Ok, for those who don’t know we are having a house built in Portugal. We sold our five bedroom village house in the UK along with all its furniture and belongings in order to live a more relaxed, simpler and warmer life in Portugal.
We had always planned to retire and live somewhere different, but Brexi, the Covid pandemic and a planned housing estate near our house in the midlands accelerated those plans. Also the fact our best friends lived in Portugal and we had been visiting them and looking at properties and prices for a while influenced our decision to bite the bullet and do it sooner rather than later.
Wayne had always loved Portugal, having visited on many occasions while serving in the navy. He had always had Portugal or NZ in the back of his mind but due the isolation, travel costs and distance from our families Portugal was always the best option. So we made some arrangements with our friends to stay with them until we found a place.
However, best made plans never work out the way you had hoped and finding a suitable place that met our needs proved more difficult than we had envisioned. But, fate has a funny way of showing herself and we had asked our friends acquaintance who happened to be an architect to give some advice on a property we had found. The property in the end proved to be a little on the expensive side for what it was, and would need considerable renovation and demolition work. It was during this inspection where he mentioned a plot of land a stones throw away that was virgin land with no building on it but could be developed. Also the fact he was introducing wood frame construction into Portugal was a huge plus sign for us because we were looking for a more comfortable temperature for the winter months than we had experience on our travels around the country. So Rui (the architect and Wayne were discussing the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and were joking about using a way to cantilever part of the house in a way that FLW used on some of his builds, and so we got more and more interested and finally made an offer to buy the land and started to discuss a structure that would become our forever home.
So the process started. We knew what our budget was, because it was basically what we had made by selling our house and possessions and some minor savings as an emergency contingency. Some of the budget went purely on the move over and setting up all the admin involved in moving and importing our car etc. A woof framed house would give us the comfort level we were looking for. Wayne had been brought up in such a house in Canada, wood frame houses are relatively affordable compared to a traditional block and concrete villas and the process to build is also rapid. Or so we thought…
What we thought would be a relatively quick process turned out to take much longer than we anticipated and would also cost much more too. We eventually got the plans approved and a build licence for twelve months. A single story wood framed house in that time. Easy right?
COVID was the first of many delays and caused major uncertainty and caused us much anxiety. There were long periods where we could not do much and material prices went a bit mad for a while. luckily our Whitley architect had managed to source timber before it went up. But there were other delays too.
The war in Ukraine added to price rises in other goods and fuel etc. Then there was getting electricity to the job site. This took over six months and was again in part to backlogs caused by Covid, but also the system to apply and get the work done here is so drawn out, it seems we weren’t alone in the long weight. This delay was then exacerbated by a heat wave in Portugal and Spain. During this period it was prohibited to use some machinery outdoors and our job site was within a nature park, so that caused more anxiety and waiting. Finally progress was looking good, but we then saw everything come to a halt again until our windows and doors were fitted and they could close the house up. This would allow the builders to come in and work on the plumbing, electrics, drywall etc.
If you follow our journey and the stories you will see we started exploring the country and doing pet and house sits to free up our friends to have their family and other friends to visit. This has been such a transformative experience and one we both love. It has meant we had some relief from the frustration of the delays, and meant we got to meet some lovely people (you all know who you are, we love you all xxx). We also got to care for some beautiful animals many which have touched our lives and some have sadly passed. But the experience has been so positive, we have decided to continue with the house sitting even after we have finished the house, but maybe at a reduced rate until we have the land and grounds sorted. It has also given us many ideas form other fantastic houses where we have stayed that have filtered their way into our house design, so it really has turned out to be an important element of what we finally end up with for our home. Influenced and enhanced by the chance of looking after pets and meeting amazing people!
So, we are finally at a point in the build, where we think is a turning point in the delays (the build license had to be extended) and now hope the progress accelerates and we will finally be able to say that we have a home again. The windows and doors have all been fitted. We are absolutely blown away by the quality and materials chosen by our architects too. We may moan about the delays etc, but make no mistake, we are so happy to have Rui & Sandy and there team building our place and we are looking forward to meeting all our lovely friends, neighbors and new found friends at the house very soon!
For anyone who is interested in building a new home in Portugal and wants all the benefits that a new wood framed house can provide, definitely take a peek at our architects web site; RFArraianno.pt there is tons of useful information and examples there.
Our Portuguese Life 