Busy day

Sundays are always kind of busy for me.
I do yoga class 75 minutes 10.15-11.30 am
Home to prepare early dinner (skip the shower since I am going to the stable in the afternoon and the horses don´t mind me smelling)
Some household chores or working
Early dinner
Stable, riding ,cleaning out Pontus´muck, preparing his food, cleaning out and filling water buckets. At least 3 hours labour. Probably good for me.
Home by 7 pm
Shower
tea and sandwich

I really don´t like when it is so busy but what can you do when everything is at the same time. It is either a busy day or give something up. That I don´t want to do.

I am a person who likes to be at home, spending parts of my day off doing nothing or reading.

Gotta go!

Ase

Work in progress

Tjena

Det börjar närma sig, om två veckor åker vi ner till Portuga igen. Det är den gamle som skriver så jag skall berätta att jag åker ner en vecka före Åse för att vara med på vår första vinskörd, skall bli riktigt kul. Den 10 oktober tar vi över gården, lite skrämmande men hiskeligt kul.

Huset i Sverige är värderat och alla papper klara för att lösa finansieringen av vår farm i Portugal. Vi håller som bäst på med renoveringar av huset inför kommande försäljning. Det är många saker att koordinera, i veckan har vi renoverat klart vardagsrummet, ett av sovrummen på överplan och denna vecka kommer vi förhoppningsvis vara klara med fasaden och fönster utvändigt.

Livet är lite trist just nu men varje timma vi lägger på huset kan förhopningsvis innebära att vi snabbare kan flytta ner till Portugal. Hur mycket är en ommålad fasad värd? ingen som vet kanske inget eller mycket.

Åse håller utöver allt arbete med huset på att bygga upp vår hemsida, Facebook sida och skapa ett intresse kring farmen. Vi har fått våra första bokningar redan, skit kul

Den 24:e sept börjar vi med Portugiska kurs, jag vet vem som kommer att vara sämst, det är jag men jag kommer att satsa allt för att lyckas, troligen blir det Portugiska med brytning på Göteborska, det gäller att hålla på sin dialekt.

Sköt om Er
//Den gamle

A frog?

To my surprise I found a frog in my bedroom when I got down there to dress this morning after breakfast. The window, which is on ground level since it is a souterrain house, was closed and was done so the evening before since I thought it was a bit cold in there.

So my question is. Where did the frog come from and how long had it been there? Our youngest dog Baldo didn´t sleep in our bedroom and hasn´t for the last couple of nights.Was it because of the frog? He was clearly scared of it.

Anyway I threw a towel over the frog and made a nice little parcel of it, without hurting the frog of course, and took it outside and released it. The frog jumped happily away.

If it would have jumped in my face or so when I was sleeping OMG I would have screamt/screamed. ( I write both version of the irregular, soon regular verb scream)

Ase

Getting closer

In 17 days Lasse is going to our farm just outside Caldas da Rainha to start learning "everything" about wine harvesting and wine making. I have to wait another week then I will go too. In the week I will be there we are going to complete the deal as well and hopefully get the keys to our "Place in the Sun".

It is going to be so exciting! I just can´t wait. Imagine the feeling when we get the keys. Then it will be ours. Ours to start planning, working and worry about. What if we are not happy there? What if we don´t learn the language? What if we become home sick and want to home again? What if don´t get any friends? What if I will miss my children too much? What if we don´t get any guests and run out of money? What if? What if?

Now when it is getting closer it is not a dream anymore but reality. Then all these worries strike you. What if?

Ase

Still chaos

One small bedroom soon finished

Today the carpenter came to put in the new flooring in the living room. Then it shows that he is one package of oak boards short. I thought that we would be able to put the furniture back at the end of the week. But hopefully he will get hold on another package and finish tomorrow. Then Lasse is going to paint the windows in the living room and the wood burner will be up by Thursday. Pew!

Adam´s room is almost done. I am just going to oil the oak boards and then we are all set.

The scaffolders came today so the company that is going to paint the exterior can reach the highest points of the house which Lasse couldn´t. It is 7 meters high and he doesn´t want to paint the house standing on a ladder. I am so scared of heights so I could never do it myself so it is understandable.

I have now had over 20000 visitors on my blog and I have been neglecting it badly lately due to working on the web page and the facebook page. I think it is amazing. Who could have imagined that when I started writing. When I started the blog we had a dream that we would buy a house in Greece or Portugal in the future. Then i saw THE PLACE on the web. I we decided to go to Portugal to look at it in April. AND we loved it. So we headed back to Portugal in May to have second look and still loved it. In June we handed over the deposit and in October it will officially be ours.

The web page will hopefully be out in the middle of October IF we can get some nice pictures of the interior of the apartments and the villa. I don´t want to use the pictures that the previous owner had because they look really boring. If I have time during the week I am there I will see if I can get some nice things to "style" some of the apartments and take some nice pictures.

scaffolding

utility room, next project

The house is chaos

It feels like everything is going to happen at same time. Today the bricklayers are going to remove our soapstone burner so the carpenters can put in a new floor. The soapstone stove weighs about half a ton kilos so it is not an easy job. I and Adam removed some of the furniture and curtains and stuff yesterday so the will have free passage while doing it. I think it will be quite messy so I better move some more things before they arrive.

Then Lasse will paint the whole ceiling, about 70m2. The walls in the living room will also be painted. He has finished painting a small bedroom upstairs but there is no flooring. He is taking the old living room oak boards and will polish and oil them to put them into the small bedroom. Puh!

The utility room is a mess with no flooring or anything on the walls. The washing machine is still in there but the dryer is standing in the small hall downstairs.

The electrician is probably coming next week to fix the lamps on the balcony, the lamps in the hallway downstairs and the unit in the sauna.

So you see I need a hotel room, preferably with a nice breakfast included.

Have a good day!
Ase

September

Someone complained after my last entry about me writing that autumn had arrived. For me it is summer when you can sit outside in the evenings without a warm jacket or wrapped in a blanket. Other people think it is still summer it the can wear sleeveless when walking during the day. Different opinions I guess.

Today it is autumn no one can deny that. It is cloudy or raining and 14 degrees. It was nice though walking the dogs because I found some chanterelles. I will see if I eat them for lunch or put them in the freezer.

I had a really busy day yesterday. I started out quite early with breakfast and a morning walk with the dogs. Then I had a 75 minutes yoga class at 10.15. I was really sore after the yoga. My God I am so tense in all my muscles. There is another class on Wednesday and I think I will attend that one as well. Then followed lunch, vacuum cleaning, weekly shopping. At the same time Lasse was painting one of the small bedrooms and took the dogs for a walk.

We both went to the stable and Lasse helped me out with the chores. Then I rode and Lasse took some pictures. None of them very good.

Happy

23 year-old "Nordsvensk" Pontus

In the evening we made dinner and crashed on couches. I was soooo tired.

Ase