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February 17, 2022February 21, 2022

Bring in the big cats

This week there was a major change to the landscaping behind the house, so we needed to bring in the big cats to make the earth move. The land, which is a mix of 50% limestone and 50% top soil will be excavated and moved to the front of the property.

Episode 4 – the big cats making the earth move for us

In my YouTuve video I give you a full 360 degree tour and also explain a couple of compromises I’ve had to deal with. Don’t forget to hit the like button on YouTube if you enjoyed the video, subscribe if you want to keep up to date with my build and hit the bell icon to be notified when I post more content on there.

The first time we’ve viewed the house from this angle.

We had a small digger onsite for a couple of days, but it wasn’t up to the job of moving so much earth once we decided that we could no longer afford the concrete wall we’d planned for the north of the property. In this episode I will give you this week’s update and show you the new landscape features. I am going to visit site again tomorrow to discuss the drop away of land in front of the infinity pool and take a look at what the big cat team have been up to.

Big cats bringing us some hammer time!

Building the road for the concrete trucks to access the east wing.

Most of the stone behind the house is limestone, but we hit a new patch of granite so we needed the huge mechanised hammer to break a new access to the higher land to the north. The hammer costs more money per day- wear and tear on the machinery plus the operator probably needs therapy after spending the day being on the end of the world’s largest and loudest hammer. I will take some video tomorrow if he’s still drilling away so you can see just how impressive this piece of kit is. You can check out my last blog post here and episode 3 on YouTube here

Totally wearing the wrong clothes for this very long unplanned visit!

We hadn’t intended to spend so much time onsite for this visit, it was supposed to be an office meeting plus a drive by of the site. Needless to say after a couple of hours onsite my hair was full of dust and my jeans looked like I’d been playing 5 a side football.

Check back next week for another update. You can send me message via the contact page by clicking here.

Have a beautiful day!

Gail x

February 13, 2022February 20, 2022

Episode 3 of building our new minimalist house build in Algarve

Welcome to episode 3 of building our new minimalist home in Algarve.

Our dream is to build a minimalist, industrial style, single story home, nestled in the mountains of Loulé, Algarve, facing the Atlantic coast. A low maintenance home and garden, with free power and water, needing no extra input from mains services once complete. Add to that a kitchen garden and edible plants in the landscaping and we can work towards self-sufficiency in the future. I’m loving every minute of the process and excited to see the build progress each week.

This week we have a bit of a lull in construction whilst we move earth and rock around site in preparation for the east wing which is the ruin we have incorporated into the design. The ruin was a smallholding with goats many years ago, and most recently (we can see it hasn’t been used for at least 20 years), it had been used as a hillside small laundry/washhouse. Today I share; some of the designs which inspired me, a stroll around the land from east to west, our design and the new minimalist lifestyle which we have embraced to let go, free ourselves of possessions and provide us with more freedom.

Subscribe on YouTube to be notified when I post new videos. The team are onsite 6 days per week, pushing to finish the concrete and steel for us as they have lots of other jobs waiting!

You will find my blog here: fiftysister.com/blog with my most recent post for the house build here: https://fiftysister.com/change-of-use/

Have a beautiful day.

Gail

#algarve #portugal #loulé #aplaceinthesun #dreamhome

Music: www.bensound.com

February 4, 2022February 20, 2022

Episode 2 of building our home in Loulé, Algarve, Portugal.

Finally! You can now watch episode 2 of our construction on YouTube.

We are now three months into our house build in Algarve. Episode 2 gives you a walk through of the concrete and steel construction. Click here if you missed episode 1.

Steel and concrete prices increased substantially last year due to decrease in worldwide supply, so we’re busy cutting costs of the construction by limiting the number of materials and different craftsmen. In a bid to make it passively eco friendly, we increased the overhang on the southside to provide additional shade, and extensive use of glass on the north side to improve flow of air to cool the interior in the summer months without the use of aircon.

The finish in the majority of the house for the ceilings and flooring will be raw concrete, so the upfront costs for the construction are higher, but will save time and materials at a later stage. All of the electrics will be surface mounted, providing easy access and again less materials. The only downside to this is, the workmanship must be exceptional to prevent mistakes and the need to redrill poorly positioned fixtures. I shall be overseeing the electrics daily as an essential extra pair of critical eyes.

The search is now on for solar panels and battery storage, which will take up the least amount of space but with maximum lifespan to prevent early replacement. Solar has come a long way in the past decade or so, but strangely is not a regular sight on houses in Algarve. With over 300 days of sunshine per year, one would expect to see panels on every home. But, with the average salary of locals of €700/per month, the panels are out of reach to the majority of the population.

The short video above is a computer simulation of our finished construction project. The rear of the property will in reality have a different layout, with a terrace of 3m x 60m as I mention in my episode 2 video.

We will also install a small wind turbine to power the house at night, reducing the need to use the battery backup, or mains backup during the hours of darkness. This will ensure heat to our swimming pool all year round to make use of the pool outside of the summer months. Something else that surprisingly isn’t standard practice here!

Water will be drawn from the bore hole once it’s installed, with backup from the city water supply. This is simply a case of switching to the mains water from a stop tap. We anticipate that we will hit water at approximately 125m deep, drilling through limestone all the way. The cost depends on the geology of our location, if its stable and solid we can use plastic pipe, if we discover pockets of shingle or caves, we will be forced to use steel – the most expensive option.

Our dream is to build a minimalist, industrial style, single story home, nestled in the mountains facing the Atlantic coast. A low maintenance home and garden, with free power and water, needing no extra input from mains services once complete. Add to that a kitchen garden and edible plants in the landscaping and we can work towards self-sufficiency in the future. I’m loving every minute of the process and excited to see the build progress each week.

You can see more of the design on my website for the house which is loulehills.com

Click here to watch episode 1 – as the first machinery arrives to prepare the construction site for the steel and concrete.

Click here to watch episode 2 and subscribe on YouTube to be notified when I post new videos.

Have a beautiful day!