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Phil and Cecilias Handmade Home

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Phil and Cecilias Handmade Home

20/04/2024

Master Mason! 🧱👷⚒️

Inside the house, Phil has started to brick up the wall between the two bathrooms, while also removing a false ceiling in the guest wc, adding a bit of height to the space!

The bricked up wall will eventually house the manifolds for the plumbing, and covered with tiles on both sides.

Working full time while renovating a property, means we'll have to use our time wisely and do the house work little by little, often spending an hour or so at the end of our working day. It's a somewhat slow, but steady approach 😊

20/04/2024

Early summer is here and our walled garden is full of life!

After carefully clearing & de-w**ding it last year, nature is now back with a vengeance, and has brought with it dancing butterflies, peach blossoms, tiny little new oranges and an abundance of colourful nasturtium & delicate little w**d flowers!

It's so lovely, and feels so relaxing just sitting taking it all in, that we can't bear to disturb it... we're just going to leave it for now...

🌞🌸🍋🌿🍑🦋 🍀🍊💛

13/04/2024

We've also done some much needed tree pruning! 🌿

Both the lemon & orange trees had unruly and/or heavy branches trimmed by the very agile Phil! No tree is too high for this man!

Meanwhile, the peach tree was almost completely cut down. A bit sad looking but hopefully this will get rid of the maggots we found inside the peaches last year! 🐛🐛🤮

The very large pile of tree branches was left to die down so that we can easier remove it at a, later stage (gone by the time I'm posting this as I'm playing catch-up!)

The dogs enjoyed the day too, sunbathing and watching us (from a safe, enclosed distance), but not willing to lift even a paw to help us.. 🐾

🍋🍊🍑

13/04/2024

A leaky roof is no problem for Cecilia! ☂️👷

A natural investigator, she just had to climb up onto the roof to find the root of the leak (that completely soaked the concrete ceiling below as well as part of the walls!)

And roots she found, holding a lot of moisture! As well as a long crack on top of the roof. But first a layer of cement had to be removed, then a crumbling yet sticky layer of black waterproofing, followed by yet another layer of wet cement, until the actual roof was uncovered!

Left to dry out for a week or so, it was then given a couple of coats of waterproof treatments, just in time for the spring showers! 🌧️🌧️

05/04/2024

Hello again! 👋👋 Yes, we're still here and now back in full renovation mode! 👷🧑‍🏭⚒️

For the past few months we've been quite busy with our day jobs (oh how we wish we could afford to renovate full time!) and also sorting out an old address change on the property, and have therefore not been at our house as often as we'd have liked. 💔

We have done some smaller jobs though, which I'll post as frequent little catch ups! I do like to post in chronological order (Cecilia = 🤓) as we then are able to go back over the photos to see our progress and results!

Meantime, after Phil removed all vinyl paint and some render, we found this on the wall in one of the smaller rooms! We think it might say 1809 (or 1807) or perhaps it's 1900's instead?
- What year do you all think it says?

Whenever it is from, it's absolutely amazing to think about all the people that has lived here before us, making it their home (or business), and putting their stamp on the place.

And now it's our turn. 💛🏠😍

04/02/2024

I was only trying to scrape off some paint... 👷‍♀️😂

Well, in an old house, you just never know what you'll unearth or just how much work something will need!

What looked like a good, solid wall turned out to have a layer of cement covering it, so it had to be carefully chipped off, without trying to damage or remove the lime render underneath!

The opposite wall turned out to have 4 layers of acrylic paint in such fashionable colours as white, yellow, pink, and blue, on top of lime on top of cement on top of lime!

Phil & his angle grinder had to come to finish off the job, leaving the walls free to 'breathe' again!

04/02/2024

Since we last posted, a lot has been done to our new home, even if it's taken some time!

The ever awesome Phil 💙 has, single-handedly(!), removed years of paint layers from all walls throughout the house, by painstakingly and patiently using only an angle grinder!! 😮😮

The rubber paint used in the living/dining room was especially tough, but he persevered! 💪 Even the logo for the old drogaria on the front wall wasn't safe from this Man-machine!

We've also gone to work on removing all skirting boards, the many little wall pockets filled with wood & cement, randow screws and nails, and the wooden frames around the large cubbyholes (which are to be filled in), leaving a blank canvas!

However, the amount of dust this kind of work creates is horrendous, and a fine layer is now coating every surface, even highlighting the cobwebs in the ceiling! 🕸

12/01/2024

Can an old WC become a hallway? Yes, in our home it can! 😄 Part 2

So, two further openings have been made to make our 'hallway' complete! We can now (almost 😄) effortlessly move from kitchen/living room to bathroom to patio to guests toilet/powder room! Give a girl a sledgehammer, and almost anything is possible! 🤣🤣💪

Reclaimed doors, a lick of paint, a gorgeous gifted light fitting, and I think we could soon move in! 👌😄🥰

12/01/2024

Can an old WC become a hallway? Yes, in our home it can! 😄 Part 1

Currently, the only way out to the courtyard & garden is through the main bedroom, which is far from ideal!
And the only way into what will be the main bathroom is through a bedroom/office or from the courtyard! 🤣

To solve this, we came up with the current floorplan, where this WC becomes a hallway, leading into the main bathroom, a powder room, AND out into the patio area!

I had to analyse how we'd be moving through the house (having an interior design background has helped !) to identify the 'paths' (in yellow 🟡) we'd be using. We've also made new door openings (in red 🔴) and are planning to block up the current openings (green 🟢).

It's very dusty work, but it's so worth it!!

12/01/2024

January in our Algarvian garden means an abundance of lemons & oranges! 🍋🍊🍋🍊
And the air is filled with the most delicate fragrance of orange blossoms! 🌸🌼

There's so many lemons we're not really sure what to do with them! We're filling bags, giving them away to family & friends, and to the nearby cafes in the village!

We're dreaming of the day when we'll have a kitchen where we'll make all things lemon related; limoncello, lemon curds, lemon drizzle sponge cakes, and maybe a gin & tonic or two!

In the meantime, we're rolling up our sleeves and are heading back inside to scrape old paint off the walls!! 💪

10/12/2023

" Here's Johnny...! " 😬

We always knew we wanted to open up the bricked up doorway, leading from the small room (that'll be Cecilia's workshop) into the lounge!

This room could only be accessed from the adjacent room (aka future guest room) or via the door from the bathroom (which we plan to block up), so in order to bring more light into the space + improve the access, we had to start up the ol' Kango!

(While flexing (and exhausting) my muscles, I also got to channel my inner Jack Nicholson, much to Phil's "amusement"! 😂🎬🏆)

Over a period of 3 days, the original opening eventually emerged, and I was expecting to find a built-up step (like in the other doorways), so judge by my surprise when I only found earth, rocks, rocks and more earth! 😱

We know these old houses don't have a proper foundation, but there's literally only 10 cm of tiles, tile glue, bricks & what could be cement(?) separating the floor from the ground!!

Rock on, I say! 🤘🪨

10/12/2023

Real Estate Do's & Dont's!

These are the actual photos of the real estate advert...! 😱
As you can (obviously) imagine, it was love at first sight for me! So much that I'd arranged a viewing within 10 minutes of seeing them! 🩷😂

Despite looking a bit grubby, I could see the enormous potential of the place, and the fact that it was a floorplan included 👍 helped me better understand how we could transform into a home!

Phil needed a little more convincing, though...
On our first viewing, he went, "Ooh %£*&, there's a %£÷& of a lot of work here!!" 😵‍💫 I on the other hand was planning where the furniture would go! 🤣🤣🤣

The added bonus (not advertised for some reason?) was, of course, the garden and outbuilding!

And now, let the real work begin....💪🛠👷‍♀️👷‍♂️

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