Leaving Portugal (again)

We were having to travel back to the UK to deal with a family related issue. It was a bit of a shame that we would be missing a main part of the construction phase of our house in Portugal, but as the old adage goes…’family comes first’.

We had returned to our temporary home in central Portugal after our jaunt around the Algarve, just as the majority of the foundation work was completed. We actually took a slight detour to go and check out the work even before getting back home.

As the photos below show, when compared to the rendered drawings produced, and the actual foundations, the height off the ground was a bit surprising. One of the main briefs was the second bedroom had to be fully ready to receive our daughter-in-law who is disabled and will need access via wheelchair. So we were keen to meet the architect and discuss those slight concerns.

Luckily, we were called in to discuss progress a couple of days later. As it turns out the foundations still require some work to kill vegetation and add a vapor barrier etc. Rui was very reassuring too. The ground being removed for the carport along with soil being removed from another of their projects are going to raise the access levels and so it wont seem as severe later in the build. It is super reassuring to know that all the details are being managed by him and his team. We cant stress enough how happy we are to have him managing the project, especially since we are actually away from the project much more than we had envisaged and hoped to be.

We were also confirmed the window and door finishings, which are now ordered and paid for. Like everything else in the world at the moment, the prices have been slowly rising, so it was good to get these as quickly as possible. We also sourced and bought the finishing flooring throughout the property which will be delivered to Rui’s warehouse while we are away. These consist of flooring tiles of laminate, internal ceramic and external ceramic, but all of a matching wood effect design. Unfortunately, we had actually looked at the product before we went off to do the house sits and on our return the price of the some had increased in price. In hindsight, we should have gone with our gut feeling and purchased them before we left. Hey-ho!

We also sourced a loft ladder which we found online and was from a company near Setúbal. As we had not yet visited Setúbal, we decided to see if we could order one and pick it up later, combining it with a visit to the city. It was quite hilarious as the guy in the warehouse didn’t speak a word of english. We managed to communicate using gestures and pointing to catalogs, maps and calendars, and using our rudimentary portuguese. We eventually left thinking we had placed an order for a model which included padded feet and a safety rail. We were pretty sure they were shipped from Poland as he pointed to a picture of the polish flag on his phone! Time will only tell. We did leave our number and explained the situation to the architects, who kindly offered to ring them up to confirm we actually had managed to order one of the correct size and dimensions required.

Before we left for the UK Wayne managed to clear a lot of the vegetation that had grown while we were down in the Algarve. However, a schoolboy error ensued. He actually wore some good PPE. Anti-vibration gloves, boots, trousers, full vizor and ear-defenders. But because it was 34+ degrees only wore a t-shirt. The problem was that poison ivy was at the ripe berry stage and the petrol-strimmer just sprayed poison-ivy juice all up his arms!

He wisely decided to wear long sleeve’´s on the plane. Otherwise we thought he might cause a panic with people thinking he was riddled with monkey pox! As by this time his arms were covered in bright red blisters. Lesson Learned!

There was also the car to consider, as we might be away for a while. Our besties have just had their driveway re-laid with new calçadas português and we didn’t want to leave it standing on that, so our friends in the village, Bruce & Paula came to the rescue and are taking care of Molly for us. (yes we named our car!).

When the time arrived, our besties dropped us at the airport. The flight was delayed by about an hour, but the wait wasn´t too bad. We managed to get something to eat and a seat. The flight wasn´t too busy either and managed to make up a little time, and we still managed to get to Edinburgh by a relatively sensible hour, but it was a long day so we were glad to reach our son’s place and for a comfortable bed!

In the morning It was great to see his partner and of course our young grandson who woke us with his big smile. We had promised to take him swimming, but the weather was not great and we would be walking or catching buses, so delayed the swim until better weather the following day. We really enjoy taking him to the pool as he is such a water lover. We can not wait until he comes out to visit us in Portugal, as there is some fantastic water parks and places where kids can play in water all day! We had a great few days, getting to spend some quality time with him and look forward to seeing them all again. We also need to celebrate our sons promotion to the Maintenance Manager, which we never got round to…

Unfortunately we had to cut that visit a bit short, to make our way down the country before the rail workers were going into a period of strikes! It was a real pain, as it was making travel almost impossible. So we managed to book a train the day before the action was due to take place. The journey wasn’t without incident either, the train was delayed, meaning we missed one of our connections. Firstly, due to a train in front traveling slowly, and secondly we were held up In Lancaster for an hour due to a safety related incident, of which no more information was provided. It wasn’t too taxing though, as we had seats for the entire journey, and we were not in a hurry, and plus the weather was very nice which provided us with some lovely views of the very green and pleasant countryside!

We arrived (eventually) in the beautiful city of Worcester. The weather was superb and we do enjoy the city. We were so happy to see our middle son and his wife as we missed them out on our last trip over. We were also joined by our youngest boy, who is currently looking for work in the same area to be near his brother and sister-in-law who he really gets on with. Because Worcester is a bustling university city with a thriving community of like-minded people of his age, he hopes to settle near them and get some work as soon as possible. His last abode was isolated and he worked unsociable hours which he did not enjoy, so we are here offering moral support.

We still managed to spend some family time all together and catching up with our daughter-in-law’s parents again, which was nice. The weather remained favorable for the first week at least, which allowed us to enjoy the sights and sounds, including the Mercian Regiment marching through the streets on Armed Forces Day 2022.

So thats where we are now. Not really sure whats going to happen next, or where we will end up next…

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read about our journey. We wish everyone good health and best wishes.

Until next time…