I decided to build a house here rather buy an apartment so 2 years ago I bought 705m2 of land in Odessa. Finally last week the foundations for the house were completed. It has been a tough couple of years in the mines in Western Australia with projects put on hold or cancelled because of the drop in prices of, especially iron ore and a retraction in the Chinese building market.
There are a lot of procedures and documents necessary when beginning the building of a house.
Fortunately my friends here, a Ukrainian husband and wife, last year had to go through all these procedures for themselves so I get the benefits and the savings of their experiences.
Together they are a tour de force.
My old friend is fluent in English she is a translator and interpreter and I met her when first I visited here some years ago. Her husband works in building and knows many people in different trades and he handled the construction of the foundations.
On this visit just the foundations, water and power.
The procedures are somewhat complicated and also bank rules only allow me to withdraw a small amount of dollars from my account at one time. The bank staff are very good, they do not make these rules.
Other procedures: I went to a notary for necessary legalised copies of certain of my documents.
The design of the house for the application for a building permit (on a visit last year I did this on my laptop with advice on building requirements for a (small) 2 story, 3 bedroom house from my friend and then shown to an engineer for his comments) along with the copies of the other necessary documents was used for this application. Note; the permit will not be issued for another week. Lots of people start work before they make an application but it is cheaper in the long run if you get this application in early, as my friends found from their own experience.
Tick off the list documents necessary for water and power applications; take 3 copies of everything, some of which are legalised copies from a notary, and off to the departments of water and power at Tairove and Illichivsk villages for necessary permits. We will return there shortly for other procedures.
Next week we will have a price for the power pole to bring the power across to my side of the road.
The foundations and the water supply were completed in 5 days. I now have a pile of receipts and videos of the building work. So far, the procedure this time has taken 2 and half weeks.
Some time to relax a little bit and go back to reading the news on tsn.ua every 5 minutes and being alternatively angry and worried about the invasion.
