The new owners of this lovely house right next to the airport came to us with one request: make a garden so beautiful that people forget that the property is right next to the airport! They intended to use the house as their holiday home and also to rent it for holidaymakers when they do not occupy the house. I admired their optimism and had many sleepless nights knowing they invested a lot of money in this project. Finally, we came up with a plan that included creating not only the garden but extending the property and the creation of a small pool too. I am writing this 1 year after the completion of the project and happy to report that we closed a very successful summer with many great reviews from holidaymakers and a very happy family!
Click here if you would like to see the full description of the home on our holiday rentals pages! — > Stella Maria, a house at the airport with a private pool
The first step was to transform the garage into a second bedroom. It had access to the rest of the house through a back door and a small bathroom attached to it. After getting the permit for a change of use, we replaced the garage door with a stone-built feature wall made of local stones. The house became from 1 bedroom cottage that was suitable for a couple into a comfortable family home with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms suitable for 5 persons. This made the plan of renting the house more viable.
The other key point was to make the terrace bigger as there was no place for even a dining table, and a 2 bedroom summer home needed more usable outside space. So we extended the terrace that originally was only in front of the living room and wrapped around the house, making it bigger in all directions. We built hardwood pergolas for both the terrace and the upstairs balcony, that not just visually make the house more complete but provide shade in the hot summer months. Attached to the terrace towards those lovely sea views we also created a small plunge pool, as getting a permit for a full-size pool wasn’t possible given the location of the property. This pool seem to be functioning very well, and both the family and guests have thoroughly enjoyed it through the summer months.
Our plan for the garden was to make it look visually bigger and make it as easy to maintain as possible. We created a courtyard style garden with the 2 big olive trees beeing the central focus points and planted rosemaries, lavenders, capers and other low growing Mediterranean herbs and flowers around. On the fence towards the airport, we installed trellises and planted colourful bougainvilleas, these in a couple of years will cover the metal fence and give a colorful backdrop to the garden and make the space more intimate and less overlooked from the side of the airport.
Have a look at the end result and below you will also find the photos of how the house was before and plans that we draw up for this project!
And this is how it was before and all the messy work that has been carried out:
See the video of the plan on Youtube
