On Saturday April 16, 2022 broadcast, we follow the adventure of Peter and Jolanda who want to transform an old bishop’s residence in the Greek city of Kilada into a luxury bed and breakfast. Huge work and the full renovation will take a year. Has their dream come true now?

Renovation of Villa Hellas Killada

Hello viewers and interested parties, we would like you to follow us on this path after watching the episode. It was a great trip over the past year and we discovered and got to know Greece in different ways. Of course, this wasn’t always a positive or without the bumps.

Lots of things work very differently in this country. We have carefully researched many things beforehand and here we also had to find out a lot. This was reasonably successful a year later and the renovation is ready for rental. Fortunately, we are both very helpful and have been able to do a lot ourselves. Not just in terms of renewal, as we suddenly have to rely on each other and it turns out that working together doesn’t always go smoothly. Suddenly you’re on each other’s lips 24/7. What you used to talk about with a friend in Holland, now you have to solve it together. But it certainly turned out to be fine.

social communication

We had contractor Ghazi with his Pakistani employee Zaheer for 9 months. They did a great job and we definitely became friends with them. We didn’t have much time to socialize. Despite this, we still have a group of dear friends around us. From Greek, English to Dutch.

Explore the area

We have also learned to discover more beauty in the area. Every now and then we go to the valley with an old monastery nearby. It is a wealth of calm and beauty. From our garden we overlook the highest mountain in the area. We walked it for the first time. With a little bit of fitness, which I didn’t seem to have, you can walk to the top in 45 minutes. What a gift to be on top of that. You can see the whole area down to the neighboring islands incl. It’s a wonderful experience. We also discovered Spetses on the scooter. The island is breathtaking, with a beautiful coastal road that passes through romantic coves.

Greek grammar

Our last experience is importing our car. Well, that didn’t really work. In Greece, it is not possible to drive a private car of a commercial nature. We’ve been working on this for months and now we’ve brought the car to Holland and sold it. The new car doesn’t just happen. So you have to sign all kinds of papers to the police, this is also allowed in firefighters. Without it, they cannot apply for license plates.

Now that we’ve finished the renovation, we’re very proud. All suites about 60m2 are ready. There is a lovely swimming pool and the surroundings are beautiful with beautiful greek tiles, lovely planters, palms, lawn and almost finished veranda.

It was overwhelming on all fronts

Shall we do it more? Absolutely! Being outside a lot, close to the beach, swimming a lot in the sea, no traffic lights, traffic jams and planes gives us the very happy feeling that we will never go back to the hectic Holland. The Greeks are very friendly and helpful people, making us feel more and more at home here. Tips for others considering it:

• Make drawings of the rooms you want to renovate, how the furniture will be done, attach a price to them, and make a realistic budget
• But take your time In practice, things take longer to materialize, buying things in another country takes much longer and there are always setbacks.

For us, in the new phase, how many reservations? We have slowly received the first reservations, which gives a rather calm feeling. We look forward to welcoming guests and providing a wonderful holiday. We look forward to it!

Yolanda and Peter