Given the relatively small size of the island of Bali, there’s an extraordinary variety of eating establishments here. And it seems that new places are popping up daily, if not weekly. This is a huge bonus for visitors, and even…
If you plan to see much of Bali, you have two choices: rent a car, or rent a scooter. Bicycles don’t quite work on the main roads as scooters own both the edges of the roads and even some sidewalks.…
Yesterday was a bit of a marathon meeting, as our architectural team called in their government permit expert and, in the end, it was decided that it’s best to re-design for two levels (instead of the current three levels) and…
Creating a partition between your land and the neighbors is accomplished typically with concrete-block walls. A foundation is dug and river rocks are mixed with cement to: create a stable base for wall construction, and secondly to keep the limestone…
The architectural design for the retreat involves two levels for the residential part of the structure and three levels for the guest units. Turns out that the type of building permit I’m required to get is a Pondak Wisata, which…
The building permit process can be a field of landmines if you’re not careful. You can think of it as the wonder of visiting the motor vehicle bureau, minus the wonder and multiplied by a multitude of procedures. Everything from…
The team leader of the road crew that built our access road was helpful in setting up a meeting with the local Banjar. As mentioned previously the Banjar is the community group that runs things at the local level. They…
This is Bali, Indonesia. The building trade is a different ballgame than what I’m used to. In the USA any individual can claim to be an owner/builder and get a building permit. Here, I need to hire a “land agent”…
Even though the final ownership document was not even close to being done, we decided to go ahead with the road. Having to fight the brush and mosquitos each time we wanted to show people the property didn’t sound like…
We found Arkana Architects on the internet and immediately liked them. They provide a concept pitch for free, and then if you like it you hire them. I emailed a few other local architects but I just sensed that Arkana…
In Bali everyone has a friend or relative that wants to help out (and thereby get work). Word of mouth among local neighbors is part of the cooperative fabric that makes Bali unique. It may have all started by sharing…
From the previous post you can see that, due to its location at the rear of the seller’s property, an access road would have to built. It’s exciting to have a private road, but I did have to cough up…