work had been completed. Two new concrete columns have now been added within the external walls (to replace the old columns) and the 7.5m concrete beam has been installed over them both.

The roof is now weather-tight over bedroom no.1, half of the lounge and the car port, however the middle section still needs to be built.

Anthony verified the height of the timber roof structure between the old existing roof and the new underside of the elevated roof and it gives good clearance for all the ducting for the aircon/heating unit that will distribute the air around the villa without the need for boxing in. Anthony is also going to meet a technical building inspector this month to ensure the roof has been built to the correct standards.

The windows and doors are all in place in bedroom no.1. There was little choice with the window colour (the only possible choices being on the swatch below) and as the colour green in real life is not what I envisaged from this swatch (it's much brighter!), I'm going to wait until the end of the renovation to see how the colour works with the rest of the house and repaint them if I'm still not keen.

Work on the other three bedrooms has come a long way since my last visit. The roof tiles along the edge of the house are all in place ready for the final part of the roof to be built, and everything looks much neater.

There's still a way to go with the renovation and work has stopped temporarily for August. The builders return at the beginning of September and I have planned another visit at the end of September to see how things have progressed. I'm hoping the roof will be finished by then so everything will be water-tight for the winter.

I'm excited to see work start on the interior, and also in the garden with the terrace and pool.