Fitting out your place

Whilst I am sure there are many ways to fit out your place and lots of good stores, here are a few comments based on our progress so far.... (not sure what is allowed on here so maybe the moderator can delete lines appropriately if I am being too detailed?)

1) Electrical goods - we found prices vary enormously - however we are either getting our tv from Pixmania (who I have bought from in the UK and now found they operate through europe and have a spanish website too) or Carrefore - I was amazed how cheap some things like tv's are here almost web prices.

2) We bought a really nice sofa from Mar Menor furniture in Los Alcazares and prices were reasonable

3) Ikea - same as uk - looks like our beds will be from here!

4) we liked Hons Garcia in Torreveja - its a large furniture shop with lots of choice and some staff speak good english.

5) Merlin - in the large outlet centre as you approach Cartagena, is much like B&Q and lights were reasonable - we also found a good light shop in San Javier

DFS were helpful as were Murcia Furniture but we haven't bought anything through them (yet!). If you are getting a gas bbq, Corvera told us you need a contract with a supplier (Repsol or another similar) - apparently you can't just use the gas containers like you would in the UK and the min contract terms are often 24 months - something to bear in mind.

The things we are struggling on are

1) Outdoor sofa/chairs - we can't seem to find a comfy one we like as most seem to have quite thin cusions - we liked the ones at the Golf Club House in Roda but Pablo at Corvera wasn't sure where they got them from. We have seen similar but always the cusions are thin (or we don't like the design) and therefore not too comfy - anyone able to help? We tried Hons Garcia but couldn't see any we liked - maybe we are being a bit picky!

2) Blinds and drapes - we'd like to get the name of someone who could help sort this out (make them, etc) - if anyone knows anyone maybe you could pm me please.

3) We would really like to get some nice covered headboards for the beds - for those who remember the original show flat at Corvera - ones like that. Corvera don't do them anymore and couldn't tell me who could. Ideally we would like to get "made to measure" ones so that we can fit them around the light switches, etc. Help!? Anyone have any clues or contacts?

Finally we were told that in Spain "January Sales" start by law on the 7th January and usually last until March - so we may wait on a few things until then.

Anyway - hope this is of interest/help to those in need of things! I don't intend to bore you with lots of posts on our stuff but if anyone has questions which I can help on, I will try. (Roy Howitt was a fountain of knowledge on all this stuff too - thanks Roy!).

Be abit carful, I keyhold for several customers on Corvera who were promised a large number of rentals if they bought their furniture from Murcia Furniture. None of them have recieved any. Yet another scam!

I do not believe that Murcia Furniture promote, or offer a rental service, or make any claim that they do so, I am not sure where you got this from Pam as far as I know they only provide furnitire and have a sister company that does property management, and I know lots of people that have bought form them

It is a bit like the other suppliers including DFS doing the same thing which they don´t and like Murcia Furniture all they do is supply furniture and fit this

If somebody has been promised this it would be worth their while including comments on this forum to warn other people

I know that Corvera will claim to get you rentals only of course if you buy their furniture

However I subscribe to promotional updates from De Vere and no mention of Spain has ever been made and neither is it on the De Vere website.  So if anyone is considering purchasing furniture from Calidona, it might be worth asking about when and if this is happening.  It has been nearly a year since these updates were posted.

PS Roy - did you manage to find out any more on why Calidona did not build the first phases with solar water heating?

Thanks - Russ

Hi Pam

I have several clients who will need key holding in  the coming months and if you would please provide me with your details and information about what you do either by PM or email that would be great. Many thanks.

Most of my clients are not interested in rentals but will have friends using their properties and would like the services of a key holding company.

Moira

All of the people that I know have purchased their furniture from Calidona are waiting for the installations so so far have not had any rentals

I have met with a number of people that have stayed onsite in Calidona managed properties, but normally they are only staying 3-4 days and I believe that they are charging €45 a night including the clean, but there are very few renters around.and considering a clean is typically €50 there´s not much income available form these type of remtals

I also mailed a few people that I know bought from Murcia Furniture and that would be renting their proerties.  3 confirmed that no rentals, or rental promotion were offered as part of the furniture purchase. I am not sure what is meant by the term a large number of rentals,  perhaps Pam or the buyers are getting confused so this cannot be a scam as suggested

Given the general state of the rental market in Spain, that this is a new development and it takes at least 2 years for a resort to establish itself, there is no way that there will be, at this time, a large number of rentals

Russ thanks for reminding me and I will chase the statement that the lawyer is sending me as form 2 independant sources it was confirmed that because of the dates associated with build time Calidona were not legally required to fit solar in the apartments on phases 1 & 2

When i get the statement I will make it available

H Roy thanks for that and sorry to the other guys digress from the main point of the thread.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to explain that Murcia Furniture do not and have not guaranteed any rentals for properties at Corvera or offered it as part of a package.  We do however have an associate company who does offer key management and cleaning services which we offer people who are looking for guidance. 

We also do have partners who have contracts with Spanish organisations that require long term rentals for families that are moving to this region as part of consolidation programmes and we have been able to help owners particularly in Roda Golf and La Manga Club to gain great benefit from these relationships.  I would envisage that in due course there will be people looking for long term rentals at Corvera when the airport construction is in full swing; at which point we would be happy to assist our clients in obtaining these long term rentals.  

I therefore completely object to the word scam being used and if anyone wishes to discuss this with me personally, I would be very happy to do this.

Bev Jewell

Murcia Furniture 

Thank you for your kind offer of guidance regarding rental etc

I am looking for some help,can you let us know the name of the Spanish organisations and the associated company for key holdind and cleaning etc that you work with?

Are they linked to Murcia furniture or do you just  suggest people talk to them and you have no vested interest.

Thank you for helping us and I am sure others on this forum will also find this information very useful.

I believe that the answer to your question is in the response with the 2 words associated company and partners.

Yes I know that they are connected to Murcia Furniture and that they would be the first people to admit that

Because of the emotion around advertising perhaps it would be better to call or mail Bev, if you needed specific information and I am certain that she will respond to yoy directly rather than using the forum

The details of the main contractors for the airport are in the public domain to contact

These are only suggestions that I would hope will keep the threads on topic

Canela, Be very careful who you send PM's to regarding this issue especially if you havnt already purchased your furniture as it could be very costly. If someone is not willing to give you the information openly on the forum they must be after something and you will be surprised where your information is passed to.

Paul,

re : curtains & soft furnishing, I use Lola Alcazar in Balsicas for all my fabrics, she also carries a range of ready made curtains & blinds, similar to those sold at Leroy Merlin.

Her service is excellent and has ranges to suit every budget, you can find her shop on Avenida Region de Murcia, Balsicas.

Good luck with your new home!

Paul,

There is also Gwyneth and Linda in Balsicas. They are called GL-interiors and make all made to measure curtains and interiors for showhouses and furniture pack suppliers. I have used them quite regularly because they are used to doing high end stuff like large and fancy openings etc and they always get the job done on time before people arriving out to their properties.

Gwyneth has been a seamstress for about 30 years and once told me she used to make the seats for Landrover. This was sufficient for me as I wanted quality work for my keyholding/cleaning clients. They passed me some references of work to check out which i did and I have used them ever since.

I cannot post the telephone number or website on here because some people get them deleted despite offering free impartial advice.

However if anybody wants their contact details please PM me and I am willing to share for the benefit of others

Thank you for the helpful advice below much appreciated - we have just returned from Corvera and never quite managed to make it to soft furnishings having spent about 8 hours in Ikea over the last few days! We will though and will be in touch with your recommendations.

One aspect I would comment on are the services of a couple of companies who we used and have now inspected their work - which I might say was first class.

T&D Services have been brilliant - they have done numerous jobs, electrical, plumbing and others - their prices were very reasonably and most of all Tom went well out of his way - even picking lights up for us at a lighting shop in San Javier and Leroy Merlins (without charge) - I would wholeheartedly recommend them - we have already booked them in for some more work.

I would also commend the services of Flatpaxabia - they did a massive IKEA collection and build for us - doing 4 beds, chair and other furniture items - it made turning up at the flat a pleasure to have all this done for us! (even if we did end up back in IKEA in the dreaded 'marketplace'). I would def. recommend Flatpaxabia.

On a final note - the aircon units installed by Apolloair are excellent - virtually silent which is great. Again Steve there has been very reliable and I would recommend them without hesitation.

Hope you don't mind me sharing my experiences - especially the good ones. The resort is coming along - a lot of properties look finished now and the clubhouse construction is well under way - walls are going up and the first and second floors are in. It was nice to bump into one or two fellow owners too!

Paul

I echo Paulw's comments re T_D services (966761858). They installed all of our lights, mirrors, doorstops, shower trays etc and were extremely helpful throughout the time they did work for us....English speaking which makes a huge difference (from experience).

They recommended the lighting shop in San Javier where we sourced all of our lights.....my wife thought it was a fabulous light shop, but I cannot possibly comment!! The guys did offer to pick up lights from anywhere locally as long as we knew what we wanted.

We also used James Turney of PCT airconditioning (677103503) great job, and

Ken of Security Access Control to change locks, fit safe and security locks (651349709)

We are currently having curtains made and a carpenter to fit headboards and drwers in wardrobes and I will verify the standard of this work when complete.

The best assistance so far though has been from Roy & Lorraine Howitt of Inspectahomes (627955748) who not only did a great job re our snagging and took a great deal of pressure away from us , but also made lots of recommendations for people to do different jobs in our place...all English speaking which again made life so much easier.

I am sure there are lots of others who can do similarly good jobs...this is just our experience.

Hope I have not broken any "rules" here?

great to read some positive feedback for a change,we have also used the services of all mentioned companies except flatpaxabia,and found each one to be fair and reasonable with prices and keen to assist in any way they can.

we are heading back over in March to take delivery of our furniture and sort out TV & Telephone connections,can anyone assist in this as we dont think the onsite service provider can supply what we are looking for 

Ring matt or alan at rainbow sattellites in the port of mazarron they supplied me with a 1,8 m dish but i am in the campo in corvera but they know what you can get as there are so many that give you the phone as well.Just make sure the phone { tv supply is licensed as the can cut you off if they havent paid their bill. Telemicro comes to mind they got shut down and they were in torrevica .I got a  telefonica sattellite phone after 2yrs so this maybe your only option works well but a hell of a wait ,maybe i was tight but did,nt want to pay .

This message was last edited by iwik61 on 18/02/2010.

Telefonica will install a line onsite, so will Teleeast provide TV and internet pachage for €40 per month but for occassional use the best solution remains, if you have a PC the Vodafone PAYG dongle, which can alsoe ne used for cheap calls via VOIP and Skype

You are not allowed to have your own dish but alos people don´t realise that you get , for free, the spanish TDT package plus ITV 1 & 2, BBC 1, Eurosport simply by plugging in the coax cable into the wall in any room

Premiership football is shown live on Saturday and Sunday on spanish channels LA2 and Teledesporte

Regarding broadband we have Wimax which is installed for 75 euros and then 29 a month. They also provide a phone through this satelite service as well which gives you 500 mins a month for 16 euros. The best part of this deal is that if you are only in spain for so many months they will switch it off, you then email micheal before you arrive and he switches it on again. You only pay for the months you are in Spain.

With the phones I have been through endless pain and now have a spanish number with HITS. This package gives you extremely cheap calls to the UK and free calls to other HITS users. It costs 10 euros to sign up and then get a cheap phone from Eroskis.