Building a house in Balchik

Construction at Villa Infinity finished on 23rd July. Only from the top balcony can the huge scale of the works that have gone in to this property be really seen. The head of Varaks was asked how many worked on this project and he answered “about 200” ! Up to 50 workers at one time beavered away at it to complete within the 7 month construction period.

Inside, decor is light sun colours, balanced together from floors to woodwork. Spacious living area with kitchen part and one great feature: the “Night Sky” constellation of lights.

Stairwell and entrance are very spacious, with extra high security entrance door and and camera entrance phone. Off the entrance hall on first floor are three twin bedrooms and a bathroom, all beautifully finished.

The “piece de resistance” is the massive master bedroom with lounge area and en-suite bathroom from picture six. With a stunning view across all Albena and surrounding land, this is truly an inspiring room.

All in all, this Albena resort villa has been a great achievement, setting the standard for Bulgarian holiday villas for years to come. A tribute to all involved.

The sun beats down and the cosmetic work is under way. The rendering is finished and Varaks' tiling team works on the great expanses of exposed surfaces. A darker natural stone facing for the lower terrace walls and a riven lighten stone for around the pool and base of villa area. The vibrant pastel colours of the exterior now transform the drab grey, bringing to life the property. Note too, the beautiful curved railings, a feminine compliment to the sweeping balconies.

Imprinted concrete, which originated from the USA, is more expensive than most paving, but is very low maintenance and attractive. The smooth surface is resin bonded and very “foot friendly”. A natural stone effect pattern has been chosen, the rounded outlines of which should contrast well with the straight linear profile of the white cream vertical wall facing.

The pool has been largely tiled in blue mosaic so the infinity style can be seen clearly, with collecting lower trough to recycle the water back to the main pool.

The gardeners have already delivered top soil and laid water pipes for the automatic pop-up sprinkler system that will water the beautiful terrace gardens.

Decor inside has now started, with red brick faced walls for the stairwell and a couple of walls in the living room. This will contrast with the smooth other walls. The 10 ft ceilings in the open plan living area and cathedral style windows give an exhilarating and airy feel, combined with the magnetic appeal of the large “outer living area” balcony.

Now the villa and outside terracing are structurally complete, it’s time to begin working on their appearance. The villa is nearly rendered inside and about a quarter done outside.

For the massive retaining wall supporting the earth by the road and for the lower site retaining walls, a natural brown stone with quartz has been chosen. A colour that matches the Black Sea coast  and Albena resort area natural colours.

For the upper facing walls, by the pool and along base wall of villa, a contrasting riven artificial stone tile has been chosen. This will be a whiter colour to contrast with the darker brown stone facing and highlight the sun reflecting lightness of the villa.

The workforce on day of picture taking was down to “only” 11, divided into 3 specialist teams: Facing stone fitters, plasterers, and plasterboard fitters.

As this villa is “cutting Edge”, the architect and builders have had to learn new concepts as well as deal with a very difficult steep site. When you consider that even swimming pools are unusual for Bulgarian villas, an integral Jacuzzi is certainly a new idea. The one fitted here is custom made in concrete with fitted pump and outlets, rather than an off the shelf plastic inset. It will be deeper and more robust than the more unusual factory made drop in variety.

The project is on time at this stage. With projects of this size and complexity, problems and extra works always arise. Fortunately, Varaks have the size of workforce to juggle between the 17 projects they are currently employed on and bring extra manpower to bear on any job that might be falling behind.

The engineer on this project said, "There's three villas in this job. One standing and two in the ground!"

Apart from the very deep foundations and the huge amount of concrete sunk below ground there, the terracing of the steep site involves using a massive additional quantity.

On the first terrace is the infinity swimming pool. You can see the service pipes in picture seven. All concrete for these works is moved down wooden channels, like old time gold prospectors!

A frightening amount of work and complexity, as pool, infinity catchment system and Jacuzzi interweave with terracing, steps and features. An awful lot is being engineered on to this site. In fact, the "garden" is just an extension of an already large villa, optimizing the leisure experience to the maximum.

The whole development is now starting to come together, on schedule. The whole team, the 20 add workers, foreman, engineer, architect, client liaison person, and senior Varaks manager are pleased with progress. It's a tough and demanding project, but exciting. A feeling that they are creating something unique - different to the so many ordinary buildings. A temple to the Sun.

The building works of the heavy reinforced concrete lintels to support the roof continues. And many of the props have been removed from the lower floor. After the massive concrete support lintels, the wooden rafters are fitted. The top floor is given over completely to the master bedroom, and there will be an interesting college style ceiling.

Parking was a problem with this site, as the ground sloped sharply away and the access road, although well surfaced, is narrow. Varaks' solution was to construct a raised platform to support a garage. This has been placed to the left of the villa (fourth picture).

Fifth photograph shows the heavy duty dividing wall with the neighbors. The extra width left from the wall to the house will improve the perspective and give more scope to the landscape gardeners waiting to transform the area.

Construction of the swimming pool with magnificent panoramic view of the Black sea is also on its way.

The whole structure is taking shape now, rising high above Albena resort. A forest of Acro props fill the floors, supporting the reinforced concrete until it has properly cured.

An interesting feature is the overhanging roof, made from concrete unlike the wooden fascia boards used in UK and elsewhere! This requires extensive and tricky shuttering, but will give a solid, pronounced and a little oriental look - as should be seen better nearing finishing.

View from the top floor reveal that the sea can be seen to the left as well as in front, as the villa rears above its neighbor. The top floor bedroom is going to be sensational.

Finding good quality building services in any country is difficult, but particularly so if it's in a country foreign to you and where you don't speak the language. In such circumstances it's very important to actually see evidence of the builders capability. Seeing is believing!

Here you will see a project that demonstrates well the capabilities of Varaks. Building process of villa Infinity in Albena resort was a very challenging and difficult project because of the very steep terrain.

At any one time about 20 workers are on site! First job was to build a reinforced concrete retaining wall at bottom of site to stop earth movements. Then, foundations to no less than 15m below road level were dug out, plus trenches for 2m high walls to sides of site - mostly by hand. After this, a colossal amount of concrete was used to construct the basement. Complex shuttering was needed to create a semi circular balcony which will have stunning views towards Albena bay.

From first starting to construction of first floor has taken just 12 weeks. The whole massive villa, constructed under the difficult conditions, in winter, will take an incredibly short 7 months. Our client hasn't visited once during construction, preferring to enjoy his photographs and reports at home in England.