Friday 17 July 2015

Building the Dream

Beach living

Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming about living on a beach, far from the hustle and bustle of city life? Waking up to the sound of the waves lapping on the shore. Wearing nothing but a bikini, sarong and flip-flops. My partner and I are lucky enough to live in Bali and yet we yearned to get away from the crowds and to live in a quiet spot by the sea. Here we are today, building a beach house on a relatively unexplored Indonesian island. This is our story!

our beach house
Back at university in Malta, my friends and I were assigned the task of analyzing a production process. We opted to research the steps involved in the construction of a house in Malta. It was challenging and fascinating all at once since none of us had any previous experience in this field. 



Fast forward twenty years...and here I am working with my partner in visualizing, designing and supervising the construction of a beach house. He has years of experiencing doing this so I'm lucky!  

views to the south
To be fair, the wooden skeleton structure was built by the landlord over a year before we decided to lease the property and embark on this exciting project. While the house is located on a relatively remote beach, we have managed to secure an electricity connection from the nearby fishing village. This has enabled us to mobilise a workforce of nine Indonesian tradesmen to help us turn our vision into reality.

views across the bay
Sea water is available in abundance on our doorstep. However, fresh water is still being sought as the third attempt at drilling an artesian well is underway. 


So here we are in a foreign land explaining fairly technical ideas in a foreign language to people who are unfamiliar with Western interior design and architecture. 

Frustrating, challenging, hilarious, exasperating, mind-boggling, heart-warming…words cannot describe the feelings we experience on a daily basis.

If you are thinking of building your dream home in a foreign land or you are just curious to know what crazy adventures you can encounter while living the dream, then follow us as our project unfolds.



reef at low tide


view of the neighbourhood

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