Perseverance

As Sandy from View from Fes rightly said about my blog so succintly it is about the trials and tribulations of renovating in the Medina. I would like any prospective buyer with stars in their eyes to talk to those of us involved in this process to maybe help ease their passage through the potential minefield of permits and quotes, working schedules, standards of works and suchlike. It has not been easy but therein lies the challenge we set ourselves, as I said before its like giving birth when you say that was painful, never again, and then go on to have a healthy brood.

When you get on the finishing home staight which in reality I am on you have to pay so much attention to the fine details you are likely to bore your friends silly with talk of hold ups, toilet cisterns, fittings and such like and you can see their eyes glaze over. Of course its your personal project and like a mother will think her newborn is the most wonderful sprog in the whole world even if it looks like a wrinkled prune, so you have the ability to look beyond rubble to that gleaming palace that you dream about. Whether others can share that vision is another question but generaly those of us involved in a long sustained project can do that.

The important thing to remember is to get adequate breaks away when the schedule permits so that you come back refreshed in good spirits and hopefully see some good progress. This is where Chefchaouen comes into its own at just three hours away it is anther world, chilled and laid back and a perfect antidote to Fes work schedule.

So hows the work going, well slow but sure is the order of the day awaiting zellige to finish two bathrooms and then Abdelkadir with the boys sweeps into full tadelakt mode to give it the finising sheen. They have finished the menzeh bathroom in a beautiful biscuit colour and I have the raised sink and funky taps as in the photo ready to be plumbed in. Apparently they leave the tadelakt for fifteen days then give it a high polish to seal it completely should look great. Surprised at the number of visitors I have had recently purely to look at the tadelakt, not to see me, there has been Aussie Pete and Karen, Pizza Mike, Fred and Thierry from Laroussa and John and Jenny. I dont think anyone has seen Abdelkaddirs tadelakt before as he has his own style and i think he will be in great demand. His plasterwork is already renowned throughout the medina so there will be another string to his bow now.

Also have got beautiful marble plinths in two of the bathrooms and the apartment kitchen now has a black and white, of course, marble counter. Its all starting to look quite sharp. This morning the metal man arrived with the railings as in photo for the top terrace, he was very reasonably priced I thought at 1000 dirhams for his work and I paid for materials about 700 and the design complements the menzeh grilles below. Talking of quotes they can be wildly different. For instance the last project in the house is the basement area with two toilets and a storage room and largish open space with fountain in the corner and stairs up to main floor. An old builder quoted 20000 dh to finish it ages ago whereas Mohammed who is doing great finishing work round the house just quoted 2000 but I supply materials. At that price I think I could sprinkle the walls with gold dust and still be on budget. Always good to get several quotes especially if one is a tenth of another and the standard of work has been seen.