TV PROPERTY HUNTERS
“Our experience of Sicilian builders has been a positive one and our local friends were amazed that our deadline for our house completion was met!”
Paul Pontone and Chris Moss featured in the last series of Home or Away? choosing between Bournemouth and Sicily, aſt er running a French B&B. T ey bought a three-bed home in Noto for £152,600 last summer (above and right) and, a year on, Paul gives us the update…
“We moved into their new home in the Sicilian countryside in August and our friend Hazel followed us from Normandy at the end of the same month. Work started in October and we employed a local architect and a large team of builders. Our villa was all but gutted as new openings were made, walls were knocked down and we got a modern open-plan living area with picture windows
leading onto a spacious veranda with spectacular views of the sea, the countryside, Mount Etna and across to the stunning island of Ortigia.
“We created three good-sized bedrooms so that we can have family and friends to stay and, of course, Chris has his dream kitchen with a huge central island so that we can entertain. Our Sicilian friends were absolutely amazed that the builders’ Christmas deadline was met and despite some very stressful moments, our experience with Sicilian contractors has been a positive one. T ere have been the inevitable hiccups but me being able to speak Italian helped enormously. “T e building work came in almost on
budget at €120,000 although we have had to put our dream of having a swimming pool on hold for the time being. Still, we are less than ten minutes from the beach and try to swim every day in the sea that costs nothing and doesn’t need any maintenance! “I started work at a private school in October and am working for a colleague and friend who I knew in Sicily 25 years ago and who subsequently established her own school. Chris has now started Italian lessons at the school and we both enjoying Sicily’s outdoor lifestyle of open air concerts, ballet and cafe culture. We’ve also acquired a gorgeous Jack Russell puppy called Cannella (Cinnamon; pictured above) who loves her morning swim just as much as her Dads!
“We’ve put our Spanish cave home dream on hold”
Friends Toby Treyer Williams and Dave Windsor from London were looking for a cave home in Granada for around £30,000. But sadly they didn’t end up buying the three-bed home in Gallera they were shown off ering on with Laura Hamilton (pictured right) as Dave, 27, a sports journalist, reports.
“T e Gallera purchase fell though during negotiations over the contract and sales price. We off ered to buy it for £27,000 as the property wasn’t quite fi nished (there were some plumbing and electrical issues etc) - or were happy to pay £30,000 for it to be completed but the vendor didn’t agree. We didn’t have any more money to spend on it so we let it go and were very disappointed at the time. However we both lead very busy lives [Toby is in advertising] and we agreed to put the whole idea on ice and revisit in a year or so. Still, we had a great time on the show!”
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