6 Only in Porto, Portugal

After much deliberation about whether to go on holiday with so much going on at home, we decided to bite the bullet and book the flight to Portugal.

Our first destination was Porto. We spent our first three nights at 6Only, a fabulous old town house lovingly refurbished by Mariana and Pedro.

This house shows how modern interior design can help maintain the integrity of the old features of a house if thought out properly. Mariana and Pedro have created secondary internal walls to take all the service functions to minimise the damage to the existing walls and ceilings, thereby creating quite a unique feature inside these rather grand old rooms with their beautiful floor to ceiling windows and intricate plaster work ceilings to bring this hotel bang up to date.

It was so lovely to stay here. The welcome and the hospitality given to us by our hosts were second to none. We would definitely recommend this place to anyone who visits Porto. We had a truly wonderful time here in a friendly, clean, dust free environment.

Ensuite is coming along

It might not look it but we now have wiring, plumbing and plasterboard! We are just waiting for the tiler.

Floor insulation

Garry cutting the insulation boards to fit tight between the joists.

The boys getting down to work

Insulation under the floor boards go down - we are using 70mm of insulation, we could have gone for a thicker board but Tim thinks this would do unless I pay him lots more money!

Any Bodies Under Here?

Not now!  The front room floor proves to be convex because of previous bad workmanship which happily can now be rectified. The floorboards are stripped off and the joists will be reset with insulation in between.  Now how much did you say basement extensions cost?  £££s

Destruction Continues Apace!

Doorways widened, chimneys disappearing ... keep your dust masks on!  Tim assures us that the house will remain standing ... 

And when the dust has settled ... space!

Stripping the bedroom walls

What surprises we find under all that wood panelling! Wall paper dating back to the Victorian era possibly? that must be something from the 50's and geometric 70's.Who knows. Let us know if you can identify the period.

Stud walls going up

Well - what more can I say!

Ensuite Bathroom

We are now putting an ensuite bathroom  between two existing bedrooms.  Here is the wall in the process of disappearing ...

It's pretty dusty in here!

Actually shall we stop here? I rather like the big bedroom!