Casa Neroli

Well here we are at the end of the year. Today is the first day of 2016 and we are enjoying a peaceful first day of the new year in Casa Neroli. It is somewhat wet and very misty outside but we are enjoying some relaxing time. Come on it is mid winter!

December has been the month of the garden, the main focus has been getting irrigation system installed around the house and grassing the area around and by the pool. The guys have done a great job, but if course with the new soil and the current rain, we can start to see the areas that will need further attention later.

As explained in November’s update we have split the work between two people, just because of the differing types of areas. The gardening type company have completed their work, and seem to have done a good job, but of course everything is new and needs to settle and bed in, so whilst we don’t want it, we have to expect some settling in type issues that will need to be sorted.

The agricultural guy didn’t start in December, although he did promise to start by the time we arrived on the 30^th. Walking around yesterday we can see signs of something being started, so that could be him, but we can’t be sure. It is in an area that we didn’t particularly want anything done, but he kept saying to Paulo that he was going to do the area anyway, so we suspect it may have been him.

The photos this month show the change as progress was made over the month.

1^st December – The irrigation for the grass areas is installed

2^nd December – The soil arrives for the grass areas.

17^th December – The main areas are done and the grass has already started growing.

23^rd December – The bushes have been planted along the fence and the grass is getting longer, need to get a mower soon, I am a thinking.

November has been a very quiet month in terms of actual work being completed. Not surprising really as the main build is complete and we are now into getting the garden and farm organised. Our plan is to make both as self maintaining as possible, at least to a point when the work needed becomes manageable during the time we are in residence. In residence, doesn’t that sound good!!

Our focus this month has been negotiating via our Project Manager with various people to sort the main outside areas. At the end of last month, we met with a couple of different people to get some comparison ideas and pricing. It was a fascinating experience because we had two very different areas to deal with.

The area around the house which was very much garden orientated and we needed to consider the flat areas around the house and pool, whilst also considering the banking where we needed to have something to help retain the soil in place. Living in a climate like Portugal, you have to think about, that in the summer it is very dry so the ground hardens and when the rains do come the water tends to run rather than soak in, and water tends to run downhill, don’t you know, and any banks become fair game to erratic water erosion.

Then there is the farm side, which again has two areas, one we don’t intend to do anything with, we will let the natural cycle of growth and decay manage the land as there are just a few really well established olive trees to worry about. Then there’s the main area which whilst it still has quite a few olives trees also has all the fruit trees and grape vines, so we need to have them fed and watered a lot better than they currently are.

We ended up with awarding the work to two different companies because it was clear that they tended to specialise either agricultural or domestic (garden) and as we had both, to get the best we needed to split the work, each company providing a suitable irrigation system for each area.

Watch out for Decembers update to see what happens; as both companies are due to do their bit in December.

Well as you know if you have been following our blog that I held up September’s entry to make the most of the Swimming Pool construction. Well to say we were impressed with the company that did the pool would be an understatement. True to their promise the pool was finished when we arrived on the 21^st October and they had started to fill it with water.

They had put an additional hose as well as the pool fill tap but it still took about 3 days to fill the pool, we did try dipping out toes, but it is October and the water was coming up from 100 metres down so it was numbingly cold, far too cold to get completely in.

The other things we noted that is two taps filling is just too much for one borehole and maintain a reasonable amount of water pressure to the house, fine when we are not about but not so good when we are. However just turning off the additional hose feed works well, the pool was still filling fine and we had good water pressure to the house. That’s all right and fine when you think about it, as you will only have to fill the pool every couple of years, or so we are told.

The guy that did the construction came to see us after the pool had filled to show us how all the machinery works. Hope we can remember it all!

We had a fabulous week at the house, which culminated the day before we had to go back to the UK with all the new furniture being delivered. Once again we had entrusted our needs to the wonderful Fillip at Casa Moveis Santareno, if you need his details, please just email me. He is based in Fundao but I know they have a showroom in Castelo Branco and I suspect elsewhere as well. I would most certainly recommend him. We just told him what we wanted, size, shape etc and left it with him and as you can see he really came up trumps.

All the way through this project we have where we can supported the local industry and shops rather than the big chains, not always possible, when we could we do. Casa Movies Santareno’s pricing is spot on, they are about the same price as the bigger chain stores, maybe just a little more expensive, but everything is made bespoke and fits so the quality is far superior to the chain stores. So don’t ever be frightened to go into that little store, that opens up as you go in and discuss you needs, it works.

The next job is the garden and the watering systems for the garden and of course the fruit trees, we have had quotes for both from two different people. As they were two very different types of companies, one far more a gardening type the other more agricultural we have decided to split the job. So the bit around the house, where we need clover/grass and flowers as well as a watering system, is going to the gardening man. The gate, track and bridgework along with the watering system for the fruit trees is going to the agricultural guy. Paulo, our project manager is starting to make contact with them so we can hopefully get it done and established before the dry weather returns in 2016.

The final job before we left for home was to make sure the swimming pool was all covered up and sorted for the winter.

Again I have to start with an apology for being late with getting the update to the blog done this month, it’s just time. I am always just waiting for that extra little thing to happen before I do the update.

There has been a little progress with the work that the builder of the house has to do, but only very little, but at least it’s something.

Unfortunately it’s the smaller, easier things that are getting looked at, for example the painting of the entrance, the bigger items; in fairness they are not huge, just annoying are not getting the attention we would like.

However there has been a lot of progress on the swimming pool front. As mentioned in my last blog we had awarded the contract to put the pool in and true to his word the company have been making excellent progress over the past few weeks, dispite the fact that the weather turned wet for a few days, good for the ground but not so good when trying to put in a pool.

We took a picture just before we left at the end of August of the area where the pool was to be constructed and posted it on facebook, saying the next time we see this there should be a swimming pool there. At the time I think we were just hopeful but it seems that it’s going to be very close. Here is the photo I am referring to.

The first stage was to mark out the area where the pool was to go.

Next was the digging out, now this we thought might cause a few issues as the ground around the area does have a number of very large rocks, which would have hindered the digging and possible necessitate the hire of larger earth moving equipment. We had allowed a bit extra in the budget should this be the case, we had been advised that if required it was usually about €30 a hour and the maximum should be about 10 hours over 2 days hopefully. As it turned out it was not required. This was excellent news.

Here are a few photos just after the digging out, you can see the weather had changed and the ground was very wet. It all looks very messy and dirty at this point. However the sun soon returned and the ground dried and construction was able to continue.

Here we are a week later and you can see the basic shape and layout, although it looks smaller in these pictures that we thought, however it is just the deceptive camera angles and it is 9 x 4 meters, in later pictures you can see the difference.

By this week, yes I know it’s really October but as the photos have just come in and the construction has moved on so much, I have included them in the blog for September, I think you can really start to get an impression of what it is going to look like when finished.

We are still negotiating on the landscaping contract, we finally got the second of the budgets this week, but there is a very big differences between the values so there is no way they can be like for like in terms of the content, so a little more work to do there before we can get the work done.

Watch out for Octobers update, more positive news on the swimming pool we hope, and news maybe on the landscaping and of course we will have had another visit to site.

Well August has been a very varied month. We are still having issues with Marco the builder in getting all the work finished. Whilst we have a complete house, we still have a number of snagging issues that we need resolved and getting Marco to do the work is to say the least a challenge, even Paulo the architect and project manager has been getting annoyed with him not returning calls and not getting the work completed.

During the first two weeks of the month we got nothing done, however as we were going to the house in the middle of the month, Marco did do a few, and only a few of the items on the list.

We drove down again this trip, using the Newhaven / Dieppe route, however the ferry company are now running 3 crossings a day with one at 9:00am so we decided to try this. This worked well it meant we arrived in France at around 2:00pm French time (1 Hour in front of the UK and Portugal) and drove to Poitiers, arriving at around 6:00pm, so out for dinner and get our heads down before completing the journey on day 2. The second day was a long day, setting out at around 5:00am but we did arrive at around 5:00pm. This gave us chance to inspect the newly, nearly complete Kitchen and put everything away in cupboards before bed.

Most days I got up about 7:00am and started doing the “farming” type jobs that needed doing, e.g. clearing all the tree prunings and strimming the land. Teresa would join me each day around 8:30 and help with all the tasks, except the strimming of course, but including the watering of the fruit trees as well as pruning the unwanted growth from the base of the trees.

We never worked any later than noon, in fact most days we would stop around 10:30am for about an hour for breakfast and some days it was just too hot so we would pack up around 10:30 anyway. That still gave us the bulk of the day to either go sight seeing or go shopping for stuff for the house and we did plenty of that.

By the end of the first week we have managed to get the Internet connected, although we have had to do it over the mobile network, as we don’t have any fixed lines to our area. We went with NOS in the end, as they seemed to have the best deal for us. We agreed to a 2-year contract, had to pay €20 up front for the box and then €25 a month. For that we got a Unlimited 20MByte down and 5MByte up 4G service. In reality the service is still very new and a little flaky. In the early mornings we could get these speeds but during the day that would drop to 3MByte down and 2 up. In fact in evenings it wasn’t unusual for the service to go off for periods of 30-40 minutes. I am sure over time this will improve.

The service was enough for us to get email every day, Skype Teresa’s Mum in the UK and her best friend in Turkey so not bad.

Other things accomplished this trip were:

• Smart Television, actually worked over the Internet via the NOS 4G when it was available.
• Blue Ray DVD so we can watch DVD’s if we want.
• HDMI cable to connect to the laptop. More viewing options.
• Kitchen equipment, e.g. saucepans etc.
• Requested prices from our friends at the Bed store for a Dining Table, 8 Chairs, 2 Sideboards and a shoe rack. Um wonder how much that lot will come to.
• Two visits by 2 separate garden/agriculture type companies. To give prices for the irrigations systems and for plantings of various items as well.
• Two visits from swimming pool installers, which have ended up with us committing to having a 9 Metre x 4 Metre, salt treated pool with equipment and cover installed. Hopefully this will be done before the year-end.
• I managed to rectify the water pressure problem in the second bathroom. Clever me!!!!
• Purchased and installed lights in the outside corner area as well as in the garage and outside the front door. Still have the 10 to do around the outside of the house.
• Fitted new lock to the garage and moved all our stuff from the old hut into the garage, so we can now sort about getting the old hut demolished
• Moved all the logs from the pruning on the lower levels, by wheelbarrow to the garage. I think this must have been about 50 wheelbarrow loads and I can tell you in the heat and up the hill, it was a killer.
• All I am happy to let you have details of costs etc. if you want just email at ian@casaneroli.com

So all this and we had some time out as well, it was a very constructive trip.

During the second week we had several visits from Paulo, both just as a general meeting and as visits with the Landscaping and swimming pool people. Once again, he has proved his worth, it is so important to have someone you can trust to do these sorts of things.

Relaxing in the evening

During various emails and discussions we have jointly with Paulo decided that we will start to get other companies to do the new work for a while until Marco comes good again. Thus the Landscaping and Swimming Pool comments above.

P.S. The kitchen is amazing!! Just need the chimney around the extractor over the hob finished.

Lastly when we moved into the old hut, we brought a picture to brighten up the inside. It has become a significant object of affection and was still in good order that it could join us in the house, part of our journey and it looks great on the wall.