Thank you all for your good wishes and concerns. Let me assure you that I would not have done this had I not had the support of my friends Andrew & Kadek. Let me tell you how it happened to asits those of you interested in such a venture.
FIrst of all for the lease Kadek was my sponsor and attended the meeting with the Notaris(Lawyer) and the person who was subleasing as he had too much land. As he could not afford to build on all of the land he had to sublet it. He is an Aussie and originally comes form West Beach, SA. There you go!
Kadek's cousin was an architect and her husband a builder. A meeting followed and a brief developed. Drawings appeared within the week and discussion and resulting changes took place. I went back to Adelaide and further drawings appeared and a final decision was made. Total cost AUD $2000. My Architect friend was speechless.
Then I had to wait for Filo's Estate to be finalised. One year passed and Andrew finally said 'Let's start. I will lend you the money to start'. Such friends
Well the builder I chose on Andrew's recommendation was a person who had built 2 villas for Andrew's brother and the plumber electrician had also done work for Andrew and his brother. So you see it is important to have contacts. I also had people who could check on the building when I wasn't there.
There were no written contracts between me and the two prime people. The builder said he needed x milion Rp to do the foundations and the plumber y Rp for the bore and the drainage and initial plumbing. When that money was gone they asked for more for the next stage. If you don't like their work you can tell them to go and get someone else. No strings attached. This is the Balinese way and if you can't manage it and want to cross all the 't's' and dot all the 'i's' then you can't do this. If you stand over them you lose the goodwill and marvellous creativity they bring to your building.
In January 2012 ground was broken and 21 relatives and friends of the builder Muhtar from Java, duly arrived and took up residence on the coconut grove opposite the villa that Muhtar rented. They worked 6.5 days a week. On Fridays at 12:00 noon they stopped and went to the Mosque for prayers. They would also work into the night until 9:00 pm. On the other side of the scale, Bahkti, the plumber electrician, employed 9 workers and they were all Christian. The harnony was incredible and Muhtar nad Bahkti worked hand in glove.
I saw the mud and the start of my foundations and returned home.
OMG what had I done??? What next?