Welcome back everyone. We had enjoyed a couple of days in Nazerè looking after our friends house and pets again. It was great to spend some time with the gang again and see how their renovations were going too. We finished off the weekend meeting some new friends, having been invited to a BBQ andContinue reading “Third week of July house update”
Author Archives: CarpeDiem
House-build continues, catching up with friends too.
Another nice and short one this week. So, the second week in July proves to be a productive one on the house front, just like we had hoped. It wasn’t all about the house this week though, as we enjoyed some down time catching up with friends and meeting some new ones too. We startedContinue reading “House-build continues, catching up with friends too.”
Another quiet week in Portugal
Only a short one this week, but some interesting stuff. We spent the weekend with our new friends in Nazerè. We had one night on our own with the pets while they went off to the small village house they are selling near Castelo Branco to do some chores and meet up with some friendsContinue reading “Another quiet week in Portugal”
House build recap and progress…
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, butContinue reading “House build recap and progress…”
Our first house-sit in Spain
We were really quite excited about this trip. For a few reasons too. Firstly Annette really loves pigmy goats, and we were going to be caring for some on this sit. Secondly we had not been into Spain for years, other than to traverse it to reach the ferry at Santander. Also, because it wasContinue reading “Our first house-sit in Spain”
Progress, but windows?
Kathryn and Roman arrived home after their mammoth journey around the UK, and understandably tired, so it was an early night, but not without a celebratory vinho or two to welcome them back. They didn’t arrive empty handed either and we are grateful that we will not be short of Marmite, Yorkshire Tea, or BransonContinue reading “Progress, but windows?”
Travanca do Mondego
On to the next house sit… We made our way directly from the Nazerè sit up the country past Coimbra and turn left heading inland and up until we get to the hydroelectric dam on the River Mondego. Not for from there is the sparsely populated small village of Travanca do Mondego. As we mentionedContinue reading “Travanca do Mondego”
Staying Local
Carrying on from our last post, we said we were off on some more house sits… But let’s just go over our last week first. It was a bit disappointing to find little progress on the house, but one of the things about living in Portugal we have learned is that things happen differently thanContinue reading “Staying Local”
More delays and the budget gets squeezed even more!
So here we are back in central Portugal with our besties again. We were away at the house-sit further to the north and the weather was finally perking up and spring had definitely arrived, so we were looking forward to getting back and seeing some progress on the house. Unfortunately, and it is such aContinue reading “More delays and the budget gets squeezed even more!”
It is time to start looking for furniture!
So, with the structure of the house up and progress now increasing, we thought it was the right time to start looking for furniture. Given that it may take a few months before some of the furniture might be ready, we didn’t want to get caught short if the house was ready and we didn’tContinue reading “It is time to start looking for furniture!”
Our Portuguese Life 