We’ve split up!

In somewhat of a plot twist, this week we have split up.

So a bit of background…

The last time we met up with our friends Kirsty and David, they asked if we could sit for the boys again (Sonny & Cooper, the golden retrievers). We said sure! But, nothing was put into the TrustedHousesitters app, and we forgot to add it to the calendars! (It’s an age thing!). Later, the sit with Rosie came up. It was a nice long sit too. So… Check diary – Free, check THS app… nope nothing! So we agreed to the São Pedro de Alva sit. Then, later in the month Annette woke up bolt upright one morning and said… “we’re double booked!”

So we quickly appraised the situation and thought, no problem, we got this. By all accounts Rosie was an easy dog to look after. The sit was very close to our friends Roman & Kathryn, so if Annette needed anything while Wayne was with the boys, and the car, help was at hand.

So we spent a couple of weeks together and found Rosie was super easy and we had settled into the sit. We met all the really lovely neighbours (they kept giving us fresh vegetables, like we needed feeding!) Annette had everything she would need while we were temporarily parted, and Rosie was really chilled, so we knew it was going to work fine.

So after a couple of weeks together, Wayne headed back down south and quickly settled in with the boys. They recognised Wayne as soon as he walked in and so it was lots of fun with lots of walks and pool time for the boys for the duration before heading back to finish the sit with Annette.

It also was fortunate Wayne was down there as e-redes (the company responsible for the electrical infrastructure in Portugal) wanted to fit a new smart consumer unit, and Wayne had to be there in person. The guys explained that it was an upgrade and enabled SMART features (whatever they might be?), it didn’t take that long, and they were done in a jiffy!

Being there, also meant Wayne could check the progress on the house for the three weeks we had been away and to give the dogs some adventure time and different from their usual walks.

The House Build

• At first glance there appeared to be no progress on the external of the property. The weather had been a bit wet, so that might have been why. However the progress seemed mainly to be inside.
• Some more plaster skimming had been done. It’s looking really good.
• Tiling had been commenced, with most of the kitchen area had been laid and the small WC floor was done. The tiler was doing the pantries during this brief visit too.
• The on-suites had been prepared to receive tiling. (waterproofing).
• Some more cladding had been added in the patio area, and scaffolding added to add more.
• The new skylight had been fitted above the patio.
• Preparations were being made to continue external cladding.

Still no electrics yet though. The Solar company are keen to complete the installation as are we. We were given strong indications the house would be completed last year which is why we got the solar array fitted before the walls went up, for ease of access. So we are really hoping to see progress on the electrics soon. It is really not the same as the UK and is quite frustrating the way the bureaucracy seems to stifle innovation and progress!

Also, you might notice that the heating system has yet to be installed. Although the UFH pipe work has been laid and the screed applied, we could not see if the pipes were pressurised and if they held the pressure? (This is required in the UK to check the system before applying the screed – up to 6 bar we think?). We have not been not made aware of the design and had no say in the layout or system design, it is one of those really frustrating differences that we find a struggle to understand here in Portugal. We certainly hope the design considerations are being applied as in Urban Plumbers latest video:

If you are having a heating system installed or updated, I highly recommend watching these guys as they have a massive following and are very highly rated! We will be comparing our system to their best practice, as this is what we would expect. We hope to have some input to this before they start putting it in, but we will see what happens.

After a very Quick Look around the house, we set off around the village and forest for a very needed spot of exercise for the dogs. We also caught up with our Canadian friends Manny & Carol, who are over planning their property in the village. They have bought a plot and are considering a new build, but are frightened by the time ours has taken so were looking around at existing houses too. We planned to get together again once we returned in a couple of weeks to have a proper catch up over a good meal!

So the time Wayne spent with Sonny & Cooper was taken up with lots of walks. LOTS of walks!

That meant trips to the coast, and trips to forests and trips to town. One thing Kirsty & David asked Wayne to do during his stay, was to give the Mini Clubman a good run out, now and again. This he did for most of the local forest walks and town trips for walks and shopping. This was quite interesting. Wayne was curious whether driving a manual car again would be like riding a bike? Bear in mind that we have only owned automatics for well over ten years, and add the fact that this is a Left Hand drive too. Ours is still an imported Right Hand drive. The short answer was yes. He picked it up almost immediately and never actually stalled once! (even Wayne was surprised!). It was funny watching the boys look at each car trying to guess which car we were going to use each day! 😂😂😂.

The one thing golden retrievers need is lots of exercise, and walks, so Wayne’s time with them was all about getting them out and about when the weather allowed and keeping them occupied when it was raining. It was going to be quite sad to have to leave them, but we will no doubt see them soon. We are sure a trip out to visit when Wayne’s sister was out later in the month would be on the cards!

So as this post goes out, Wayne’s getting ready to head back to rejoin Annette and Rosie. We were both looking forward to seeing Axel and Deborah, and hear how their amazing trip went, and looking ahead to the house becoming finished and seeing Wayne’s sister arrive at the end of the month. Sadly, the house won’t be ready to live in, but she will be able to see what it’s going to be like.

If you got this far, thank you for reading and joining our story. Tune in to see how the house is coming along in the next post… (soon).