After 25 years of holidays in Greece, we decided to buy somewhere to live near Sitia in Eastern Crete. Because of personal recommendations, we decided to work with Property on Crete to find our new home.
After our first viewing trip, we narrowed down the search to the village we preferred and then it was a case of keeping an eye on the website and preparing for our return later on in the year.
Over the summer when we were back in the UK a couple of properties caught our eye but one in particular we kept looking at – it wasn't much at first sight but it was in the right location and felt as if it might have the potential to become a home.
On our next visit in October, we viewed several properties from the shortlist George (the proprietor of Property on Crete) had prepared. We quickly realised that it would be possible, with the help of him and his team, to turn the one that had caught our eye on the website into a home. Looking past the clutter of old household appliances and chicken cages we found a lovely open space upstairs and the same downstairs with the added bonus of two old stone walls. We decided that with a bit of digging to lower the floor level and provide some more headroom we could have a lovely cool bedroom and bathroom downstairs and upstairs we would make the most of the wonderful views and keep it as an open plan kitchen/living area.
With a workable design and a quote for the conversion from George the builder, we went home and put an offer in for the house.
The next months passed quickly and we had e-mails from George saying first our offer had been accepted and all the legal details had been sorted and then the one that we had been waiting for that said we now owned our own little piece of Crete. A set of photos followed to show the house cleared of clutter and building work started. All this was overseen by the team at Property on Crete who kept us in touch by e-mail through the whole process so we didn't feel too left out.
There were a couple of changes to the design – George the builder pointed out the original plan for a circular staircase wouldn't make the best use of the floor space so we changed things round a bit - easily done with a few e-mails and a phone call.
A visit in February gave us a break from the cold weather in the UK and allowed us to 
confirm the changes to the layout before they became irrevocable. We also finalised the design of the kitchen area and bought the built in appliances.
The house was delivered on time and to the budget we had specified. We moved in June as planned. It now looks very different to our first sight of it and it is feeling more like home every day.
Many thanks to:
- George Mavromatis and his team from Property on Crete who made the whole process run like clockwork
- George Lianoudakis - “George the builder” - and his team who did such a great job of the conversion
- All the people of Sitia and Piskokefalo who have made us so welcome
Liz and Derek 6th. July 2009