Just back from a very busy but nice and sunny week at Condado, now completed and have the keys to our apartment .
Some observations.
WOW. The whole development has really grown since we were last out in easter. Condado now has its own exit off the RM23, you can see the resort from the road from about a mile or so before the turn it is really impressive. Currently only one security gate is open, the one nearest the Jardines or don't bother going for the Naranjos entrances, although there is a builders entrance between the two Naranjos gates you can seek in - just drive straight in as if you own the place and wave nicely at the guard.
Stayed in Arlenes apartment in garden 13 for the week, very nice, and I think this definately gave us a better feel for the resort than staying in a hotel ever would. So if your coming over to complete try and rent an apartment on site, ok you may have to do a bit more driving around to get anywhere, we did around 1500KM, but just having the chance to stay in an apartment the same as ours really helped with getting a feel for the apartment as well as the resort.
Rental a cheap car from Auriga crown through doyouspain, 95euros for the week including the tank of fuel, that lasted until the monday. No problems with the pick up or drop off, just walking handed over the keys and was out in under a minute. One pointer, if your getting a lot of shopping do not go for the economic range, we ending up with a Fiat Panda, probably the smallest car I ever been in, had to put the back seat down to get the bags in and was too small to get a shower screen in the back!
The supermarket on site is ok for the essentials, but not very big. There is a Consum at Camposol 5 minutes down the road for biggers shops ( like the Gin and Tonic ). Not sure I've made my mind up about Campsol, for me it's a little too much like costa del blackpool. Too much english, Alley Pally, Quick Save, all day breakfast etc etc. for me I would prefer a nice Tapas bar and coffee shop, but thats just me. But for the nearest supermarket, petrol station, brico and banks (CAM, Caja Murcia, Santander ) it the place to go.
The economic crisis is beginning to hit Spain, had a nice long chat with our solicitor at the notarys whilst we were waiting for the chap from the bank. House sales have slowed down and the sales that are occuring are taking more time or are getting more difficult due to many factors. 6 months ago you could easily get a 100% mortgage now 60% is the norm. this is causing some sales to fail though at the last minute. The notary now wants to see prove that the builders mortgage has been paid off, this means, ( as in our case ) that when you go to complete they have to get a man from the bank to come along and cancel the mortgage in person. we waited an hour, she trotted in signed a bit of paper and trotted out in less than 20 seconds off to the next completion. Due to the crisis banks are laying off staff so there are less to go around.
Get a perfessional snagging company, we had snagitmurcia, they will definately see things that you might miss. These guys are on site almost every day all know the common faults to look for. As well as the common one like missing mastic, bad grouting and general sloppy painting we had one scratched door and one that didn't shut properly. The door to the main bedroom rubbed at the top. What I found was, and I'm told this is quite common, the door was hung a little low, so to raise it slightly they had packed the hinges out with electrical wire! so check those hinges. This was fixed the next day, but we are still waiting for the other door and a new cooker ( it had big marks on the front ). One major problem that has been discussed at lengh on the forum is leaks from the stairs ruining the plaster board in the bathroom and under the stairs. I'm told that this seems to have been corrected on the Naranjos properties. ( touch wood ). We did see a couple of effected apartments in the Jardines, Polaris seem to be prioritising these, as they should, and whilst we were there workmen were at the two properties every day fixing the leaks and retiling the stairs. Again, due to the crisis PW have laid off a lot of the perminate building staff and are now employing a lot of contractors.
The bathrooms in Naranjos have a electric socket behind the door, ideal for a heated towel rail. there is a lack of sockets in the kitchen, we are fitting an extra one for a kettle on the partition next to the fridge by running a spur from the fridge socket. Sockets available from any Brico for aroung 4 euros.
The cost of kettles/coffee makers in spain is daft 50 Euros plus, will get both from John lewis at £20 each and take over next time. Also TV, the average cost of a 26" is around 500euros, I can get one for around £250 in the UK with built in freeview. This 'should' work ok and get TDT ( TDT uses channel 69 so you could check, if you can find the spec of the TV your interested in, most new TV should be ok ) if not a TDT reciever is about 30euros in Euroski.
When we first went out 18months ago and all that was available to look at was the plans, I rejected the penthouses. Having been back now that they are up and having taken a look at the views from the roof I've now changed my mind. The views will be spectacular when the course in finished, they're pretty good now. The holes in front of the penthouses are comimg along. They have turfed around the greens and were seeding the fairways whilst we were there. The seeded gound is being covered in a green mulch and then rolled flat, looks like grass from a distance but is not. ( see piccies from link at end )
The sports bar by the supermarket now has two widescreens up, this means Herburt now has a choice of which way to look whilst waiting for the occassional customer. Went up there three times during the week and was the only one there. Two PC's are available to get on the internet, 4Euros buys to 50 minutes access on Areanet. ( same price as a pint ) I really cannot wait until the new shopping center opens, without it the resort is missing heart and sense on community. Whatever you may think of Camposol, what is does have is a number of meeting places ( ok bars ) where there are always groups chatting away. Condado is so vast that without good meeting places, that people will want to go to ( Tapas and coffee bars if your reading PW ) the place is dead. At a guess from the number of cars parked around there were probably 100+ people on the resort last week, I only ever saw about 10 of them.
There are many, many places to get furniture, we went to ZbedsZ, The Furniture store, DFS, Murcia Furniture, HomeStyle and IKEA. Initially I was thinking of getting a basic pack from Homestyle for the esentials but after going and taking another look I went off it. Don't forget to add 16%vat to the price on the internet. In the end we got a sofa, chair, two singe and a double bed with mattreses from IKEA for 2100E. considerably less than the PW pack. The Furniture store does have some nice storage beds on offer at resonable prices and I did like the beds from ZbedsZ, but in the end the wife won.
There are also many places for lights, LUMICOM have a good selection, in the end went for spots and outdoor lights from Leroy Merlin. 10 single, 1 triple and three outside for 145euros. Speaking of which, they have changed the external lights at Naranjos. In Jardines there are two at the front, one on the stairs and one on the roof. In Naranjos they have made the middle light a communal one, they had fitted them on all apartments in garden one, so you only need to buy three.
Cannot recommend Carol ( angelbabe911 ) enough, without her help we would not have achieved half the things we did. Carol put us in touch with a chap called Steve who as well as fitting lights, blinds etc has a transit van. For the mobility challanged like me, due to a FIAT Panda, this was a godsend and Steve does a collection service from IKEA, ask carol for contact details if you require any of these services the mans a star 
That's probably enough ranting for now, piccies available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/10301228@N06/sets/72157609279283749/
Phil
This message was last edited by ptan on 11/17/2008.
This message was last edited by ptan on 11/17/2008.