16° in Nadadouro  17° in Portreath

It's all go go go!   Today we are moving most of our stuff into our new house - hooray.  Unfortunately we can't stay in it as the council haven't connected our drains yet!  Slightly disappointing, but we still have a lot to do in the house, so we can crash around the corner at our mate's house.

Many more pics to come but here's some of my Dave doing his thing - love x

14° in Nadadouro  3° in Portreath [yes my widget seriously said 3°]

It has been another busy week at Casa Lemm.

No dramas thank goodness, just a lot of hard work.  The plaster masters Antonio and Pedro [i've nicknamed them Ant and Dec, and no, they don't know that!] have plastered the ceilings throughout downstairs and added the kitchen cupboard wall too.  A very crisp and precise job.

The sparky crew have wired up the place and very soon we will have light and power throughout.

Victor carpinteira [see how good my Portuguese is getting now!] came and measured up for the stairs and said they will be delivered on Monday!  Today is Friday and we need to tile the floor!  So this weekend will be taken up on our hands and knees.  He has cut out a tester hole and the light is flooding into the basement.  Although we have planned this for so long, it was a monumental moment.

Antonio [another one!] is cladding our feature wall outside with fantastic rusty coloured bits of slate.  And the rest of the boys have been sorting the outside stairs, drainage and patio area out ready for the Brazilians who will be laying the calcadas [cobbles] any day now.

Upstairs each evening the house was full of building stuff, but yesterday we went in and it was cleared out!  We seriously have so much more space.  This is going to be great.  x

21° in Nadadouro  18° in Portreath

Hooray, the terrace is now back to how it was a couple of weeks ago!  The guys only have to lay the terracotta tiles then it's done, phew!

Not much more to do now, i really can't believe that we're nearly there.  It's just the front door and stairs to be fitted and the second fix electrics to be sorted after the well insulated ceilings are completed, and then the calcada terrace outside leading to the garden!  Calcadas are little square cobble stones, which apparently will be laid by the Brazilians next week.  The kitchen is due mid July, so we have to get on and tile tile tile!

This week i had to get the tiles delivered from Lealmat.  They sent 130 60cm square boxes in a lorry with one [small] driver.  I suppose he was supposed to shift them on his own, which would have taken all day.  However our builders pitched in and an hour and 15 cold beers later the job was done.  We have to tile the whole downstairs next weekend as the kitchen and stairs must go on top, which will be fun.  At last we can do something, Dave is a tile master and i'm the queen of grout!  Now where did i put those knee pads ...  x

23° in Nadadouro  13° in Portreath

Phew yesterday was a scorcher and my Dave treated our wood wormed basement ceiling - twice!  They were really nasty smelly chemicals so they must be good eh?

Each morning i wander to our pad and open all the windows so the place can dry out.  All the new plaster and screed has a high percentage of water, so i suppose it will take a few weeks to cure.

We are surrounded by pine and eucalyptus forests and one spark could be a disaster.  So from Easter until the first rains of winter we live in a fire free zone.  But hey rules are made to be broken right.  Undeterred our neighbour thought she'd do a bit of weeding yesterday afternoon, while it was 31° and not a rain cloud or emergency bucket of water in sight ...

31° in Nadadouro  14° in Portreath

Last week was another monumental one in our lives.  The leaky terrace was fixed, hooray.  Two layers of black bitumen waterproofing, embedded up the sides of the house by about 20cm, was laid in a day.  Then a new screed will be laid and then finally our terracotta tiles.  What a relief to have this sorted, we can really relax about this now.  My poor Dave seems to be getting greyer by the day!

The other fantastic event was the delivery of our gorgeous windows.  We had chosen frames in granite grey [7026] from the RAL colour system.  I had noticed all the modern buildings i loved had grey frames, and wanted to emulate the same feeling in our little house too.  I think when we're finished it will give that really polished look that we're trying to achieve.

Our window supplier Telmo from Chaves Aluminos Oeste has done a splendid job.  He said that for our job he's made the smallest window he's ever made - 50cm square for the downstairs loo - and the largest window too - our triple sliding door nearly 5m across!  

I have a feeling that we are not tipico, c'est la vie! x

20° in Nadadouro  10° in Portreath

All had been going brilliantly, then we had another downpour and where the old house met the new extension created a little bit of seepage into our new downstairs.  Again we're feeling blessed that it rained when it did and the house wasn't totally finished.  We met with Jose who said that they hadn't waterproofed the terrace the way it was designed to be!  All you really want out of any house is two vital things - that it won't fall down, and that it can keep you dry!

So this is what our lovely new terrace looked like yesterday!  Four inches of concrete removed, then a thick membrane will be laid, then a new layer of concrete.

It's a bit disheartening, and i really hope it doesn't hold up our moving in date, but this is vital for our peace of mind and dryness.

On a lighter note, we had our lovely friends Mary and Zip come and visit us on their Harley, all the way from Devon.  What a joy to see another set of smiling faces for a couple of days.  They've now left for the Algarve, then to Spain and finally back to Santander to get the ferry back to Plymouth.  Thanks for coming guys, you rock x

21° in Nadadouro  13° in Portreath

I am so ready to move back into our own home.  I miss my stuff - i know there's not much of it but the little i have i miss, and i'd like to get a little bit more.  While the lovely Sally and Keef were here we found this rather yummy Asian furniture store in town.  Full of painted cabinets and shiny things.  I eventually got my husband down there for a snoop.  Blimey - it was only shut!  You should have seen the look of relief on Dave's face!  I think i'll try again next week.

Hooray, summer is back and yesterday my Dave started priming the outside of our place.  It seems like a dream that this day has come.  Here's some before and after shots.  It's amazing what a bit of primer can do to lift a girl's spirits x

This view is from our neighbour's!  

And the next two are from the top of our new staircase.

And these last two are from the cantilevered edge, which eventually will be inaccessible except to the odd plant or two.

Last but not least our windows are nearly ready.  The glass is on its way from Spain and they should be complete and finished within a couple of weeks ....

.... really really LOVE xx