Spain is the first choice of many Britons planning to build a new life abroad, but it is a little more unusual for South Africans to settle on the Iberian Peninsula.
Ten years living and working in London may help explain why Derek and Jen Ray chose Orihuela, inland of Alicante on the Costa Blanca, as the place to build a home and raise their three children, Jenna, Eden and Linzi.
Budget And Build
Original budget: £400,000
Overspend: £80-90,000 (approx. 130,000 euros)
Another reason for choosing Orihuela was the stunning view over a man-made reservoir from the 7.5 acre plot on which the family's dream house would be built. The culmination of ten years' hard work running a greengrocer's shop (which they had to sell to fund the move and construction), the house's look would be determined by Derek and Jen's strong vision and firm will to have it built their way - despite lacking any formal architectural or construction background.
Conceived as several hexagonal rooms on two floors the house was originally envisaged as having four downstairs rooms and five en suite bedrooms upstairs with verandas and a dramatic angled roof.
With a reservoir aspect, the house would overlook a tennis court and two swimming pools - one Olympic-sized and the other a huge circular children's play pool with a slide linking the two. But what was originally envisaged was to soon change once Derek returned to Spain, having sold the business in London.
On Derek's arrival in Spain the concrete foundations had already been cast and the several pillars to support the roof were about to be poured - until Derek decided that the pillars weren't high enough for the angle of the roof.
Speaking limited Spanish, his concern actually confused the builders and it was not until project manager, Angel, who speaks no English, arrived on site to 'explain' the drawings were indeed correct and that the vast roof could be cast.
For many the lesson would be salutary, but Derek and Jen continued largely to ignore the plans and design the house as they went along.
Newly built walls were knocked down as the couple decided to move the aspect of a room or build in an extra one where there was none on the plans. The apotheosis of this apparent folly was the decision late in the build to add a mezzanine level - despite pressing time constraints.
Having lived in a large caravan some 30 minutes from the site for nearly eight months while the house was being built, Jen was adamant the family would be in the house before August - when the builders would take their month-long summer holiday. But, with seven weeks to go before the shutdown the house was far from habitable - and the builders had disappeared to another job.
The couple's 'free form' building approach was causing Kevin (and the builders) concern throughout construction. Project manager, Angel, and the local architect, however, were rather untroubled by their unusual approach, taking the position 'it's their house and they're paying for it, so they can do as they like'. So do as they like they did and with the smooth-talking intervention of Angel, the builders reappeared with reinforcements and the work picked up pace, compelling Jen to plan the interior touches and finishes.
Despite the house's modernist shaped roof and rooms, Jen's desire was to decorate the home in a traditional Spanish farmhouse style: heavy dark wood doors and window frames, stone clad walls, balustrades and terracotta-coloured external walls. Derek, more concerned with the building, bowed to Jen's taste. Kevin, however, was less than convinced that the two styles complemented one another, feeling that the house had become a 'his and hers' statement rather than an 'ours'.
Undeterred by Kevin's reservations, Jen proceeded to decorate in a traditional Spanish style in contrast to the building's contemporary lines, and in what Kevin considered a rare moment of environmental inspiration in an otherwise concrete creation, several hundred indigenous trees, including palm and orange, were delivered to create a garden oasis around the house in what had previously been barren scrub land at the reservoir's edge.
With the end in sight and inspired by the prospect of a month off, the builders finished the bulk of the work before disappearing for their well-earned summer holiday, leaving the family with a nine-tenths finished house built with hard graft and determination, and very much in their own eye.
The build had not been easy, or made simple, but Derek and Jen remain convinced that their approach was the right one for them and that ultimately 'my way is the right way'.
In truth there is very little eco-friendly about the house. It is concrete and brick from the foundations to the roof. However, the gardens are a thoughtful, well-considered scheme. On an otherwise barren piece of land, hundreds of indigenous trees have been planted to create a mini oasis beside the reservoir that will in time develop into a mature garden.
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Want to be a self-build guru? Then read on....
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