My Marbella Villa: How Much Is It Costing?

Guys, welcome to another episode of Property Protein and Pumping Up. I just made that name up right there, but I actually kind of like it. Anyways, as usual, we're going to start off with a good old gym session. I'm going to go through it now. So it is going to be a push day. It is going to be incline press, decline press, dips, lateral raises, chest flies, and finishing off with some arms. So it's gonna be epic. It's my favorite day to train. And let's be real, you don't click on the leg day videos. I encourage you to train legs, but I also encourage you to click on the videos. We're also gonna head up to the villa, see what work has been done. There's a cool little bit of progress on the porch that I'm gonna show you now as well. And we're also gonna go through some questions that you guys have about the villa, make it really informative, learn a little bit more about property, even though I'm no expert, but maybe that's better for people who are beginning out like me as well. So either way, give the video a thumbs up, make sure you're subscribed, it's gonna be a good one, let's get into it. So I actually got this tip off the one and only Christian Guzman, where we were benching with each other last day. He warms up with the bar and he does about 40 reps, just bashes them out like so when he is warming up for bench. I'm gonna do a few more. But that's what Christian does and I found it actually does help massively is when you just get the bar and you do extremely high rep to get that blood flow. Current pre-workout concoction, okay? So we got Legend by Ghost, of course. That is the pre-workout supplement, the caffeinated supplement. We also got Pump, so that's gonna draw some blood into your muscles like it says on the tin. Gives you an extremely good pump. And then also Size, which is the creatine product. Creatine, I take year-round, 5 grams every day, or you can take this every day as well. There's a few different mixes. I've ordered stuff in there, but Legend Pump Size, it's my current go-to. If you want to get 20% off your entire order, stock up, code Lipsett on GhostlifeCell.com. Welcome to today's workout, my friends. As mentioned, we are starting off with some incline barbell pressing, which is a movement I've really grown attached to over the last year and have truly felt the benefits of placing more focus on it compared to flat bench. When setting up, the first thing I like to look at is is to get a proper grip on the bar. You don't wanna grab the bar with the top of your palms up near your fingers, it's not secure. Place the bar at the strongest portion of your palm, which is gonna be towards the bottom. And what I like to do is grab the bar tight at an angle and almost think of screwing and twisting your hands into the bar. This is something that sounds really simple, but recently I've found it makes a huge difference to the entire lift. The rep range for this workout was 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps with some higher rep stuff towards the end. And after this, I went on to a very rare piece of equipment that I can only describe as a horizontal Smith machine. It's the only gym I've seen it in is here in Paddle Club, but it's epic. And if you know the exact name of it, drop it in the comments. But either way, it feels great, gives a good contraction, and can be adjusted to work as an incline, flat, or decline press, which is what I went for. So after that, we smashed out some weighted dips for our third compound exercise. And usually I try to keep a balance between flat, decline, incline pressing, but I was in the mood for some dips, and it's not the be-all end-all. Your entire chest is actually going to get hit on all of the movements I just mentioned. You have quite a few different options with weighted dips. Most people will add a weight belt around them, and this is definitely the most secure way to do it. And if you want to go really heavy, set a personal record, I would go for this. But I simply put a dumbbell between my legs here, and the reason for this— when I'm going higher rep, I can go straight into a drop set without having to set up again. So it feels great to just drop the weights and just pump out as many reps as you can. So after this, I finish off with usual isolation work, which I'm going to go through now. So guys, as you probably know, with, um, when you're adjusting the cable height, up high it's going to mimic a decline press, down low it's going to hit incline, so it's going to hit your upper chest, and then at about shoulder level it's going to be pretty much a flat press. So that's what we want to do here. So I'm going to adjust it to about level 4. Another interesting one, okay, I saw a really good point that was made on I can't remember where I saw it. I think I actually saw it on Twitter. Basically, like how a compound movement, it doesn't necessarily mean a barbell or a dumbbell movement. A compound movement is a multi-joint exercise. So basically something like, for example, a cable press, which is literally just a dumbbell press with cables. That's a compound exercise as well. So I thought that was a point that I've kind of never really thought about, just thought I'd share it with the channel. So let me show you what a cable press looks like. I actually do them often, and I remember someone being like, your form's totally wrong. And it's basically a cable press, not a cable fly. So cable fly, okay, like so, arms pretty much straight out like that, like so. And then a cable press, right, think about it as just two dumbbells coming from a different area. So just like this, it's literally just a dumbbell press. And quite frankly, it feels amazing because you're getting the benefits of cables and also you're getting a compound exercise as well. So just a little difference I thought I'd throw in, but today we are doing cable flies. We're moving on to our isolation stuff now. So just the easy part, a little bit of arms. Usually with a push workout, I'll just do triceps. Again, it's a pushing muscle, but your push workouts, they don't have to be so black and white. If you do a set or 3 sets of bicep curls at the end, that's not going to really negatively affect your next pull workout, okay? It's just not that big of a strenuous of a movement to matter that much. So we're going to do mainly triceps, but also just throw in some curls at the end too. Trying to get my love handles tuck, tuck them away. Just a quick one on spot reducing body fat. It is a myth that comes up now and then. People ask, how do I lose fat in a certain place? Okay, and it's all down to genetics and where each individual tends to hold body fat. Okay, I hold little to no body fat on my arms and shoulders, and my chest is all right. Abs actually not even that bad, okay? Where I hold most of mine is back here around the love handles, right? Am I doing love handle exercises to get rid of that? No, absolutely not. If you wanna lose that, just keep on cutting and it'll all come off eventually. Where the myth originally came from, they wanna train abs to try and lose the belly, and that does not happen at all, okay? Every individual will just have different little problem areas. Not even, first word, problems, right? Not even a problem. And they'll try to do certain exercises to combat body fat in that area, okay? It's pointless, it can't be done. It's going to come down to calories in, calories out, and just eventually it will all come off. So if you're worried about the spot that it seems to not be losing body fat, you just got to keep on going and give it time and patience. Just a quick one that I thought I'd talk about as it comes up a lot in the comments. 4, 3, 2. Done. I'm sorry, look, I, I just had to do it. I honestly apologize, okay? But Miguel, he's gone. This is all we have left of Miguel. Soon he's going to get plastered over and it's sayonara to Miguel. So look, he had a good run. It was definitely very eye-catching when he entered the house, but his calves were just too big for me and it just made me look bad. Those things were— they were on the sazul. Those calves, they were actually giving me unrealistic expectations. So goodbye, Miguel. Okay, right. This is— this is realistic. This is the main man around here, Paco, who's making sure everything is going smoothly and the window looks absolutely brilliant. So basically what we're doing here is, as you guys saw, this was a huge porch, okay? And it didn't offer much privacy. And what we're doing is we're making a narrow window here. They look really sleek, really modern, and it's actually one of my favorite features of the house. So it's just kind of a cool little thing as you walk in, it's in on your right. So previously it was a big kind of semicircle, it just kind of revealed the living space a little bit too much. So that's a big change, and that was all done within a day. Things are really flying up. So guys, there's actually not as much as you may think left to do, right? I know it looks like there is, but kind of the main stuff like the plumbing and the electricity, the infrastructure is all going in right now. So these little pipes that you see, there's actually wires inside of them. So the wires are running through the house connecting all the electricity and those pipes to make sure they're waterproof, they don't get damaged, or they don't get, I don't know, or eaten by a rat or something. Okay, so as you can see, I don't step on any of this wet cement, but we got all the pipes coming up through here. And so if you come in here, this is actually going to be where the fuse box is. So the fuse box was outside. It was a little bit old and outdated. So we're actually moving it inside and we're hiding it in one of the cupboards as well. So that's a good little tip if anyone is renovating a house and they don't want a big unsightly fuse box. Okay, let's be real. They are unsightly. Having them outside is a bit unsafe. Hide them in a cupboard. It's a good idea that I picked up from one of the builders. Oh my God, this has came along so well. So we're putting a nice, really modern window in here. We were going to do a narrow one to match the front, but we want to let in more light here. So it's going to be a nice big black window. We were going to make it a door, but you know what? It'll look kind of even better as just one pane of glass instead of something with a split in it. And we kind of want to have like a nice little seat, like a nice little reading area here. So we're going to make it a big black window. So you can always make it into a door, but So that's that. So this is a huge part of the build. And basically, if you come around here, you'll see these, these lines, they basically line up with the ledge off the swimming pool. So instead of, you know, you come down off the step, you go up onto the swimming pool, it looks really kind of rocky. You've got a little step there. It's all just going to be one level flat out. And I think that will just visually make the biggest difference ever. It'll just soothe my brain looking at it, just have it all kind of flattened out. And we're going for a really nice kind of creamy ground. There was a little bench here, you can probably see that in the last episode, and we just got rid of that completely. It made the house look uneven and just outdated and actually took up a few square meters of space, so we've just gotten rid of that. As you can see, this is Miguel's long-lost cousin. He is actually in the ground. We're like, how much cows is there going to be on this property? We're like, it wouldn't surprise me if there was this cow drawn on the bottom of the swimming pool. This is all gonna be one level. So it's gonna all come out to here. And then we are gonna have one step down into this lower end. And this is something that I need your guys' help with a lot, okay? Try to have some vision. Okay, right now it obviously looks like a battle zone. There's actually a lot of space, especially behind this tree. There's actually a crazy amount of space. Obviously there's a beautiful palm tree, which we're gonna wrap in fairy lights. But we're kind of wondering what do we do at the very back end corner of the garden? I'm thinking a nice little seat around the garden or around the tree even. And then just like decking or maybe bring the patio out. But that again is going to add a lot of space onto the property that has just never been used. And so I want to bring up the value of this property. So what I'm thinking, even getting rid of that like bench over there, making more walkable area here is size, size, size. You'll bring the living room out further. That is how I've learned. That is how you increase the price of a property. You increase the value of a property is just make it more space. So, oh, look, this is where we get the water from as well. That's actually— that's pretty clever. Comment down below what you guys think should go down in that backhand corner. I'm thinking nice little seating area around the tree. So next update, this bad boy right here. Is the stairs that leads up to the second floor. So you can probably remember from episode 1, there was just like this little railing here. It was very unsightly, and I don't think it was even that sturdy. So we've made a kind of concrete wall to go around, and we're going to be again refurbishing or redoing, making the steps look pretty. And one, this is obviously a lot safer as well, but two, especially from the front of the house, it makes the house look even bigger. Okay, the railing looked kind of dingy hanging on there, but this again, it kind of makes like the house look like it's a meter wider, especially from the front. So I'm really happy with that. What it reminds me of is like a white Mykonos stairs. Okay, if anyone's been to Mykonos, all the houses, they're obviously all white and they've got these little stairs on the outside of them as well. And another big question, okay, a lot of people are like, oh, is there no indoor stairs to get up to the top? But basically, so this is how it is, and we had a choice. And basically, if I brought the property out a meter, meter onwards here, we'd have to build a whole other floor to it. It would be insane amount of work. And if we put stairs on the inside, which we could do, it would actually just take up pretty much like a whole bedroom. It would half the size of a bedroom where we had to put it, or it would take up like a bathroom. So the weather in Marbella is perfect year round. Like, again, I'm in tank top and shorts and it's the coldest month of the year, which is February. So we actually think it's kind of cool having the stairs outside and it's no issue at all. Another bonus is that you can actually, you know, divide the house. I could rent out the top or even put my stuff up top, rent out the bottom. So to be honest, I actually really like the outdoor stairs. It takes up no room inside, so it allows us more space inside. The weather's perfect, it looks cool, And again, divides up the house in a good way. So comment down below, would you put, you know, stairs on the inside to take up more space? What would you guys do? You know, in the future you could put like a complete new floor on the house. That would obviously increase the value a lot, but that's something I'll look at doing maybe 2 years down the line if I want to. But yeah, so there's a few questions on that. All right guys, so hope you enjoyed today's video so far. Please leave a thumbs up and a like if you're enjoying this series, and be sure you subscribe as well. Now, you guys have a lot of questions about the renovation, okay? And so we're going to cover them all now. We're going to sit down and have a chat. I'm actually down the road from the villa. This is a place that we're renting monthly, so as soon as the kind of renovation's done, I can move in. We will move in, even if I have to sleep on a mattress, whatever it may be, just so I can stop paying rent and start investing that money into my own property, which is a feeling that I've been looking forward to for so long. And I'm sure a lot of you guys feel the same. Rent— there is a lot of pros to rent, but you know, it is also kind of a gut-wrenching feeling when you know you're paying off someone else's mortgage. But anyways, let's get into the questions. Some really good ones here. I actually put up a question box on the Villa Lipsett page, which again, you guys are really enjoying. And so I'm enjoying putting out content there, so be sure to follow it. Let's get into it, right? Most asked question by far: cost, money, do re mi. How much is the renovation costing? Okay, so the renovation in total is costing €91,500. Personally, I'm just going to round that off to €100,000 to be safe. I'd rather overestimate and be glad it costs less than underestimate and be disappointed it'll end up costing more. But again, that wasn't her question. Have I run into any, you know, um, unexpected price increases or anything. And no, everything is really on point. I'm so glad with the builder I went with. But cost, so like I said, €91,500. And another question was, can you give us a cost breakdown? So these are rough guidelines, but again, this is from the company that I chose. And so demolition, um, so knocking down all the walls, the windows, and the floor, everything was €8,500. These are very rough prices. The building works, which is kitchen extensions, windows, doors, aluminum frame installation, concrete floor, um, kitchen and— kitchen and bathroom tiling, opening and closing channels for plumbing, sanitation, electricity, as you guys saw today, that was €9,000. Plastering the interior, which we're not there yet, €7,000. Preparation of the exterior wall, so that is making the exterior wall look smooth, giving it that really clean and crisp villa look, okay? That is more expensive. That is coming to €13,000, and the material we're using is Geolite. Next up is micro cement and Marmolina. That's what goes around the swimming pool. But micro cement is what Kanye West has in his house, okay? It's the really clean, no cracks, no kind of tiles, that really clean, just aesthetic look. I'll try to put some examples on the screen. Um, but it's just like cream. It looks so good. And again, no cracks, and it's just the same material everywhere, so the house ties into each other. And that is quite costly. That is coming to €13,000. And now another question is, what is the most expensive part of the renovation? And that is actually the windows and the installation of the windows. So if you want to make the biggest change to a villa aesthetically, how it looks, is, is getting rid of the old Spanish bars that you see on most houses, if not all old Spanish houses, okay? They kind of look a bit prison-y, so they're not very pleasing to the eye. And replacing them with black aluminum frames— this look is also very popular in London as well, but that is costing in and around €16,000, okay? So that's for the fitting of the windows, the aluminum itself, the glass, the whole lot, okay? So that's the most expensive part of the whole thing, but I think personally the windows will make the most striking difference. Like when you see those villas, the ultra-modern ones, and they're all like glass and just so contemporary looking, that's the windows is playing a huge role in that. So that was the next question: what's the most costly part of the renovation? It's that, it's the windows. So then 3 more things, uh, the painting, simple as that, 2 coats, wall and ceiling, and exterior is 3 coats. So that is €9,000. And the electrical installation, so new cables, lights, switches, sockets, all the USB plugs and beside the sockets. So that is €8,000. And then to finish off, the new plumbing is €7,000. So that's the exact cost breakdown. And again, I have no problem sharing that with you guys. The next question was actually finding a good builder. This is perhaps the most important thing when you are renovating. And my answer is shop around, okay? Interview or meet with, you know, at least 10 different companies. Say, hey, do you want to come check out the villa? Give me a quick you know, off-the-cuff quote on Monday, whatever. We had them like a full week of them, even two-day, like two in a day. We'd have someone coming in the morning, take a look around, another company in the evening, and you just get them to look around. And I think the most important thing is their enthusiasm and their passion and kind of how well you get along with them, okay? Because you're going to be seeing them a lot and you're going to be kind of like, you know, sharing your vision for it, and it should be a fun process. I have to say, this is one of the most enjoyable things that I have ever done. So like I said, I went with a company called ProBuilder. I just randomly found them on Google online. I Googled Marbella renovations, but I met with a lot of people. The first person I met with, they're like, yeah, you know, we should be able to do this for about 250 grand. I was like, ah, quarter million, ah, nice, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll give you a call back, okay? And so to not only, you know, get someone for far below half that, you know, way less, like under €100 grand, was just a huge relief. So that was the first person we met with, and I was like, oh my God, what have I got myself into? So shop around, and moral of the story is find someone that's passionate and enthusiastic about your job. All right, so next question is buying in Dublin versus Marbella. Why did I do it this way? Okay, a lot of people, they'll buy first in their hometown, and then they'll buy their holiday home or, you know, a property in a different country second. I look at what everyone is doing and I just do the complete opposite, okay? That's one of my most important rules in life. That's what I do, okay? Right now, Dublin property, there's pages on Instagram that like highlight the absolute craziness about it. It's just never been higher, it's never been more ridiculous. You're paying like rent like €1,000 for like a month. There's a fridge, the microwave, and the shower, and the bed are within a meter of each other. It's just absolutely crazy. The same goes with buying as well. It's just extremely expensive. So for what I got the villa for, you know, I'm looking at, you know, maybe a studio or apartment, not even in the best part of town. So as someone who works completely online for the last 7, 8 years, or my entire working career, it's just online fitness forever, it really didn't make a difference to me. And what I really realized is when I was living in London, and not last year but the year before, So Fuel Cakes is actually operated out of London, and even when I'm living in London and the offices are 15-20 minutes taxi in, even less on the tube, everyone would still just jump on a Zoom call. Okay, 2020 fast-forwarded everything, so now it is really not important where you live. Everyone just works remotely. Okay, not everyone, but a lot of people. Again, this is coming from someone whose offices were 15 minutes away from them, and they would just everyone would just have Zoom calls and it would be better for everyone. There'd be no commute, it would be quicker, more efficient. And so that's what really made me realize that you can just choose somewhere that you love to live and that's somewhere that helps you and just go there. Okay, so Marbella really suited me in terms of that, and it's actually been amazing for the gyms, the workouts, the quality of life, especially if you're into fitness, right? Year-round sun, the best gyms in Europe, like it's the best gym scene in Europe, okay? All the main gyms in Marbella, you will not, as far as I know, you will not find a place in Europe with as high quality gyms in closer proximity to each other. It's crazy. So fitness scene is insane here. The amount of Irish here is huge. My family also come out regularly to see me. We've been going here for years, ever since I was a young wee lad. I spent many summers here, so I know it very well. So Marbella, for me, if I wasn't living in Dublin or London, it's just an easy decision. So yeah, no regrets coming here, and I I kind of get more sure of it day by day, especially when I see all the craziness with Irish property. So on that, the next one is, was it complicated to buy in Spain compared to Dublin or Ireland, whatever? No, it was very easy. I actually, so I've got, you know, I've talked to a lot of banks in Ireland. I was very close to buying in Ireland a couple of years ago, and I'm not even joking, I found the process more straightforward and I found them to be more enthusiastic over here. So it was very easy. It wasn't even a requirement to have like a Spanish bank account, especially if you're in euro. It makes it a lot easier. I know a few UK people had a bit more kind of difficulties and it was a little bit more complicated, but if you're Irish, if you're euro bank account, it's very straightforward and it's not a big deal. Another one was the biggest decision maker in Marbella buying here, and I actually, again, just to, you know, go over it one more time, the fitness scene for me is just perfect, okay. The house is even beside all the biggest gyms, the best gyms, and I'm surrounded by like-minded individuals, huge entrepreneurial scene here. It's just a very motivating place to be. So you can go to Marbella and again, you know, you can go enjoy the nightlife and all that, but you can also go here and you can immerse yourself in the fitness scene. And that was a huge one for me. I just feel amazing like, you know, all the good food and working out in the sun. It's just a very good quality of life. Another one, and this is a very important one: Will Villa Lipsett be on Airbnb? What are your plans for this? Are you going to rent it out or are you going to sell it in a couple years' time? Okay, so the house two doors down from me just sold for €4 million. Okay, so that is good news to me, right? Right now, my current short-term plan is I want to live in it. I want to really enjoy it. I want to make it my dream home. But in the future, so that's short term. In the future, medium term would be to experiment with Airbnb, Booking.com, or whatever, and, you know, see if I can make a little business out of that, especially if I go back to Ireland for maybe 2 or 3 months, or maybe if I go to America, travel around like I just gone for 6 weeks there, you know, in Mexico, Miami, and Texas. So it would be cool to have a little business kind of running while I'm away, not staying there So that's medium term. And then long term, if I get an insane offer on it, again, this is not something that I'm banking on, but if I do get an insane offer on it, sure, I'd be crazy not to take that profit, okay? So yeah, that's short term, live in it. Medium term, experiment with Airbnb and all that. Long term, flip it and become a property developer, okay? From fitness to property, that's me now. So yeah, that's just what I'm thinking. But again, who knows, I could end up just living in this for the rest of my life because I love how it's looking and what it's becoming. But yeah, definitely I'm going to try an Airbnb at some stage. Have you had to compromise on any parts of the villa? Is the final question. There's a few things, but nothing major. Like, for example, I wanted to make it a little bit more open plan, but I realized there's something called a supporting structure, and if I remove that, the house would fall down. So we made it as open plan as possible. And it actually turned out better because, you know, for example, we wanted to completely get rid of the porch, but then the second you walk in the door, you just have like the kitchen there on your left with the dishwasher and, you know, the living room on your right. And it's actually just a little bit too open and it reveals too much of the house at once. So yes, with the supporting structures, you know, of course you have to work around them. But yeah, nothing major. It's all been great so far. But I hope that answers all your questions at the moment. A lot of people of course did ask the price of the villa, and comment down below, okay? I do want to say the price of the villa. I want to discuss it because I got the best deal ever. I— so my friend who works in Rocabox, which is the property company that sold to us, she called me the second it went on the market and said, this is the property for you. I know you've been after something just like this in this price range in Marbella, and I put a deposit, a down payment on it to take it off the market. That very day. Okay, it's an amazing deal, but I've also been told I shouldn't say it publicly because if it comes to the time to resale, the new buyers will say, well, I'm not buying it for this much if he bought it for that much. So comment down below if there's anyone, um, who's very interested in property. Is it a smart decision to say publicly? Is it not? I'm not too sure, but maybe we'll do a price reveal in episode 3. You guys are gonna have to wait till then. Thank you so much for watching and following along on the journey. It means the world to me. So keep it real. I'm out of here. Peace.