Permission Granted!

Well, we have heard from Paulo that the local authority has granted planning permission for our building work. This is good news, particularly as there were no conditions attached! Apparently, we also have a quote from one of our builders -- senhor George. It's slightly higher than what I expected, for the whole job -- but not way out of order. The problem now is to negotiate down to something we can afford for work that is meaningful; our aim is for at least part of the house to be livable. It remains to be seen whether that's possible.

Last week we aired our various concerns about builders with Paulo. He seems pretty confident we'll have no major problems with either of the builders he's selected. Maybe he's right -- we'll just have to see. At least it is looking likely that we will be able to parcel out a large part of the work to one company in one piece; this will be much easier than trying to manage lots of separate contracts....