Caliviney Hilltop

On the South of the island and overlooking Eggmont Harbour then out to sea.

Finding a house proved a difficult task. We did find the the a few that would be classed as the right house...... but the wrong location. And several good locations with the wrong house built on it. Then of course there was a few great houses, built in the right location, of those a few had actually been finished very well and some even faced the right direction.

Unfortunately the ones with all the right attributes also came with big price tags. So after much deliberation we decided that we should look at building plots and consider building our own house.

After a good look at what was available and after much thought we decided on a plot on Caliviney Hilltop. We love the view and it will provide us with a nice sea breeze. The neighbours are nice and we got it at a good price in a market where prices are rising fast.

We already had an idea of what we would like to build and with some modifications to suit the location and climate I think we have finally settled on a design and plan.

Construction prices (like everywhere else) keep rising and currently a shortage of cement has seen the price of a bag of cement double in the last 7 years.

Unfortunately the during our talks with local architects we realized the they don't really like to be told what to draw. They like to come up with there own ideas of what they think your prefect house should look like.

The picture below shows how it may look, although as its on a slope the ground floor will be dug in to the hillside

We had a good idea of what we wanted and in the end found a local draftsman(Andy) to draw it as we wanted it, we gave Andy several pictures which we had scribbled over and various pictures and plans we had downloaded from the internet. We sat and explained how we thought it would all work. Andy set to work pulling all this information together and making it work as a house. To date things are looking good and after a few changes we should soon be having the building plans drawn up and submitted for approval. With some luck we may start building early 2008.

We will keep you updated as to how thing go, the chances are that its going to be a headache but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

Update Jan 08

Our Plans went in on time and were passed first time with no alterations or amendments. Much credit to Andy and his great drawing and local knowledge of how to do things.

Anyway the plans are being quantified and should go out to tender by Mid Jan 08 and we should be in a position to choose a contractor in February with an ASAP start date. We would like to move in to the lower floor by Christmas 2008 with the top floor to be completed in 2009