Building our Villa

The size of the plot is 837 square metres give or take a rock or two, and located on the edge of Makriotika, a small village 2 to 3 minutes drive from Aghia Efimia.

Pictures on the right are taken from the front of the plot and from the back of the plot towards Agia Efimia. The theory is once the villa is built we will be able to look out from our raised verandah over the Olive trees, down the valley to Agia Efimia bay and beyond that, Ithica.The villa will have an underbuild as the ground floor.

Pictured below are our Architects Dimitri and Aleckos (located in Lixouri) who worked really quickly to produce a rough set of plans and a computer generated artists impression of the villa from the floor plan we had given them.

The plans, which were prepared by Judi's father to our specifications, gave the architects a good idea of what we were trying to achieve.

Words of warning  When you are building in Greece you must make sure that the finished house is totally as per the plans you submitted. This means making sure of exactly what you want prior to the application going in. Changing your mind later or adding things during the building can cause problems. In days gone by there had been a certain amount of flexibility. Today, after the planning laws of Greece were changed in December 2003, things have tightened up.

The above pictures show the land being cleared and levelled in preparation for the foundations. Sadly our Olive trees had to go but I will replace them, and in 200 years you will never know the difference! The trees were not wasted, they are now keeping Arris + family as well as Frances and Barry (our builders) warm, the nights are a bit chilly on the Island during winter months. The olive grove you can see in the picture beyond our plot (above left) is outside the village boundaries. The theory is this land cannot be built on. We are not holding our breath here, as history has shown that village boundaries are moved when it is convenient to do so!! Once the ground has been cleared, the hole dug out for the foundations, and all is made reasonably level, the leveling concrete can be laid. The next process is for the wooden shuttering to be built for the foundations and establishment of the main support piers of the villa. (See below)

The above pictures show the shuttering ready to take the concrete for the foundations. Divided into cells, the foundations are over 6 feet deep, and reinforced with steel grids. The upright rods are where the supporting piers will be made. The first floor (where we will live) should start just below the top of the upright steel rods. Sadly despite all efforts to save the Olive tree, we think it may have to go. The cement lorry backs up to a hopper at the back of another lorry (see top centre) which has a large extendable arm and pump. This lorry then pumps the concrete through the extendable arm to where the concrete is required. (see above right) The retaining walls of the individual cells are then built up with the concrete. The walls are allowed to cook at Kefalonian sun mark 5 for 10 days. The shuttering can be removed after a couple of days.

Once the concrete has set (after 10 days or so) the soil and rocks, (in our case mostly rocks!) dug out to make the foundations is returned into the concrete cells to fill them up, this is then compacted down, and a mix of crushed rock is placed over the top to level the area and compacted down again. A further 6 inches or so of concrete is placed over the top of this and......... hey presto! You have the ground floor........easy peasy! Well for Judi and I anyway.

Below is a series of pictures showing various stages of the build. The ground floor now fully hardened off and the supporting piers made, it is time to start the shuttering up for the first floor. This set of 6 pictures below shows the villa starting to take shape. The veranda will provide shade to the patio area of the apartment below, this will have the added benefit of keeping the apartment cooler in summer as it is south-east facing. None the less it will be air conditioned anyway for summer and central heating for winter. The bit jutting out is the garage. The rest has the potential for extra accommodation at a later date.

I can only speculate about sitting on the verandah, slowly quaffing an ice cold beer and comtemplating the meaning of life whilst taking in the staggering views!!!!............Roll on the 15th of October! The next 3 pictures show further development of the villa.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dicky and Debbie for making the effort and going to Makriotika in wilting temperatures just to take these pictures for us. As well as the movies sent to us. Excellent images, so easy to work for the internet, thank you!!!!

Picture left is the start of building the swimming pool.

The building of our villa was started in the second week of March 2005. We moved in on the 15th of October 2005.......On the promised date!

Problems? Of course there were! However, whilst some of the locals (a local builder we did not use in particular) were quick to point them out to us, our builders chose not to mention them. It's what they are being paid for, why interfere or create a problem they obviously feel they will sort out? Afterall, they are the builders we employed to build and project manage, so it's their job. It's what they have done on the island for over 10 years, and frankly Barry and Frances do it very well.

So we would like to thank Barry and Frances of Kefalonian Homes (www.kefalonianhomes.com)

You have built us a fabulous home, so whilst at times we knew more of what was going on than perhaps you mentioned to us, we trusted you to deliver and you did. A sincere and heart felt thank you from Judi and myself.

Plus there were other problems. At one time (August 2005) 90,000 euros went missing within the banking system for nearly 3 weeks! That brought the pains on for a while! Getting the lorry full of our furniture out to Kefalonia was a nightmare. But worth it in the end. Besides we both had a summer of great fun scouring the local papers, auctions and in the shops collecting everything together. Plus Judi has become a total E-Bay addict and could at times be found totally absorbed muttering darkly to herself when outbid on an item she really wanted. Her fingers flying across the keyboard to get that last bid in during the dying seconds of the sale. Her keyboard skills are fast, over 100 words per minute, this meant she could wait those extra few seconds to prevent a counter bid within the alotted time. We got some great items that way!!!!

Is the villa finished? No!!!! Our work has only just started. Getting the rear garden sorted, and putting the plants in place to screen the swimming pool will keep us busy for months. Plus there are many other small jobs in and around the villa that all need sorting before the 02/05/06 when our first family visitors arrive!!

We have had our critics during this process, I came in for a bit of stick when I mentioned paying Frances 250 euros to get our Tax number !!!! However I did not feel the need at the time to explain that was not all she did for the money. Some of the other things she did were mundane, but there were others above and beyond the call of duty. She dragged the previous landowner kicking and screaming to the tax office and the bank to pay debts secured on the land that the lawyer found to ensure we did not assume the debt. Then secured and processed the debt release papers (or whatever they are called). She went to the local municiple offices to argue the water charges for us. They wanted to charge us for water from the day we purchased the land and not from the day the water was actually connected!! She even got our phone and internet connected within a week of us moving in. Finally she aranged the Notario and witnesses so that Judi and I could make a will regarding our Greek assets and have it registered in Greece. Not bad really. Worth every euro.

I still do not understand why some people got so bitter and twisted. We have answered the very few critics the only way we know how, we have done exactly what we said we would do when we said we would do it.

End of.

LAST UPDATED 05/01/06