Detached Luxury Villas with Swimming pools - Walkable to Elounda
Diary of the Build of three new villas in Elounda Crete
Elounda Villas or more correctly Villas close to the upmarket town of Elounda, are notoriously difficult to find. Crete Property Information are currently marketing just three luxury two bedroom houses a few minutes stroll from Elounda. Elounda is established as a cosmopolitan town, with a wealth of high quality hotels. The Elounda Beach Hotel as well as the newer porto Elounda and Elounda Mare are all example of high quality luxury hotels close to these villas.
The plot the villas are on was purchased last year, 2006, and as you can see, even at ground floor level, this was the worst view from the plot ! Planning permission was applied for almost as soon as the plot contract was complete. In Elounda this is the real problem - finding a good plot for sale in the Elounda area Crete Property information were proud to be able to assist in finding such a good plot for sale and also such a useful developers plot so close to Elounda. December 2006With the contract finished, now the thoughts are turned to the design of the Villas in Elounda. It is important that the villas are designed to have good sea views and so the decision is made the houses will have the living room and kitchen upstairs and the bedrooms downstairs - an "upside down" house if you like !
January 2007
The villas are to be two bedroom , with an open plan Kitchen with a large useful basement, which will also be tiled and plastered allowing a multitude of uses. Of primary importance is to keep as much of the olive grove as possible and before the build can start all the existing Olive and Almond trees are counted ,measured and the houses planned around them. Of the 42 Olive trees on the plot the architect has designed a plan that needs to remove only three of them, so we are left with thirty nine on the plot, spread between the Villas. As well as some almond trees and a huge Carob at the entrance to the olive grove villas in elounda. The retention of the trees whilst ecologically is important, will also give the villas the feeling of being established that so many development properties quite simply do not have.
February 2007
Site Plan of the villas including the location of all of the existing trees
The architect has received planning permission and so the building can start immediately. The dimensions of the houses are marked on the ground, ready for Giorgios, the excavation expert to start the foundations for the first house.Within 50 cm , solid bedrock is hit and so two excavators are needed on site to minimise the need to keep changing from concrete breaker to a "scoop". The excavation of the basement pays close attention to the existing countours of the land to ensure the villas blend in with the beautiful surrounding environment as much as possible.With the excavation for house C complete, the shuttering for the concrete for the basement can start. The concrete to be used for structural elements on the properties is graded at C25. No corners are cut on the build with the highest specifications used as detailed by the architect and static engineer who calculated the concrete requirements.
Even with a plot this size, of half an acre, so much rubble is removed on the excavation that it is removed by lorry and transported to another site closeby in Plaka where it is being used to level a plot for landscaping around a house.
February 28th 2007 The first house has all the concrete finished and the brickwork can now start whilst the shuttering starts on house B The bricks are delivered on a huge lorry, its amazing how many bricks are needed for the house .They are delivered and craned off on to the first floor by the lorry, we can see real progress now with the two villas coming out of the ground. The brickwork goes up quite quickly and defines the spaces in the villas and now they really start to come to "life" . The views from the first floor living area are lovely and it is clearly a good idea to put the living room upstairs to fully appreciate the delighful mountain and sea views from the balconies. The plot for house A is clearly visible and it's surprising, considering how close to Elounda we are the size of each of the gardens for the Villas. It's pleasing that the architect has managed to allocate a good size plot for each villa as outside space is such an important part of living in the sun on an island like Crete. Costi and the rest of the "concrete crew" are still beavering away, but now on house B, only stopping for the mandatory coffee / frappe breaks ! The brickwork accelerates the feeling of creating a house, now that the skeleton is being filled by the brickwork. Every one meter of brickwork, a horizontal ring beam of structural grade concrete is tied into the main house skeleton for extra rigidity in line with guidance from the building reulations department and the static studies necessary for building in Crete.
March 2007House A now has the brickwork finished and in this photo you can clearly see the concrete ring beam in place for extra building strength. During construction, it is clear that on the stairway between the ground floor and the first floor living area the structural concrete for the apex roof creates an interesting design feature We were unsure what the architect meant in the plans by long high windows out the back but seeing them there, we were glad that we had the insight to trust his vision as they will be a great feature in the house. The windows of course will be double glazed and will include mosquito shutters and security shutters on all opening windows. The quality of the work throughout the build must be equal to this beautiful loocation just a few minutes walk to Elounda in such a peaceful olive grove and yet with great mountain and sea views.with the brickwork complete on house A and the shuttering all but finished on House B, the project is getting really exciting now and we look forward to starting the excavation for the swimming pool on house A.
The plot the villas are on was purchased last year, 2006, and as you can see, even at ground floor level, this was the worst view from the plot !
Within 50 cm , solid bedrock is hit and so two excavators are needed on site to minimise the need to keep changing from concrete breaker to a "scoop". The excavation of the basement pays close attention to the existing countours of the land to ensure the villas blend in with the beautiful surrounding environment as much as possible.
The first house has all the concrete finished and the brickwork can now start whilst the shuttering starts on house B
March 2007
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