And then there was light! But not ours…
Our very kind neighbours dragged an extension lead from their house to ours and even provided a table lamp which gave a lovely red glow to our room. We thought we were managing well enough with fairy lights, candles and a roaring fire but no, it (and our evenings) were transformed!
The holiday started with a meeting with the electrician to decide where to bring power into the house. That agreed, Rob’s first project was to dig a trench from the tower by the road where the metre will be housed (meter-checkers are not required to bend down to read the meter) down through a stone retaining wall and into the old kitchen. Once it was dug we laid the tube which will house the cable, and Rob rebuilt the wall using cement to make the cable secure. And finally I paid the connection fee to EDP to start the process. Big step forward.
In between tasks was Christmas turkey and a sunny walk on a sandy beach. Glorious dry weather and Mediterranean light – I shouldn’t have bothered bringing a rain coat (though wellies in the dewy vegetation were a necessity while doing copious weeding).
Other jobs over the fortnight included more tree pruning against fire risk and Rob forged a toasting fork in the woodburner out of a bit of metal he found hanging about.
And finally the construction of a false wall using a painted mdf board and an Ikea bookcase (luckily Ikea also sold spotlights) to show that this part of the house is largely finished (apart from knocking two new windows through the wall of course).
Time to leave again.
A cosy room with a selection of furniture reclaimed from dumps, flea market and Ikea!
Hovel in the sun 