THE WAYPOINTSUR
It takes hard work to look this good
The pergola that nearly ate my quarter
Three years ago, I added a pergola and basic electrical to a townhouse near San Pedro. Small scope, competent contractor, one-page quote.
By week three, The comunidad — homeowners' association — president wanted noise explanations. The town hall questioned whether this was obra menor — minor works — or obra mayor — major works. The contractor called three times daily to "clarify" decisions we'd never documented.
Not catastrophic. Worse—constant. Email, WhatsApp, and missed calls during working hours. I spent more time managing someone else's work than my own.
That's when I learned: renovation pain isn't about tiles. It's about remote workers running construction projects alongside full-time jobs.
If you own Costa del Sol property and need winter work done, here's how to stop a project from hijacking your calendar.
The question that matters more than permits
Monday's Owner brief covered permits, STR registration, municipal timelines—the full compliance picture. Today's angle is sharper:
"What happens to my week if this project goes wrong?"
You're not choosing between obra menor and obra mayor. You're choosing between:
A project that fits around your calls.
A project that drags you into town hall queues, neighbor disputes, and daily WhatsApp crises.
Before touching anything structural, get four answers in writing:
Scope classification
"List exactly what you'll do and confirm whether this municipality treats it as menor or mayor."
You don't want to discover you're in mayor territory six weeks in, when the inspector arrives.
Town hall requirements
"Which visits require me personally and which can you or my gestor — administrative assistant — handle?"
Remote workers don't have Tuesday mornings for urbanismo — urban planning office — queues because someone misfiled Form 73.
Community rules
"What are the building's rules on hours, lift use, and debris removal?"
Better to know before your neighbor walks into your call to complain about hammering at 15:00.
Realistic timeline
"If permits slip, what's the longest this can take?"
You're allowed to reject projects that want to live rent-free in your head for eight months.
If a contractor can't answer these without drama, the project is already showing you what it'll become.
The 60-minute sanity check
Block one hour this week. Laptop, calendar, planned works.
You're designing the project around your life, not vice versa.
Minutes 0-15: Map real constraints
Your weekly call windows.
Any travel between now and March.
Be honest. If you're in London for board meetings, you can't also manage a demolition phase, expecting hourly decisions.
Minutes 15-35: Lock governance
Compress everything into one readable page:
Scope, including what's not in scope.
Permit path—who handles each step.
Payment schedule by milestone, not "50% upfront."
Change order rules—how extras get priced.
Communication protocol—who calls you, when.
Most remote workers skip this. They assume "we'll sort it on WhatsApp." That's how you get 47 unread voice notes at 18:30 during earnings week.
Minutes 35-50: Set communication rules
For projects over €5,000:
One primary contact—the site lead, not five different trades.
One weekly 20-minute slot for updates—video or voice, at a time that works across time zones.
Written summaries: what we did, what went wrong, what we need from you.
You're not being difficult. You're clarifying that your job isn't "full-time project manager for free."
Minutes 50-60: Define stop lines
Write down:
Maximum overrun you'll tolerate before pausing.
Three things that would make you walk.
Who will you call next if that happens?
Feels paranoid. It's not. It's avoiding emotional decisions at 22:00 after a bad site day.
The trial-by-three rule
Before handing someone a full kitchen or exterior project, try:
One small interior job you can inspect in daylight.
One logistics-heavy job—like securing lift protection from the comunidad.
One paperwork job—getting a menor permit stamped.
Watch how they communicate, handle deadlines, and treat mistakes.
If they pass, move to phase one. If they fail, you've learned cheaply.
Reply BUILDER for two vetted Costa del Sol contacts who've passed these tests.
Edge cases
If you have school-age kids:
Don't schedule demolition during exam weeks or the first fortnight of new terms.
Keep noisy work in the 10:00-14:00 window where possible.
Make one room "sane" at all times—no boxes, no dust.
If you're semi-retired or here full-time:
You'll be tempted to supervise every detail. That's how you become an unpaid site manager.
Pick two things you genuinely care about seeing in person.
Let the rest run on photos and weekly summaries.
Give neighbors a start and end date. Stick to it.
Spanish you'll use this week
¿Esta obra requiere licencia de obra mayor? Does this work require a major works permit?
Necesito el número de registro turístico. I need the tourist registration number.
Both matter in town halls and contractor calls. Keep them on your phone.
What happens next
Reply OBRAS for the permit flowchart and one-page project checklist.
Reply BUILDER with your town and scope for two contacts who've passed the trial-by-three test.
Reply STR if you have any doubt about whether your setup is actually legal.
We covered Owner compliance this past Monday. Today was the piece nobody writes down: getting Costa del Sol work done without sacrificing the job that pays for it.
Nearly there — A. and the Waypoint Sur Team
With WaypointSur, you can always expect plain-English guidance to land, settle, and thrive on Spain's Costa del Sol—homes, schools, healthcare, visas, taxes, work, and daily life. 💛
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