Hello all. I was on site yesterday and although work progressing and they are confident that occupancy licences will be granted "towards the end of January" IMHO I cant see them being ready much before Easter. They are currently installing the ground irrigation system and lighting, but roads and paths are nowhere near ready, and whilst I know landscaping is not that complex its really not started much beyond a few trees.
I got access to my apartment and whilst there is of course snagging to be done I am more than impressed with the build quality - its not perfect of course as they still have their own snagging to do but the fittings in bathrooms and kitchens seem pretty good and plastering & painting ok, accepting the inevitable developer and then our own snagging. The Aircon units are big buggers and they are on the terraces, tucked into a corner where possible, but in my case clearly visible from the master bedroom as within inches of the side of the window. There are security shutters on some windows but in my case not on lounge or kitchen (though secured as no access without going through utility space). We are on first floor so I am ok with none on lounge but in the case of the second that is accessible from the main corridor and although it has those security roll down blinds my agent (who visited with me) recommends fitting additional bars which are available locally for a few hundred Euro. You need to decide yourself depending on your location.
The internal doors are not of the best quality, it’s minor and I wont lose sleep over it but they don’t all hang very well as of yesterday. However, this may be due to temporary tape that is fitted around the skirting which is there to protect them for next phase of marble cleaning. The floors look fine, nicely coloured stone but clearly in need of the second finish which is planned in already.
It will depend on where you are but I was impressed that my apartment felt nice and bright and there were some nice touches such as sliding door separating off the bedrooms/bathrooms from main part of the apartment, and lots of sensibly placed electrical sockets and TV phone points. The development committee will need to decide at our first meeting how we want to handle TV and telephone internet access, no satellite dishes will be allowed on the outside of the building (a good idea in my view) but the only TV receiver being fitted will give you terrestrial Spanish TV only. I have this at home now with a digi box and you can sometimes get up to 4 original language channels but its not reliable and for those who wish to rent or keep up to date with Coronation street we will need to decide on Sky etc – there are locations on each block where this can be fitted.
Sandra – block 6 ground floor balconies are about 10 feet off the ground maybe a bit more. Coming from block 5 towards 6 the ground is high and a pathway is going down to the pool – from a distance it looks like you could stop from path onto balcony but closer to the block the ground drops quite significantly so there is no way to easily get onto them form the ground.
Maureen – I could not get into yours but from the look of the fittings in mine I am sure yours will be fine and they will make good any temp marks that were there.
One thing on Kitchen – a washing machine is installed where there should clearly be a Dishwasher, but there is no dishwasher and so far as I can see my contract does not specify that there would be one, but you clearly need one if you want to rent. With the washing machine in the kitchen the washing / utility room outside has only the boiler and all the fittings for the washing machine. It may be worth us talking with the developer to get an extra cupboard door for those who want to build in a dishwasher.
The view at least from block 5 is excellent, ground floor may be blocked by the top of the town houses but my mine it was a spectacular view.
I will load photos later tonight and post the link here. Lourdes is on site and she was fantastic help to me.