When I was recent travels I had the chance to look round the nearly completed villa of an English couple near Paphos. They bought the plot fifteen years ago and have gradually got the palace of their dreams. Or not as it turns out. In reality it has taken on nightmare qualitities, not only for the owners, but for the poor neighbours too! the trouble with having anything built abroad is the time scales often result in the owners not being available to project manage and rather too much trust is placed on the locally supplied contractors. This villa being a prime example. The couple are from Yorkshire and by ‘eck, they like you to know it . . . they wanted a little bit of dear old England to be reflected in this new build, incuding oak staircases, oak beds, furniture, work tops, wardrobes etc. etc. Sadly, the local builders are not used to working with this hard wood and a fine mess has been made. Best laid plans of mice and . . . . .
