Stuff I've been learning

It's been a while since I've last blogged. Progress on our house continues, with Tim valiantly shouldering almost all responsibility for moving broken tiles/rotting wood/rusty chickenwire etc from one location on the property to another. He's also built part of a drystone wall, taken the roof off the old kitchen annexe (which is destined to be a bedroom and ensuite for visitors) and is now hard at work on removing the external doorway to where the main bathroom will be. 

Although I'm stuck at home with work and deadlines, I spend a lot of my time thinking about our house. Here's some stuff I've learned since I last blogged:

1. Old shoes are considered excellent landfill in Portugal. Although I'm not up at the house much (just the odd Saturday if I'm honest), when I do rock up for some heavy lifting or light shovelling, I never fail to be astonished by the volume of old shoes we're digging up. Nice. 

2. Natural swimming ponds are the best thing ever and I'm determined to have one. You can see some examples (some nice, some nasty) here. I've even got a location for my pond picked out. But not the funds. Yet.

3. If an estate agent tells you that the house you're buying is in a village with mains sewerage (unusual in this part of Portugal), you might also want to check that a sewage farm has also been built. If said sewage farm won't be completed for at least another year, you're going to have to install a septic tank for the interim. Enough said. 

4. Allotment.org.uk: the design may not be up to much, but the content's great! I don't suppose the site's owners' would thank me for that endorsement, but seriously, I could spend hours on this site, and do. It's got chickens. It's got soup recipes. It's got shopping. What's not to love?

You can see more pictures of our renovation project as it unfolds here. After long laying dormant, the Flickr account should be updated more often now. Probably.

Caveat Emptor: Let the buyer beware!

So far, we've received two estimates for the work to replace the roof on our house. 

The first estimate came in at a price that broadly tallies with Tim's costings for the project.

The second came in at... Well, put it this way: take the first estimate. Double it. And then add just a little bit more for good measure, if you really fancy chancing your arm. 

It's 'anomalies' like this that make a project like ours a total minefield. A minefield that you're forced to negotiate in heavy, ill-fitting boots. My advice - for what it's worth - is don't buy a property abroad unless you're prepared to do a whole lot of painstaking research. Really. 

(Disclaimer: In my case, I got Tim to do it, but we all know I'm physically allergic to money management matters.)

It took us over a year to find and buy a house we loved, and there were too many near-misses and dodged bullets along the way for my liking. And there have been quite a few chancers (like this builder), to boot. At the same time, we've met some wonderful people who were incredibly generous and helpful and sincere.

It would be indiscreet of me to go into details here. Take me to O Cantinho and buy me a bottle of Casal Garcia, however, and I'll spill the lot. Just before I start telling you - again and again and again - that, while one can't be too careful, this is still the best thing that Tim and I have ever, ever done. Ever. *Hic*