We had the very best of intentions. The plan was to film a post remodel house tour before the never-ending unpacking began. Andrew, myself, and the pets arrived after 9:00 pm on Wednesday August 28th and by 8:00 am Thursday August 29th our property started arriving. I am not a morning person on the best of days so an impromptu video shoot was out of the question.

Fun with friends took priority as we attended Randy and Corinne’s 50th wedding anniversary in Coimbra on 8/31. We spent a lovely afternoon in Porto on 9/1 with Chris and Kattie Willis who have been documenting their amazing travels all over the world in vlog form for 7 years. I call them our perma-traveling friends, we worked with Chris in our old lives before Portugal. Next, guests started arriving; first was Karen for 3 days on 9/10 and then Deborah for 5 days on 10/3. We hosted Randy and Corinne for Thanksgiving, so we felt the need to get this video done before our next round of guest arrivals and holiday celebrations kick off this month. Time has been flying faster than ever before. I think that is how you know you are having a great time.

We knew a house renovation would be a package deal if we were going to purchase the house in Urgezes. There were some things that absolutely had to be done in order to make it livable year round. We want our home to be aesthetically pleasing, but function is the most important thing. Our initial contract included replacement of all exterior doors and windows, new screen doors, addition of a bathtub, exterior cladding, and interior drywall and painting. We also needed a heat source and a pellet stove seemed like an easy solution.

We met with our contractor on July 1st at the house to chose paint colors. As we moved from room to room we decided to paint the house exterior, update all the floors, knock out two walls, and modernize the hot water heater. We also wanted bathroom mirrors with lighting and new light fixtures in the dining and sitting rooms, so we made a return trip to Guimarães on 7/6 to shop for those items. After returning to Olhão, we communicated primarily through a WhatsApp group that included Andrew and myself, the contractor, and the office manager.

As renovation work continued there were more modifications. Andrew wanted the garage door painted and suggested white paint for the lower and middle terrace railings (initially I didn’t see his vision, but kudos to him, it looks great). There were utilitarian changes like updating kitchen rewiring, updating electrical boxes, and having the window in the tiny cinema room removed, which has made a huge difference for movie and TV watching. Our contractor made some choices for us: interior doors, tiling on the lower terrace, and the pellet stove. We were happy to not have to micromanage every last detail.

Since the first video, we changed the master bedroom to the one closest to the bathroom, not because we are old (we are), but because the view of Penha Mountain and the church is spectacular, especially at night. The second bedroom is a staging/unpacking/room of chaos/cat playroom for now, but eventually it will house a wardrobe, a Murphy bed, some of our books, and a small desk where we can write this blog. The massive bathtub ended up in the larger lower bathroom and I absolutely adore it. Oh my goodness having two bathrooms again is life changing. The garage is a work in progress. It stores all of our stuff and tons of extra house supplies like flooring, roofing, and copious amounts of cleaning products – all left behind by the previous owner. We couldn’t bring ourselves to cut down the grapes, they offer a beautiful shaded space to drink coffee and enjoy sunny mornings and afternoons. If we can keep Zoe from eating them, maybe they can stay.

There are still plenty things to be done: installation of screen doors and hand railings rank high on the list. There are purchases to make, we need just the right dining room table that fits the space and will accommodate hours of board gaming. Eventually we would like to find a large table for leisurely alfresco dinners. There are long lists of DIY projects we would like to finish, but the goal is to balance settling in, unpacking, and ”work” with venturing out and leisure time.

If you missed it HERE is the post about our house before renovations.