I’m fresh from Tinos and would love to share all the beautiful places I visited on the island with you but more pressing is a little Casa Kefi renovation update. Please feel free to scroll right down past my waffle to get my hot tips on choosing an architect and a contractor on the Greek islands and how to go about it. My paying subscribers will also have access to a chat about Greek home renovation and purchase.

Two years ago now I found my dream Greek island home. Seemingly small on first glance (it’s a traditional village home to the north of the island and has a classic layout of courtyard, central living space with four smallish rooms coming off it), this house is special because it hides a tonne of surprising spaces.

The ground floor - or ‘katoi’ as the locals call it - was traditionally used as a cool cellar to store produce and house animals and ours is massive - larger than the actual house that sits above it…

Then there’s an out-house kitchen (also very traditional and similar to my Yiayia’s in Corfu) just across the courtyard from the main building. Plus, the house came with a large garden that includes a small shepherd’s hut which we can (legally!) renovate into a guest studio.

When I first saw the house and began to walk from room to room in the Katoi downstairs, I felt my blood pressure go up a notch because I was so excited at the potential of this maze-like space. I love to host people and for years I’ve been renting a Venetian villa in Corfu to welcome groups for retreats to my island. Finding out that the Tinos house could potentially sleep over 10 people had my pulses racing.

I COULDN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE SUMMER PARTIES

We didn’t use an architect for our house in Athens and I forever regret it because we have a massive apartment (150 square metres) and yet in all that space, the configuration hasn’t allowed for three bedrooms (now would be handy as we have two kids and neither of them sleep particularly well) or an office for myself. Our bedrooms and living areas are gigantic but we barely use these spaces. It was therefore hugely important to me to find the right architects to work with on such a mega project.

I put a call out on instagram and started to talk to various architects who sent me proposals. One of these was a proposal which included a photograph of a bucket of dirty water with no explanation and an AI regurgitated intro on the definition of the word ‘restoration’. Safe to say we didn’t follow through with that lead.

Another one was a really fantastic architect Kelly Spanou. She has actually just won an award for her work on Tinos and she’s a good friend of a friend. We loved discussing the potential of the house with Kelly and I think she’s brilliant but looking at the proposal she had sent with plenty of detailed moodboards, something didn’t quite click. Her approach was monastic in feeling vs my own crazy colour loving taste. Despite her being a very well respected and successful architect and hugely professional, I felt that her style didn’t fit my own.

I was feeling uncomfortable about saying no to Kelly because she’s hugely well rated and we love her as a person but my gut was telling me to hold out until we found the right fit. Then fate had a hand to play in the whole thing.

Enter Point Supreme

My man’s Milanese architect cousin - Pietro - suggested we reach out to Point Supreme. I checked their instagram and instantly decided they would be way out of our budget. They’re well known internationally and hugely successful. At around the same time, I went to visit a good friend for a play date at her home in Koukaki (central Athens) and my jaw dropped when entering her apartment. Colours popped unexpectedly from every corner and the smart combination of materials and textures made the place feel like a cosy and sumptuous cocoon away from central Athens. It was playful and fun and grown up all at the same time. Who did the interiors? None other but Point Supreme.

Ana and Kris turned out to be friends of Mariana and Kostantinos (Point Supreme) and they made an intro to the guys, assuring us that they choose projects based on how much they loved them and that they’re entire thing is bringing life back to old spaces. We went for an initial meeting at their studio, they sent us a proposal and we very quickly got to designing our dream home.

The brilliance of this duo is that they work exceptionally well together and their individual talents complement one another. Mariana has been nerding out over the ‘flow’ of the space, opening up space to create extra areas to sleep guests and widening windows for light and air. Whereas Kostantinos is fantastic when choosing colour combinations. I’m so exceptionally happy to be working with them.

The Island Contractor Minefield

I can’t say the same for the builders in Tinos, who apparently don’t work all summer and don’t find it necessary to provide a cost break down for the works we need to do. I travelled to Tinos with Mariana a few weeks ago to meet contractors and it transpires, finding builders on the Cycladic islands is a total political minefield.

Tinos seems to be having a building boom as many of the contractors I have asked to give a quote told me they won’t be free until 2027. Then there’s the issue that our Tinian engineer flagged: Tinos is both a Catholic and Orthodox island. Some Tinian Catholics won’t work in Orthodox villages, and vice versa. I laughed in her face when she told me this, thinking she was joking. She remained dead pan. “Is a very serious problem, you must be delicate,” she concluded.

Then there’s the mafia style issue that no one wants to tread on each other’s turf. On the day I visited, I arranged four contractors to come (one after the other) to the house, to see it, assess the works and eventually give a quote. The first guy was very positive but insisted I’d have to change all of the roofs (a few of them look fine to me - but what do I know?). He also started bashing at all the walls with a tool that I do not know how to name so I’ll just drop a video in here for you all. The house is very old and in a delicate position, so you can imagine my consternation at the uncalled for thrashing he gave it…

While we were still talking to the first guy, the second guy a arrived early, huffing and puffing up the village steps to meet me. He looked like Santa on holiday, rosy cheeks and forehead perspiring, his round belly only just covered by a red t-shirt. He was perfectly lovely but the minute he saw builder number 1, he excused himself and said he didn’t want to “get in anyone’s way.”

On an island, everyone knows everyone else and diplomacy is of the utmost importance. Apparently it was a huge faux pas to schedule these meetings so close together. My London-instilled efficiency totally betrayed me here.

The Snake and the Pirate

Contractor number 3 arrived with his ‘middle man’ -the guy that found the house for us and my least favoured option. For the purposes of this article, I’ll call him ‘Fidi’ (Greek for ‘snake’. Fidi was our ‘agent’ for the house and is a native to the village. I had my doubts about this guy from the start and I felt unsafe during the entire process of buying the house because of the ‘off’ feeling he gave me. He had a sly look and talked too much from the very beginning. In my experience, with contractors and agents, the more they talk, the more likely I am to be ripped off.

Once we bought the house, he essentially threatened us in a very underhand and veiled way, telling us “you won’t have problems with the neighbours or the police if you use me and my contractor for the renovation.” Do people really call the police on their neighbours here? According to Fidi, they do, becayse Fidi is likely the one calling the po po.

I digress!

Fidi showed up with a contractor who I can only describe as a pirate, in that he had a little paunch, long beard and was wearing a bandana and black jeans that he had rolled up and looked very akin to Pirate garb. He lunged at me and Mariana as he spoke, his eyes levelling ours, his body in an aggressive ‘shall we take this outside?’ stance as we asked him very standard questions like - “Is it really necessary to replace the entire roof?”

I should also add that Fidi and Pirate were in charge of emptying our Katoi (ground floor) that was so chokka full of stuff when we bought it that we didn’t actually realise we could SLEEP PEOPLE down there. On the day Mariana and I arrived, an elderly neighbour (96 year old Kyrios Lefteris) informed me that instead of disposing of the pile of wood, ancient mattresses, fridges and debris of multiple lifetimes properly, they had fly tipped, leaving all of the mess at the edge of the village and on a patch of prime real estate where the hens have their coop.

Safe to say it was a big fat NO from me on the Fidi and Pirate duo…

Contractor number 4 seemed perfectly fine and very professional. He showed up on a Ducati motorbike, clad in leathers and didn’t crack a smile until he realised the katoi was actually the original stone house and that our home had essentially been built on top of a 400+ year structure. He got very excited about door openings and ancient archways hidden in brickwork. When it came to giving me a quote for the work though, he says he can’t give me a break down of all the costs because it’s ‘company policy’ and he isn’t available until 2028 anyway.

So that’s that, then.

How do you actually apply what I learned the hard way in order to start renovating your Greek home?

Below, my paying subscribers have access to my hot tips on starting a Greek home renovation project. You will also have access to my chat about renovating and buying in Greece.

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I wanted to send you an update because there are changes afoot! Today, Matriarch Eats becomes Casa Kefi and as you’ve ALL been on this journey with me, I wanted to give you the heads up first.

‘Kefi’ is a word used to describe a joie de vivre we experience here in Greece. It can be a heightened moment of euphoria at a party or simply a flee…

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