4-6 months is very fast for Europe - at least Greece! We are building a house - we started the design process in Nov '07, waited 1 year for the approval, broke ground in April '09, and now we have the foundation, walls and roof. It will take around 8-10 additional months to complete (optimistically). Of course, we have very stringent earthquake regulations which affect the building materials and procedure that have to be followed. The home design is modern and based on the Mansion Tuggendhat (in the Czech Republic, by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe).
http://www.czecot.com/en/tourist-att...ist-villa-brno)
There is a saying here:
"Greeks build houses as though they are going to live forever and they eat as though they are gong to die tomorrow!"
