Today was a house building day! The two guys we have working here both have young families and live very near us. They are clear on their priorities and work to live rather than live to work. So they will work about three days a week here and they also take the approach of teaching us their skills as work progresses so that we can be involved with the build and be extra pairs of hands. It’s a rather refreshing approach don’t you think?
The roof rafters came down quickly and with some brute force, the main beam came down too – a dramatic downfall. The wood from the rafters is in quite good condition and everything we take down will be recycled for another project on the land so very little goes to waste. The barn was built pre 1951 and may be actually much older. It doesn’t have traditional foundations as it is built directly onto a massive granite boulder. With the roof off, we were able to see how remarkably level the walls are.
We measured up for all the materials needed for stage one – renovating the two room barn – so the order can go in in the next few days. Like elsewhere in the world, the price of raw materials is increasing all the time, so we will buy now to lock in some prices.
We discussed the position of a window in each room and sizes. We were recommended to look at a second hand retailer of windows in Plasencia, Spain as there can often be very good deals. Plasencia is 1.5 hours away from us.
By this time is was 3pm here, so 4pm in Spain, but we remembered that most Spanish shops close from 1-4pm for lunch/siesta time then stay open until 8/9pm. As that would still give us a couple of hours before it closed, we decided to go on a whim for a look today.
Plasencia was a pleasant surprise. It’s fairly big (compared to the towns near us) and has all sorts of shops and restaurants nestled around a beautiful cathedral and an aqueduct. We found the window place and had a good scout around. I’m open to second hand but not a natural when it comes to knowing what to look for. We did find two matching windows but they were too tall. Next door was a Leroy Merlin DIY store so we also went in there to look at their windows. I think I prefer new windows so we will be investigating more suppliers over the weekend. We’re still waiting for the quote from the one we saw last weekend.
On the way out of Plasencia, we passed a Dominos Pizza. We hadn’t planned to stop but the evening was about 22 degrees and beautiful to sit out in with our furry friend so as it was Friday, we opted for an easy dinner of pizza, which was delicious!
We drove back over the border in the dark into Portugal stopping to empty the van toilet (one of the joys) in an ‘area de servicio’. In Europe campervans are well provided for with free waste and water facilities in many towns. Our final stop was at the local fountain near us to fill up the van water supply. Finally we got back home – and gained an hour as Portugal is an hour behind Spain so it’s the same time zone all year round as the UK. We might just have a lie in tomorrow… night all!
