From the low point of not knowing where or how to move forward, June has seen us making great strides at last…I say this in a whisper as I am all too aware of the frailty of our position…at any moment it could all go wrong..or that’s how it feels.“Have faith daddy”…thanks Finn!
Things hit an all time low at the end of last month when, just as we were thinking of putting our plans in to the baladier for authorisation, our architect suddenly, and after months of working with us, decided that he would now inform us that if we wanted to open a maison d’hote, we’d need to build a second stair case through the house and add another exit!!!!
Beccie takes some time out to wonder if it's all worth it?
He proposed putting the staircase through the fountain and quite frankly there is nowhere to put the other exit. Thus we finally ended the month forelorn and almost broken.
But, as if by magic, we came across a couple of people who advised us to think differently. Be Moroccan about it. Thus, our current idea is to complete all the work, but for a maison prive, and then discuss this (sic, provide enticements) to the authorising commission.
We try to organise ourselves in a local cafe.It’s weird here, everyone tells you not to worry. “NO” means that you have gotten it wrong, there should never be a “NO”, there ‘s always a way..which is to say, there’s always a price!
Now one of the major differences here, as opposed to say UK, is that in the UK no means no. here it means, “let me help you find another way”.
Thus we went to the baladier to submit our plans for a maison prive and were advised not to ask for a roxa, that is to say, a request to do structural work, but rather to work on a V2, which is used to do superficial building.
Beccie at the baladiers....but where's the baladier?“But I am going to do structural work”, I protested. Yes but noone needs to know that, and I’ll tell anyone who might snoop around…not to, OK? If you try a roxa, you’ll meet the commission and they are 15 hungry and thirsty people. Why make things so difficult for your self?
Good question!
Remember Finn, always listen to local knowledge!
Thus we found ourselves not only with a friend in the baladiers office, but also with our plans ready to go..at last!
Beccie at the architects with our plans.So at last we managed to get started working and with the help of Alamy and several other friends here who had tried and trusted teams, we developed a new cohort of workers and started back in to the fray.
This has now seen us knocking down walls, putting in new bath rooms and managing to realise that at the very least several of our walls are completely rotten.But my god it has been fun. Fun just getting on with it. Fun seeing things move forward. Fun knocking the shit out of things and feeling good about it. Vid of knocking walls down.
Thus we have managed to redo all of the walls done by previous jokers, complete the grattage of the whole house, take out the top floor kitchen and create a wonderful seating space with windows on to Fez,build bathrooms on both sides and begin the rebuild of the empty shafts in to new bathrooms for which Beccie has been fully involved.
Unfortunately we’ve made enemies with our rather larger neighbours to the left, facing Fez, who are far from friendly and seem intent on trying to screw any amount of cash possible out of us...so far to no avail.
Now this has proved to be something of a problem, I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out but, they are what might be called a bunch of screamers and have been over in to our place, screaming shouting and at one point throwing bricks at our team!
I’ve tried to talk with them, but they respond as if caught up in the middle of a Motorhead gig…AT FULL VOLUME!...and that is to say all of them, and they are legion..or at least there are 56 of them..yes that’s 56 in the one house…no wonder they’re screaming!
But at least we’re making progress.
What has also happened is that I’ve managed to get fully involved in the purchasing of all of our materials, thus hopefully bringing us significant savings. Even here or I suppose especially here, you have to keep your wits about you. Yes Finn, watch out “they’re always out to get you!!” (but don’t let me make you paranoid..do that for yourself.)
In good old fashioned INGO style, I set out to get three prices for all materials and that really worked in getting as good a price for things like bricks, sand (there are two types), cement (again 2 types), gravel, lime, etc.
I’ve also found myself managing to get lots of things like wood and RSJs second hand. It’s amazing what you can find if you look for it. Aladins cave.
Thus we save money and reduce our environmental impact…WIN!
But you’ve got to be careful. Obviously being a foreignor never helps you get anything cheaper here, but eyes in the back of your head, is the choicest phrase.
A case in point was buying second hand wood. Having haggled for about an hour with the owners of aforementioned wood in temperatures of 40+ degrees, I got them to send the 40 or so pieces to the car, only to find, when it got there that they’d changed some of the best bits for …less good! At 40 degrees there’s only so much you can do in a mixture of sign language and Deriger, to a group of second hand wood dealers intent on misunderstanding you!
So the next time I stayed with the wood whilst it was sent to the car, making sure that what was sent was what I’d bought. But then when I got to the car…you guessed it, there were several pieces missing. This time I went back and got them, but it’s as it is…shark infested out there!
Thus we have managed to redo all of the walls done by previous jokers, complete the grattage of the whole house, take out the top floor kitchen and create a wonderful seating space with windows on to Fez,build bathrooms on both sides and begin the rebuild of the empty shafts in to new bathrooms for which Beccie has been fully involved.
Unfortunately we’ve made enemies with our rather larger neighbours to the left, facing Fez, who are far from friendly and seem intent on trying to screw any amount of cash possible out of us...so far to no avail.Now this has proved to be something of a problem, I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out but, they are what might be called a bunch of screamers and have been over in to our place, screaming shouting and at one point throwing bricks at our team!
I’ve tried to talk with them, but they respond as if caught up in the middle of a Motorhead gig…AT FULL VOLUME!...and that is to say all of them, and they are legion..or at least there are 56 of them..yes that’s 56 in the one house…no wonder they’re screaming!
But at least we’re making progress.
What has also happened is that I’ve managed to get fully involved in the purchasing of all of our materials, thus hopefully bringing us significant savings. Even here or I suppose especially here, you have to keep your wits about you. Yes Finn, watch out “they’re always out to get you!!” (but don’t let me make you paranoid..do that for yourself.)
In good old fashioned INGO style, I set out to get three prices for all materials and that really worked in getting as good a price for things like bricks, sand (there are two types), cement (again 2 types), gravel, lime, etc.
I’ve also found myself managing to get lots of things like wood and RSJs second hand. It’s amazing what you can find if you look for it. Aladins cave.Thus we save money and reduce our environmental impact…WIN!
But you’ve got to be careful. Obviously being a foreignor never helps you get anything cheaper here, but eyes in the back of your head, is the choicest phrase.
A case in point was buying second hand wood. Having haggled for about an hour with the owners of aforementioned wood in temperatures of 40+ degrees, I got them to send the 40 or so pieces to the car, only to find, when it got there that they’d changed some of the best bits for …less good! At 40 degrees there’s only so much you can do in a mixture of sign language and Deriger, to a group of second hand wood dealers intent on misunderstanding you!So the next time I stayed with the wood whilst it was sent to the car, making sure that what was sent was what I’d bought. But then when I got to the car…you guessed it, there were several pieces missing. This time I went back and got them, but it’s as it is…shark infested out there!
Of course Habiby has played her part..thank goodness she’s a strong old lady. Pic of habs with bars.
And of course we’ve managed to begin sourcing materials from artisans such as metal and wood.
Despite the looming issues with our neighbours, and they are definitely not getting any better, this month
has felt like real progress…at long last. It feels good to go in and be getting some where…I wonder how long that will last?
The problem is that once the work gets going you have to make all sorts of decisions quickly. Decisions about which you..I simply know nothing. I thought the mualem would know everything, but then they ask ma…as if I should know..do they have any idea that the last house I build was made of lego!
But apart from that we’ve had all sorts of other adventures. It’s been the Fez sacred Music which was wonderful to enjoy, and you, young man were seen on TV wiggling about by the TV watching public of Morocco. Personal highlights were the Sufi nights at (of course) Dar Tazi..the real Dar Tazi, where the crowd go in to amazing trances and group chanting to absolutely amazingingly hypnotic and rhythmic music…would go down well at a rave near you… Will you be raving Finn?
Then we also managed to go to a wedding in Chaouen. I met a guy called John Paul on the boat back to Sete last year. He had a landy, had a house in Xaouen, was expecting a baby, was born in Oct 1963, and decided to marry his (Berber) wife, whilst travelling in Morocco. 
We decided that the similarities meant that we should stay in touch and thus we went up to his, for a truly amazing wedding. Again highlights were the music and watching Berber women dressed in the most splendid dresses gyrating frantically again to Sufi trance.
It was also great to go up to our land and enjoy the trees and water falls/pools. God it’s gorgeous, I can’t wait to start building there.
And you made new friends with a man who asked if you wanted to see his Kif farm! Bit young I thought.
And as for you young Finley, highlights for you are that you have started to use the potty, which is an important skill to learn and you've started to crawl…and as any parent out there knows…that’s the beginning of a whole new phase of ooooohhhhh where is he now?
I suppose that ends sometime around your mid 40s, at least it did with me. Well maybe it didn’t end, maybe people just stopped asking.
And of course we’ve managed to begin sourcing materials from artisans such as metal and wood.
Despite the looming issues with our neighbours, and they are definitely not getting any better, this month
has felt like real progress…at long last. It feels good to go in and be getting some where…I wonder how long that will last?The problem is that once the work gets going you have to make all sorts of decisions quickly. Decisions about which you..I simply know nothing. I thought the mualem would know everything, but then they ask ma…as if I should know..do they have any idea that the last house I build was made of lego!
But apart from that we’ve had all sorts of other adventures. It’s been the Fez sacred Music which was wonderful to enjoy, and you, young man were seen on TV wiggling about by the TV watching public of Morocco. Personal highlights were the Sufi nights at (of course) Dar Tazi..the real Dar Tazi, where the crowd go in to amazing trances and group chanting to absolutely amazingingly hypnotic and rhythmic music…would go down well at a rave near you… Will you be raving Finn?
Then we also managed to go to a wedding in Chaouen. I met a guy called John Paul on the boat back to Sete last year. He had a landy, had a house in Xaouen, was expecting a baby, was born in Oct 1963, and decided to marry his (Berber) wife, whilst travelling in Morocco. 
We decided that the similarities meant that we should stay in touch and thus we went up to his, for a truly amazing wedding. Again highlights were the music and watching Berber women dressed in the most splendid dresses gyrating frantically again to Sufi trance.
It was also great to go up to our land and enjoy the trees and water falls/pools. God it’s gorgeous, I can’t wait to start building there.
And you made new friends with a man who asked if you wanted to see his Kif farm! Bit young I thought.
And as for you young Finley, highlights for you are that you have started to use the potty, which is an important skill to learn and you've started to crawl…and as any parent out there knows…that’s the beginning of a whole new phase of ooooohhhhh where is he now?I suppose that ends sometime around your mid 40s, at least it did with me. Well maybe it didn’t end, maybe people just stopped asking.
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