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
Following the reasonable result of rendering the garden wall some weeks ago, I decided that I could do the same with the LPG gas store cabinet that I built outside behind the kitchen.
I had to be home to await delivery of a parcel that never arrived (that is a different story) so I took advantage of the good weather and the available time.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
I like to try my hand at all types of construction and maintenance and feel that I can manage most things.
However, plastering has been my nemesis since trying it for the first time in 1985. I tried and tried many times but could not properly get the hang of it.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
The latest update for the major works to start on the old part of the house has now slid into October so we are even more worried that painting the house exterior may not happen before Winter.
But, undeterred, we decided that the kitchen section of the house does not require any work outside so made a good start on that building.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Now that the concrete driveway is gone we were able to get on with relocating the main electricity supply cable to the workshop.
The suspended cable, more than 40m long, straight across the garden is an eyesore.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Our most reliable supplier/contractor to date, Sebastião at Monteprazeres, turned up as arranged - in fact, one day sooner than originally planned and he messaged to agree that too.
The task was to rip up the existing ugly, uneven, broken concrete driveway.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
We are constantly disappointed by the delays in getting contractors to work on the house.
Work on the new floor in the dungeon should have started in June but this now seems to have been pushed back until the end of August at the soonest.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
The rear patio has moved a little nearer to completion having received the drain channel and concrete base for the slope outside the back doors.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
To keep an eye on the electricity consumption I decided to fit a monitor display that shows the current load on the system.
Useful to see the change in demand when certain devices turn on and off.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
A couple of months after the base layer was poured I have completed the top layer of concrete for the patio upper step.
Progress is being made.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Because the weather has been so kind in December I had the opportunity to make a start with concreting the rear patio step.
The old weed covered area was quite an eyesore and we spent a lot of time clearing it.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Things have been going rather slowly recently, even slower than normal.
Highlights from the past month include the heavy rain downpours and thunderstorms which caused power cuts and killed our MEO set-top box. It even damaged the UPS so the USB connection to the server no longer works.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Following the shenanigans of the previous evening, Thursday dawned bright, sunny, and early!
We made a good start on the furniture assembly but there was obviously too much to do before 9:30 when the sofa was due to arrive so when it did come, almost on time, it had to be temporarily placed in the office room.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
On the assumption that the floor would be installed in time, we placed a significant order with IKEA for delivery on Wednesday 11th, the email confirmed the date and promised a time between 9am and 7pm. Given the size of the order, four large furniture units, three smaller furniture items and a load of wardrobe cabinets, we hoped that the order would arrive in the afternoon at latest.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
The delay with the supply of the laminate flooring gave some breathing room to complete the walls and ceilings without having to rush.
Though it still wasn't finished until after delivery of the flooring and in reality is not fully finished yet.
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- Written by: Rick Nason
Work has been going on with the renovation.
After a few more slow weeks, the flooring has arrived so it was time to up the tempo a little and get on with it as we wanted to get the painting done before installing the new flooring - sounds like a good idea.