When we arrived at the house on the first morning of our future life – we still loved it.
All of it. All the cobwebs, all the junk, the lingering smell of the woodworm treatment and the long walk from one end to the other.
We had already decided to stay in a hotel for however long it would take to make at least part of the property habitable.
In our absence we had a very good project manager so only a few surprises remained.
We had two new boilers installed and unsurprisingly only the one in the future bathroom and for the existing kitchen worked. The electrician had worked wonders and we now have fuse and switch cabinet that would not look out of place in a power station. Except the maximum input is still 15 Amps!
Explaining the size of a standard glass block can be difficult and the shower tray in the to be bathroom reflected that.
Other than that – dust, dust, old furniture, lumpy mattresses a completely overgrown garden and yard, bulging ceilings and freezing cold – nothing special.
Priorities where:
- Cleaning the kitchen and get the range (economica) to work
- Getting the existing bathroom in a state of usefulness (cleaning, scraping walls, repainting)
- Clearing cellars (bodegas) for the second woodworm treatment
- Cutting the vines – which have been neglected for about 5 years
- Warming the place up and getting a wood burner installed
- Generating one usable bed room out of the available rooms – preferably not too far from the bath room
- Getting all paper work organised and obtaining the deeds
- Shopping for bare essentials as our main furniture would arrive much later
The kitchen soon became the communication center apart from it obvious use
Here are some more results from sheer graft, help from neighbours and a weather pattern that encourage indoor and outdoor activities.
The tool hire shop is so amazed at our constant usage of their industrial vacuum cleaner that they offered to buy us one at a fairly large discount.
Well these are just some of the pictures – more will follow – promise.
Sufficient to say that after 10 days we moved in.
Well temporarily as now we are seeking asylum at good friends here and will do a quick trip to Portugal as the woodworm lady today confirmed that tomorrow is d-day for the carcomas in the bodegas.
Well what is deadly for them can’t be healthy for humans so we better move out for a couple of days.
Until than
Expat
Updated 2009 – We can’t imagine these times. We have come a long way in a reasonably short time. Check our slide show – Old vrs. new – Renovation in pictures
