Today is such an exciting day, the house will finally look somewhere near finished (though still work to do on the stone work around the windows)
When we bought the old Manor House, it had suffered over 40 years of neglect (as you can see from the photo) we wanted to return it to its former glory and the locals told us originally it had been white and yellow.
There was so much work to do to the outside before we could even begin to think about painting it.
There were no windows downstairs, just rotten shutters that had had bad repairs completed on them, the main doors had been replaced by badly fitted wooden doors and the upstairs had been replaced with aluminium windows.
Getting the new windows had been a nightmare, but we finally got as close as we could to what it would’ve looked like originally.
The other big problem we had was the amazing sandstone window frames, because of water damage over the many years, some of the stone had washed away. Luckily John was able to make a template and rebuilt the cornice with cement and lime. (we still have to paint those in a stone colour) This will kill John, but we have no choice, the original stone has been damaged too much to ever bring back to life.
Once the walls had been scraped, cleaned and filled it was ready to paint. This was a fun job as the building is about the height of an average 3 story building and all we had was extra long ladders. this meant John on the very top with me holding the bottom in place. Our lovely neighbours came out and put the red triangles on the roads to warn the drivers (luckily we don’t have fast cars here).
however even John could not get to the very top, to paint the yellow so we hired a cherry picker for the day, I have to say I felt so much safer with this and the fact that it had been arranged by a local builder who helped us for the day.
The village have all enjoyed watching the front of the house progress and now we are no longer the scruffs on the block!
If you are planning to do a renovation in Portugal and need a place to stay, take a look at this website for great accommodation, commission free and book direct with the owner
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Looks great! xx
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Thank you 🙂 xx
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Wow! Jenny You must be so proud !!
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Thank you, I am so happy with this house 🙂
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It looks magnificent – well done both of you for your work. Can’t wait to see more of the inside.
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Thank you, the inside is coming soon
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You must be so proud. Bringing an old building to live is like giving a loving home to a rescue dog or cat. In the the reward is just priceless.
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What a lovely way of wording it, we also have some rescue cats as well, they adopted us 🙂
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It’s looking marvelous Jenny and John, what a great job you’re doing.
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Thank you so much 🙂
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absolutely fantastic work, you both should be very very proud of yourselves, have so enjoyed reading your blog. Good Luck in your future business, but how about a good holiday first, you deserve it.
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Thank you, a holiday sounds like a fantastic idea 😉
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Wow, that is absolutely gorgeous–if you are selling I sure hope you make some money–is it the prettiest house in the area now? You guys are amazing.
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Thank you, we are not selling, we are hoping to open next year with a holiday apartment. the neighbours all love it as well, though they keep pointing out that John did not paint the very top of the chimney!
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looks amazing
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Thank you 🙂
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Stunning Jenny Absolutely stunning
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Thank you so much
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Hi! I’m Pedro, i spoke to you yesterday 🙂 Here’s my blog with a few photos of Fungalvaz. Cheers 🙂 http://www.olhares.com/NunoFreire (Nuno Freire is my middle name)
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Hi Pedro, It was great to meet you and your photos are amazing 🙂
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Jenny, I had followed your renovations for the past several months, I am so happy for you guys,for the final transformation is finally done. I love the way it turned out, things always take time money and certainly patience. Are you breathing yet?? lol…enjoy some good tea or glass of wine and relax a bit! Great job.
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Thank you, we are not finished yet, but not far away. Luckily we have a lovely little village bar across the road, that serves a nice glass of chilled wine 🙂
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Just amazing! Congratulations! You must either have been very fit or are now very fit after so much work! Beautiful!
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Thank you and yes our fitness levels are quite good (give or take the glass of wine at the end of the day 😉 )
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Wow…what a transformation…..and what dedication risking life and limb up that ladder! We are in the early stages of our own restoration…so this is a real inspiration…..may you spend many happy years there.
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Thank you, the ladder is terrifying especially as I have to keep the bottom of it steady. Good luck with your restoration
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