The Meeting and Level 2

After last weeks rather glum post, I'm happy to say that works are still progressing, meetings are being conducted to hammer out the costings, and compromises sought. There is no doubt that certain areas of the build are significantly over-priced compared to Soren's build schedule, who met my project manager during the week to examine his costings. Just for clarification and contrast.

Due to personal issues and commitments, all parties have yet to sit around the same table. However, I am assured that during the week these meetings will take place on the back of the many phone calls and emails of the past week. Getting to the source of the issue (and concern) is something that seems to be getting lost in translation, and with that in mind, the first meeting is to be conducted between the architect and the builder, both native Portuguese speakers.

All this to-ing and fro-ing of course is stressful, so I have done my best to just disconnect from it, relax and think positive. Where there is a will, there is a way. Not "head in the sand" - oh, no. But I'm just trying to remember that the cultural approach on the Azores is very different (Que sera, sera) than that in the UK. Meanwhile, the build has ploughed ahead!

So, happy and positive, here are a few pictures from my project manager showing the significant progress, and high quality of the work undertaken since the last set of images two weeks ago.

Here we see a view from what will be the pedestrian access from the drive. On the left, next to the cement mixer, is the entrance porch. To the right of the wheelbarrow boards is what will be a little raised vegetable and herb garden and the bedroom sun-deck, and perhaps even room for temporary parking.

A view looking across the under-house parking and workshop. We can see that the side walls have been built and that black bitumen / sealant has been painted up to the nearest side wall. The yellow beam across the middle of the image to the beam on the far left shows the scope of the covered deck.

The black 'paint' shows where the soil infill will go, so the house will appear sculptured or inset into the terraces. Sweet.

This image is taken from the position of the bedroom. The red hose shows the rough position of the bedroom door, which will lead into the dining room, at the bottom of the stairs to the mezzanine.

I'm a bit confused where this is. But it looks meaty, beefy, big and bouncy.

Looking across the property towards the drive that slopes down past the newly re-built neighbours wall. The bases of the supporting pillars look huge.

This is the view from the back of the kitchen. The beam running across the middle of the image shows where the kitchen sink will be, and the window looking over the covered deck. The deck beyond is most definitely big enough for a nice table and BBQ / outside kitchen. Workshop is below the kitchen and deck. Big.

Kitchen-Diner position looking towards the Living Area and its associated covered deck. Car Parking situated underneath. I am super impressed with the sense of space and proportion. The architect is a genius. Although I did have a fair input, the original design is Ricardo's.

From the bottom of the stairs, looking towards the entrance porch / main door.

And that will be the dressing room, shower room and w.c.

The shower room. Hopefully the builders hut will be removed later :)

So, as you can see from the latest images, the build is looking very good indeed. It is sitting very well with its surroundings and nestling nicely into the hillside terraces. The quality of the work is obvious and the progress outstanding. Now those meetings...

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