Peter's Blog

Iberianspices spicesiberia

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Now the loft is being insulated to make a master bedroom

While I wait for materials for jobs I am in the middle of I carry on with other works. I have started on the master bedroom in in what is my loft. I have started to insulate the roof joists and I have started to plasterboard over the insulation. I have laid in the pipe work for the electrics ready for the lighting.

From the picture you can see the insulated board behind the plasterboard. At the top of the plasterboard I was lowering the centre of the ceiling as the picture shows a piece of insulation in place as a guide. Now I am putting more plasterboard up to the level of the blue plasterboard to have the ceiling that bit higher. The reason to change the ceiling height is so I can install the lighting I want. By the time I am finished I will have all my lighting on LED lights but also being run from solar energy, but that's another story.




A trip to fix an injured knee

The last time I was in Liverpool I had injured my knee and had to see a doctor. I was told I had damaged a ligament on the inside of my knee and I was prescribed some cream to rub into the damaged area. I did this as prescribed but nothing happened I didn't feel any better. Over time I noticed that I was getting worse not better so it was a trip to my doctor here in Portugal. I took the cream with me and shown it to my doctor who just shook her head after looking at the tube of cream. 

After looking at my knee the doctor decided that I should go to the hospital to have my knee examined before she gave me a prescription. Today I went to the hospital to have my knee examined. The hospital is a Universtity teaching hospital and not having been to this part I left early so as to get there in plenty of time. 

After giving in the letter from my doctor I waited my turn to go in to be examined but I was soon called to go to the examination room. The room was only lite by the light behind the box that exhausted are put on to be viewed and from the monitor and instruments. An assistant told me to lower my jeans so the doctor could examine my knee.

This was the first time I have had a scan was similar to how doctors scan to check the development of babies before they are born. The doctor who examined me had me in all kinds of positions so she could scan every part of my knee. After the examination the doctor said I had big damage to my ligament but reassured me that my own doctor would give me the right medicine to fix my knee. I have to go back next Monday afternoon for the results of my scan, I didn't want to wait for the results to arrive by mail. 

I forgot to mention at the start that I had to pay for my examination but I had no reason to worry as the cost was only 1.80€ now that was a bargain. More to come after I go back to see my doctor next week.

Monday 19 October 2015

Timber frame houses

I have a friend who owns a huge Timber frame company in Spain. I had occasion to call him today for some advice for a friend who is looking to move to my area and build a modist Timber frame house. There certainly seems to have been many advances in Timber frame house since Chris and I last met. The land is available and the price has been agreed it's now down to the finances to be in place and I will in the near future have another friend living close by.

As soon as I get some pictures of the proposed house and links I will let everybody know Worldwide.

Wednesday 14 October 2015

The Chill Out

Monday night My lady and I went for a meal at a restaurant in Gois called the Chill Out. The Chilli Out had been club but now with a English part owner it's become a Restaurant.

A short time ago they had a curry night and it was amazing so i wanted to let My lady taste curry here in the centre of Portugal. I booked a table and asked if they could do a curry, when asked what type i would like to have i said i would leave it up to them to surprise use. Well we had beef curry, chicken curry, prawn curry plus lots of side dishes including mango chutney that was amazing.

The English part owner was a manager of a Michelin starred restaurant and comes to Gois with a wealth of experience. If you come to Gois or live close enough to called then i am sure you will have a great night.

Monday 12 October 2015

It's been raining a we needed it

The last week has seen various amounts of rain from showers to almost torrents only seen in the tropics here in my place in the sun. At one point Gois was one of 26 places at most danger of forest fire but thankfully it didn't happen.  So when rain comes it is greeted because it helps keep use all safe in our homes here in country surrounded by forests.

I am keeping busy in my house working hard I have finished my window from in Chestnut, the 2 bedroom doorways have been started and look well in Chestnut and now I only have the architrave to get cut by Chicco and that's the doors done.

A lenght of timber in the loft that supports the roof has now been finish. It is Chestnut and will be at the top of the stairs and for where a hand rail will go in front of the shower. Why I flip from job to job is because I have timber available to get started and because I have the time to set up other jobs that I can go back to. I will take some pictures later.

Monday 5 October 2015

A number of jobs getting done

As the pictures below show i have been busy in the lounge. The window frame on one wall has been encased is Chestnut and certainly looks so much better than it was before. The next step will be to get the window frame replaced in Chestnut and double glazed.
























The wall at the side by the stairs i couldn't decide what i wanted to do until i saw a floor in a dark wood that had been polished by someone who was renovating a house. I could picture the wall done in planks of Chestnut and i went to see my timber guy Cicco. I wanted planks of various sizes and Cicco did even better. When i called to see him he had laid out the planks so i could see how hey looked. I was pleasantly surprised with the result and i could imagine them all together against the ugly wall at the side of the stairs. Cicco went even better he glued up all the planks to make one complete panel and the picture below shows how it will look. Now i need to varnish it before i fit it into place.
























One other job i have been doing is to fit a new window in the bathroom. While getting ready to fit the window frame i found part of the sill was loose and had to be repaired before i could fit the new window in place. It seems that nothing at the moment is straight forward and i had to make a whole new window sill.