TIMEJUMP

It is now summer again, we are in August 2022.

I lacked a little time and, admittedly, also the desire to keep the blog up to date. In any case, a lot has happened. Both in terms of our life here in Portugal and the actual topic of building our house.

After our move from 'Bica da Areia' to 'Foros da Pereira', both belonging to the municipality of Vila Nova de Milfontes, our migration process has progressed with great strides. We have made many contacts and made new friends. Most of them are Portuguese contacts.

We met a very nice US-American, Christy, and became friends. Christy, similar to us, left her country of birth and her hometown (Seattle, Washington). She sold everything there and embarked on the adventure of a 'new beginning'. She now lives very close to us on a huge property where she has started a tourism project.

Her website: https://mermaid-retreat.com

She has a very interesting life story which she has written down in a book.

The title is: Get Free to Get It Done: Creating Your Fabulous New Life.

Author: Christy Miller.

Available from Amazon at a price of 8,73 Eur. Also available as a Kindle eBook.

Worth reading for all those who have ever had to deal with similar thoughts!

We started Portuguese lessons in autumn 2021. 2 times a week we receive private lessons from a Portuguese woman who previously worked as a teacher. Since then we have been struggling through the countless hurdles of this not so easy language. But this has to be done, otherwise the failure of the migration is already pre-programmed.

After months of apparent standstill, we are now making noticeable progress and have understood the elementary basics of the language. Since then, we try to communicate in Portuguese whenever possible. Successes in communicating with Portuguese motivate us to stay the course.

And our building, yes, it still exists!

If I quickly review the past year since the start of construction, I can say that things have really progressed!

There have been difficulties here and there, which is in the nature of things, but everything has been solved completely together with the architects and our building contractor.

In November 2022, we will probably be able to move into our new house. There are still a lot of things to do until then, but we are very optimistic that it will work out.

Karina has made the decision to actively help paint the house (inside and outside). This has been going on for a few weeks now, because painting with lime paint is a very time-consuming process. Up to 5 (five) layers have to be applied so that the paint covers. Care must also be taken here to ensure that the lime paint 'chemically' bonds with the lime plaster and forms a single unit.

All this is necessary so that the building material clay does not lose all its advantages and the energy class A+ is achieved.

As I said, a lot of work, but the result is really something to behold, it will be beautiful!

What will happen in the next few weeks? What's on the agenda?

• Installing windows and doors, the carpenter is working on it.

• Finish the micro-cement surfaces in the bathrooms

• Laying mosaicos in the bathrooms

• Finish the rest of the house with Santa Catarina tiles.

• Lay wooden floors in the bedrooms

• Finish the sanitary installations

• Lay patio areas with Santa Catarina tiles

• Finish terrace areas with wooden pergolas

• Finish kitchen, install Silstone worktop, install electrical appliances

• Finalise and wire electrical installation

• Tile swimming pool inside and cover pool areas with Santa Catarina tiles, also create wooden deck and install pool technology, connect pool heating to solar thermal system

• Tile and finish studio house with Mosaicos

• Install automatic gate

• Level the entire plot and cover with Brita or tree mulch

And much, much more! Once we've moved in, I'm sure the fun will really start. But more about that in due course. For now, we are happy about the great progress and continue to wallow in anticipation.