Excited little bunnies is not referring to the meal of rabbit that we ate last night. We had arranged for our builder (Antoine) (who worked with us last year) to have a look at the attic space above us and discuss the work that needed doing. His summation, in three words, 'pas de problème' (no problem). We won't need an engineer, we now have the name of a master-of-works who will be able to see the applications through the national and local planning offices, and everything we wish to do is achievable, for a price of course. We spent an hour together, including clambering out onto the roof from the adjacent apartment, and discussed all the issues.
Antoine is a great guy and we trust him to do a good job. He certainly proved himself in the work he did for us last year. He is about to renovate the apartment downstairs we think to the same plan that we had him do for our apartment. We showed the new Parisian owners through our apartment a wee while ago and think they want to replicate what we have done rather than use their architect son's plans. Antoine also completely rebuilt the apartment upstairs and knows the building inside-out.
The next step is to get his estimate. It will either make or break the project. Onto his price we have to add the cost of the master-of-works, two planning consents, notaire for the legal paperwork, purchase price of the space from the body corporate, plumber and electrician, cost of materials that we install ourselves, e.g. plaster, paint, tiles etc. The total cost has to stack up, or get close to stacking up to the extra value the new bedroom and terrace will add to our apartment as a whole. I hope Antoine comes back with a price soon because we are pretty excited about the possibility. The views from up on the roof were wonderful, including a clear view of the famous Catalan mountain Canigou. This view is from half a level up above our proposed terrace, which will look due west directly at Canigou (under the clouds). Here's hoping...
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