The Surfhouse in the making!
Yes Yes Yes! It is a dream come true for Ilyana Surfhouse. So far, (as most of you know) Ilyana Surfhouse was mainly focused on the surfing activities and less on the accommodation. That’s because there was no ‘ilyana SURFHOUSE’ yet! The houses where guests stayed in were rented and we are super grateful for all the houses and accommodations that liked to collaborate with us. This gave us the opportunity to focus on sharing waves with you (our guests) and building a true experience for surfers in Rabat!
Slowly, Slowly growing our network and business, Ilyana Surfhouse is making THE most important step of the entire business. We bought a SURFHOUSE!
Through this blog (which is just open for you to read) we like to keep you updated from our renovations. The up’s but also the down’s from building a surfhouse will be shared. With no promises made on our opening date ;).
Once in two weeks, Nina will be posting an update so you all can catch up with the progress. Wanna follow our project? Make sure to add yourself to the mailing-list for updates in this blog.
You might wonder, why not be the ultimate vlogger and share the progress on Instagram? Well, we like to stay focused on the renovations and quality of the build. Be in the moment when working on the house instead of creating content. Trying to optimize the building process ánd true ly enjoy every second of the renovations :).
Update: 19 March 2025
YES YES YES! We got the keys to our palace! We are SO SO SO excited to announce that we bought a house in the Medina of Rabat to become ‘Ilyana SurfHOUSE’!
As this is the first step in our blog – The Surfhouse in the making – we love to keep you updated from the steps we take and decisions we make. Perhaps you have tips or any brilliant ideas you want to share? Do not hesitate to contact us or leave a comment in the blog.
On 8 March 2025 we signed the contract of the house on Rue Ahmed Bennani. The former owner of the house his last name is; Bennani. This means that the house has been in his family since the start of the medina exists (a veryyy longgg time)!
What a MEGA Key!
No worries! This is not the key of our front-door. Just the magic key that brings us to the rooftop-terrace where one day (incha allah) you will be able to sunbath and have dinner after a great day of surfing.
As the old Medina of Rabat dates back to the 12th century, our house is nearly as old as the first bricks build in the Medina. With many beautiful details (which we keep secret for now), there is much much work to do!
First of all, cleaning and emptying the old house. It has been empty for over 4 years and still enriched with old note books, a kids bike, outdated volt meters and much more to be thrown away.
Helpers from the Netherlands
With the help from the most curious and supporting Ilyana fans (my parents) we started emptying and cleaning Ilyana Surfhouse. It was a very special week where both our parents were involved in the first step of making a dream come true.
A little nervous as I was to show the house to my parents (as it is quite CRAAZY!), they loved the house and definitely see the same potential in this pearl as we do. My mom even had to tip away a little tear after she first saw the beauty of the house.
It was a great week of parential bonding, brainstorming the first designs and making the first steps. My father focused on measuring the house to create the plan and my mom focused on cleaning and sorting the loose Moroccan tiles around the house.
We went ‘undercover’ at other Riads asking to look around for an accommodation for my parents and kept on saying; ‘You know what also could work….’ or ‘When I woke up last night at 04:00, I was thinking…. ‘
Good ideas keep on flowing but now it’s time to make desicions. See you next time!
Update: 5 april 2025
Alright Alright! Two weeks later. Thank you all for signing up to read about our palace becoming first Surfhouse. Previously, I mentioned that the house had been empty over 4 years. Well, yes. It was a little more than that! The house has been empty for over more than 20 years. The last time it was painted was in 1992. The birth-year of Ilyass.
Besides from updating you, we also like to involve you in our process of desicion making. If you have an opinion or want to join in on the interactive parts of this blog, use the comments block above!
The last two weeks has been mostly full of paperwork, people coming to look and creating our ideas for the Surfhouse. The plumber is hired and the architect has consulted us, and we; we just keep on cleaning the house and creating our ideas.
Paperwork
These weeks the house is not yet changing much. Before we start with the renovations, we need to work on our building permits.
There are strict permits you need to obtain, with many small rules for building in the old medina of Rabat. Due to your neighbors rooftop or other peoples’ patio on the other side of the window, you are for example not allowed to build windows to the outside of your house. All new windows need to face the open area in the middle of the house, and this area needs to retrieve as much as possible lightning!
We hope that next week all paperwork is done and we are ready to start building. Before we can start renovating; we need to have a plan! Also a kind of paperwork. With the great work of my father for measuring the entire house, I have created a plan for every room. Some easy, some more complicated. All as beautiful and fun!
We doubted to work with an Architect, but decided to keep the ‘touwtjes in eigen handen’ (control). As we are full of good ideas ourselves and have Ilyass his best friend Jade as helper (he is Engineer as profession) we will work with an architect as consultant. Not guiding the entire process, but just helping out when stuck or in need for tips.
Tiles Tiles Tiles!
A little history lesson? Why not! Moroccan zellige is a traditional form of tilework with roots in Islamic Spain during the 10th century, later developing into a distinct Moroccan art form. It became prominent during the Almohad dynasty (12th-13th centuries) and was refined in cities like Fez. Zellige tiles are made from red clay, hand-cut into small pieces, and arranged into intricate, geometric patterns. The designs are inspired by Islamic art’s emphasis on abstract, non-figurative decoration. Zellige was widely used in Moroccan architecture, especially in mosques and palaces. In the 20th century, the craft saw a revival and remains a symbol of Moroccan culture, now popular in global interior design.
Our interior design is FULL of this beautiful artwork of Zellige! Now, we do have some spots that are damaged. Here comes the interactive part of this episode.
Do you think it’s just old and ready to be looking shiny again? Or is this character of the house? Let us know what you think in the comments.
More Tiles?
Does the house even need more tiles? Yes! Ilyass and I went on a roadtrip to Temara (next village south of Rabat), where you find all sorts of tiles shops! These are needed for the bathrooms, ánd the flooring of the rooftop. Not to buy, just looking (kijken, kijken, niet kopen). What we were looking for is not the old Zellig as shown above, but just other kind of tiles. Unfortunately; the new trend in Moroccan bathrooms are big white tiles with an imprinted picture of a shampoo bottle on it… Not quite our style. But; we found some lovely colors that we can work with!
La - Houcha!
La houcha! Meaning; good deal in Darija. Sometimes you just know that you found a good deal. And even if it is far from our priority at this moment; a washing machine is what we need anyways!
But what is the best way to get this heavy thing into the medina? Sure! On a skateboard. On the photo you see Ilyass with a good friend rolling our new washing machine into the medina.
Ilyana keeps rolling..!
As we are still open with Ilyana Surfhouse until the end of May, we are not yet working full-time on the house. The past week we had an amazing week with Sandrine & the best group from Scheveningen. A little trip to the pottery has given a great opportunity to orientate for furniture & styling. The coming week we are hosting another great girls-only trip with SurfgirlsNL. This means; less focus on the house, more time spend on the beach.
Keep you posted!
Update: 21 april 2025
After the last update of the 5th of april, lots of things happened. We still had guests up until today and fully focused on the organized week with SurfgirlsNL. After great waves, sunshine and laughter; it is time to put focus back on the house.
Even though we had guests and were not 100% dedicated to the house; things have started rolling and the first bricks have been laid.
Enjoy the read!
Fine-tune & brainstorm
The first weekend after last update we sat together with Jade & Khaoula. Jade is one of the best friends of Ilyass since he is young and together with his wife (and my dear friend) Khaoula we brainstormed and fine-tuned some ideas. They work as ingenieurs and guide us through the entire project. Not only brainstorming, but also tipping us on where to buy materials and how to manage the workers. Efficient work, and cosy-times spend together!
Permit in the pocket!
YES! Almost one week ago, we received the ‘GO’ for our building-permit. This means that we can now really start with the renovations of the house.
There are different kinds of permits in Morocco. We received the permit to fix the house, but not particularly to build new things in the house. This is all we need to make most things happen in the house, and some things will be slightly sneaky.
All draft ideas are set, and calls are being made. On Monday 14 april Ilyass all workers who have a primary task, came to look at the house. This means that the ‘builder’ came to see where walls need to be build, what needs to be destroyed and how much materials are needed to make a start, the plumber came to have a look on the piping and make a planning, and the electricien also made his first impression of the house with his ideas (without that we had given much though of it yet). All by all; things are going, and we are excited!
While still having guests at the moment; a little field-trip to Oulja gave me the opportunity to get new impressions for wood-work and furniture.
Let's start the work!
After all the workers came to have a look; Ilyass received a shopping list. Here in Morocco workers are hired per project (so not per hour) and exclusively for their work and not the materials. This means that you have to deliver the materials by yourself so that you are in control of where you buy it, for which price and of what quality.
On the photo you see Ilyass with one of his shopping items!
To be able to start building inside the house, we need lots of materials. The workers need wood to make scaffolds and the first struts for the constructions. Many liters of sand and water are needed to create cement, and kilo’s of bricks to build.
Bakery by day, Carrossa at night
As there are no cars in the old medina of Rabat, all materials are brought to the house on a pushcart. To not have too many eyes focussed on us and to not block the small streets while unloading, these things are delivered in the medina at night. A few broken nights of waking up at 5AM and 12 to 18 hardcarts later; we had plenty of materials to make a start.
On the photo you on the right side; you see big bags of baking-flower. These bags are used to deliver the sand in for creating cement. Ilyass had to collect these bags the past few days from the bakeries in the medina to have enough for all cement to be made. These bags will be re-used again afterwards to take out all rubble created during the build. That’s a good form of recycling, right?
Start with the ceiling; sure!
First changes are in sight. On Wednesday 16 april the builders have started! And oh; they are going RAPIDO!
The team that is building (concrete walls and so) are two guys, living in Skhirat. This is a city which is about 30 minutes drive from Rabat. Father and son in fact! They come to the house every morning around 8AM, together on the motorbike, work hard and leave around 6PM. Very kind and sweet people, understanding the assignments well and very respectfull for the old beauties of the house (when double checked). They look cute together and form a real team. Even brought their own fire to cook a nice lunch during the day. Happy workers make good workers?!
They started off with making the stutts for the ceilings, creating the surfaces for the ceiling-cement and poored the first layers on top. While drying they continued with the other rooms are are already nearly done with the ceilings of all bathrooms.
Today (Monday 21 april) the elektricien and plumber are gonna start their work in the house. From now it will be full house which also means full focus.
Next update will be full of photo’s from the last month of work.
CIAO!
Update: 11 May 2025
Oh my dear readers… I’m sorry it took so long, you must be so so curious to hear all about the status from our palace. To apologize on letting you wait so so long, hereby an extra extended version of our update.
Not even one month on the roll and there has been so many changes already! The Plumbers are done with their work for now, and the bathrooms get shaped. Lot of damage is done by the electricien to be able to put new pipes in the walls and bricks have been layed. Let’s check some major progress.
From cave to dining-room
On the rooftop there was this room (remember my father brooming it in one of the first updates?). This inside-dining area needs a higher roof, a straight floor, some windows ánd a door to the terrace not on the middle, but on the side! Well… Some first steps are made!
First of all, the roof from this area needs to be demolished. While breaking, we found out that this ceiling was about 40 cm thick! Wow! All this ceiling was about 200 baking-flower bags full of rubble! Breaking and filling up the bags is not the hardest part of this renovation…. Bringing all these bags out of the medina is the difficult work.. Luckily there are special guys for this, to do the hard work. But; it’s not cheap! Just for your imagination; bringing one baking-flower bag with 20kg of rubble from the top-floor all the way downstairs costs per bag 7,50 dirham (which is 0,75 euro-cent). After this, these bags need to be brought out of the house and out of the old medina which costs per bag 10 dirham (€1,-). Just do the calculation… So; brave Ilyass and his friend Rbia thought; let’s save some floess (money in Darija) and do the heavy work ourselves! Two strong men, why not! Well.. in 2 hours of very hard work, sweat and tears Ilyass and his friend brought downstairs 10 bags of rubble. Which the guys could probably do in 20 minutes. Would it be worth the back pain for you? Let the hard-working guys keep doing the hard work, and let’s just stick to surfing for our local surfers. Better I guess!
Where do you want the windows?
After breaking off the roof from the room, the magic started to happen! The beautiful Ar-Ar wooden stems are taken out from the roof and carefully put aside. More info on this kinda wood later in the story! Then the measurements started for the windows, which you see in the picture Ilyass showing to the bennay (handyman) in Moroccan style (grab a rock from the floor, and carve with it on the wall where you want the item to be placed). The new materials are brought up via a self-made elevator and after this, everything went too quick to tell; just to see! <3.
How deep can you dig!
Next to the bennay, the plumber is also delivering good work. He has even already finished his work for now! We hired one guy to be our plumber, and he hired his team to be quick and easy. The team was just digging, and he oversaw, corrected and made the final decisions with us. The biggest challenge turned out to be two toilets that are with the back to each other (with a wall in between of course). One floor was about 50 cm higher than the other but the pipes had to be connected. Luckily they were able to dig about 50 cm deep to make the piping correct. After some final corrections on things not being in the middle or straight (which became my full time job), the plumber has now finished his job!
Brahim the Electricien
The electricien is a funny guy, but doing a great job! Not hiring as many people as the plumber and therefore somewhat slower than others.. This is quite unhandy as the builders are starting to plaster the walls and make them shine, and afterwards the electricien comes to break them again… The communication could be better I would say, but hey; we are still going strong! The lower floor is now ready with new electricity cables running through the walls. The upcoming weeks he will be working on the upper floors.
Connecting Couscous
As mentioned before; the construction workers are not communicating much with each other.. The builders, electricien and the plumbers are three individual teams working all at the same time, but not closely together. It is going so quick because they are all working at the same time, but sometimes it would be awesome if they shared with each other what the plan for the day is.
What is a better way of connecting the construction workers by providing them a lovely home-cooked lunch! Especially on Friday they take their time to come together and enjoy a lovely CousCous from the mother of Ilyass.
Ar-Ar Wood
Let us tell you something more about these stems we took out from the roof and the kind of wood this is. As mentioned before; this type of wood is called Ar-Ar. It is a old styled type of wood used in the old medinas all over Morocco. All the doors inside our house are also made from this type of wood. Why is it so special?
It is a very traditionally used wood as it’s long-lasting and easy to carve figures in. It has a beautiful grain with a rich reddish-brown color. In English this kind of tree is called Thuya.
This kind of wood is also very special as it is nowadays forbidden to cut these trees and use this type of wood in Morocco as it is an endangered habitant.
We will in most cases try to re-use the wood for new purposes. Some doors are taken out from their original spot in the house but re-used as bathroom door, and the stems might be used to create a sunshade at the rooftop.
We do more than just work, no worries!
Meanwhile we still hosted some guests whereby our always smiling instructor Ayman Gougali is helping out a lot. Sometimes I teach surfing in the morning and come to the house in the afternoon, and other days I check the house with Ilyass in the mornings and give some loving attention to our guests in the afternoons. Depending on the day and schedule! Ilyass is our warrior and is still every day & night busy with or at the house.
You might think? Do you still enjoy and get out into the water a little? The answer is; Yes! Not as much as we would like, but to keep on surfing or going to the gym is very important for us. To empty our minds and enjoy the beauties of Morocco.
So said; Ilyass reminded me that I had to do a visum-run before the 22th of May! Flights were expensive to get out of the country quick.. But hey; there was my friend Jeanne, still on a trip in the North of Morocco. The same afternoon I stood on Spanish ground in Ceuta and went back over the border again after two minutes into Morocco. Stamp is stamped, job is done! Sounds all practical this trip; but happy to have enjoyed one more beautiful sunset and camping night afterwards with Jeanne and Jojo.
Furthermore life gave us some off-time to go camping, my parents were in Morocco to visit us and we had some great beach-days with friends.
Update: 31 May 2025
Here we are again ! With some bad and good news! Keep on reading to find out more about all that is happening in the medina of Rabat these weeks..
Rooftop Rocking!
The past few weeks we have been mostly working on the rooftop. Some beautiful walls are build, and some first designs are becoming visible. The flooring of the rooftop had to be straightened and the leakage that we had previously, had to be checked… and that, my friends.. was a life-changing decision!
The diamond of Rue Ahmed Bennani
While opening the rooftop flooring to check on the foundation of the floor, we found out that many of the wooden beams were rotten and sagging.. The guys kept on digging and found out that the entire floor was sagged and had to be renewed.. Bad luck as it takes time & €€ to fix, but we are VERY glad that none of you will sink through the ceiling once we are open in October 👍 So, there was no doubt about if we had to renew the entire flooring. But this also meant that the ceiling from the room below had to be taken down.. and this… is the masterpiece of the house…
We called our wood-specialist who as well makes ceilings like these and he advised us to not take it down at first. But the guys building mentioned that it was mandatory to take it down if we want to make the most long-lasting flooring for the rooftop. In this moment, we were in a split-decision…
Making it strong but have the risk of damaging the diamond of Rue Ahmed Bennani, or keep the masterpiece where it is and work around it..
The master-plan
As the flooring needs to hold all of our friends & guests (feels the same sometimes!), and as it will be our rooftop dining area where you all sit together playing games, having good conversations and enjoying lovely Moroccan meals, this part just needs to be fixed GOOD.
So, there we went; asking the wood-specialist to take it down for us. What has to be done, has to be done.
- Step 1: Create a wooden construction to be able to reach the ceiling
- Step 2: Having a good research on where the wood is attached to the ceiling.
- Step 3: Making space for the wood to be placed when taking down
- Step 4: slowly take it down with a good team or helping hands!
- Step 5: create a system by numbers on the back of the wood so you can easily remember which piece has to be placed back on which position.
- Step 6: Place them nicely where they can wait for the special moment to be replaced.
This all went well with minimal damages done. Happy us!
Medina Snitch
So, to give you a little introduction and background information; In the medina there are at the moment more and more accommodations being built. Some big hotels and some small-scaled raids. All of a kind you will soon enough find in the medina. Now; this is bad promotion for us of course but we are just the most FUN! So please don’t switch 😂.
So next it is important to know that in the old medina there are surveillance-guys from every sub-neighborhood and one supervisor from the entire medina.
Some of the accommodations have permission to fix small, some to fix big, and some do not have any permissions at all. Now this last thing is most often the issue.
To make sure that they can build easily and quietly, they send the surveillance guys a video of someone else fixing or building with a complaint so they focus on that specific house while they just happily continue working by themselves.. Ok, this was theoretically speaking but unfortunately this happened to us last week.
We had a check-up in the house, and put on hold for a while. This was a very nerve wrecking moment as they might break things apart which you are officially not allowed to build, or take materials away. Ilyass had to come ‘onto the mat-je’ at the overall supervisor to do a good word for us. Happily Ilyass is a good men who grew up in the old medina, and gets credits for this. Shout out for Ilyass and the good familyyy!
After the green light, we carefully continued our work on the rooftop. And, shortly the beautiful wood will be replaced on the ceiling. Stay tuned for the next blog onto how this worked out.
Long time we didn’t speak of TILES!
Yes yes! Continuing the work on the rooftop, means deciding where we want our lightning, masonry the stairs and outdoor lounch, and laying down the first tiles. This starts to just look SO beautiful!
So, interactivity is back ON! We want to tile the launching area. Which color do you recommend? The walls will be painted white around it. Leave us your recommendation in the comments.
A new hobby for Nina
My newest hobby is drawing and designing. I’m not an architect, i’m not a graphical designer. I’m just someone who likes to make things visual. It makes me calm and relaxed, while being productive for the house. What do you think?
Amer, the last guest standing!
Meanwhile we still had guests staying with us. But from today, our very last guest of the season has as well returned to Germany. It was great seeing you again Amer!
With this, the Ilyana Surfhouse season 2024/2025 has come to and end. We want to thank every guest and all people working with us for the great time we had, waves we caught and laughs we couldn’t hold.
Our next season will start from October 2025 and the first bookings are already IN. These guests will be the very first guests staying at the renovated Ilyana Surfhouse, INSHALLAH !
Update: 20 May 2025
Hereby a new update from our house renovation blog. It has been quiet for 3 to 4 weeks, which starts to seem like the new normal. But hopefully you have not lost faith in our writing and keep on following us on this journey. And literally, a journey it is! As I am writing this; im sitting at Pauls’ at Casablanca Airport, enjoying a sandwich waiting for my flight to board. Heading to the Netherlands for the summer! That was the plan at least…
Yes, a plan to travel to the Netherlands for the summer. July ánd August. That was originally the plan. Not by myself, but wíth Ilyass. Not by plane but with our beautiful Dacia Dokker, transformed into a mini-camper. Driving along the coast of Portugal, Spain and France. Surfing along the way, making our way up to The Hague. Quite much more exciting than by plane. But… plans are there to be changed! Who knew we would purchase this beautiful palace with color-palettes of tiles, silver painted arches and historically valued ceilings.
Yes; we dreamt of it. But now a dream came true 👏And as we are deep-deeeeeep inside the process of the renovations we sometimes have to remind ourselves that this was a far-far away dream once.
So let’s start this blog with some wise advice; If you keep on dreaming ánd believing, you wíll make (some of those) dreams come true 🤩
And what will be our next dream? I think just for the house to be ready to host you all starting from the beginning of October. So the new chapter of Ilyana Surfhouse can start according to plan.
Flyyyy awayy
Ok; let’s get back to me being at the Airport right now. So today I’m flying back to the Netherlands. I will at least spend the month of July in the Netherlands visiting family and seeing friends. On the one hand, of course; Suuuuuper excited to see everyone and enjoy the Dutch summer life. On the other hand it is hard to leave the house renovation process behind. I have nothing to worry about because Ilyass Got This 100% ! It’s just sad to not be part of the process from nearby. Luckily there is video-calling and whatsapp nowadays, so I probably receive calls often as: ‘which plugs do we buy?’ or ‘what was the planned width of this area again?’.
And to not forget; I also have an important task in the Netherlands besides attending birthday parties and festivals. Because our Moroccan Palace will soon really be our only HOME. At the end of July we will say goodbye to our cosy apartment on the Weimarstraat in The Hague and officially move to Morocco. This means that the apartment needs to be empty and all our belongings moved back to the (already-full-of-things-of-the-belongings-of-my-brothers) basement of my parents 😆(joking of course papa & mama). No, everything goes on ‘Marktplaats.nl’. So if you are in need of new furniture, hit us up!
Oke, enough about me and my plans for the Netherlands. You are all probably dying to know how the process of the house is going at the moment. Let’s start writing about what you signed up for to read about.
The ceiling is back!
Yes Yes. The beautiful ceiling is back on ! Our specialized wood-workers have carefully replaced this piece of art to its place. Unfortunately (as expected) there are a few spots where some damage was made, but this will be restored carefully. After the wood was replaced, some painters came to tip off the new or broken pieces to make this diamond shine again. We are super happy with the end results and glad to have saved it. One of the guys shared the thought with us that this piece might be about 300 years old! 😯Even though I do not really believe so, it will be quite old. This made me realize that it is waaay to interesting to know more about the history of the house. So, once the renovations are done. I will make a research on the history of this house so that we can share it with all our guests.
Rooftop ‘check’
Another great thing; the rooftop is finished. As least all the basic and hard work. It starts to shape and finally something is getting really done. Some of you must know this feeling… That during a renovation a house first only start to look worse.. and then you might think; ‘help! What are we doing?!’ But eventually it will be prettier and prettier.
What is exactly done now? Tiles are laid, electra is ready and walls are fixed and at some places elevated. What still needs to be done in the rooftop? We want to make a wooden shadow-roof in one place, walls need to be painted and then it’s ready for furniture, plants, pillows and tanning ☀️.
Stairway
After the rooftop, it is time for the bennays (workers / klusjesmannen), to have a look at the stairs. There is one spot in the house where you climb a stair, then you have a straight hallway followed by a very low beam (where every average dutch person will hit his/her head) and then another stairs to get to the top-floor. This needs to change!
A few days before the guys wished to start with this I re-befriended my measuring lazer-machine to see what the possibilities are exactly. We had a plan already for the stairs but to give the guys clear instructions, it’s better to draw your plan on the walls so they just can get to work.. And then… I found out that our plan is not possible at all! The stairs that I had in mind are comfortably way longer and the kitchen (which is above the stairs) can’t be broken to make space.. Hmmm. This was a good moment to consult our good friend Jade (who is engineer). And yes, it was an effective meeting! Because who knew that fun fact that if you make a quarter turn in the stairs it takes up less space in the length? Logic of course! And so, the next day the bennay started working on the stairs. Quick decision making and YES, it is soooo much better and beautiful! After the building was done, yet again; TILES shoppingggg! See here in the end-results.
EID - offering fest without offers
And then it was Eid. The offer festival where families come together and keep a sheep in the house for days, followed by kiling it for festive dinners and sharing with others. The only thing; this year there was no killing sheeps. The king of Morocco had asked (or actually forbidden) the people to buy and kill a sheep this year. Due to severe sheep shortage caused by a prolonged drought. The drought has led to high livestock prices and dwindling herds, prompting King Mohammed VI to urge Moroccans to abstain from the traditional sacrifice. Which made Eid a different fest this year. The beaches were full and families are left without blood bath. Some people were happy to not kill this year, others said; ‘this is not eid’ and were disappointed. For us; it was a few days of rest. As all the workers took off for a long weekend we had time to go and stay at the beach, surf, surf, surf, and eat tajine with friends! After 5 days of beach and sun we said to each other; ‘We are done with Salt, Sea, Sand!’ Let’s go home and chill 😀.’
Bathrooms
After the Eid-break, the workers continued on the first floor, working their way down. And yes; they finally started with putting the tiles in the bathrooms, which makes it look like things are getting done and finished now. Things are getting prettier again instead of messier. Suuuuper happy we are with the end results. In a combination with wooden vanities and white sinks, these bathrooms will look as a mix of Moroccan, outdoors and european. Happpyyyy us!
Paint, beldi-zellij and woodwork
Now that things are starting to get shape, we start to think more about furniture, woodwork and other important elements that need to be done to make this the prettiest house in the medina. Next to the standard guys walking around in the house; we have called up some other people to come to look and do their magic. For example; the painter came to have a look at the work that he will have to do (in a little while), and we had a guy coming to check the open roof which will need a sliding-roof. Shortly we will contact someone to replace and renovate the old Moroccan tiles (Beldi-zellij) and the wood-worker will continue with a next project. He, and his assistant Ilyass made already the wooden vide in our private area, but still many projects to come, as the bunk-beds in the shared room and more essentials as doors and windows.
Keep your curiosity for your visit!
Dear readers, as you can see a lot happened the last month. We strive to finish all the hard work in the end of September, so we can welcome you from October! We see that you all much enjoy the read our blog and therefore we will continue writing.. but not as much as we do now. Or perhaps without photos?… Keeping you all updated is fun, but seeing your surprised faces when entering the house is even more exciting!
Update: 30 July 2025
Hello Loyal Readers,
I want to congratulate you all with the patience you had ánd staying tuned for this next update on the renovations of Ilyana Surfhouse. It has been a while since we wrote a blog on the updates, and I even got some comments; I think i’m not registered anymore… or; Is the house still standing?
Don’t you WORRY! Everything is still in progress and we are still going strong in body and mind. The expectations to have the house ready for guests, is still October. The schedule is open already, so book your trip to Ilyana Surfhouse already!
So, what was the reason that we didn’t write in the past 5 weeks? Good question!
I, Nina, was in the Netherlands the past 5 weeks and too busy with this –> Seeing friends, having a great time in the Dutch Summer, but as well emptying our apartment in The Hague as we will be more and more in Morocco from now on.
It was a little tough saying goodbye to our home in the Netherlands, but it’s time for a new chapter in life. This doesn’t mean we won’t be back there ever, no worries Dutch Friends & Family. We will still come by every summer ánd, soon you have a place to crash in Morocco ;).
Bathrooms
Wauw! The past weeks the builders have been working hard to finish the base. The bathrooms are now finished by tiling and can be painted and filled with a sink, shower and toilet. Excited steps! It really starts to feel realistic and nearly done. Probably it’s still more work than we expect.
Which colour is your favorite?
Private spot & storage
In our private studio, we build a vide to be sleeping upstairs. An ideal area for this, as the ceiling is 4,5 meter high! Stand straight under and on top of it. Our woodworker is doing a great job with the railing, and the next steps are the stairs to go up (literally, hihi). Before the woodworker can build these steps, we have to fix the old zellij in the room ánd paint the walls. After this wood is finished, our private area will be ready for moving in. YES! Or not?
This will be the first area to be finished, and therefore good to use as storage space for all the furniture and other decorations we purchase. The rest of the house will still be full of paint or dust. So no moving in yet!
But first, the woodworker has one other project, or 100..
Beldi-zellij
The old style tilers have started fixing our house. This is a cool progress to see. It’s fine work for people with patience. Me and Ilyass would already have finished everything, but will much less precision. Although Ilyass has much more patience than me!
Everywhere in the house we have collected tiles that we took out for other floorings (for example in the bathrooms), or just found lost buckets of old style zellij.
The tilers are with 3. You have the boss, who mostly keeps an eye on the quality of the work and discusses most important topics with Ilyass.. ahum. Then you have two other guys who actually work. Until now (what I have seen), one guy takes out the old (to be corrected) tiles, gives these tiles to the other guy and flattens the flooring beneath it. Lays a layer of clay and fixes back the tiles. Meanwhile the other man adjusts the depth and size of the tile and cleans them in a bucket of water. Real teamwork, but it doesn’t receive a price on fast work.
Painting perfect!
And now the real deal is starting. When the painter first picked up his brush, the house started changing straight away! First, the rooftop. With a nice creme toned white colour, the terrace looks fresh and ready to chill on. He said he will be taking one month to do the entire house, but yesterday we heard he came to start painting at 05:00 and found him back at the house again at 22:30. With a little after lunch nap, this is a power man! Fair enough; it is literally our neigbor so no travel time included. He can even chat or sing his kids to sleep from rooftop to window. Handy neighbor to have!
Roof on the rooftop
How many ‘guys’ do we have walking around the house? Can you guess the right answer? For every job, another guy!
So, also for the roof on top of the rooftop, we have a guy! This roof will be fully slidable so the entire house get’s sunlight ! Shine bright like a diamond! At the other hand, it is also important that the roof is protecting the inside area from rain coming in (because yes, it also rains sometimes in Rabat).
Curious how this roof will become? Stay tuned for the next blog.
Update: 30 August 2025
Hey all! Welcome at the newest update from the Ilyana Surfhouse renovations blog. A few weeks have passed, and we are happy to say that the house is starting to get shape! Things are being finished and we are already proud of some of the results!
Hereby a little recap, ánd the last one until the house will be done and ready!
A guy for everything
Can you guess how many ‘mannetjes’ we have for everything? Well, on the busiest days there are 5 guys in the house all working on something else. Busy schedules, but fast work. We are happy.
Another ‘guy’ added to the list; The gips-guy. There are many beautiful ornaments in the house made by gips. All these spots need to be restored and is again a special job here in Morocco for the gips-guy! Not sure how they call it in Moroccan…
Zellij
In the house, as you might all know; there is much of the old tiles (Zellij). It is beautiful and the character of the house, which needs to be restored. Many many of the riads in the medina nowadays are just taking out these tiles and replacing them with Zellij Romi (new tiles). Yes, we have to admit. We thought of it as well (due to easy cleaning and costs), but we decided to keep the old tiles! Some parts of the house we are glad we did, and some not. There is lots of mancraft in this tiling work- which we now really start to understand now that the Zellij-guys are working to fix. Fix, fix? Well, yes! Where the tiles are missing, we are renewing this. When there is a part looking kinda old or a bit scraped off, we keep it this way and call it character (for now).
White, creme or beige?
The painter is doing a great job! After some difficult decision making (keep the traditional silver or not, what goes white, creme or beige (calm) or what gets to shine in a colour?) all decisions for colors are made and he is rapidly working his way from up to down. The rooftop is even finished already! Mohammed (our painter), is also our neighbor and comes in with fresh home made bread or tea by madam. He prefers to work in the quiet hours with less workers around him, and therefore he chooses to work in the evenings/nights. With a good light, he gets the job done!
Eureca!
YES YES YES! He did it! The electrician finally made some lights shine and plugs work. On the upper-floor we now have electricity! This had to be tested by night, and we were more than proud of the looks of it ! After (of course) a few visits to the Bricoma (Moroccan Gamma), we had chosen the lamps and lights we wanted for the terrace and it is more than stunning, cosy and everything together!!!
This had to be celebrated by a first dinner (take away pizza) on the rooftop. YES!
"Deurtje open, Deurtje dicht"
I thought of my mom the other day when the carpenter was working in the house. “deurtje open, deurtje dicht” she always used to say. When you open a door, also close it again. Well, now we can! The wood-worker is setting the newly made doors and fixing the old ones. So that every door can open and close as should. Such a nice guy to have with us and creates super beautiful things!
As our wood-guy still has a lot of projects to make inside the house, but not a lot of time. We are starting to spread our chances. In Salé (the city next to Rabat) there are some markets with craftsmen. Anything that does not specifically needs to be measured inside the house, will be made or purchased from other wood-workers. Like this, we spread the work and hopefully receive all items on time.
Family-visit <3
Meanwhile, Coen & Consty visited us in Morocco to see the house and experience the Moroccan life we live. They came along purchasing lamps and helped with taking some time off the house. It was an amazing visit! – next up; Nanda coming for a quick visit to help in the house. “I don’t come for holiday, I only book my flight if there is work to be done”.
Clean and filling up.
Now slowly things are getting done, the shopping can start. Taps, lights, chairs, tables, couches. Anything to make your stay the best!
With confidence but also lots of nerves, we like to say that we will be open from October! Well, we already have some bookings so we have to. But we are ready and super excited for it. In case all the guys keep working hard every day and we keep on purchasing some things every day we visit a shop (no hours of thinking and debating anymore!), we will finish the house by the end of September so that we can host all of you in the beautiful and cosy Ilyana Surfhouse!!
THE HOUSE IS FINISHED! - update 17 october
Wauw! What a journey it has been… On the first day we came to visit this house, we fell in love with its details and old elements, but knew that there would be lots of work to be done.. After some calculations and good chats with our investors, we decided to go for it and take this opportunity to build something special of ourselves 
.
After we made an agreement with the home-owner in November 2024, we finally received the key to our palace in March 2025. My parents booked a flight directly and had to be there for the first time ‘armen uit de mouwen’!
After a couple of brainstorming sessions with friends & family, permits to receive back and much rubbish to be removed from the house, we started the build.
It has been a crazy hard working route to get where we are now, and we want to thank all of you for following us on this journey.
I will keep this blog short and post some of the before/after photos with you. Want to see more of the house? Keep following our Instagram, or come to visit us in Rabat 
!
Once again, thank you for following along, and supporting us and believing in us whenever we lost it ourselves ♥️.
All rooms have a theme color given by the tiles of the bathroom, and the painted Moroccan styles lamps.
Room 2 - yellow
This room is a triple room with three seperate beds. It is a perfect room for a group of friends, or kids (when parents sleep elsewhere). It is playful and diverse with the third single bed up the stairs. There is plenty of space to chill and have a good relax after a day of surfing.
The room has character by the many traditional tiles that we kept in the original state. With a touch of modernity, the bathroom has a walk-in shower with adjustable shower head.
Room two was originally so called to be the yellow room, but due to the many colors of the traditional tiles in the bathroom, we choose to have white tiles here to not make this too colourful and busy.
Room 3 - Yellow triple room
The third room in the house is a triple room as well, with one double bed and one single. It is on the group floor and has a yellow colored bathroom. The third bed is set-up as a bench to relax and can be used as bed if needed. Like this, the room is spacious and has a relaxing vibe.
Room 4 - Green shared room
The fouth room in the house is the shared room. This is for now a room with 5 single beds. This room is not fully finished yet as we still want to custom make bunk beds. Spacious bunks with a proper stairs between the levels so people do not have the feeling of climbing upstairs to their beds but just having their own etage.
The bathroom has a big mirror with two sinks. There is a seperate toilet and shower so that in the shared room, people can make use of the facilities at the same time and move around freely.
What do you think? We place a curtain in front of the bathroom to create more changing privacy?
Room 5 - Family blue
The third room in the house is a triple room as well, with one double bed and one single. It is on the group floor and has a yellow colored bathroom. The third bed is set-up as a bench to relax and can be used as bed if needed. Like this, the room is spacious and has a relaxing vibe.
Tour de la maison
Of course we say that we are now finished with the house, but honestly we think that we will never truly be finished. Upcoming projects to be done
- Create shelfs in storage/cleaning/maintainance spaces
- Finish our private apartment *still a mess
- Build the bunk-beds in the shared room
- Buy even more plants!
- Create Surfboard & Wetsuit racks in the board-room
But we are mega super proud of ourselves for what we created and can’t wait to share it to the world!
Want to see a tour through the house as it is now? Click in this link to get to a video tour.
Now, at this very moment, Ilyass is teaching one of the first groups of guests at the beach, and for me, the laptop-marketing-website work has a lot to catch up on. So never a dull moment creating your own Surfhouse!
Comments
Please leave (and restore) all the old tiles and other authentic parts of your wonderful old lovely palace!
When was it built?
Such an amazing & inspirational story! Cannot wait to come and visit!!! I vote ‘character’ btw 🙂
So wonderful to be able to know how you are getting on with all the works. You two are so dedicated!!! And it’s great to learn more about how things work in the Medina.
Can’t wait to see it myself!
So nice to be able to follow your great progress! Looks like hard but very rewarding work! Looking forward to the next update and good luck with all your plans!😘
Nien en Ily, this is looking amaaazing already!! Cannot wait to visit, already looking forward to the next update!
Thuya is prachtig hout, ook gebruikt als fineer. Thuya burr heeft een prachtig grillig patroon.
Amazing progress in the house. So much work, but bit by bit your dream is coming true! Well done you two!