Renovation modus operandi

As the renovation continues and I find I am getting involved more and more on a daily basis with small but telling amendments to the plans and my personal vision I thought it time to explain my preferred modus operandi.

I am pretty new to this game and I dont want to make expensive mistakes so first of all you have to have what I call my secret weapons. These are people who I meet whos trust and judgement blends with mine and who generally become loyal friends. At present I have Monique at Riad Norma who has been through a 2 year reform; Abdelkaddir her multi lingual manager; Adil whos house I rent and a very sharp trader in antiques and carpets and Abdullah my right hand man always there to help in any situation. Top of the list of course Ben my conscientious and trustworthy house guardian who lives in the main house to keep an eye on everything that goes on there including a daily watchful eye on the builders.

To do a reform you can do everything yourself hire the workers personally; pay the donkeyman daily etc but i prefer to hire the best pay a bit extra and establish a chain of command. To this end I got Houssine a top architect to draw up full plans after constant revision. He in turn hired Tourate Fes a well respected medina building firm and my point of contact with them is the foreman Baccali who has good english and unerving ice blue eyes so he looks a bit scary but is on hand daily to organise the builders schedule and liase with me.

I find with these people and my secret weapons I can basically cover any crisis or decisions that have to be made which makes my role less stressful and the work process more harmonious. It also frees me up to be the man on the ground for friends and people who i have met who have bought or thinking of buying here. I can put people in touch with the relevant person to make their business dealings easier. Which reminds me in the buying process if you feel you need one get a good english speaking lawyer recommended by your embassy and very importantly get a good Adoul or notary he will make the difference to the length of time you wait to get those vital title deeds in your hand.