This blogspace chronicles the ups and downs of our house renovation project in Vale de Prazeres, Portugal from first purchase in November 2019.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
An unusual event put a temporary halt to work on the back room.
It was a few months ago when the work started, during that time I drilled a number of holes through a dividing wall between the old building and the newer part.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
After a long delay, apologies, here is the latest instalment in our saga.
Work continues on the back room.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Now that we have finally found and installed the new flooring for the back room it is time to build the new false walls and ceiling. The metalwork is going up nicely, the existing ceiling is interesting, there is a difference in the height of over 100mm (4") from one corner to another and the concrete surface has waves, like an upside down sea.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
After many delays and missed deadlines the kitchen is now installed and functional, albeit with a reduced electrical capacity until I can replace the main circuit breaker.
It was, by chance, a nice birthday present for Janet.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Now that we have finished the painting Janet has made some temporary curtains to serve until the lockdown is over and we can get to the shops to get some proper material.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Nah, that headline was just to fool you.
As we have come to expect, the kitchen installation has been delayed once again. Previously scheduled for 15th/16th April, that date has come and gone and the latest estimate is now 'by the end of the month'.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Finally, the new door and windows for the kitchen have been installed. There was a slight hiccup when the original date was spoiled by a tree falling onto our car during the journey to the house on Tuesday last.
Read more: But soft, what light through yonder window breaks
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Edit: Since posting the original message the window supplier has informed me that they will be installing the new items tomorrow - yippee!!
Due to the existing Coronavirus restrictions our visits to the house are limited, and may be stopped completely if things get worse, but obviously we'll try to continue the work.
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Coronavirus has slowed everything down to a crawl.
But creeping forward with the kitchen I managed to collect the new granite window sills ordered two weeks ago and they are a perfect fit, thank you to Granidarte in Fundão.
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Green Fingers ... and green legs, green face, green clothes etc.
Janet has been busy once again with her new strimmer clearing the weeds and long grass from the garden. It's looking much less like a jungle now.
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I've been having great fun planning and rewiring the kitchen room, a new consumer unit and all new cabling. Earlier this week was an opportunity to disconnect the existing circuits and get the new up and running.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Since originally ordering new windows and a door for the kitchen back in January we ave been in touch regularly with the manufacturers.
They keep promising that someone will visit the house and take measurements (because they assume that I cannot use a tape measure).
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After a short, anxious episode re-assembling the borehole pump and lowering it into position the end result feels like this moment from a great movie.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
It looks like the water pump can be salvaged and repaired after all, saving a fat chunk of money that we can ill afford to spend.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
When we bought the house we had a brief spell of difficulty with the water supply from the borehole, the pump would run and pressurise the system. The pressure switch tripped out at 2 bar and then the system would drain back into the borehole and the cycle started again. We didn't know this was happening and the first electricity bill was rather high prompting me to look for a cause.