Spain House Build - Building Started
- Thread starter Martynt74
- Start date
Yeah. I just kept looking at the outline shaking my head saying there's no way this is 6m x 11m (they outlined a square, but the garage is more of a P shape)
I think houses always have a slight bit of buyers remorse. It's been weird since we've built. It's definitely more expensive vs buying an existing home. Especially when you factor in the cost of landscaping etc for the outside space. So i see a lot of houses for sale at €450k and start thinking how much bigger the premises/more developed the garden etc is etc, but then i just think about the benefits of having actual insulation and everything laid out where we want it, and whilst it'll take ~5yrs i think to get everything as we want it. Once it's there everything else fades away.
We were having a chat over the weekend about what we'd change if money wasn't a factor, and i think we both agreed the only things would be for our bedroom to be slightly bigger and also maybe a toilet room in the garage. Everything else is just right for us
I think that's the key thing --- I know I will be happy here for a long time once it is "done"; and the next step up is pretty unachievable anyway without a lotto win lol.
Best of luck - maybe setup a time lapse and get a free YouTube channel out of it
I don't think you'll ever be done based on your threads
The one brilliant thing of renting/building is just how much spare time you end up with. However i'm under no illusions that once we're in the work will start. Especially in the landscaping side of things. I've been eyeing up some mini diggers/tractors on facebook
Nice little surprise. We've still not officially had our mortgage approved yet! We were waiting for a valuation which seems a bit odd given we don't have anything to value at the moment other than a plot and a contract with build price.
Either way the value has come in at €513,689.73
Would absolutely love to see the calculation behind that! Actual build cost would be
Had been stressing a little about what would happen if they valued below cost, because ultimately we're using an expensive high end builder so the cost is inflated compared to some cheaper builders in the area if they'd just looked at square meterage/bedrooms etc
Either way the value has come in at €513,689.73
Would absolutely love to see the calculation behind that! Actual build cost would be
| Price | Tax | Total | |
| House | 350,000 | 35,000 | 385,000 |
| Land | 81,000 | 6,480 | 87,480 |
| 431,000 | 41,480 | 472,480 |
Had been stressing a little about what would happen if they valued below cost, because ultimately we're using an expensive high end builder so the cost is inflated compared to some cheaper builders in the area if they'd just looked at square meterage/bedrooms etc
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Honestly i don't know the criteria and i've not been given any valuation report. I just got the figure from the bank. Given it's been calculated to the cent suggests something is done on rateable value, but i think we only get the councils calculation after it's built/registered.
I've had to put my plans on hold unfortunatelyWon't be able to get insurance at the moment
Well this is a bit ******
I hope this isn’t considered a medical thread, but an experience. Maybe this can help me cope as well as anyone else. Maybe even encourage someone to take advantage of the system I’m male, 61, pretty good health, keen cyclist. According to my garmin stats my VO2 max is in the top 1% for my age...forums.overclockers.co.uk
Sorry to hear that. Glad to hear that things are looking positive and caught early etc. Are you likely to get insurance for short trips/holidays etc or is that also out the window?Haha we watched the tv remake of that recently which then prompted us to watch the film.
We’ve got a vpn. Mainly for Netflix stuff but also my wife still watches quite a bit of UK telly. Never bothered with Sky though.
Progress started! Hopefully the thread can start moving along a little quicker now!
Outline drawn for the Garage. Not sure whether to get them to shift to the left a bit, but ultimately the patio doors wouldn't be blocked by the Olive tree either way
Actual driveway so we don't have to park at the edge
Area for the house levelled off. They've put some markings for the actual house, but it's a little to the left vs where i had initially thought. Might try and meet them when they're next there to shift it
Outline drawn for the Garage. Not sure whether to get them to shift to the left a bit, but ultimately the patio doors wouldn't be blocked by the Olive tree either way
Actual driveway so we don't have to park at the edge
Area for the house levelled off. They've put some markings for the actual house, but it's a little to the left vs where i had initially thought. Might try and meet them when they're next there to shift it
More updates! Got these from the developer. So the foundations have started to be dug. This pretty much ensures we can't re-position the house, but with a bit of landscaping it's not a problem. Just need to create a more level platform at the rear of the house as at the moment there's a ~2ft drop 3m from the back door.
Placement as in on the whole plot or the specific placement?
Placement in relation to the whole plot was mainly to keep privacy (it's around the middle between the 2 access roads) and then also it was on the elevated section to ensure no flooding risks vs where we initially wanted it. This spot was also more level than other sections.
Specific placement of the house? I think probably a little bit of mis-communication. We'd met the builders on site and explained the location and direction of the placement. This is 99% the right spot. I think i'd have just shifted it a couple meters. As you say it's not a big issue because we can just backfil the gap. Using my superb Paint skills. The red bit is the house, and the yellow marking is where there's a drop. We just need to rip out the shrub and backfil to create a level section behind the house to pull the car up.
The beauty of the plot size, as you can see is that the house takes up such a small percentage than it's easy to adjust anything!
Yeah. Already told the builder to keep everything they excavate as the whole plot is wavey and in time I want to even it up.
Although my other request was it was ok to rip up shrubs but not to rip up any of the old Olive trees and there’s already one ripped out!
Yeah, was genuinely difficult to chose the direction of the house because you could make an argument for all 4 directions! Personally i'd have rotated 90 degrees and faced down the valley towards the big mountains in the distance because the sunset casts them in an amazing pink light. However the size of the plot and general openness means we can just have a few different seating areas (i dread the cost of furniture!)
Not much has moved on, but i did head up and get pictures of the entire footings. I think it might be too cold to pour the concrete as it's hitting zero degrees over night. The plus side is we went for tea with the estate agents the other week as we get on well with them and they'd been speaking to the builder the week before who said he's targeting June as a handover date. I'll be surprised if that happens but won't complain! I was assuming October!
Crazy how small a house looks when it's like this. I know it's not the biggest house, but the bedroom barely looks big enough for a double bed!
What is a shame, and i guess it comes down to the benefit of having a bigger budget and being able to design your own house. My dad has a colleague who lives very close to where i'm building. I've been chatting to him and he designed his house from scratch and engineering these things into the foundations to create an air system to keep a nice constant floor temperature with air flow under the house. No cold feet on tiles for him!
Crazy how small a house looks when it's like this. I know it's not the biggest house, but the bedroom barely looks big enough for a double bed!
What is a shame, and i guess it comes down to the benefit of having a bigger budget and being able to design your own house. My dad has a colleague who lives very close to where i'm building. I've been chatting to him and he designed his house from scratch and engineering these things into the foundations to create an air system to keep a nice constant floor temperature with air flow under the house. No cold feet on tiles for him!
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Missed this. Live web cam would be awesome. I did consider buying a drone. It's 7.5km from my rental house to the building plot if you went in a straight line. However there is also a mountain range in the way so not sure whether it'd make it over that!
Pink house to La Romana | 7.7 km Walking Route on Strava
Pink house to La Romana is a 7.7 km Walking Route. Discover this route and more at Strava. Visit today!
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There's also the question of what i do with it after because i don't really have an interest in flying it otherwise.
Yeah, foundations are smaller than i'd have expected, but as you say it's very solid ground and i guess with a concrete slab maybe you don't need depth. What is odd is that they've not excavated for the garage/pool/septic tank. I'd have thought they'd do everything together