Building Villa Padma
Anyhow, within no time we had faith in the trustworthyness of Robbie and his company also by contacting other customers of him and double checking his stories. One of his customers appeared to live just arround the corner in The Netherlands. What a coincidence...
When we left for The netherlands we were the proud owners of a beautifull piece of land: in the middle of Central Lovina, very close to all the restaurants, close by the sea, with a breathtaking view over the rice fields.
Back home again I started with designing the house and the garden. I am originally a industrial engineer and this was a , for me, once in a lifetime chance, to design my own house, garden and also some of the furniture. ( for balinese prices, which are totally different when compared with dutch prices...)
Thanks to email and scanning a number of versions have gone back and forth to Bali. Finally, after a year we had a good design, calculated until the last penny. We had the building permit, all the necessary contracts were signed, so we went back to Bali and were there when the building started.
During the months of building we were updated on a regular basis with foto's, sent by email. That worked very fast en efficient.
Because of the fact that Robbie and his wife also take care of the villa management and the organisation of the helpdesk for the guests, you do not have to manage the staff and the maintenance of the house yourself being the owner. That should not have been possible anyhow from such a great distance.
We deliberatly have chosen to rent the house out. Up until now renting out has been very succesful. A very good investment, much more fun than the stock exchange. And we contribute to te bali economy by employing the staf. Tourism is the main source of income for the balinese people.
