Dubai Villa Renovation

[ronski]

Been a very hectic few days and we spent our first night in the villa yesterday. Still plenty of work on the house to complete and obviously all the moving house stuff to do. Anyway a couple of photos:

The kitchen is in the last stages with the wiring for the hob and island hood being the last things to go in:

The sparky has been busy at work and hung the light for the dining room:

Still lots more unpacking to do and the last of the things arrives from the previous house tomorrow leaving us boxes upon boxes to work through and unpack.

On the positive side the Unifi and Cat6 network is performing flawlessly and I really could not be happier.

Edit: On Saturday evening we put on a bbq for all the contractors and everyone got a small bonus which went down well:

 

[ronski]

looking very nice - enjoy

Thank you!

Looks incredible.

Love that TV, absolutely dwarfs that Besta!

It is a monster in that room - just wish I had some time to sit down and enjoy it!

Am really envious. Absolutely love it and would love to be able to build something like that.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living?

Thanks mate - it has been one hell of an experience and the moving in process is honestly a nightmare we have literally hundreds of boxes everywhere.

Work wise - I am in IT, I have been in a number of companies Sun, VMware, Citrix and now HDS.

 

[ronski]

Kitchen is 95% done - just the under cabinet lighting and a few more handles to go:

 

[ronski]

It's been a busy few weeks with a combination of work and unpacking. We are pretty much there.

The annexe is about a week or so away from completion - the tiling of the floor, kitchen and bathroom is done. Just needs an exterior paint, doors and windows have been ordered and will be here in a few days. Then it will just be the interior fit out:

Inside the main house here is the lounge still need blinds/curtains in the two front reception rooms (TV to be wall mounted - I need to find a better wall bracket the one I have looks a bit flimsy)

The formal lounge:

The kitchen - under cabinet lighting is in and looking great (will post a night shot later)

I have also been busy unpacking my "collection" from this massive pile of boxes:

to this display cabinet that is in my study (glass doors are on their way):

Feeling very happy right now!

 

[ronski]

Kitchen lighting:

Put some glass shelves up and re-arranged the collection to get everything I have into the display unit:

Finally have the garage cleaned up, the door fixed, bike hooks installed, walls painted and lights working:

 

[ronski]

Thanks guys - we are still working on a number of the rooms and the annexe had windows and doors installed today. So will post up some pics as we complete each room.

 

[ronski]

Thanks guys! Finally now starting to really feel like a home now. The outside annexe is in the last few days of completing. The windows have gone in, the bathroom installed, AC installed, lighting installed and the small kitchenette is being assembled now. I feel like it might be time for a house warming party.

 

[ronski]

Thanks mate. Have dropped you a line.

 

[ronski]

Hi Mate,

The under cabinet lighting has a separate hidden switch so can easily be deactivted (otherwise it comes on with the work surface task lighting)

Here is a pic of the kitchen without lights on:

Also a couple of other photos. Finally got the 65"TV and sonos playbar mounted on the wall in the lounge (plantation shutters for the lounge will finally arrive early July):

We have been busy in the bar area that is adjoining the kitchen - I have a pair Sonos S5's mounted in the corners and nice 55"TV behind the bar:

And also put a Sonos Play 1 (we are big fan of Sonos in this household) in the master bathroom:

But yes we are all moved in and am really enjoying living in the villa. My wife and I spend most of the time in my study (the smallest room in the house) as it cozy in there. I have a few other things I would like to do (turn the garage into a home gym, put a pool in the back yard, have the exterior re-painted, re-landscape the rest of the garden) but I think that will all have to wait till at least after the summer now.

Otherwise the house is great - the AC reconditioning is excellent and we have quiet and efficient cooling throughout the house. The wifi is just fantastic in all corners of the villa and the signal hands off really well between AP's - I am really glad that I took the time and energy to get this done.

I think the neighbours are just as happy as we are that everything is finished and they are really very friendly. In fact I have invited a number of them to the housewarming party that is happening tomorrow night - looks like we might have about 70 people turning up (my poor white walls). Should be great fun!

 

[ronski]

Ronski, just occurred we were on Gomez's stag do together

Good to see Dubai has been a good move! I'm now married to a french bird and settled in Guildford..

Hello mate! Was just looking at the photos of the Gomez's stag do the other day while tidying up after the house move - what a dashing set of young men we were then! Great to see you are also doing well!

 

[ronski]

It's been a few months living in the villa and we are very much enjoying it. It also seems that word had gotten out and we were approached by a local women's magazine (called Aquarius) if my wife and the villa could be featured in one of their regular columns. We agreed and a photographer visited about 8 weeks ago along with the journalist. The final article came out a few days ago and I thought I would share it here - really a nice outcome:

We have since had plantation shutters put in the front two rooms which helps a lot in the mornings when the sun is beaming in super heating those rooms up!

Aside from this we are starting on a couple of other smaller projects:

1. Tidy up and put a workbench in the shed
2. Conversion of the garage into a home gym (Pretty excited about this one)
3. Much much later - outdoor dining/bar/pool/landscape the garden

So much more to follow.

 

[ronski]

Have you considered home automation?

That has been a topic of discussion with me and my mates for a while and for now I am going to hang on for a bit before doing this. The other projects are taking a priority right now.

 

[ronski]

Hi ronski. Love what you have done to the house. See you have built an additional structure in your backyard. I need to do something else in my villa in Palmera. Can you guide me throught the contractor / company yhat this for you?

Sure I will drop you a PM

 

[ronski]

What's the state of the housing market at present? I visited Dubai at the end of last year and loved it. During a boat trip the host explained that with the rate of apartment, flats, high rises being built there's a very low occupancy rate he said something like 60% empty. With such ready supply presumably prices have taken a hit?

mmmm - from what I have read and observed most complete buildings are running at Occupancy rates of 85% - a quick trip to Dubai Marina or Downtown on a Thursday evening will show just how busy it is.

The overall rental and resale market is down about 15% YoY due to a whole bunch of regions including - oil price, saudi austerity measures, rise in borrowing costs, tough valuations, min 25% down for a mortgage and a whole host of other new developments being announced to name but a few.

Having said that - I did hear a report the other day that for the first time mortgages have now out stripped cash buyers for the first time in Dubai apparently a sign of a "maturing market" - the report I believe. A mature market? unlikely.

 

[ronski]

I may be in a position to move to Dubai in a 18 months or so. Was originally looking at the back end of last year but a few changes in work have delayed that. I was at the time looking at Arabian Ranches which seems quite a family friendly area. How have you found schools and traffic getting towards the Old Town? I hear commutes can be a nightmare!

The traffic around Old Town is pretty can be pretty busy whichever direction you are coming from. Having said that you would be going against the major traffic flow travelling from Ranches to Old Town.

From a schools perspective - living in the Ranches if you can get your kids in JESS then it's a breeze.

I remember seeing this a couple years ago but wow a great house! anything you wish you'd done differently?

Thanks mate. On reflection, I would have put at least two network sockets in each room and I would have also planned for external CCTV cameras and had the network punched out of the walls to the camera location so they could be powered over PPoE making installation a lot easier.

I might have also considered speakers in the ceiling in the kitchen and dining room though sonos takes of that now it would have been a cleaner looking setup.

These are only minor things - overall very happy with it. About a year ago we replaced all the glass doors on the ground floor - putting in a large door coming into the kitchen to replace the small sliding door, french doors on the study and a triple bi-fold door in the dining room leading out to the garden. These have been great and my only regret was not doing this sooner.

Here is a pic of the bi-folds:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCfX1cooOh-/?taken-by=ronski9000

 

[ronski]

I remember during my research before my holiday to Dubai last year and was seriously impressed by how low the crime figures were. I mean if the statistics were correct it was something like 80 violent crimes registered per population of 100,000 people and weapon use was almost non-existent. I know during my trip we certainly did not feel unsafe at any point regardless of what time it was and even when we ventured out of non central areas.

What have been your experiences? Are there muggings or burglaries etc?

Crime wise I honestly could not think of safer place to be. Muggings - never heard of one. Buglaries - there was an organized team hitting up some of the villa communities but were soon all apprehended (in Oman)

It does however make you a bit complacent. I left my wallet in a taxi and got it back, same is true of a couple of my friends leaving mobile phones in various places.

I won't say it's crime free - have a look at the driving...but for petty crime it is rare to see.