Digging holes and dodging drama: why my pool was finished before my renovation even began
When I first saw my new house in Italy, I was so happy it already had a swimming pool. Not one that I fancied, but a permit for a new one would not be an issue. As you might remember from my first blog, it was the summer of 2023 when I drove to Italy to find a house. Lucky as I was, the owner gave me the opportunity to live here before I actually signed in September. As usual, it was a nice warm summer. The old pool was a muddy home for noisy frogs, and hard to fix. All in all, it confirmed my ideas to include a new pool in the first budget calculations.
When I invest in a house, I know my available budget is never enough to renovate a house to my liking, but it never stops me from buying it. I buy it because it feels good, because it is a reasonably safe investment, and not to ensure a profit in the future or a future pension. I always go all in, and it has never disappointed me.
However, times are changing. In todays world, the future is unsure, economics are ‘wobbly’ and so are the fundamentals of our financial system. I don’t envy young professionals today who are starting a career and perhaps a family. It is the first generation in a long time (if not ever) that will not automatically have more financial ease than their parents. The word ‘automatically’ is key here. The opposite is true as well; there are more chances for any individual to be wealthy in a couple of years time than ever before. Anyway, I digress a bit, but my point here is that investing in real estate the way I have done several times in the past does not guarantee the same secure investment in the future.
The fact that the world is changing (in more ways than one) made me look for another country to invest in. The housing market in the Netherlands had gone crazy (and still is). Secondly, I wanted to continue life without a commitment to a bank. Freedom and at least one set of stones to be mine to live in. That was my idea. It turned out a bit different: bigger, better and more risky?
Risky, not because my budget is too small for my ideas with the house and its land, but this time, I am not willing to sell. This one is to keep as a family home. That decision pushes me to open up to a new phase.
I have invested 12 years of my life to gain my inner freedom (best investment ever) whilst generating waves of income through buying/renovating/selling to sustain my living. Now it is time to gain income in different ways. It is a welcoming push for me as it has opened me up to new ways of investing, of which one is the house itself. Most logical would be to turn it into a B&B, but that is an absolute no for me. I am not born to be a host like that, but I do want to share the place with others. One way is to open up to digital nomads who want to slow down for a couple of weeks and enjoy the supporting tranquility and energy while working remotely. Secondly, is the idea of a Business Sanctuary for those who want to dive deeper and learn more about Authentic Leading & Living. Most likely it will be a mix of the two. With that in mind, and wanting the comfort for us as a family, a new pool is a given.
As any renovation, it starts with getting a permit to ensure plans can be executed. No need yet to define the level of luxury for the bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, but I did need to define the size and location of the pool, a rough plan about the terraces & garden and ofcourse the floor maps of the house itself.
For the pool, I was restricted to the same location as the current one, which was good anyway. I like a pool to be quite close to the house, specifically to the kitchen and connected to the main terraces. Then there was the size and shape to define. As I want to use the pool to do laps as my morning excercises, the pool had to be a minimum of 12 meters in length and 3 meters wide, which resulted finally in 15 meters long and 4 meters wide. I included a solarium, a shallow part to bath and relax.
The permit to renovate was easily obtained but there was another challenge. The previous owner of the house had hired an engineer to come up with a solution to fix a constructual issue. A special company was needed to execute the work and everything had to be done via this engineer. I decided to get a second opinion, which gave a slightly different but more simple solution. I decided to go for the second one and combined it with the pool as I needed a digger and a lot of concrete for both jobs.
While the team had just started with the first job, a new engineer ( via my geometra) came by to make calculations and a detailed drawing for the pool. I asked him his opinion about the issues with the foundation and he came with a different insight, which was later confirmed by another engineer. Conclusion: there is no issue with the foundation itself, there is a weak spot in one of arches and the vaulted ceilings which must be fixed differently.
Now what, I had signed a contract. I would never have started with new terraces if it wasn’t for fixing the foundation. However, the old terrace was gone, living in a mud pool for a year didn’t feel like a good option, so the terraces needed to be finished.
The contractor I hired wasn’t willing to lower the price we agreed upon due to less work as he argued the work was still the same. Mmmm…a big red flag. Mind you, I hired this man as a new dutch friend who lived in the region had recommended him. As she had lots of experience with renovation projects, I trusted her.
To compensate for less work (foundation), I added extra terraces and continued working with the contractor. Soon another issue came up. The contracter I hired wasn’t pleased at all that there were new contractors and engineers involved in other parts of the house. He literally said that if I would hire other people for other work, he would not build the swimming pool for me. I don’t like to be pushed in any way and I never promised him the whole job. Long story short, we ended in a conflict and my so called dutch friend stood behind him. He left being paid a lot, without doing any work for it himself. His collaborating partner, Miri, offered to finish the terrace according to the contract. As I understood, he was never paid either. Needless to say, they don’t work together anymore and I never saw her again.
Classic rookie mistake of starting a project abroad. I had a new terrace, no pool, a big hole, lost money and it was end of April.
Time to rethink. What is the next move? With the disappointment of the first contractor, I decided to take more time for the renovation of the house itself. I had lived here for almost a year and although I would love to make the loft my space to live, I also realised the house was already very comfortable. Do I have even need the renovation? What if I don’t continue with the business sanctuary idea and just do basic fixes, my financial situation will be very different!
Whatever I would do with the house, I concluded, I wanted to have a new swimming pool and as quickly as possible. Why would I wait? It was less than 2 months before the summer would start and I had quite some visits planned. Much more fun with a pool when it is 30 degrees.
I negotiated a new deal with the same swimming pool company and Miri. In this way, Miri would still earn his money and I (probably) paid a bit more to compensate his loss on the first job. I can’t blame him and he helped me a lot.
A very tight planning, 6 weeks to be precise, which turned into a short 8 weeks, but they did it! I changed the combination of the tiles and pool lining to ensure the right delivery times, and I am so happy I did. The final result is so much better.
On the 9th of July, I filled the pool with water, and while Miri still worked on the terrace around the pool, we had our first swim!
What an absolute joy to have this swimming pool and the new terraces! The summer was filled with visits, nice dinners, a little pool party with the neighbours and almost daily laps in the morning. And best of all, while the renovation with an already limited budget still needs to start, the pool can’t be ‘budgeted out’ anymore J.