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Author Topic: design your own accomodation  (Read 19087 times)

Offline paleo

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design your own accomodation
« on: November 22, 2003, 10:36:23 PM »
My wife and I have just bought a small plot about 10 mins from the beach at the 'far end'. We are about to design a small residence and a few rooms (studios) to let out. I'm taking soundings for what you'd like in holiday accomodation (and what you wouldn't).

My own wishlist (which I intend to design to) includes

- 2 beds plus comfortable sofa bed
- Large secluded private balconies with sea and sunset view (even if this means slightly smaller rooms) (that is the baclconies will not be overlooked)
- Solid well thought-out WC/shower
- Kitchen area includes microwave, kettle and good set of utensils
- radio (TV??)
- internet??

So now's your chance to state your ideas

Paleo

Offline compage

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« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2003, 10:14:39 AM »
Hello Paleo.  Welcome to Plakias Forums.

Good luck with your venture.  I envy you.

2 beds?  If you mean 2 single beds that sounds OK.  Most of your target customers will be couples.  2 double beds would also be OK but I suspect your studios would be under-occupied most of the time.  We prefer a double bed but 2 singles are also acceptable.
The sofa bed is a good idea too.  Somewhere comfortable to sit (or lie) in the day other than on the beds is a nice luxury in a studio.

The large private balconies are an excellent idea.  As you must know, many visitors to Plakias like to get the maximum exposure and it would be quite a selling point to have truly private balconies.

I would really appreciate a good shower/WC room.  So many are very small and poorly equipped.  Do make sure there are plenty of places to hang or put things.  Separation between the shower area and the basin area would be good.  Just so that the basin area floor is not wet when the shower is used.

Kettle and microwave are good ideas for the kitchen.  So few people use an oven it may save money to leave that out.

Don't bother with radio or TV.

It would be a good idea to make the Internet available if you have access to an 'always on' connection.  Don't put in wiring, use a wireless access point.  Do not provide computer(s).

Hope this helps.

John.
John Page

Offline Yvonne

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« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2003, 08:56:50 AM »
Wow!!  How wonderful!  At present, we stay at the Anthos Apartments which are very well appointed.  There is a television there (which we have never used).  I don't personlly think that internet access is essential as it is available in the village for those who wish to use it.  There is also a small oven at the Anthos, there again never used by us, but I think we would use a microwave.  For the ladies, please consider a fitted hairdryer.  Plenty of electric points could also be a consideration, and if the shower has a curtain - the Anthos has them, although I have never found them in other places in Crete (or Greece) for that matter.  For the rest I would go along with John.  Good luck, I look forward to hearing of your progress.
Yvonne

Offline RobM.

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« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2003, 05:20:16 PM »
I'd go for satellite TV BUT make the stations available decent ones! A number of times I have seen places advertise that and then deliver two fuzzy picture stations and one in Turkish or something equally useful  

News, sport in English at least I'd say.

Kitchen utensils - not many really - who cooks indoors when eating out is so cheap? BUT Don't forget a corkscrew - and a spare corkscrew too!    
Oh and some local maps.

Offline Graham_and_Karen

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« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2003, 10:41:37 PM »
Dear Paleo,
Good luck in your venture - response to your ideas -
- 2 beds plus comfortable sofa bed
2 Single beds are fine - you can always push them together!
- Large secluded private balconies with sea and sunset view (even if this means slightly smaller rooms) (that is the baclconies will not be overlooked)
Good idea - clothes are an inconvenience to be avoided whenever possible.
- Solid well thought-out WC/shower
Yes - I'm always getting the blame for flooding the bathroom!
- Kitchen area includes microwave, kettle and good set of utensils
Microwave might be useful although we rarely cook while we are on holiday. A small freezer compartment in the fridge is useful.
- radio (TV??)
Never been tempted to switch a radio or TV on.
- internet??
Not for us - if we wanted to email we would do it from Ostraco's

Important for us is:
Plenty of hangers in the wardrobe
Enough drawer space
Shelves or a cabinet for toiletries in the bathroom

Offline Susan K

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« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2003, 08:34:58 AM »
Hello Paleo and welcome

I stay at the far end of the village because its more peaceful and I would welcome more choice of accommodation.  My choice of accommodation would include:-

1. Good size balcony where you can watch the sun go down with sea view.    

2. Plenty of hanging space as I always seem to bring too much!

3. Kettle.

4. A full length mirror (I have never had one yet)

5. A socket near a mirror for drying my hair

6. A decent light in the room.

7. A mirror over the bathroom sink which isn't placed to high (Please note that not  everyone is 6 feet tall) and a decent light so my husband can have a shave.

8. A Bathroom cabinet to store everything.

9. A cold fridge with ice box to store the essential cold drinks.

I would rather have a big studio than a small one bed apartment. Something bright and light would be perfect.

Personally, I would rather there were no tv/radio/internet because not only would I not use them as I go away to escape everything, but I would be concerned that some people may not be as considerate as others and we may be forced to listen to music (greek music is the exception) or whichever major sporting event (football for example) was on the TV.    

When are you planning on completing the accommodation and will there be a web site so we have a look?

Hope it all goes well and don't forget to keep us posted.

Susan

Offline paleo

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« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2003, 12:54:37 PM »
First of all thanks for the replies so far.

One big mistake would be for me to design it for my own requirements - all I do when I get there is unload my guitar (tiny travel guitar), my laptop and books then look for somewhere to park the case full of clothes which I never use.

The bed issue is a good one. I now carry cord to tie the inevitable twin beds together then try to make a spine with a sheet or blanket to bridge the gap between the matresses. Intuitively I feel a double would be better most of the time. I guess maybe a double plus two futon-type convertible chairs (instead of a sofa bed) might be flexible enough. The problem with that though is for a family of say 2+2 they'd probably want the twins in the 'bedroom' area and the double in the living area. - Hey ho - no problems - just opportunities.

My survival toolkit now also contains a 'leatherman' multi-tool, gaffer tape and a wire coathanger - mainly to 1) fix up the shower head so it stays up on the wall and 2) the toilet ballcock 1/2 of which seem to jam open and trickle all night. Other pet hates I'd want to get rid of are toilet pans fixed too near the cistern so the seat doesnt stay up and toilet roll holder directly in the firing line of the shower. None of these are show-stoppers - just minor niggles. Lots of comments about the bathroom and fittings so this is obviously a key area. Re hairdrier - good point. Big mirrors - another good point.

Secluded balconies with sunset views - I'm glad this meets with your approval. We also like to lose our stripes on holiday. I'm struggling a bit to come up with a plan that doesn't look too much like squash courts but actually the walls don't really need to be higher than average eye height with maybe a row of plants along the top. Maybe I could fit a couple of beach-style loungers in - hmm. What I'd really like to achieve is a shaded pergola area just outside - almost a room on its own then an open sunny patio area. (To get a idea of where the plot is by the way - stand at the peligremnos??? and look up the slope towards the mountains but slightly in the direction of the headland between Plakias and Damnoni - and its on a local high point) That means it overlooks the bay directly towards the sunset.

Kitchen - well, an oven's out (good) but kettle and microwave stay in (this is like room 101). We actually eat in most of the time - I just find it so convenient to have piles of olives, tomatoes, spinach pies and feta in the fridge and merge a long lunch with a siesta. (Note - must have good sized fridge - to take fruit juice and mineral water)

TV Radio and Internet - The negative points would be that they'd all add clutter if not used so maybe the solution is to wire the place for cable then offer them as extras. I'll probably have a wireless system for myself anyway (I've been a programmer for over 35 years and I always seem to have 1/2 dozen machines about the place (at least 2 just for music recording)). Good point about noise leaking through but we've never had noisy neighbours (but maybe thats because there was no radio). Personally I feel little inclination to follow news etc on holiday (actually not just on holiday). In the rare cases when we've had TV I usually put a greek station on. Even though I only get about one word in 100 I think it helps to get the 'flow' (BTW theres an online greek station if you like this idea at http://62.25.96.7:8025/listen.pls )

Electrical points - anyone know if sockets are the same in Germany as they are in Greece. ( I am considering putting in a couple of UK style sockets (and German if they are not the same as Greek). I'm assuming that that would be so easy if done during the initial building phase).

Storage - How do you feel about under-bed storage - It always seems like unused space and space is what I'm trying to manage. Up to now my designs have been short of hanging space but its obviously something I need to include.

And now for the big question about space - the size of the rooms. WE simply don't need space on holidays - especially if the patio is big and has a shady pergola. Can any of you give me an idea of the size in square meters which you think is the minimum. I'm flipping between small and not so small. The biggest studio we've been in was 45sqm but most of that was unused. We've heard of some in Plakias as small as 18sqm but thats tight. At the moment I have 2 plans one 25sqm, one 33sqm but of course I only get 3 of the 33sqm studios for each 4 of the 25sqm types. I'l be publishing the proposed plans in due course. (One reason I'm waiting is that there is a cyber-squatter sitting on the web-site name I want and he wants £500 for it - !*^%") In the meantime I'd welcome any comments on sizes of studios you've been in.

Till next time - Paleo

(I know it should really be Yeros not Paleo but I've just been catching up on Matrix 1 and 2 so Paleo seemed better)

Offline paleo

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« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2004, 01:16:47 AM »
We got back a month ago. Its the first time we set foot on our land since we bought it. It turns out that the seller took all his irrigation pipes when he sold us the land so the olive trees have been neglected since last year. Anyway we've formed a collaboration with a prominent local olive grower who has by now re-installed the black plastic irrigation pipes (i hope) and will look after the trees. They're quite young so it'll still be a year or so until we get olive oil.

We're still not ready to start building yet and are dithering about which way to go. We're starting to think that if we want to spend Spring and Autumn there and not be there in the busiest (and hottest) period then maybe the best way to go is to abandon rooms and build a 3 or 4 bedroom villa which we can rent out in the Summer.

We're also looking at  having it built in stone rather than the regular concrete - but that option is quite a bit more expensive.

I posted to another forum that this time we booked a car through Olympic Holidays and it was cheaper than our usual deal with Adonis at Anso - Ha - so it was until we had to pay another 84 Euros inurance at the airport.

Incidentally we were there for the footbal final - great evening. I've got a bit of video of the subsequent celebrations which I'm re-formatiing to put on the web at some point - with a few shots of our land.

Offline Noopsy

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« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2004, 08:37:43 PM »
I wasn't a member of this Forum when the initial consultation exercise was held, but as I see you haven't starting building yet, hope I'm not too late in adding my tuppence:

1. We NEVER cook on holiday so personally I would prefer it if the rooms were modelled on those found in hotels, i.e. no kitchenette etc.  This would free space and enable you to have much more spacious rooms as well as large balconies.

2.  However, a mini-bar in all the rooms is a must.  To guests they offer the convenience of having cold drinks on hand.  And they turn in a handsome profit to the property owner.

Noopsy
Ελευθερία ή θάνατος

Offline paleo

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« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2005, 11:15:30 AM »
We just got back from P 2 weeks ago - I think we were the first there but there were a few more tourists towards the end of the 2 weeks. First week was a bit drizzly but week 2 was warm getting towards hot at times

Took the first plunge on 12th March - V freezing - but we had a half dozen swims in all - of course no-one else in water and max 2 people on beach. Bulldozer arrived 1/2 way through to clean away the winter's debris.

Stayed few nights at Gio-Ma then on to Thetis when they opened, where Niko and Espacia plied us with their home produced olives and olive oil

Mousses restaurant opened while we were there - the only one except Gio-Ma. Georgia and Adonis's Xekoristo open as usual and Niko's souvlaki fish and chips place opened for the last week - his mother's spanakopita v delicious as usual.

Got a very nice car from Haris at Motoplakias - he's also installed new irrigation pipes on our land and has added fertiliser (organic) to the trees - sadly last year's snow and the previous neglect of the trees meant no olives this year - bad year all round for olives I hear.

We caught the start of the Greek pre-Easter Lent so went to the Rethymnon carnival - noisy as usual and next day ('clean monday' - no meat or cheese) Niko and Espacia provided us with the traditional flat seed bread and tarama.

The little church behind Thetis was undergoing some restoration and apparently they found some old painting behind the plaster - we wait to find out what has been revealed.

Did ritual trip to Sfakia for sfakia pie (100 precipitous miles for a couple of cheese pancakes but we always go to the same place)

Spent a lot of time talking to people building/restoring houses and getting pictures for our architect - to show him the kind of thing we like. People were very friendly when I went up and told them I liked their house and could we take pictures. Last visit I took pix of one house (Greek family from Athens) and then we were asked in - out came the coffee, biccies and melon and we were there for about 2 hours - met the daughter, the grannie and got adresses of builders - phone number for the family home in Athens etc etc.

Met up  with architect/engineer a few times and got the first plans. We've decided to change tack and not build rooms. Instead we've designed a flexible 4 bedroom villa which can be split up in different ways to accomodate varying numbers of us and our 3 adult sons and partners so the remaining rooms can be isolated and let out if we decide to do that, We're in the process of refining the design. Currently it looks like the main part will have 3 beddrooms - 2 of them can be locked off and have own entrances and will be en-suite but no cooking. Then there'll be a stand-alone but connected studio with en-suite and cooking.

Neither of us particularly wanted a swimming pool (prefer the sea) but the advice is for letting it's a big plus and now we've seen a couple the idea is growing - looks like we're having a pool. Also looks like it may have to be conventional build - the guys who build stone houses no longer work in the south - hey ho.

Due to go back start of June with full tribe of sons, girlfriends etc to help us make the final decision on the plans - then it'll just be the long wait while it gets built.

Wife Liz has been going to Greek evening classes but I got a contract that meant I had to drop out but I'm picking things up (I DID find and buy the land and haggle the price in Greek (armed with 2 dictionaries and a couple of phrase books)). Crete Uni does concentrated 'Greek for foreigners' courses in the Summer so maybe I'll go over and do one of those.

And that , as they say, is the end of the news.

More later

Offline harribobs

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« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2005, 12:03:45 AM »
excellent stuff Paleo, keep us informed and good luck  

Offline JBMouse

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« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2005, 02:59:42 PM »
It's great to hear of someone prepared to make the move abroad, good luck with the venture, my wife and I would certainly be interested in booking when it is all finished (the british definition of finished, not the Greek!)
A swimming pool to cool off in is a definate need, as is Air Conditioning, a MUST HAVE, although we are willing to pay for the use, sleeping at night in the summer without A/c would be impossible, not to mention the intrusion of mosquitoes and other bugs.
Good luck!

Offline paleo

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« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2005, 11:45:52 AM »
Re air conditioning - my architect is getting a bit of a culture shock. I'm tring to figure out a way of using Photovoltaics to generate electricity during the day so as to power the a/c at night. As usual storing the electricity is the problem. In the UK you can push it back into the national grid during the day and pull it back out at night ( the price you get for pushing it in is of course less that the pull-out price - HMM) but they do not have that system yet in crete. More research needed.

Offline harribobs

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« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2005, 11:52:14 AM »
Photovoltaics??

i've only just mastered the two pin plug adapter!

Offline paleo

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« Reply #14 on: April 11, 2005, 12:00:29 PM »
We met up with on chap who's nearly finished renovating a house on the Mariou / Asomatos road - pure Crete on the outside and pure UK country cottage on the inside with oak beams etc. and every socket is imported UK square pin so that solves that problem