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Posted

Here in Spain when you commission an architect to prepare a complete "Project" for you, he supplies you with two things:

 

Firstly a complete set of drawings. Drawings of how the property looks now and how it will look like when it's finished. Detailed schematics of the heating, electrical and plumbing layouts and detailed drawings of how various parts of the project - the roof, walls, floors etc, should be constructed.

 

Secondly he gives you a "Project Book". This is a 100 plus page book that he puts together which details all the rules and regulations pertaining to how the building work should be carried out on your specific build, which standards of materials must be used, etc etc.

 

The Project Book also contains "The Budget". This is a step by step list of every single job that needs to be carried out in the process of turning our agricultural barn into a house & home (or in our case, a home and a B&B!). It starts with the removal of the existing barn roofing, finishes with the final coat of varnish on the staircase handrails and includes every single activity in between. Each item has a "cost" next to it - the price of which comes from the official "Big Book of Pricing for Builders". The Builders themselves see this "Budget" (and no doubt have a copy off the Big Book) and when they quote you for a job, they quote, "mas or minus", in line with the architects recommended prices.

 

This means that for every job that needs to be done throughout the project, we know how much the architect says it should cost to do and how much the Builder wants to do it.

 

We will use this comparison to work out exactly how much the builder is going to charge us for each separate job that we ask him to do and we will use it to work out how much we are saving by doing certain jobs ourselves.

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Posted

loads of "demolición" happening there  :whistling:

 

I was actually once advised after a personality test for career choices that i would do good in "bomb disposal officer" or "demolition officer"... shout if you need help :)

Posted

..that's one way of learning Spanish.. ;)

 

 

"Copy & Paste" into Google Translate for several days to translate this lot . . .

And you have to use some imagination sometimes to decipher what the translation means!

 

Learning Spanish whilst living in Spain is a lot like learning Afrikaans when living in SA. Being surrounded by it makes it hard not to pick it up.

 

:-)

Posted

loads of "demolición" happening there  :whistling:

 

I was actually once advised after a personality test for career choices that i would do good in "bomb disposal officer" or "demolition officer"... shout if you need help :)

 

 

"Knocking things down" is one of the few jobs I can do with confidence!

 

Thanks for the offer though :-)

Posted

Some Pictures of our Project as it is now and as it will be once it's finished.

 

The first pic is of the back of the property with the sloping back garden - This side of the house faces North and North East - towards the Pyrenees. We have lovely views from here so the sloping back garden will be terraced into flat sitting areas for meals and sun bathing. It gets sun first thing in the morning but is nice and shady later in the day.

 

Second pic is the front of the property, which faces South & South West. Shaded in the morning (good for cleaning bikes in the cool!) but gets the afternoon sun later on. There will be some parking and a front garden with a little terrace here. Also our firewood stack will be up here.

 

Last pic is of the west side of the property. The Kitchen door will drop down a meter or so and the tower will be raised up just over a meter to allow for three floors. Wendy wants herbs growing here next to the back door for when she's cooking :-)

 

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Posted

Some Pictures of our Project as it is now and as it will be once it's finished.

 

The first pic is of the back of the property with the sloping back garden - This side of the house faces North and North East - towards the Pyrenees. We have lovely views from here so the sloping back garden will be terraced into flat sitting areas for meals and sun bathing. It gets sun first thing in the morning but is nice and shady later in the day.

 

Second pic is the front of the property, which faces South & South West. Shaded in the morning (good for cleaning bikes in the cool!) but gets the afternoon sun later on. There will be some parking and a front garden with a little terrace here. Also our firewood stack will be up here.

 

Last pic is of the west side of the property. The Kitchen door will drop down a meter or so and the tower will be raised up just over a meter to allow for three floors. Wendy wants herbs growing here next to the back door for when she's cooking :-)

 

I haven't commented on this thread previously, but has been following it for some time now. I'm a sucker for house renovation and really envy you! Can't stop working at our house, much to the frustration of my wife..

 

What is the plan for your roof?? Keep the slate/stone roof?

Posted

I haven't commented on this thread previously, but has been following it for some time now. I'm a sucker for house renovation and really envy you! Can't stop working at our house, much to the frustration of my wife..

 

What is the plan for your roof?? Keep the slate/stone roof?

 

Keep the Slate/Stone roof tiles  - but for patios and flooring and replace with second hand (aged) traditional Spanish roof tiles - the std curvy ones

 

:-)

Posted

We are trying to keep track of the many Fiestas and Carnivals that happen locally over here through the summer so that if visitors ask us if there is anything on, we can tell them.

 

It involves drinking Beer & Wine, eating lots of food and watching Carnivals . . . it's a tough job, but someone has to do it!

 

Last Monday was the Barbastro Fiesta & Carnival. It's 45km away and we have friends who live there so we were invited to visit for the day :-)

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