Hi there,
The eighth weekend at the house began with a key visit: the carpenter came to assess the carpenter bee problem and provide an estimate.
The plumber also came and fixed two leaks (one in the shower and one in the bathroom sink) that we hadn’t detected when we bought the house. More hidden defects. While he was there, we asked him for a quote for pellet stoves, but he suggested something better: a heat pump. Cooling, heating, dehumidifier, and air purifier in one device.
Someone on TikTok had recommended hypochlorite to remove stains and moss from the outside of the house. We bought it on Amazon and sprayed it all over the stone that still had stains or moss. It was the best product so far. The stone was almost perfect.
Here are the first parts of this story:
Painting: from disaster to success
Before painting, I had to patch up the entire terrace. All the tile joints were open and there were signs of moisture under the terrace. So, I repaired them one by one with FlexFill repair cement.
Then I tried a promising-looking polyurethane paint in a tile color, but it was a fiasco: it stuck, it left marks with every step, and it trapped all the dirt.
So, I ordered another color of my favorite epoxy paint to see if I could get it right, since the beige color had been a disaster.
On Sunday, we painted the ceiling of the garage entrance with the same paint we had used for the facade.
I gave the bookcase to a friend of my neighbor Julieta, and they finally took it away. We took advantage of this to clean, repair, and cover the cracks in the last section of the ceiling that was missing.
I finished fixing one of the work areas by putting down cork and a protective mat for the desk chair.
We put up the last lamp that was missing, so we closed that issue as well.
On the ninth weekend, we painted the entire terrace and its railing, the low wall of a window, the railing of that window, and the staircase leading to the house.
I also painted a small metal gate where the water, electricity, and gas shut-off valves are located, right at the entrance to the garage. All with the new epoxy paint.
This weekend was also for technical visits: a carpenter came to give us a quote for the kitchen, and a guy from the company Pepe Pisco e hijos came to give us a quote for the bathroom renovation.
On Saturday afternoon, we went to see used car dealers in Ourense, because we also needed to replace our car.
After two weeks traveling around Iceland, we returned with renewed energy. The first thing we did was the most symbolic: we finally assembled the sofa. Yes, the same one that had its own soap opera of failed deliveries, lost boxes, and ghost returns. We also assembled the IKEA coffee table, a two-in-one set that fits perfectly with the aesthetics of the house: dark green, brown, and black. The living room was finally beginning to have a soul.
With that momentum, we moved on to the terrace. Since it was already clean, painted, and waterproofed, I took the opportunity to put up the solar lights I had bought from Shein.
That weekend we also took a trip to Ponteareas to look at second-hand cars and miraculously found one that fit what we were looking for. We reserved it right there, and since we were there, we stopped by the flea market. I bought succulents for one euro, two lavender plants, and two lemon trees, one for Ourense and one for Porto.
Once home, I planted the succulents and lavender and pruned the hydrangea in front of the house. I also filled the four green pots I had set aside for the kitchen with succulents, thinking of putting them in place once the renovation is done.
We painted the last gate with epoxy paint, and the scene was worthy of a rural horror movie: worms stuck to the edges, centuries of grime, encrusted filth. Disgusting. But it was clean, it was painted, and with that we crossed off another item on our to-do list.
With the gates in order, we moved on to the next battlefront: the garage windows. The previous owner had left some poorly installed glass there, sealed as best he could with crooked and useless cement. So, we had to redo everything: level the wall, improve the cement on the frame, and fill in the gaps with expanding foam. After that, we reapplied cement to give it the finish. None of this was quick: it took us two whole weekends, but it turned out just as it should.
We also started cleaning the garage columns, because my idea is to paint them all black, in keeping with the rustic style of the whole house. We also took the opportunity to fix the window finishes, this time on the inside, and started cleaning the outside gutter, which hadn’t been touched in ages. We still have a bit left to do, but you can already see the difference.
Since we needed a minimum of normal life amid the chaos, we bought a TV, along with a stand to put it on. We also bought a printer.
Everything delivered by the Spanish post office became a drama, because as we didn’t live there during the week, they sent everything to an office 20 kilometers away. And with no possibility of picking it up during the week, it was as if we had lost it outright. So, we also had to waste time making complaints to Amazon and the post office, which, frankly, was the last thing we needed.
By the end of July, there was relatively little left to do.
The following weekend, we finally finished the garage windows, and I put cement on the wall of one of the kitchen windows.
I met with the carpenter again to make some adjustments to the kitchen plan.
Another carpenter also came to inspect the carpenter bee situation and agreed to give us a quote. We had to repair the affected wood before winter set in.
We finally finished cleaning the garage columns and finished cleaning the gutter.
We assembled a desk we bought on Amazon and were happy with it because it was much better quality than the ones from IKEA and much easier to install.
Taking advantage of the fact that I had cement left over from the work I had done on the windows, I also proceeded to start filling in the holes in the stone staircase at the entrance to the house.
The second weekend in August, I had planned to paint all the columns in the garage with two coats of primer and two coats of black paint. The unevenness of the wood made it impossible to paint with a roller, and since we only had one ladder, Diego oversaw this task.
We only managed to apply the first coat of primer to three columns.
In addition, I devoted myself to smaller tasks such as touching up the paint on the terrace, filling in the holes in the garage entrance, fixing some joints in the garage floor, cleaning the windows, and improving the finish of the stair.
We spent the last weekend of August in Ourense again, continuing with our never-ending to-do list. During the previous week, the ceramic hob, oven, and dishwasher had been delivered, which were stored in the garage for the time being, waiting for the carpenter to start installing the kitchen, theoretically at the beginning of September.
We only managed to finish painting three complete columns this weekend, with a coat of primer and two coats of paint. They turned out very well, but the rest was postponed.
We also brought some insulating film from Porto that we had tried on our windows and put it in the kitchen: on one of the windows and on the front door. The door, as it is old and of poor quality, provided almost no insulation, so we reinforced it a little. And the window, although new, gets direct sunlight all day long and turns the kitchen into an oven, so we covered it too.
In addition, the mat for Diego’s work area finally arrived. It had been a bit of a headache because at first, Diego ordered the wrong color, so we had to return it, order it again, and of course, we lost a lot of time with that. But finally, this weekend we were able to put it in place.
We were left with the feeling that we had made little progress, that the columns were taking up a lot of our time, and that it would probably take us a whole month to get them all ready.
I felt very overwhelmed and once again regretted buying the house because we had already been working on it for five months and felt that we had made very little progress.
That’s where the progress on the house stood until August. In the next post, I’ll tell you how everything went from September onwards.
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