Tea

In our current spirit of single room living, we now need to move the kitchen somewhere on a temporary basis. Luckily, as we have spent three years with basic facilities, we won't worry too much about being any worse off! However, as we'll now be living, sleeping, working AND cooking in one room, we're obviously not going to be having too many cooked feasts for a week or so.

Therefore, to be fully prepared, Ian is cooking a couple of light meals to tide us over....

Told You...

If you remember, in one of the photos of the bathroom I said that you'd soon be looking at a wall - well, here it is! So the bathroom no longer leads of the kitchen - weyhey! The photo that I was referring to is click here - third one down.

Christmas & Upholstery

Our builder was saying he'd be finished by 'Navidad' - which is Christmas. However, we suddenly realised that this wouldn't be the 25th, this would be the 6th January!! Also, only Christmas Day is a holiday, so he is likely to be working on Boxing Day. Not that this would worry us at all, but could have been a bit of a surprise if we weren't expecting it (I remember our first Boxing day when the electricity man came to read the metre at 8 in the morning!!).

Of course, this won't be 'finished' finished, as we will still have to get the painting done and then start deciding on where everything is going to go, and what we need in the way of bits and pieces (mirrors for the bathroom for instance).

The small bathroom is now finished and it looks great - AND it s so nice not to have a toilet that wobbles! The new cistern is tiny too, so no more waiting for hours for it to fill.

I'm now planning our upholstery projects. I did go to classes many moons ago, and I am sure I have some tools somewhere - but I think they are long lost. So it is really a case of starting again. I did take a look at eBay for old tools (Ian is heading back to the UK in a week or so and I am sure he will be delighted to bring back the odd upholstery hammer or two!). I've been sending Ian links to upholstery books as hints. He's not very good at that sort of thing though, if the hint isn't prefixed with I WOULD LIKE... he doesn't seem to get it!

We've got quite a lot of upholstery projects - I think that I bought most of our chairs and things with that in mind. I think that this will take me most of next year!

We ran out of Sam's rice and meat a couple of weeks ago, so we started giving him normal dog food again as he'd been having such regular fits, it didn't seem to be doing any good. Anyway - immediately his fits stopped. He'd been having one every day or couple of days so it was quite noticeable that they had stopped. Sadly, he had one today, but only a tiny one. It does seem odd that when we change his food his fits appear to stop. I guess that is all it is - an oddness - however it does seem strange.

We're getting very blase about his fits now. I think because he appears to spring back to life so quickly and it is obviously much more distressing for us, than it is for him. I don't know what goes through his mind when he comes round, I wonder if he just thinks he fell over?

The weather turned cold yesterday. It was rather strange. If the wind came from one direction it was bitter, and if it came from the other direction it was warm. The big contrast in temperature really emphasised this. It was worth standing outside just to experience this!

Cuddling Cats

Sky

Weather

The weather is glorious at the moment. The temperature is up to mid 20's during the day - and falls dramatically at night. There has been a touch of frost a couple of mornings over the last week. The house is cold though, but what a difference the new windows and a door with glass in it will actually make - and the fires. The window has almost fallen out completely in the front which gives a nice draft!

Well, the reason why I am mentioning this is because I was looking through the old blogs from last year as I was trying to remember when we found Sam. I found that I had commented last year on the weather in November - and on the massive 20+ degree swings in temperature. Every morning we are waking up to see bright blue skies and sunshine on the roof. We've not really noticed this quite so much before - but having the bed in the back room we really see what is going on. This will be an extra bonus for when we move into the new bedroom (current kitchen).

The bright blue skies at this time of year actually have a name, they are referred to as 'Portuguese skies'. I have no idea why. I think this must just be a local thing as I can't find any reference to it elsewhere. The skies are a deep turquoise, so is this a reference to the color used in Portuguese pottery or is it something to do with the sky over Portugal - don't know.

I also noticed that our plants are wilting and remembered that I had forgotten to water them . I noticed, when I was reading the blog, that I had done the same last year too! Rain is forecast for next week, however, unfortunately for the weekend which is the annual jumble sale in Elvas in Portugal.

Pics

Well, at long last I've posted some pics. Remember that if you click on the pic you'll see them full size (for what it's worth!).

We've been talking about all the things we need to buy - and are getting quite excited! Hopefully we'll have enough money left to do some of the 'nice' things. I'd hate to think after all of this we were still using the towels that we have collected over the years. I think that most of our towels are vintage! I'd also like a new saucepan set to go in our new kitchen - oh and of course new bedding - and we will absolutely need new lampshades - and we need to recover all of our furniture to go with our new rooms - and not forgetting curtains ....

.... but luckily we have bought 5 antique electric switches.

Ensuite

This is a sneak peak of the ensuite - this is the shower. I was looking forward to using it, as he's plumbed it in temporarily today - however we ran out of gas. TYPICAL!

The sink will be directly ahead - you can see the holes in the wall and the wc will be to the left as you look at the pics.

This is the ensuite from the bedroom. So the shower is to the right.

Pics (at long last...)

Hallway - complete with the new doorway.



This is from the new door way into the bathroom. This goes under the stairs.



You won't see this for much longer - this is the view from the kitchen to the bathroom and you can see how the new bathroom has been formed. The shower in the main bathroom will go where the door the kitchen is now, so in a few weeks, this photo will be looking at a wall.




This is taken towards the cupboard under the stairs. The pink line is where the glass blocks will be - the door is to the right as you look at the picture

A Picture Tells 1000 Words

This is what happens when you live, sleep and work in the same room.

OK - what does this picture tell you...

• The cats are appreciating having the bed in the living room,
  
• We've been trying to take photos on the table (hence the work lights and the tripod by the table)
• Ian has been using his phone (head set behind him)
• I have been scanning stuff (scanner by the table)
• We've been buying posh wine (hence bottles not cartons)
• Ian can type with his eyes shut
• er...
  

A Picture Tells Another 1000 Words

• I get the vacuum cleaner out "what do I do with this"
• Yes, the dogs are living in the living room too (dog cages)
• The dog cages are being used as a wardrobe (clothes on top of the dog cages
• This room will be pink (see the color paint under the top layer on the wall) - we will be putting it back to how it was....
  

Another Update

Well, there's still not an awful lot to say. We are delighted with the way it is going and find it almost impossible to fault anything. His work is top quality and yet he also works quickly and long hours. Ian said that the only way he could think of improving things would be by cloning our builder and we'd rent him out! Today he has been tiling the new guest bathroom and it really looks superb (yes, I will take some pics). He has chamfered the edges of the tiles so they butt up neatly to each other on the corners. The tiles look great too. In fact they look so good, that we are wondering if we ought to have gone for these in the other bathrooms too - however I am sure that we'll be equally pleased when these are done.

I think we'll start to see things coming together now. While it hasn't been great not having a shower, it's not been for too long. The plumber is also going to change our water pipes so our new shower will actually be a shower and not a dribble. He was pretty stunned by our low water pressure, and then looked at our teeny tiny pipes and suddenly understood! He is going to replace them back to the mains. As this will be replacing lead pipes it sounds like a good idea - and in the overall scheme of things it certainly makes sense doing it now.

Our builder is also going to sort out getting our electric supply upgraded - hoorah. He agrees that our supply is too weak now for house of this size. We would have got around to it ourselves - eventually!

There's still a few more weeks work as they are going to do the outside too - quite honestly given the quality of the work that has been done so far, I can't wait to see what they achieve with the outside!

Given that we normally are followed by mayhem and havoc, it is nice for things to be going so smoothly. I do feel that I am cheating you and this blog is getting very boring to read.

So....

Yesterday I fell over when walking Henry and Sam. Not just one of your little trips, or tiny stumbles. This was a mega - arms flaying - dancing-up-the-road trying to get my balance before face planting in the lane. Right by the builders who are building the car park for the sports hall. And the farmer. Oh yes, and the shepherd and his sheep.

My problem was that I tripped in slow motion and then couldn't decide what to hurt! I was trying to keep my weight off my ankle, but this was all slow enough that I was also thinking 'not the hands'. Which is why I ended up lying face down with legs and arms safely behind me. If it hadn't been for me being prima-donna-ish about my hands, or concern over my ankle, I really think that it would have been a tiny stumble.

And of course it looked so much more impressive than it actually was.

I think to (all the many) others it must have looked like I had at least a swarm of wasps inside each shoe which was causing me to leap around, before - for some unknown reason - I decided to jump inexplicably in the air before doing a massive belly flop onto the lane. By the time I got home all my aches had gone, but I was still covered in enough road-debris to give Ian a bit of a shock - oh, and for something else for the village to talk about....

But be assured - nothing injured other than a bruised ego (again...)

Shower

We went out for lunch today, which was unusual - and a little bad timing as we've not had a shower for a week! Anyway, we linked the hosepipe up to the hot tap and had a shower outside. Well, more of a hose than a shower. It was actually very nice - so nice in fact that we're going to ask the builder if he can put a shower outside. It shouldn't too big a job, and it could go outside the new kitchen. The weather is very nice at the moment, cold over night but 20 or so during the middle of the day.

Our tile shopping trip went well. We picked some really nice tiles, including mosaic ones for the main bathroom. We purposefully went for tiles that we not super modern and were fairly low key. I can't remember if I have mentioned our change of plan...? We're going to have the bath in the main bedroom ensuite (where the cooker is now) and just have a shower in the main bathroom. This is so we can have a big shower in the main bathroom. It is all going to look very nice. Ian and the builder have come up with a plan that makes excellent use of the space. It is very exciting.

Interestingly, we both commented today that we've started using the new door to the bathroom rather than the kitchen door. This is good as it shows that the new door is in a place that is intuitive to use. The builder has moved slightly the new bathroom door from our original plan and this has meant that it can be the same size and style as all the other doors. This means that the new door won't stand out - in fact I don't even think you will notice it as new as it look so 'right'.

Bathroom

The work has started on the Bathroom, which means that we only have temporary facilities. Ian's eyes lit up yesterday, when the builder suggested opaque glass bricks, both on the wall of the new en suite and in the new door (these won't be plain glass -so no worries about privacy). The glass bricks will be high up in the new en suite and will let light through, which we didn't think we'd get. There will be a row of glass bricks down the side of the new bathroom door that goes from the bathroom to the cloakroom (the cupboard under the stairs) before the door to the hall. This will let light into the cloakroom and it will all look pretty good. Ian and the builder are very much on the same wavelength and we're really quite confident in letting him get on with it. It is getting very exciting!

It's actually not as bad as we had thought, living through the building work. I think that this is due to a number of reasons. Firstly he works in just one or two rooms at a time, so it is not complete chaos. Secondly - he is very tidy! It is a tad embarrassing that after pulling tiles off the wall and knocking holes in the wall, he manages to leave it tidier than before he started! Lastly, I think we were bracing ourselves for complete mayhem and therefore anything else is a pleasant surprise.

Tomorrow we are going with our builder to look at tiles. We're going to put plain white tiles under the stairs in our new cloakroom, and perhaps look for something a little more special in the bathrooms. We don't want to cut corners - but neither do we want to blow our entire budget on tiles!

We do have a video. It started as a video for Alicia, however it quickly turned into a record of our building work. There is 26 minutes of it - we just need to upload it, you lucky people.....!!

Picnic

I finished all my writing by lunch time today (hooray) so we decided to go to the supermarket in Llerena rather than in the village and stop for a picnic somewhere on the (scenic) way back. We headed off out towards Guadalcanal and noticed that there was a 'mirardor' which is a viewing point. So we headed up to take a look and we could see for miles. Next time we must take a compass and map so we can see what we are looking at...

We had our picnic in a proper picnic spot that was full of families also picnicing. One family even had flameno music playing, which gave a nice atmosphere to our lunch.

Quick Update

Well, another week over and more building work complete. We are still really pleased with how it is going - very pleased. We're also glad that it is just the one builder and that he has not got jobbing builders working with him. He has a very high standard and we can't fault what he's done so far. We're not even in as much mayhem as we thought. Because he is doing two or three rooms at a time we are able to decamp into the living room and just bunker down there and let him get on with it.

Mind you, it is not without its problems. Ian and I are spending a lot of time in very close proximity. We have even been sat on the sofa working on our respective laptops. I found Ian's mutterings as he works distracting - and he had the cheek to say that I type too loudly - type too loudly indeed! Given the choice of a gentle tap tap on a key board or someone's maniacally mutterings, I know which I would prefer...

Needless to say we are now working at opposite sides of the table, which is as far apart as we can get seeing we have a bed plus everything else in the living room.

Next week work on the bathroom starts. Then the kitchen and finally the living room. Hopefully by that time one of the other rooms will have dried out and we can move into there. If not, there's always my workshop.

I know that I am due to post some new pics and I will do so over the weekend.

More Flowers

We're very excited at the moment, the builder has found some painting under the paint in our bedroom that will be salvageable. It is similar in style to the ceiling. We're so pleased with our builder, he was as excited as we were and has been explaining how we can clean it up. It will look a little shabby, but I think that shabby-chic is all the rage.

The only disappointment is that this is the room that Ian said could be pink and rococo in style - I'll need to start sewing the seeds of another pink room (although saying that, buoyed up by our success today we've been scraping paint off all over the place and I think the back living room was originally pink...

I think that we'll probably wait until this first part of building work is done before we decide on how we'll use the rooms, every day seems to offer new possibilities (and changes of plan...!)