It doesn’t have any bearing on the process of the purchase and build, but it is becoming more difficult to describe the property and surrounding area so I have posted a map here so you can see roughly where we are. You will have read in previous blog entries about Castelo Branco, Vale de Prazeres, Fundão all these you should be able to locate on the map.
Our property in on the outskirts on a small village called Cortiçada again you should be able to locate it on the maps.
Just a short blog entry this time, we feel it’s about time we introduced ourselves a little more, just because we will probably start appearing in a few photo’s posted on this blog. You may, if you read it have seen me in a recent post about our first visit to our property and my poorly arm and I may have mentioned my bad back.
No need to say much more I am sure you can work out who’s who.Teresa is the beautiful one and I am the other one.
Although we were not the only people in the hotel, there were not that many other guests. As we still didn’t know the area well, we didn’t know where there were any restaurants and as we were tired most nights and my back, yes I know I do keep mentioning it, but it hurt OK, we ate in the hotel.
On the Tuesday evening at the beginning we were the only people in the restaurant. I have to say at this point that the food, especially the dinners in the hotel were excellent, far better that the hotel that we had stayed in last year in Proença-a-Nova. During the meal another couple were seated at a table a little way away from us, but you know what its like your attention is drawn to them.
Whilst not listening, it is difficult not to hear sometimes especially as they seemed to be speaking English, I think I remember hearing Burger and that was about it. Remember there wasn’t anyone else in the restaurant so it was otherwise very quiet.
As mentioned in the previous blog Maria and Paulo had mentioned whilst we were in the office on the Wednesday that Jules and Andy were staying at the same hotel as us, could this be them?
On the Thursday morning at breakfast the same couple entered the restaurant smiled and said “Good Morning” they were so obviously English, so they must be the couple that Maria and Paulo had been talking about.
So not being shy, “I asked are you Jules and Andy?” “Yes, you must be Ian & Teresa” they replied. We chatted for ages, they told us how they had been looking for somewhere in Portugal for years and had gone over many different ideas of what they wanted to do, but at last they felt they had found an area they loved and has seen some really interesting properties, one of which they were really interested in.
We seem to hit it off straight away, I guess because we were doing something very similar at the same sort of time. It was lovely, as we were a few stages in front of them e.g. by now we had brought and they were just going to buy, we could offer up a lot of information for them, which I like to think would have helped them through the process. All the sort of information you can now find on this blog. Yes it was these conversations that made us realize that it wasn’t just us that were searching for help and advice. Whether people take it or not is not important, it’s just that you can see and hear and make your own decisions.
It also had the side effect of giving us some comfort that we were doing the right thing. We met Jules and Andy several more times during the remainder of our stay, we swapped contact details for when we were back in the UK. They are lovely people and hopefully we would become good Portuguese friends.
Alongside the work, we were trying to track down Maria and Paulo to find out what was happing about meeting up with an architect. It took us several attempts and a while to contact them and I think they didn’t quite understand that we were in town so to speak. Once we had managed to clear this up, Paulo got organizing and arrangements were made for us to meet an architect in Remax’s office in Castelo Branco on the Wednesday.
This was ideal, as we also needed at some point to get to the Correios (Post Office), to settle the Motorway tolls, for the journey down last Friday. I had learnt from my visit in January that it took a couple of days to get into the system, so we kill two birds with one stone as they say.
On the Wednesday we headed into Castelo Branco. We visited the Correios to do the Motorway thing and then went to the Remax office. After a short wait we sat with Maria and Paulo and discussed the last few months and what would happen going forward, they were lovely still so helpful and willing to work with us on the project. Don’t under estimate the value of this sort of help it does make the whole process much easier.
Whilst we were waiting for the architect to arrive, Maria and Paulo where telling us that they were off to meet another English couple Jules and Andy who were looking for a property in the area and strangely they were staying in the same hotel as us.
A little later we were introduced to two guys, the first was names Pedro and was an architect and the second was called Marco who was a builder who worked very closely with Pedro. We sat around the table for an hour or so, outlining our thoughts. We think they understood, but wasn’t sure. At the end of the hour, we all decided that the best thing was for us all to meet up at the plot so Pedro and Marco could see for themselves.
As our cars were parked in different locations around Castelo Branco we agreed to make our own way, but would meet at the old washing well, just over the level crossing in Vale de Prazeres which was the next village over to where the property was.
Teresa and I got slightly lost on the way back, but it didn’t delay us too long and after about a 40 minute journey we were at the meeting point. There was no Pedro or Marco, so we waited and we waited and we waited, after about 40 more minutes I decided to try calling them. Once again the mis trusting nature of us Brits came into play, had they decided this was not for them and just gone home? we asked ourselves.
Eventually I got them on the phone, it turned out they were at the opposite end of the village waiting for us, I guess thinking the same thing, were these Brits just time wasters. I think this was especially enhanced as for some strange reason I had told them the prefix for the UK was 001 not 0044, don’t know why, but of course when they tried calling me on the mobile phone I didn’t answer, but some strange American fellow, saying Ian & Teresa, no there’s nobody here by that name.
So another little episode over we made our way to the plot and showed them the plot and where we wanted to build the house.
Meeting over Pedro said he would go away and put together a package for us and would phone again in a couple of days for us to meet and further discuss moving forward.
There is a stream that runs down the side of the lower terraces and crosses the property between the lower and upper terraces. When we had seen the property the previous year and in fact when I visited in January the stream was free running and clear of weeds. Now although the water was flowing, it was deep in a celery type weed, which was anything up to 3 feet high.
We had found some old scythes in the hut, plus we had brought some secateurs with us so the challenge was on.
It was hard work, even Teresa found it hard, but it was extremely satisfying when you looked back. I found it really hard, my back was really painful, (have I mentioned this) and the up and down didn’t help, but I was determined.
It took us three days in total over the course of the week to clear the entire length of the stream, every night back to the hotel, I would have to sink down in a bath of hot water to try any relax my back, each day it got a little better, but I really wished I had been more careful on day 1, oh! well lesson learnt.
Teresa was a brick, very supportive and worked really hard clearing the majority of the weeds, I did my bit, as you can see, but I think Teresa did the most of the work. Each night we laughed about coming on holiday and working harder than we do at home. It was a different sort of work, really manual and tiring, but so very satisfying.
We were up early the next morning. Saturday 1st April. Down for breakfast as early as we could. I think we must have been first down, or was this hotel as busy as the one I had used in January, hum! No more people appeared, the food was usual stuff for a hotel breakfast and the waitress was very good.
Excited, who us? You bet, Teresa was almost bouncing up and down, I have never seen her eat so fast, the sun was shining, “Come on you ready” she enquired, “Ok lets go” I said as I threw the last mouthfuls of coffee down my throat. Whooossh ! We were out of the breakfast room, through our room, picking up anything we thought we needed and in the car.
We took the local roads over the mountain, well the Portuguese called then mountains; they are more like big hills really. It was very pretty; the views on both sides were lovely. We tried to work out where we were as we went but it was difficult, but it wasn’t difficult to find our way and 20 minutes later we where turning into the little lane in the local village to get to the property.
I had remembered that as we passed the house at the entrance there was a water gulley with a grid, which was very loose and parts missing so we had to be very careful when driving over it. We made it and soon turned on to the drive of “our land”
Leaping out of the car we both set off to survey our land, we set off across the top terrace; this is where we intended to build our house. We weaved our way between the vines, inspecting the old cherry trees and the many fig and olive trees. It wasn’t long before I was making my way to the very badly dug out steps in the bank to get down to the next terrace.
1
st Mistake – Don’t be too hasty! I lost my footing, slipping on to my bum, with a tremendous bang and slide down the rest of the bank. I was in agony! Teresa didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but soon realised that laughter was not the right thing. I couldn’t move for a while, what the hell have I done? We had only been here less than half an hour and is this the end of anything for this trip
It must have taken about 5 more minutes before I could get up, but get up I did, my back was killing me, blood was pouring from my arm. What a start.
We spent the next hour or so, just walking around, sampling the fruit, there is so much if it. The oranges were so juicy.
The ground itself was like a meadow, some several inches deep in flowering weeds, which actually looked very pretty. Really it needed de-weeding, but how can you de-weed nearly 2 acres with no tools? Not going to happen was it.
My back was killing me, as was my arm, the bleeding had stopped but it was very sore, but I am not going to be beaten, pain killers to the rescue, well I hope. Lets try for a cup of tea for now, we have some water, how to heat it. We found a couple of old pots that the previous owner had left laying about, we had bottled water, we had loads of wood and matches, lets try a small bonfire and heat the water.
To be honest we were not sure if we could have any sort of fire, there are some very stringent laws in Portugal about having fires, but we were sure a small well controlled fire would it fine. It was we managed to boil the water, but in the process loads of bits of ash and twig made its way into the pot. The tea was made but not drinkable.
Oh! Well time to try and do some work.
At last its the 30th March and time for the off. We had booked the same time flights and car reservations that I had taken when I flew out in January to make the purchase, so I was very confident in the timings and picking up the car this time. Just the exact location of the hotel might be an issue.
Of course the big difference was Teresa was with me this time. Everything went well, we picked up sandwiches and water in the airport for the journey from Lisbon Airport to the hotel, I had found that worked really well last time. We did of course have to get the traditional coffee. Hello, coffee’s back !
The flight was good we arrived on time, I knew this time where to go for the car hire, so no hanging about, straight to the desk and register. We did ask again about the motorway tolls, but got the same blank expressions that I had seen in January. Its amazing you know, the Portuguese are lovely people and speak very good English until you ask something a bit tricky, that they can’t answer and then all of a sudden they don’t speak very good English! Um do us Brits do that?
We were soon on the road and making our way up the A1 across on the A23 , clocking up the toll fees and approaching Fundão keeping our eyes peeled for the hotel. “There it is”, Teresa shouted as we came out of the tunnel. Well that was easy. About 10:30 we where settled in our room.
The room was nice, nothing special, but more than adequate. We settled for the night.
The time between January and Easter seemed endless. We started to look at what equipment we might need, but knowing we wouldn’t be able to get it there until the summer, when we took the car. This did help to temper the excitement, but still time seemed to drag.
We purchased a petrol brush cutter with a strimmer head as we knew we needed some mechanical help to keep the ground clear and as we had no power yet it had to be petrol driven. We also brought a generator big enough to power a dirty water pump and we also brought 100 metres of 1” flat hose. This should help us to pump the water up from the well to at least water the trees when we were there.
There were several emails between us and Paulo and Maria as they tracked down an architect they thought would be suitable. The architect they found was based in Fundão, which was about 20min to the north and was the council base for the area our property was located in. They felt sure that using a local architect would help with the process as they would be close to the local rules and regulations and probably well known with the council.
Everything was set up we just had to let them know when we were in Portugal and they would arrange an introductory meeting.
We had made the decision to fly down for the Easter break, so knowing easyJet’s policy of the earlier you book the cheaper the flights I was very quickly on the web site looking for a deal. I also used the same site to book a car for the week, Car Parking in the UK again with BCP or Airparks as they are now known.
Finding somewhere to stay was a challenge, I really didn’t want to stay at the hotel I used earlier that month; it was fine, but just too far really to commute daily to the plot. After an exhaustive search I found the Hotel Príncipe da Beira and from what I could tell it was right by the motorway, not sure if that might be a noise problem, but it is only for a week, but it looked like only 20 minutes at the most to the plot, as far as I could tell from google map that was. The booking was made.
We also started to look at August, whilst we didn’t want to book any hotel, as we didn’t know if the Hotel Príncipe da Beira was any good, if not we could have look around whilst there at Easter to see if there was anything else. We did know that we wanted to use the ferry from Newhaven again; so almost at the same time as arranging and booking the Easter trip we booked the ferry crossings for August. It felt good to have two trips already in the bag!
We both started to put a lot more thought about what sort of house we wanted. We separately put down our thoughts on paper, including little sketches of what we were thinking. I guess we must have discussed some of our ideas as when we did compare, generally we had all the same ideas.
I had emailed Paulo and Maria and they had advised us to do the same, best get at least some ideas together to give an architect an idea of want we were looking for. They would find us an architect and as they now had an idea of when we were coming they would try to set up a meeting for the spring holiday.
Here are our thoughts at this time:
