Units now in place and just the painting bits to finsh

After getting all my bits i had been waiting to get i made a good start today. First was the painting, i had mixed just the shade i had wanted and i was starting getting as much done as early as i could. I wanted to do two coats as it was so hot the paint would soon dry. Unfortunately it took longer than i had first thought it would. I got all the walls done but as it took longer i got help to carry the units though with me. So as not to waste paint i marked the walls where the units would go so that i only painted the parts that were on show.

The walls during preparation had two coats of white paint and a further two coats of a pale yellow. So four coats of paint on parts that would never again see the light of day is enough for me. I had taken the door out so i could carry on with the painting as with the door out of the way i could get on better.

Once the units were in place the gap at the end looked a little small so i tried to fit the door. I was glad to find that the door fit with a tiny fraction of an inch to spare.

Tomorrow i will get started early and paint the whole room again and then that should be it as regards painting. One mistake i made while using the roller was that i hit the ceiling a couple of times. Instead of trying to was it of i left it to dry and in the morning i will finish of and then it's down to fitting out the room. 

I put these units here while i had someone here to help lift them. This is where the units will stay when fitted and the sink will be right in front of the window.

Hows that for a good fit, the door goes back against the wall.

Oh what a good day and ended with a curry

Little has happened for the last week until today. I managed to get to Coimbra and to Leyroy Merlin a B&Q type shop for those in the UK reading this Blog.

I went to Leyroy Merlin to get a sink for my kitchen, as he sink was on offer i was also able to get all the plumbing bits i needed. As you can see from the picture the sink is not one that you would but in the UK. I have not seen anything like this before so i was glad to have been able to get something that looked so good.

Whilst there i was able to get the yellow colour pigment to add to my paint so i could mix the shade that i wanted. The first thing i did when i got home was to mix the paint and as hoped it came out just as i wanted. I will spend tomorrow inside painting my kitchen but with two good coats so i get the best look i can get.

To finish of what was a good day i wanted to make a curry as i had god some Turkey breast from the supermarket. Curry was all prepared when i found that i had no onions and didn't really want to go out for them. While i was watering my fruit trees and chilli and peppers etc i found some onions that i had planted soem time ago and had forgotten about.  My chickens had escaped one day and found there way to where the onions were growing. In a short time they had eaten almost all of the onions i had planted but i was glad to find that a few had remained. 

Now this is what i call a sink and when the kitchen is finished it will look amazing.

This picture really doesn't show the colour but it is how i wanted it. I did a test on a part of the wall that will have the kitchen units fitted and it does look good. 

Not bad for what was uneaten by the chickens. They really did come in handy when needed. Next year i will make sure i plant plenty because these few where good.

The years meeting and meal

It's that time of year again when a meeting is called by the Association here in Vale boa. The head of the meeting is a couple who organize what needs doing and as the lady is a lawyer in Lisbon it helps. The main topic for the coming year is to protect our water. Vale Boa has more water than we need and what we have is needed by those who live here, the animals " Chicken, Goats etc " and the land. I couldn't quite understand what is to be done to protect the water but the association will i am sure do a good job on our behalf.

After the meeting we had a meal, the meal started with bread, cheese and salad. Then out came the Rice and beans. This is made with bacon, sausage and beans cooked in a large pan and herbs and spices. Then rice and water are added and it's all left to simmer until done. This was followed by what we call " Road Kill " this is a term we use for the way they cut chicken into small pieces for cooking. It probably comes from the fact that the chicken cooks much quicker when in small pieces than if left as Breast and Thighs/ drumsticks. Then we had the lightest sponge cake to finish of with. During the meal we had a very nice red wine and after trying some local wines this has been the best i have tried

The term Road Kill came about because chicken is cut through the breast and squashed flat so it can be grilled. To see this chicken in a supermarket plastic tray flattened does not look very appetising but who am i to tell the Portuguese that the chicken doesn't look very appetising.

Just some of the locals and those who only come here during there August holidays but own a property here.

84 and 89  and they still work on the land daily. Puts me to shame when i can only manage a few hours a day.

Keiths cat taken prisoner by Donnellise ok i maybe can't spell but she won't see this.

Shiraz or Syrah what's in a name

I planted some grapevines a while ago and after taking photos of what's growing well i decided to take some more of the grapes. Because i have nothing better to do.

They may only have a few grapes on but that's not important, what is important is that i had a long time ago asked on a Forum where to get good grapes for growing for wine. I wanted to get something a little more interesting than the usual grapes grown locally.

I found that in a local garden centre/ builders merchant a large bucket of grapevines tied into bunches. After going through them i found that one was called Syrah. Being an ex licensee i knew this to be Shiraz, this grape is known by two names so i got three to try. The pictures below show how they are doing.

Only a few grapes but they are doing well.

A few more grapes on this vine but again doing well.

This one is more interesting as it's a Shiraz and it has no grapes but this the one i want to grow up my veranda.
Also you can see some of the wood i have to cut down for my log burner to keep me nice and warm during the winter. The bigger leaves are a  Aubergine plant that now has flowers growing so i should be able to look forward to some Aubergines.

Everything is growing very well

It's been very hot for so long now and all my crops are growing well. When you consider that i only have about 175 sq m of land and the chickens have a large part of that. Among what i am growing are the pictures below and they are all doing very well. They are growing as fast as i am eating at the moment but i am going to dry the chilli and peppers for use over the winter

I would have had a picture of my strawberries but i had them for breakfast better than corn flakes. On the grapevine i planted were two very small bunches both on different vines. These are Shiraz type grapes well i now have a couple of grapes that have turned red. It will be next year before i get any real bunches and another two years before i get enough to make some wine. The Chardonnay vines are also doing very well but no grapes this year.

These chilli i had in a beef casserole and they look and taste good.

I put my phone in this picture to show scale. This is the cherry tomatoes that i picked this morning. I am getting so many i need to find a use for them. 

This should be my pride and joy, my runner beans are now about 12ft high. When i picked them for the first time i cut the side string of like i had seen my Mum do when i was a child.

When i had my chicken casserole i looked forward to my beans but, a big But they where all so stringy and horrible. The chickens will get them and next year i will grow a different type and i am very disappointed with these. 

More chilli's and they are all growing very well. But more about these another time when i have picked and tried them.

Flaking paint on the kitchen door

While working on the kitchen i took of the kitchen door and left it outside. I don't know or can't explain why but the paint on the door is flaking of the door. At first this was not a problem as the door needs a new coat of paint to look good for when the kitchen is finished.

As i peeled of the flakes of paint i found that the door had only ever been painted once in the life of the house. Also that the wood under the paint was rough not as you would find in new houses today.  The panels in the centre of the door i will take out and put glass in them to allow more light to get in.

The job now is to remove the paint from the door before i can do anything else. In the UK there are places in most cities where you can take painted doors and get the paint removed but i have yet to find anywhere here in Central Portugal that restores painted doors.

Got the grouting done today

Much on my Blog in recent weeks has been a muddle one day it's the veranda the next it's the kitchen or even about other subjects.

The reason i am not concentrating on either the kitchen or veranda is when it's to hot i work inside of the house when it's a but cooler i can work outside. When i did go against what i knew to be right i got badly burnt.

Today was to hot to work outside on the veranda so i got stuck into the kitchen. I had to get down on my knee's and get the grouting done. I had intended to do half of the kitchen today ad the rest tomorrow well that was the plan.

I ended up doing over half of the kitchen floor and it was mid afternoon so i stopped for a cup of tea. As it was only a little after 3 o'clock i did a bit more or that was the idea. I put to much water into the grout  so i had to add some more grout. What this did was to give me more than i needed to complete the kitchen. As i had to much grout i completed the hall coming into the house and at the end i was proud of what i had done all in one day.

Now over 6 hours later i am sitting getting my Blog up to date when i decided to get a drink only to find that my knee's don't want to move. It was like this when i first tiled the floor and a relaxed day following the tilling i felt so much better s with an easy day tomorrow i will be ok again.

I should be able to get stared on the final painting of the kitchen walls then all the sockets can be fitted for when the electrician calls to connect everything up.

Don't work out in the sun without a top on.

How many times have you told your children to cover up when it's sunny, well it was hot yesterday and the temperature was in the high 30's.  Well i got burnt and it was not till the next morning when i went out in the sun that  i felt the burning. Bit late now but i will not make that mistake again and i only have myself to blame.

I had got most of the timber to complete the veranda and it seemed a good day to get started and work went along very well. I looked forward to completing as much as i could the next day when i had used up all the timber i had.

I first put up the top on the one side that was complete. I even shaped the corner facing out down the lane.

Now i have started on the side facing the lane by my house.

The beams above my Pergola will have  my grapevine to use for shade but it will take a few years to get mine like this picture shows.

Christmas cake fruit soaking in Brandy.

Christmas is on it's way and preparations are already in place. Each year i make a Christmas cake, but no ordinary cake. My cake is always filled with fruit soaked in various alcohol.

This year i am using just Brandy, cheap from Makro and yes we have Makro in Portugal.All my fruits are being soaked in Brandy ready for when i make my cake for this Christmas.

After the cake in made i will then start to pour Remy Martin VSOP into the cake for extra flavour, this Remy is special i filled a jar with nice big black cherries to flavour the Remy and that's what i will use for this years cake.

Lots growing and even storing some for later

Apart from the kitchen and the veranda i have also been getting on with my garden or at least what i am growing.

My runner beans are at least 10ft tall and the beans are starting to grow, spuds are looking really great i hope that what's under the ground is as good as the plants look.

Strawberries, every day i get a good handful and what i want is next year to get even more but i want to change how they are planted and how they grow. Where my strawberries are is not the best place as i have potatoes next to them. I would either have all strawberries or all potatoes. I can and could move my strawberries to a raised bed and i have a spare that is not used yet.

I have planted 9 grape vines, 3 Shiraz and 6 Chardonnay. i planted them to see how they would get on on a piece of land that goes so hard facing the sun you need jack hammers to break the ground or wait for the rains to come. For now they are doing very well, the best one is the one next to the veranda. It is my plan to train it up the veranda but that will take time but time is something i have plenty of.

Chilli's and peppers i have growing in a couple of raised beds along with my tomatoes. Planting my tomatoes was a big mistake, i planted cherry and a big variety together and forgot which was the cherry. Cherry tomatoes can be left like a bush i am told but the others you need to remove the side shoots and train the plant up a cane. As they are together i can see now the ones that are cherry and the ones that should have been trained up a cane.

I have lots of chilli's and peppers growing. I will end up with to many to use so i asked about drying chilli's from someone who has done it for years but how do you keep flies of drying chilli's. Next idea is to cut the chilli in 2 and remove the pips, then put them in a jar and fill with oil. Problem solved i will have loads of chilli and peppers for over the winter months as a local supermarket has oil on offer for only 99 cents a litre a bargain.

Two years have passed and so much has happened.

The 1st August 2013 marked the second anniversary of my arriving in Gois from the ferry to Santander and a new life. On that night i got of the ferry i had intended to stop and complete the drive the next morning. For someone like me who enjoys driving the night was perfect, clear sky and little wind so i drove until i would need a break. That was the plan but the drive went so well that i arrived in Gois during the early hours of the 1st August 2011.

It's now 2 years later and much has changed. I soon made a temporary kitchen at the bottom of the stairs while i took apart the kitchen as it had been since it had been built many years ago. The downside was that i took out an old chimney that held the roof up and also held the chimney above in place. That mistake meant that i had to have the chimney taken down and the roof made good.

The first 15 months or more found me doing very little, i had adapted to a simple and stress free life but now i am getting on with getting work done. I am now having to do things i have not done before or even believed that i could do. The last week has seen me tilling the kitchen and hall floor. I could have chosen to tile a simple pattern but if you look below simple is not what i am after. All the electrics are in place and they will be connected soon and then it's the kitchen base units, oven and hob and sink. Doesn't seem a lot to do but i don't see that now as a problem.

Part of the lounge has been started, battens have been put in place so that i can get the log burner installed ready for the winter.

So from someone who in the UK would get someone else to do even the smallest job, now i am having fun learning new skills and i can proudly say i have had no help apart from Gary lifting 4 sheets of plasterboard into position as the sheets where to heavy for one person to life above my head.

Roll on the coming months when the kitchen should be complete and the walls that face the outside in the lounge will be insulated as i already have the boards ready and a nice log burner.

 This took a bit of working out so it finished as you can see in the photo.

As i have almost three boxes of tiles over i decided to tile the small entrance hall. 

It took Two hours watching Youtube to get this right

Tiles look so easy to put down and tilers make things look so go and then there is Joe public who thinks that all he has to do is put the adhesive down and put a tile on top and job done.

I spent over two hours watching Youtube video's of how to lay tiles. The picture below shows that i did a good job watching how tiling is done. I only have a section in a corner and some cuts to do and it's finished. Grouting has to be done and the floor is complete and then it's back to getting the sockets wired and repainting the walls as soon as i get the yellow pigment for the paint.

Maybe next weekend i should be in a position to be putting my base units in position but for now a few jobs need to be finished.

I do feel proud of what i have got done over the last couple of days.

 I forgot to add this picture yesterday but i hope that this show how good the kitchen should be.

A days grouting and that's the floor done.

A night out for the local Oldies

I have previously mentioned that in a local village where there was a local club that never seemed to open. As it's a village club all money it earns helps the local community and it's where New year is celebrated for not just the local community but also the local gang of Brits.

The guy who runs the club or ran the club gave the keys to one of the gang of local Brits and it's where we go on a Friday night. It's common in the UK on a Friday night for young people to party the night away and older folk like we are to be home and in bed before the young people go out. Who said that we should be home and in bed nice and early, the club is often open till 3/ 4 or even later in the morning.

Now that the club is opened after so long the locals come in and mix with us and they stay just as late as we do.

Last week was just like any other week but one couple had family over to stay and they came down to spend a night with the local oldies. They have a young daughter who had her and she had been told that she was going to a club with music and dancing.  The guy who runs the club had opened before the local Brit arrived and he had the TV on so he could watch Football. Abigail had her Ipad with her and that kept her amused for a while until she found that she could take picture and distort them to make people look funny

I saw Abigail's mum today and i will post a picture as soon as i get it.

The floor tiles will have to wait for now.

It's towards the end of a good week for me i have managed to get my kitchen painted but, here comes my but. I had 20 litres of white paint and i used over 5 litres of the white to paint the walls after they were finished. Then i mixed my own pale yellow, i mixed my yellow only to find that i didn't have enough yellow pigment to give me the shade of yellow paint i wanted. It hadn't taken me long to caulk all around the room where the corners of the room met each other  and were the walls met the ceiling and all along the ridge beam.

I used the paint i had mixed but it wasn't right i needed more yellow mixer and the local Chinese shop has had none for a while. I could of used the room as it is but really i am not happy with the shade of pale yellow so i will have to paint the walls again. The yellow mixer comes in a tube and i can get every colour but yellow.

It's now that i had wanted to get tiles started on the kitchen floor but now i will have to wait till i get the walls done again.

Summary of the kitchen and work done

It's taken a while and some encouragement from my sons but the major work in the kitchen is drawing to a close or at least the ceiling and the walls are now almost complete.

The main problem with the kitchen as it was is that it was cold and needed insulating and over 50 years old . The ceiling has been removed and insulation has been installed up at roof level. The insulation now is the same as if i used 8inch of rockwool insulation but it is only about one and a half inches thick then plasterboard to complete the ceiling.

That done the walls were next to get my attention, each sheet of plasterboard is 1.2m X 2.6m or nearly 10ft X 4ft. But it's not normal plasterboard it is insulated on the back and as three walls of the kitchen have outside walls these walls had to insulated as well or i wasted my time doing the ceiling.

All  nine boards i had to lift, cut and put in position all by myself. I had to put battens on the wall before i put up the plasterboard and now that's all done.

Wanting to do the best job i could i painted the walls with two coats of white paint and when that was dry i painted the walls again with two coats of pale yellow paint. Now all i need to do is look for and repair any slight blemishes in the joints on the plasterboard and then paint with the main topcoat.

Holes are cut for all the electrics. For the TV, cooker supply and 14 electric sockets. It looks like by the end of the week i should be starting to tile the floor and for the moment that is my target for the coming week. Now for what's been done i can proudly say that i did every job and i had no help, not bad for someone close to 65 years of age.

What seems only a short time ago this was just a wall as was the wall by the window but now it's all done.

The last of the plasterboarding is now done.

It's been a long hard week rubbing down to get a perfect finish on my walls. Today i cut the last piece of plasterboard in place, it took nearly two hours. First i cut a cardboard template, next i transferred the cardboard template to a piece of plasterboard and made sure it fit into place, better safe than make a mistake.

I was nervous transferring the plasterboard template to the last piece of plasterboard but i got it done. It took a little time before i made my first cut but soon i had the board cut and ready to put into position. I was surprised but it fit like a glove had i soon had it screwed into place.

Now all i need is to wait for the filler on all the joints to go hard so i can start to get it rubbed down and ready for painting. Once ready for painting i will give the walls two coats of white paint to help me find any blemishes that i have missed. Once this is done then i will give the walls two coats of a pale yellow to match the rest of the room. once done and complete i will give the whole room a good coat of a pale yellow and then paint the ceiling again, job done.

Then it's down to the tiles for the floor to be put down but that's another story.

Insulation board up and just the finishing bits to do.

Well the heat we are having is such that i can't work outside at the moment. Over the last few days i have been fitting the insulation board to the last two walls and the bottom picture was the hardest to do. I have cable in the walls and i had to mark where to cut to get the cables out for the lights and sockets etc.

A good day spoilt by running out of screws.

Working on my veranda and giving the chickens a bigger pen and a few other things has put me behind with the kitchen. Now with it being to hot to work outside i have started to get on with the insulating of the walls in the kitchen. I am still waiting for permission to have a window without bars in front as is the way things are done here.

I was getting on well today until i came to put the last piece of insulating board up. No more screws but i could carry on filling in all the screw holes and the seams , now with these done it's down to rubbing down ready for painting. I now only have one full board to put up and two part boards and that's all the insulation done.

Long job it may have been but i started this without ever doing anything like this. sometimes this is a little daunting but anybody can do more that they think it just takes a little time.

I came to do the last bit into the corner and i had run out of screws, it would have been a perfect day to finish just what i had started.

Abseiling rope put to a new use.

These last few days have been busy on my veranda  but little seems to have been done. I have a huge rope that was used for abseiling but i am putting it to a new use. As the pictures show i have used the rope for the banister instead of having spindles. Also the top of the newell  posts i want to top with rope
something like in one of the pictures below.

The hard part has been getting something like string but in black and waterproof but in the end it's all worked out as i wanted.Now this part has been done i can start on the rest and the canopy for the top.

Chickens starting to lay at last

A while ago i got four new chickens to go with the two i already had. The two i had were bullies to the new four and after time i gave them away to a friend and for him they are well behaved.

A couple of weeks ago for five days in a row i got two eggs a day Wow things were looking up or so i thought. Ever day they would escape and roam around on the land by mine where the chickens live. I found that the gate at the back of the chicken run had a whole in it and the chickens would escape for the day and  they would  roam around eating what they could find. Today now that they couldn't get free i decided that they would be kept in for the day.

Yesterday  i only found one egg so i left it in one of the nest box's in the hope that it may show them what to do. I went over and found that the egg i left was still where i left it but also there was another egg so i removed the new egg and took yesterdays egg and left the new one still in place. I left today's egg in place and when i went back i found three eggs Thar's one more than i have ever had.

If this keeps up i will be able to bake a sponge cake like the last one. The last cake i baked i liquidised some strawberries to go over the top of it. The pity was i had a visitor and i had to share the cake but the next one is all my own.