Renovating my tiny apartment in Montenegro the first time around

When I renovated the property for the first time, I did the lot. New windows, shutters, rewiring, reconfiguring the layout to create a bathroom, new kitchen and bathroom fittings, new flooring, air con, stripping the layers of paint off the solid wooden panelled doors. The works.

I collected a couple of contacts for local project managers from the estate agent and got quotes from both. Then I chose the cheapest. A dark-haired Slavic type who carried out every meeting with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of something strong in the other. Whatever the time of day. Even my 6 ft 2 Montenegro Man couldn’t keep pace with the liquor Zoran consumed – after which he also managed to drive home for an afternoon jog around the bay. Impressive.

Setting safety concerns aside, the renovations took 3 months to complete and cost around 13k euros with furniture another 2k euros. During this time I travelled out to Montenegro 3 times to check on progress and choose furniture, which the builder took delivery of in my absence. Communication was via email with a few scanned drawings and pictures. At that time smartphones weren’t widely available so there was no WhatsApp or the ease of snapping a photo and pinging it off just like that.

What was it like to renovate a property in Montenegro – from 1600 miles away?

There is a certain amount of trust involved between the customer and the builder / project manager in any renovation. But this is much more so when you are over 1600 miles away in another country, not able to just pop in at the end of the day to check on things. A totally smooth property renovation is a rare one indeed in my experience. And this one was no different. 

A dark-haired Slavic type who carried out every meeting with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of something strong in the other.

I ended up with a cupboard in the kitchen housing the boiler which almost takes my eye out every time I wash up. There’s some extremely sloppy painting on my beloved wooden doors. And I am also still unsure today if the worktop I initially chose is the one actually installed in my kitchen. (Zoran confidently denied anything when I queried it and I didn’t take a photograph of my chosen product at the time).

Still… some battles are not worth fighting for your own sanity. Mental note to self for next time though – always take photos of everything!

A satisfactory property renovation (but it won’t be on Houzz – yet)

​All in all, the renovation work went OK though and the result was satisfactory. I say satisfactory as my aspirations in the interior design realm were pretty hindered through no fault of my own. In 2005 foreigners had only just started buying in Montenegro in any significant numbers. In fact, the first ever property boom hit a very surprised Montenegro in that year. The country’s economy was not as developed as it is now and the choice of shops and products was very limited. Local tradespeople weren’t used to the higher western expectations for things like standards of finish and quality of interiors either. So, given the context of that time, I really just did the best I could with the limited resources that were available to me.

Things have changed considerably since then. But looking back it was more like an exercise in damage limitation, when it came to the creative parts of the project.

Such as choosing furniture. Montenegro Man nearly gnawed his own arm off with boredom as I dragged him around yet another soulless furniture store in Podgorica featuring the same enormous, ugly sofas and nasty flat pack wardrobes that seemed to be the full extent of the Montenegrin furnishings offer. All at double the price you would pay for it in England too.

​Where is Ikea when you need it most?

Now for my Montenegro renovation project #2

Now over 14 years after that first renovation, my little Kotor apartment has been well loved and cared for by us.  But not so well loved and cared for by many a rental tenant. Many things have reached the end of their life and one more annual round of make do and mend won’t really cut it. There’s just too much that needs attention. Fixing things in a piecemeal way doesn’t make sense.

It needs a proper job, as they say.

So, I am rolling my sleeves up once again. Well, figuratively speaking, at least for now. I am preparing to go out very shortly to meet two potential project managers and get some quotes for the work, with a view for the work to be done by the beginning of 2020.

​I plan to share my progress here on the blog and hopefully pass on some useful information and experience along the way. Just in case you have or are in the process of buying a property to renovate in Montenegro.

In the meantime, lists are being formed. Pictures and ideas are being collected obsessively on my ipad. The creative cogs are whirring.

And Montenegro Man is praying that the new Habitat in Podgorica has a decent sofa.