Building a dream house in Barbados might be many people’s idea of Paradise, but it takes as much patience and perseverance as any other self-build project. And that’s even before construction starts.
Two years after spotting our plot of land, we had found an architect and everything seemed to be going well. We’d hired an architect, paid a BDS$1500 retainer and were anxiously awaiting the first draft of the plans. It turned out to be a wait that would last a long time. Communication just wasn’t as regular as we had hoped – a big problem when you’re managing a build from overseas. It was obvious that we would have to find another solution, but we didn’t want to have to wait much longer.
Getting Back On Track
So how could we get the building project back on track? We looked up a couple of other architects and found someone I’d been at school with. (I know the island is small, but this was ridiculous.) Anyway, we asked for a quote and received a response by return – this was more like it!
Enter Trinity Homes, the off-the-shelf architectural design firm owned by Liz Cupples and her husband Chris, who project managed the Trinity Homes builds. A quick look at Trinity Homes website confirmed that we’d be able to find something we liked and Liz guaranteed that we’d be able to customise the chosen plan. This was more like it. Upfront costs were listed (off the shelf designs $1200-2000; submission to town planning $1500-2000) together with the areas where there might be overruns.
The Final Choice
We had also picked up a brochure for the new Platinum Heights development near the airport. This featured several Trinity Homes designs. We looked at several and finally narrowed it down to two. We liked the look of the Spring Garden, which was a sprawling bungalow, but we couldn’t see how to fit all we needed into it and the alterations would overrun us by some $15,000. A far better choice was the two storey Casafina, which would allow us to have our bedroom over the golf course. We would also be able to convert the garage space into a granny flat.
In just over a month we had an amended plan ready to send to town planning and our mortgage lender. All we had to do now was get planning permission and start building. Oh, if only it were so simple …
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