Last week of April we started our big inno-/renovation project.

Former Apartment ‘Blue Lagoon’ and it’s adjoining bedroom (hardly ever rented) were going to be split up in two separate studio’s (all in one, but spacious apartment). We planned carefully. Blue Lagoon was occupied till April 23rd.  And as soon as we waved our guests out we started phase 1: destruction 🙁

First make an entrance out of a window. Than move the existing wall between living and bedroom. Break it down an rebuild 1 meter further, thus creating an entrance to a , new to build, bathroom in an adjoining closet. Which also needs to be expanded.

You can imagine this was loud and annoying. We tried to bother our guests as little as possible and did most of the work (in 3 days) while they were out. Demolition day (getting the walls down) was very loud and dusty and we advised our guests beforehand to spend the whole day at the beach :-).  Still some decided to stay ‘at home’ and enjoy the pool.

To our guests in those noisy days:  Thank you for your flexibility and understanding.

Once the units were split up and the new wall was up we (temporarily) fixed Blue Lagoon, since we had some new guests coming in.  Than we started the construction of Caribbean Breeze, the new studio in the former bedroom.

This was quite a job!  Water and drains needed to be put in and for that we had to do some serious digging in the adjoining apartment “Sunshine”  Remove the kitchen, dig holes in walls and bathroom floor and, of course, fill it up again and re-install the kitchen.   Loads of work and time for something very important, but not directly visible. This is not the fun part of building 🙁

Finally:  All the groundwork was done and we could start with the fun part. Creation!

We made a kitchen out of pallet wood. (Well, actually Gio did of course) And we have great friends who popped in from time to time to lend a hand. Also, very important, Lola lent a paw or four during the whole project. Always interested in what Gio’s next move would be or ‘helping’ him, mainly getting stuff out of his reach and somewhere into the garden 🙂

After 2 months of frantic activity Caribbean Breeze was ready to receive guests!

Time to start converting ‘Blue Lagoon’ to ‘Coral Beach’.

Let’s start with an impression of Blue Lagoon so you can imagine the metamorphosis

Bar, walls, kitchen was removed. New tiles everywhere and a home made wooden kitchen was built. This all in 10 days time :-), working day and night.

But we made it!   Yesterday evening, 7 PM, only minutes before the arrival of our new guests, Coral Beach was ready!  We’re so proud and happy. After almost 3 months of building activity, we are finally (almost) ready and can take a small break.

Almost?  Yes, having your own business you are never really ‘ready’.  Still a lot of things on our to-do list, but for now we reached a goal and are planning to take it easy for at least a week 🙂

We proudly present the new studio: ‘Coral Beach’

At 5 o’clock sharp everybody gathers on the terrace. Dinner time.  Not only our dogs Tina and Lola have a built in clock. Stoffel, our biggest turtle, daddy of a whole bunch of small ones, can also tell the time.