Just Got back

Arrived back late last night. Gawd its cold here!!!. Hassled at East Midlands Airport and felt like turning round and going straight back.

Moved in to our apartment and got most of the stuff done that we planned. When we arrived we found a massive hole in the bathroom ceiling where work had been done but not repaired and the hot water boiler tripped everything else off when you turned it on. However got to say that one visit to Customer Service had both problems fixed by the end of the day so they are trying!!

Very impressed with everything we saw. The resort is coming on in leaps and bounds. Popped in to the sales office yesterday and found out that the Mirador has been put on hold for what could be as long as 4 years? The plan right now is not to construct anymore property but to complete everything that is already started and finish the golf course(s). On that topic the work on 2nd courses is scheduled to begin in Dec 09. The original Foro in front of jardin 5 is apparently still going to be built but with some design changes but they wanted to get the one built between Jardins and Los Naranjos first  so that both sets of residents have it between them, which i guess makes sense, although not within walking distance for us in Jardin 2 methinks. 

So overall a good trip, not sure how i ended up in Ikea 3 times in a week but there you go.

For the golfers if you haven't played El valle you must!! great course. Hope CdA is as good.

Thanks to Carol for all of her help and advice and for allowing me to get served before her in the bar!!!!

Phil

Phil, that's Carol's way of getting you to buy the round

Phil - thanks fro update - you said "plan is not to construct any more property" - we know about Mirador , but , those of us who have bought on GOLF SUITES had heard that they were going to start building in DEC or JAN for completion Summer 2009 - did you hear anything about G.Suites ??? - you've got me worried now !!!  

The bit about the Foro near Jardin  5 still being built is news to us and probably everyone else - I don't think anyone else has mentioned that before ! That's great news if it does happen, we won't have to get in the car just to get a bit of shopping.

Chris & Alison

We also returned on Weds evening after 8 days out there.  My impressions from first trip since we signed up:

- Much better than I expected.  No problems with our apartment, and all looked great...once I managed to get in with instructions from a workman on the "pull-turn-push" door mechanism!!!

- The whole feel to the place is great from the moment you drive down the avenue leading to the development onwards.  No expense spared in the layout

- Golf course taking shape.  We had a walk over this whilst workers were off for the weekend.  The lay of the land and undulations are going to make this something special.  Also appears to have significant banking that suggests this is going to be a championship venue for spectator viewing

- alot of work going on at Oasis, seems to be a major focus now.  Also the old Foro could be happening as suggested in this thread as some sort of work is going on at the end of the sports zone as though they are preparing ground works for the eventual construction of some facilities...fingers crossed, even if that is much later!

- the cafe/bar is small but friendly.  As mentioned, very expensive compared with everywhere else you drink or dine, and need some more staff as the one guy gets swamped if more than 5 people in the place!!!!  Enjoyed the Halloween night and good to see not just our ankle biters entering into the spirit.  Apologies to anyone who found them irritating in their excitement!!!

- the Jardines themselves look great.  We were in No5 and pretty much had the run of it to ourselves for the week.  The pool is excellent, paced it out at 30m so a really good length.  A warning.......be prepared for an ice bath.  Turned me blue when I jumped in, but the kids seemed to not notice this.  Looking forward to summer temperatures warming it up a bit!

- cant believe that in 8 days racked up 1300km with shopping and looking around the area.  Once you get your bearings, driving was no problem (use the directions provided on this forum).  The Parque Med at Cartegena and the Murcia Retail park are something of a nightmare to find the way into the shops you are looking for, so that is frustrating, but if you stick with it, you find the way in in the end.

- Camposol down the road is a home from home.  All ex-pats and a few cafe bars and restaurants offering cheap food.  Also several banks at hand - we used the CAM bank there to get our account access sorted

- car hire, we used GoldCar from Alicante airport and had a Berlingo cos it was cheap.  Not good to look at but drove really well, and anyone with a family of 5 I would recommend this as we had 3 kids seats in back, and still got 3 large cases and a sports holdall in the boot without even taking down the parcel shelf.  Definitely room for all this and my golf clubs next time, and will have one of these again no problem!

And finally a mention to all the people you meet there....... great to talk through the experience with so many people in the same boat.  Everyone seems genuinely excited by the development, and there is a general feel good factor.  We caught up with Carol on our last day, and have signed up as her latest client (money is on the way Carol, honest!).  Recommend anyone to do the same, as we left with real peace of mind knowing that someone is looking over the place...even after the horror stories she mentioned which I shalln't go into here.

Now we cant wait to go back at Easter....seems to long away.

Finally, we took some video of the site and I will get this downloaded onto YouTube and post the link on here if anyone is interested.  Lots of photos been loaded, but dont know if anyone has put up a video clip yet.

Cheers

Martin & Helen

Hi Martin and Helen,

Where have you uploaded to photo's to please?

 

Glad you enjoyed yourself Martin & Helen, Wouldn't catch me in the pool this time of year.

We're also in Jardin 5, so hope to meet up at Easter. We'll be there.

I think at Easter it will be a bit busier than this time, thats for sure.  The pool was refreshing to say the very least!!!!
 

Counting down the weeks to Easter already

 

 

Hi Martin & Helen,

Have you put your video on you tube yet? Thanks

Not yet.....I will get on the case!  Keep an eye out for the link

M

Just got back from Condado late last night after finally getting round to finishing off the furnishing our property and things around the resort are looking fantastic.

Things started to slot into place the week before we arrived.  Hayes carpentry sorted our our additional kitchen unit, understairs cupboard and removed the bidet for us.  It made a big difference to have the additional space for storage.

Polaris sorted our damp and although we have had rain while we have been out, saw no signs of it returning.  The pre installation of our airconditioning was also fixed the week before we went out - by Polarair I might add and not Polaris World.  Polaris told us on 3 occasions that the work had been completed and all it seemed they had done was change the wiring and knock a hole in the solarium wall - which again Gary sorted - Thanks!

We got the remaining items of furniture from Ikea, Polaris Homestyle and Zbedz - they were delivered on time and the service was pretty good.  Mike told me that he will never go into Ikea again after spending 2 nights there until 10pm

We can highly recommend Steve, the handyman from Camposol.  He spent 2 days with us and he can do almost anything involving diy.  We decided that we wanted ceiling fans in the bedrooms for the summer.  He blocked in the 2 lights already in the bedroom and made one central one,  wall mounted our flat screen tv, fixed our headboards to the walls, put up all our blinds and curtain rails and much more.  We have left him the job of putting up bamboo on our pergola and trying to source us a change of lock for the apartment.  Thanks Steve - without your services we wouldn't have managed to get half as much done in the 5 days that we were out.  If anyone wants Steve's email address pm me.

It was hard to leave but we know that our apartment will be well looked after by Carol (angelbabe).

The thing that makes Condado so special is the people who have bought there and through eye on spain, we have got to know a lot of people before we even got to stay there.  Thanks to Roy and Elizabeth (R&E) for your hospitality and it was really nice to meet up with Kazzy and her husband and Scapa while we were out.

The Foro is coming on well but looks a lot bigger when you see it close up - we will post the latest pictures some time day.  Looking at the pictures, it's not suprising that the supermarket will be moving up there one day.  

 

 

 

This message was last edited by michaelhardy on 11/30/2008.

Hi Mike & Dawn

Good to hear you got everything sorted.  Agree with you about Steve. We met him through Carol and wish we had known about him before we had our lights and fans fitted.  He has done our blinds, curtain rails and bathroom fittings and we are so glad we were introduced.  As you know Steve ( Endpeg )  is also the Ikea man, so we don't plan to go there ourselves anytime soon. lol  Carol is also is a godsend, don't know what we would have done without her and have every confidence that everything is being looked after in our absence. 

 

Hi folks,

Just back ourselves on Thursday night but just getting time to post a few words. Arrived on Sunday afternoon and our neighbours from upstairs, Hugh & Liz, were around and introduced themselves. It was then we found out that there was no electricity connected to the appartments as the block had been handed over by Polaris to the electricity company. Hugh & Liz + Liz's sister had been there since Wednesday trying to get powered up and just being fobbed off by Polaris saying that the electricity company would be doing it that day, the next day, the next day.......... all to no avail by the time they went home on the Sunday night. They kindly left us their candles and brushes/dust pans as with it being a Sunday nothing was open to buy things from. We had gone prepared to a certain degree to be able to get through the first night OK as I had packed torch and arranged for a duvet to be delivered with the beds and knew we could get showered up at the sports centre. So first port of call Monday morning was customer services to ask about electricity. They said "not on ?" took notes, made phone calls and I left them to it. Hastily returned to appartment as I had Gary from Polar air and electrician through Zbedz who was fitting my lights.

On opening the air-con compartments in the walls outside & in, Gary discovered that the cables had not been pre-installed through the conduits (not his first experience of this apparently) which meant that was him snookered unless we could get the Polaris electricians back pronto' then he would come back Tues or Wednesday and shuffle his other jobs. Geoff the electrician could get on with all the internal lights but because there was no power to the block the outside lights would have to wait as drilling through the concrete would just flatten the battery drill after one or two holes. Anyway, got done what we could with the lights and amazingly, managed to get the Polaris electricians back on that afternoon to pull the cables in for the air-con. That took care of Monday so only managed to get as far as Camposol for some smaller items of shopping. Got in touch with Gary and he came back on Tuesday to install the air-con. Reported in to customer services again re: electricity and they pretty much went through the same procedure as Monday - left them to it as we had work to do and major shopping to start. Gary and colleague clashed on and got air-con completed just after lunch. Have to say, I can highly recommend, good attitude and nice tidy standard of workmanship. He showed me a system that had been installed nearby as an example of 'how not to be done' units mounted stacked above each other and unsightly hoses on display. Will post a photo of Panasonic units installed.

First of shopping outings to Murcia on Tuesday afternoon. Getting there in daylight no problem but beware, getting back in darkness a different proposition altogether. Managed to miss the turn off from A7 to get back on the road to Condado and same again next night which easily put another 20 minutes on my journey. Just could not seem to see the signs for RM2, RM23 on the way back. End up driving the long way round to Camposol and coming back that way.

Finally managed to get power on Wednesday when customer services arranged for \polaris electrician to come round (re-connected to builders supply) but I would have stood in the office untill they sent someone anyway as I wanted to service test the electrical appliances before we left. All working OK.

So, if you are going soon, be prepared for a bit of 'camping out' and take warm clothes because it gets quite cold on an evening. Don't expect much from the sports centre showers - my wife swears they never changed from cold - but I think they warmed up after a while. Unfortunately, did not bump into to many people as we were either working away in the appartment or returning late from Murcia. Did not ever see more that 2 people in the bar. We tended to drive over to Camposol to get something to eat on a lunchtime and evening. Plenty of choice there and OK. Chinese pretty good for evening and Liz's cornish pride cafe for lunch.

 

Regards,

 

 

Its been a long week since our visit with plenty of snow, feels more like a month, its nice to get an update from Steve, the handyman. He has just sent us a picture of the Pergola with a Bamboo covering, an alternative to the fabric canopies (and nice blue skies)

A few people on the forum have asked us for pictures so i've posted in the Condado photo section.

Good photo folks - much appreciated - this is what I was thinking would be best for the pergola and now I've seen it, I'm certain it's the best choice.

 

Thanks,

Peter