Reform or buy?

Hi all,
My wife and I are already living in Spain for 2 years and are now looking to make the move to a cave house. We are going to Galera to look round in November, what I cant seem to find on the internet is comparison prices between doing a full reform or just buying a house that has already been done, I wonder what your thoughts are on this?
I like the idea of buying 1 already done then extending and redecorating ourselfs, would that be the way to go?
Thanks for any comments you may have.
Clive

Nowadays there seems to be some real bargains of already totally finished caves which have been reduced over the past year or so. Unfortuantely DIY and building supplies have not reduced but gone up in price and remember we have no big shops around here for the cheaper deals on DIY things , so this has to been taken into consideration and for this reason I wouldn't be looking at a what I call a totally raw cave ( never lived in ) but as you say it is nice to put your own mark on your home so something halfway between needing everything and nothing might be the way to go.

Hopefully when looking at all the opinions like us you will realise the home for you straight away .

Good luck I hope it all goes well for you, it is a beautiful area to live .

cavern wrote:Nowadays there seems to be some real bargains of already totally finished caves which have been reduced over the past year or so. Unfortuantely DIY and building supplies have not reduced but gone up in price and remember we have no big shops around here for the cheaper deals on DIY things , so this has to been taken into consideration and for this reason I wouldn't be looking at a what I call a totally raw cave ( never lived in ) but as you say it is nice to put your own mark on your home so something halfway between needing everything and nothing might be the way to go.

Hopefully when looking at all the opinions like us you will realise the home for you straight away .

Good luck I hope it all goes well for you, it is a beautiful area to live .

Thanks for your comment, pretty well agrees with what I thought, but its nice to get other opinions as all my ideas are based on a educated guess!! Do you know if there are limits to how much you can carve out of these caves? (Provided its still within your property!!)
Thanks again
Clive

Oh I guess simple answer to that is, no I have no idea but would be interested myself on an answer to that one

I would imagine that as long as its within the boundary of the Catastral then it should be ok? It would be good if somebody could verify this?

You can look at the Catastral of anyones cave online.
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Actually the price of most building materials has remained the same for the last 3 years. Cement blocks, sand, bricks, yeso all pretty much exactly the same. Cement has gone up marginally but that's about it. Even the cost of labour has come down, probably due to the general lack of employment, expect to pay 50-80 per day for a worker (depending on type of work).

The cost of a reform or buying a completed cave is all relative really. There can be significant benefits to doing the reform yourself like getting exactly what you want, where you want it. Choose your own finishing touches like tiles etc. Also, if you're prepared to do some or all of the work yourself then that option makes much more economic sense. However, if you're really not that way inclined and just want to move into a ready to live in home, then buy one that's been finished already.

At least by doing your own reform you'll know the place hasn't been "cowboy'd" and there's plenty of them out here, unfortunately.

Cowboy builders, be careful, well have our forum 'Ann Robinson' chirping in again [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Now where's that 'Can o Worms' JPG when you need it!

Just what I thought!

My own personal opinion is I wouldn't buy anywhere that didn't have all amenities connected and working!. We had an already done, but very old, Cave, then had all the extra work done to our taste. When we bought you could dig back as far as you liked, if you made a boo boo, it was down to you. I have no idea if that is still true. A lot of my nieghbours are digging back, or have done.

Gobiker56 wrote:My own personal opinion is I wouldn't buy anywhere that didn't have all amenities connected and working!. We had an already done, but very old, Cave, then had all the extra work done to our taste. When we bought you could dig back as far as you liked, if you made a boo boo, it was down to you. I have no idea if that is still true. A lot of my nieghbours are digging back, or have done.

Good ideas, we have made the decision for the first house to buy 1 that is either complete or nearly done but with all sevices connected then extend a bit and remodel to our strange tastes!! Fancy tunneling in for a wine cellar etc!
Cheers
Clive & Val

I have the perfect place for you!
If you want more info then please Pm me!

don't think you can go tunneling anymore,I think you need permissions from the town hall.Plus architects drawings and inspection,so that what you propose is safe.... also the town hall will need to issue a building permit.....not 100 % but please check.This also brings much needed funds into the local town hall.

The permit as I understand is for moving earth..

excellent question welll mmmm for me
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I'm defo with gobiker on this, something that you can put your stamp on but that has all services. The luster may well wear off, if quite some way down the line, one is still waiting on permissions or services............. We went for one that had not been lived in for 30 years but had all services connected; for sure, we still feel this was the way to go. However understandably, we are all different and some would want a greater challenge and others less of a challenge. And currently there is so much on the market at great prices, I am sure there is something out there for everyone.

Also if you are looking for, the all year round benefits that a cave house offers, then I would go for a cave house that does not have toooooo much out-build. It can get mega hot in the summer and in the winter at night, sub sub, zero conditions, up to -15, are not unusual and no probs for a cave home, per say, (one that really does ! hold an even temp of around 18- 21 all year round) but if the msater bedroom and lounge or kitchen for example are out -build summer and winter in the extremes can be pretty uncomfortable

One other thing to consider,that most people overlook is the access.If you are driving over tracks,when it rains you may not be able to get back out!!

I must agree with Santamaria re the out-build but done properly they are great.Mine only has the bedrooms that are cave,but the house bit has been set into the hillside,so the temp isn`t a problem.for example it`s 10.30 pm and temp in the house bit is 23 deg,outside it is 15 deg.We will not need to light the fire until december.ish...

hope this helps.
cheers Ross