Blog Latest Update:
Spring is well and truly here and are we happy; got to say there is not a better place to be than St John and Bansko when it’s like this, the Swallows are nesting and all about in the air. We know their nests can be a nuisance but they are a protected
species and you really must not touch their nests, on request Crown will happily clean any mess left around and associated with their nests, free of charge for all our FM/IPM clients, for non IPM clients, prices are available on request.
So here’s what we have been up to these days/weeks.
Fire Certification:
A lot of work as you can imagine, 17 blocks, 85 floors, each block needing its own registration, boy they love their paper work here, the Fire office has been great though, and we can now confirm that as of 1st May 2012 the St John Hill and Park complex’s are now fully fire certificated.
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| Park Extinguishers & Hose reel |
All extinguishers are in place, missing hose reels at the Park installed and
maintenance / ownership stickers have been put in place.
The Complex is now covered by a full fire certificate that is right up to date and in line with all new legislation enforced as of 1st May 2012 , as part of this, all operating apart-hotels, hotels and any buildings requiring a fire certification will be required to enter into a maintenance contract with the legalised and certificated fire office in order to ensure both ongoing compliance and proper condition of all extinguishers. Crown FM has entered into this agreement with them and has absorbed the additional cost within our present agreement with the OA, to be included at our next review in September.
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| Hill Extinguishers |
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| Official FO labelling + Sj John OA |
Under this maintenance agreement his team will attend site every month and report to ourselves insuring that at all times the complex and the health and safety of owners and users is a priority.
Additionally we have instructed the Fire officer during this month to train our staff in emergency evacuation procedures and will be placing emergency evacuation notices / maps at every floor through out the complex. Update training and regulation compliance testing is to be performed every 6 months.
Apartment Fire Safety
Following on from the complex compliance we are now focusing on the apartments and how to upgrade the cover to best match an expected European standard, not only is this the correct way forward in respect of the owners health and safety but also if we are to be serious about lettings we must start to set our selves above the rest and start to move the complex forward to where we would wish it to be. In this respect we are producing, for all our FM/IPM clients, a life safety and emergency escape procedure with the assistance of the fire office for certification, and to ensure all legalized lettings procedures are adhered to and met. This we are doing free for all Crown FM/IPM clients. FM only clients using alternative IPM
providers can contact us on info@crown-fm.com for related details and costs to have their apartment compliant.
We have also sourced a Bulgarian supplier for kitchen fire blankets, apartment fire extinguishers and battery operated smoke alarms.
Cost and full details on how to purchase to follow shortly:
Condo Act progress;
As expected the heavy work here has been Initially the gathering of the documentation necessary to take us through and Yana and the team have been hard at it, as always the municipality records and manner of holding those records is, lets say different. However we have now got all Park documents together and complete and at the Hill we are promised all architectural drawings by mid-next week. Thank you to all owners for the prompt response in getting your completed Notary details to us.
Apartment labeling;
All FM and IPM clients particularly in the Park where apartment numbering has been missing have all now their own unique Crown apartment identification.
Block floor labeling;
Following on from above we are planning to label all floor levels across the complexes, in the next week or so.
External entry system labeling;
We are also going to properly label and assign the entry systems to each Park and Hill block.
Garden;
The weather has turned wonderful and I mean wonderful, long sunny days, clear blue sky’s, fresh mountain air. Now is the time to sort out the gardens, and the gardening team are hard at work, so add the smell of freshly cut grass to the above and your in heaven.
We have finalised the project for the garden areas out side the Park all 2500sqm of it and it has turned out to be a bit more of a task than we first anticipated (no change there then), when we tested the soil it seems our friends Bulkanstroy thought it proper to dump all the construction waste material and all unused construction sand, thus we are having to completely turn over the grounds remove all weeds and bring in and mix good quality earth throughout order the hardy Canadian grass we have purchased will take properly and last.
We are then of to our garden supplier this weekend to finally select the planting, sulected to fit in with our landscape plan and will complete the planting before the real hot weather sets in.
Internet / TV;
We now have the complete fibre proposal in and having gone through both the technical and logistical aspects of it, it looks great and will for sure future proof the complex, but right now we have far greater priorities, this is where Crown Connect comes in, we have been testing and running a number of 4G Ethernet solutions (its what our reception area Wi-Fi hot spot operates on, and very well) and all thus far has been great, so for owners and guests we have invested in a number of these portable plug and play solutions that will offer super Internet coverage that allows TV channel access and unlimited downloads for movies and just about anything else you use the internet for. There will be two levels of service available for rent and depending on what band width and access you require is which model you choose.
Connect 1. Use Internet unlimited and also receive:
6 GB email
IPTV with over 50 TV and radio programs
Speed up to 10Mbps
10 euro a week hire / 100 euro deposit
Connect 2. Use Internet unlimited and also receive:
6 GB email
IPTV with over 50 TV and radio programs
Speed unlimited
15 euro a week hire / 100 euro deposit
Owners or visitors wanting a device please need to book one month inadvance of their stay to secure a unit, as a limited amount of units are available right now, however if demand increases we will invest further to meet client demand.
"Smart" for hire:
The Smart Passion car is here with all logos, huge fun to drive and perfect for around town, so for those quick trips to the supermarket or any where else you need the freedom to get to, she will be available to rent at 15 euro an hour and 25 km radius travel limit. Booking is on a first come first serve basis and is available in person at reception or via the email at the reception email address.
Hill & Park Heating / Hot water solutions,
With the outrageous electrical utility costs here in Bansko, combined with the integrity and operational issues related to both the heating and hot water systems at the Park and Hill, we have been on a mission to review each complexes problems in particular and see if we cannot source an engineered solution best suited to both, that resolves Hill problems such as water leaks, pipework prone to freezing, and combined Park and Hill problems, like poor heat distribution, Energy consumption and space management, And we think we have the solutions.
We have already covered at some length in past blogs, Hill issues and whilst inherently the electric boiler system is in principle an appropriate approach to the electrical heating of an apartment, water having a greater specific heat capacity than air 4.2 kj/kg as apposed to air at 1.212 kj/kg, and thus a more efficient medium for the transfer of electrical energy to heat. Its installation and application is wholly flawed. That said, the switch to a simple point of use convective electrical element heaters is also unsatisfactory due to the potential inadequacies of the electrical distribution system and the fact that these units by their nature will cost more to run, thus be warned a simple change could be a case of out of the fire and in to the frying pan.
With the Park the issues are more simple, and are really focused on energy consumption. With basic water boilers generally heating water you don't need or use plus are slow to react and provide hot water when you do need it. Heating in the Park is in the main via very basic electric element panel heaters, and whilst
there 100% efficient in converting electrical energy into heat energy the way they transfer this energy to the space and the persons occupying it is hugely inefficient, in simple terms if you have 10 KW worth of electric radiator panels in your apartment you burn 10 KWh of electrical energy 100% of the time they are on, resulting in big bills.
Energy consumption and energy usage awareness is an issue irrespective of cost, but cost here and now is our primary concern, this is particular relevant when we are considering lettings of apartments as the single biggest issue that eats in to any potential income you may earn, are utility costs and largest by far of these is the electrical cost.
This initiative of ours is particular relevant as in our experience when people are renting an apartment for their holiday they very rarely care to much for energy consumption or managing the operation of the water boiler, and in most cases particularly through the winter leave everything on, in order to keep
every thing roasting hot for them.
So to my mission, during my engineering days one of my specialties was energy management, and via these old contacts I have been discussing and researching in order to find not only an energy conscious solution but low maintenance, easy control and reasonable capital cost solution.
The Details and full costing proposals we will cover in depth in a dedicated blog to be published with in the next month or so, as we are currently testing said solutions in order to make sure the operational characteristics of the equipment. we are proposing, match with and operate within the capabilities/restraints of the existing apartment electrical installations.
Hill fire place chimneys;
Unlike the Park a large amount of Fire places installed in the Hill by the developer are not able to function correctly, from the units we have inspected we have assessed/identified the following common faults (the actual fire place units themselves are of a very good quality and by a very reputable company) mostly as a result of poor and incorrect installations, in the main the primary issue is stack sizes being incorrect resulting in a lack of buoyancy in the stacks, in others flue connections to stacks are not sealed properly leading to leakage. The good news is that with the help of the Fire office we have devised solutions to all the issues, please if you have a fire place you cannot use or are concerned about using, contact ourselves via info@crown-fm.com and we will advise the right solution for you and related costs.
IPM;
Huge thanks’ to all those FM clients that have chosen Crown to be their IPM provider, also we are grateful for your confidence and valued additional custom, as a result we are a long way forward towards being the sole IPM provider at the Village, a mission we make no secret of, as we and others including most insurance providers believe this is the best way forward for the long term stability and operational continuity of the complex as a whole.We will be holding over our 50% discount offer to all FM clients and feel that at 130 euro (or £2 a week) this is a great value service, particular as over the next few weeks new improved services will be coming on line,Including but not limited toWeekly IPM reporting.
IPM news letter: (in conjunction with FM news letter for FM/IPM clients)
Client comment forms: for all clients to contribute/comment, constructively towards what we are doing and what they would like to see us doing and or improving on.
Energy watch service: management of occupiers use of utilities during lettings periods.
Swallow’s nest management: (where applicable)
Reception Skype Address:
We have now set up a dedicated St John Village Skype address: stjohnvillage where you can connect direct during normal working hours with Veronica, to ask any questions, impart any information or Skype chat all for free, please in-order for Veronica to manage this service properly if you are requesting a Skype chat with her, my self or any one of the team please book in advance.
FM news letter:
We are currently working on a suitable format for a monthly complex news letter and during this process would gladly welcome any suggestions from owners as to content / format / visuals.
Crown Interiors projects:
Another huge and we mean huge thanks to all those clients that have allowed us into their apartments to create their interior designs and deliver on the subsequent furnishings, its been a huge privilege and a joy to work with you all.
We will not pretend the winter did not give us more than its fair share of problems and that we have been on a serious catch up until now but the projects are looking great, please see images from a great Park, 2 bed penthouse maisonette, where we had some serious space planning issues to address, but in dealing with these we managed to converted the apartment to a comfortable sleeps 8 unit.
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| See all the images from this project and detail @ www.facebook.com/crown.interiors.and.furnishing |
Crown Sofa's / Sofa Beds
I was in Sofia the other week for a site inspection, we have a super project there at the moment, and whist i was there I took the opportunity to visit the new Ikea super store on the ring road, now believe it or not I am a Ikea fan, not of everything they do but some of the stuff they do is design wise great, and generally what they do they do great, and really they are not our competition, we do interiors and design of a much more personal, bespoke nature and individual style.
But anyhow I was quiet excited about seeing what they were up to these days and where the Bulgaria version measured up to, as the last time I walked round an Ikea was some 10 years ago, “wow really is it that long ago” well like so many (comments in media etc) I was, i must say more than a little disappointed, design wise and style wise they really had not moved on at all, (forgive me for being a purist, cant help it) it was like a time warp and I could have been standing in the Wembley store 10 years ago!! now it might be my age, and may be I just don’t get it any more, but surely a business as large as this cannot be fed by students furnishing their bed sits and first time buyers love shacks alone!!
The other thing that really struck me was the prices, not the expected bargain basement costs at all, in fact quite the reverse in fact and I could not help but compare ourselves despite being at the opposite end of the design and quality scale. most notably the sofas, see below a pretty shabby looking 2+ sofa (not a sofa bed) at 2149 leva (1102 euro) and compare to our Manhattan Sofa, elegantly dignified instance and a sofa bed to-boot, complete with Ottoman,Crown price 950 euro delivered and installed to your apartment, with a wide range of colours and finishes available plus custom sizing available on request.
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| A current Sofia project just about to complete with our Manhattan Sofa and ottoman |
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| The Manhattan Sofa bed an elegant style designed by my self completely made in house |
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| the rather tied looking ill finished over priced ikea unit, 2140 leva & not even a sofa bed! |
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| Sofa delivery Crown style, getting full sized custom sofas at great value prices straight into your apartment, no problems with corridors, stair cases or doors. |
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| There she goes straight through the window no problem, find another furniture company willing / able to do this and at no extra cost. |
Last but by no means least,
The Mace family and more, move into the St John Village Complex :) Yes putting our money and commitment where our mouth is and moving in to the Park, lets be honest we spend so much time up here and our little Chantal love-her spent so much time alone, when the opportunity arose we grasped it with both hands, and we are loving it, best move we have ever made so Hi to all our new neighbours.
We have also negotiated a long term let deal with an owner in the Hill for two of our key staff from Plovdiv to live here also and believe it or not our bank manager aswell, so really we are breathing life in to the complex.
We will also be actively looking for other long term let possibilities
So now we can really say we are looking after your investments as if it was our own home,
We will also be actively looking for other long term let possibilities
So now we can really say we are looking after your investments as if it was our own home,
BECAUSE IT IS.
