The Rose Marble Bathroom - creating an eco-conscious riad

The first finishes have started at last. It seemed as if we were never going to get past the first stage of changing shapes, electrics, plumbing all of which seem to go on and on. There's so much stopping and starting because of religious festivals.

The first marble has gone in! It has gone into the down stairs suite. We are only buying Moroccan Marble not imported. We are trying to support the local industries as much as possible. We have two bathrooms with baths and this is one of them. It has two little marble seats in it so that one can relax in the essence of Jasmin, sipping a glass of wine after a hard days shopping in the souk. I'm rather pleased with the outcome as you never know if you are going to be happy with the work done. Marcus is now watching everything like a hawk so that it's done correctly, i think this is the only way to try and get your finishes to an acceptable standard, which believe me is incredibly hard. Luckily Marcus is a perfectionist so i know that by aiming for the stars we will have good finishes by most standards. My biggest concern really is the hot water. It seems to be that no matter what riads do ie huge tank volumes and pumps all over the place. The hot water is very slow? Even in the creme de la creme of riads I've heard people say "we had to go off for a gin and tonic to wait for the hot water to come through". What makes me really wince about this is that we are trying very hard to be as ethical and eco-conscious as possible and running a tap for 20 minutes in a desert country is a big no no.



We have had the hammam insulated with sustainable cork, we are installing solar panels (unbelievably fairly radical for morocco) and we are trying where ever possible to be a conscious low impact riad. Any helpful information or hints on this will be gratefully received. We are already a competitive destination re: carbon foot print, as with only a three hour flight to Morocco we have the upper hand, being equally as interesting and diverse as other countries ten to thirteen hours away.