T Minus Two Weeks

It's now just two weeks until we move into Casa Cecilia and the pressure is on. I was sick as a dog all last week with the worst cold I've ever had, but still needed to churn out 3,000-plus words per day. And the septic tank at the house we're currently renting suddenly reached Maximum Capacity over the weekend, with the result that sewage was bubbling up between paving stones in the courtyard. Hmmmmm.

But despite all this, I'm enthused, energised and optimistic. Casa Cecilia's starting to seriously feel like a home. My study is pretty much ready - the first room in the house to be painted, furnished, floors waxed (by my own fair hand!). Bathroom on brink of functionality and boiler in situ. New floorboards in hallway, replacing previous Death Plunge situation. New washing machine. New dishwasher. Underfloor heating pipes all in place, so kitchen just needs new floor now.

So this week, I will be mostly packing and moving goods and chattel, between the odd writing assignment. On Monday next week, I'm supposed to be flying from Lisbon to Rwanda, via Amsterdam and Nairobi, for a work trip - volcanic ash cloud permitting. I spend two days in Kigali and then make the same trip in reverse.

By 1 June, we will be fully moved in. These are busy, busy times and I am really, really happy.

More photos, if you're really bored, a stalker, or some horrible combination of the two, can be found here.

The 3Ts Principle

I haven't blogged for a while, but don't worry - I haven't been trapped beneath fallen roof beams or between rotten floorboards, but only by a creeping sense of paralysis that will be familiar to anyone who's ever attempted a project like this.

On their recent visit to Ponte da Mucela, we were reminded by our Norwegian friends, J. and B., of The 3Ts Principle. This states that, in Portugal, ambitious rebuilding projects don't tend to comply with the hard-headed schedules of estrangeiros (foreigners). Or in other words: in this part of the world, Things Take Time.

Holy Week and Easter were major disruptions to our well-laid plans and were swiftly followed by Gondelim's annual festa, which involved a further four-day shut-down. Needless to say, we didn't spend this time wringing our hands in anguish, but in joining in enthusiastically.

So, now that we've recovered from the festivities, where do we stand? Basically, we need to move in less than six weeks' time and there is still an enormous amount to achieve before we can do that. Tim, bless him, is working at least eight-hour days, seven days a week, and we get extra help, as and when we need to and can afford it.

I think the most significant thing we have in place already is an idea of how we want to rebuild Casa Cecilia. A good deal of the philosophy comes from Mark and Sally Bailey, authors of the book, Recycled Home. In it, they celebrate reusing and recycling materials and furniture in an eco-friendly way to create a home that's practical and comfortable.

In the Baileys' case, it's stylish too, but they're experts at this kind of thing. I wonder if our efforts will measure up? Either way, Recycled Home has become a bit of a bible to me, and I especially like the part where the authors say: "Anything that requires assembly using an Allen key is out."

So no trips to IKEA in Porto for us. The furniture we have bought is all secondhand, and beautiful, and mostly comes from a 300-year old Quinta (farm) near Espinhal, currently for sale. if you're looking for a holiday home. It's such a shame its owners have to sell and I hope whoever buys the place loves it as much as they clearly do.

Tim has built us a bed, using beams that were taken out off the roof when it was rebuilt. This is a good thing: our mattress is an extremely well-sprung (fnar) UK king-size that we lugged to Portugal from Hackney. Although expensive, it's been worth every penny, but we'd never find a bed out here to accommodate it, so it made sense to custom-build from materials we had to hand. The end-result is incredible - I'll post a pic shortly.

So we know what we want to achieve. It's now a question of how, and more importantly, when? But we do have a concrete floor in the kitchen and a concrete floor in the outside dining area. The fossa (septic tank) and chimney are built. Senhor Avellino is getting Tim some joists for the hallway where he's replacing the floorboards. The bathroom suite should arrive this evening, along with the boiler, and the plumbing and drains are already in place. The weather here is improving, albeit in fits and starts, and soon, we should be able to camp at Casa Cecilia in relative comfort. That means hot water, a functioning toilet, basic cooking facilities and a telephone/internet connection.

Despite the stress, I can't wait.

When (dead) rats attack

Apologies for the picture, but this is what dropped onto Tim's head while he was dismantling the ceiling in the hallway of our house. These two, and three or four of their friends, all in similar states of mummification. Luckily, he had a hard hat and goggles on at the time.

In other news (and I'm painfully aware of how long it's been since I last blogged):

- the excavation work on the kitchen/living room is finished. Now begins the process of laying a concrete floor, then pipes for underfloor heating, then a layer of screed, and then (and only then) whatever flooring we decide to lay. This work included smashing up a huge concrete vat that was once used for making wine. These days, we buy it from the supermarket it in 5-litre boxes for €5, 'cos we're such sophisticated tipplers.

- the process of levelling the ground in the courtyard has begun. Same team, same JCB, same amount of dust and noise - just a different area of the property.

- the copper piping has been installed in the bathroom and Tim has begun wood-panelling the walls.

I'd be the first to admit it's a while since I've ventured up to Gondelim. Pressures of work and all that. Also, it's bloody cold and wet and miserable, far more so than this time last year. So we're more than aware of the need for top-notch heating and insulation, at least for three months of each year.

But Spring is definitely here. It must be, because the mimosa is out and looking fabulous. Plus, the stray female cat that appears to have adopted us has been systematically 'courted' (ahem) by every male cat in the village. The best thing you can say about this courtship (nasty, brutish and short) is that they're happy to wait their turn before climbing on board. I just wish they wouldn't insist on filming it on their mobiles.

Up on the roof....

... stuff is getting done by very brave men in hoodies.

Senhor Avellino and his team are working tirelessly to reroof our house. The good news is that most of the beams are in pretty good nick and haven't needed replacing.

As Tim keeps pointing out, it's a bad time of year to attempt a roofing job, weather-wise. And contrary to popular opinion, we DO have winter in Central Portugal - it's cold and wet. But the process of buying the place was so slow that we got quite behind schedule.

Luckily, we've been blessed with an unseasonably dry and sunny week, so all being well, we could be back on track to move into the house in April.

Next up: building the septic tank. Lovely.

Looks like progress to me...

A lot has happened since my last, rather miserable, post.

First, some men came with a pneumatic drill and started to break up the floor in the adega, where our kitchen and living room will be. Since the house was built into the hillside, there's quite a lot of sheer rock face involved.

But whichever way you look at it, the presence of a JCB and a compressor parked outside your house suggests that something must be getting done.

Then, this Monday, work finally started on the roof. In fact, it's progressing so quickly that they could be done within the week, guttering and all. I'm sending Tim up there tomorrow with the camera.

And now that things are coming along at a more satisfactory pace, I hope to be blogging more. But we're still some way off choosing paint samples...

Rain stops play at Gondelim

The scaffolding is up and the builders are ready to start on Operation New Roof - but it's been raining for days now. Weeks, even.

Still, I take some comfort in the fact that while it's -3 degrees C in the UK today, it's a positively balmy 2 degrees C here.

Until the new roof is on, however, all kinds of exciting stuff elsewhere in the house is on hold. Bear with us!