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!

Outside Painting

 

Despite summer wind and rain, a brave and agile man called "Kola" has now painted the outside of the house on the first floor.

Old vs New

How the back of the house has changed since March as seen from the top of our shed!

Fire places are out!

Taking out fire places was a very dusty operation but it had to be done.
We want to put in a woodburning stove in the front room. In the back room, we are keeping the space open for storage.
We found various interesting items lost inside these fire places including a bottle of O-Cedar Polish for cleaning and polishing hardwood floors, furniture, pianos, automobiles, carriages and mops!

Windows At Last

Danish made, Vrogum double glazed sash windows finally arrived on a juggernaut from Denmark last week and are now being fitted throughout the house by the marvellous Paul. Suddenly there's a lot more light in this place! And quite a bit of dodgy previous building revealed.

Sunflex sliding doors

Finally, we are getting the doors we wanted installed! It's taken nearly 9 weeks for them to arrive but they are finally here.

Front rooms

The second stage of our renovation started at the beginning of a long weekend towards the end of July. We began by stripping the wall paper in the front two rooms. We have decided to do these rooms ourselves for cost reasons and to see what we can achieve by doing it ourselves. It might be a total mistake but if you don't try you never know.

The wallpaper was relatively easy to take off in the back room and the plaster work seemed quite good. It was a different story in the front room and we realised quite quickly that this room would need a total re plaster as the walls were in a state.

Kitchen

Finally, I have a working kitchen after weeks of delay with the cupboard supplier. It's still not completed by the work top is now in and I have a kitchen I can use.

Sinks and bathrooms revisted

I have changed my bathroom sinks twice now! First time, it was the wrong kind of sink and the second time, it was the cloakroom sink that had to go back because it was far too large for the size of the room.

The sink now sits on top of a piece of wood I was given by a kind 86 year old man who had been in the lumber trade for over 70 years! I had it polished and varnished and it looks quite cool with the bowl and tall tap.

My supplier - Potter Perrin of Streatham have been marvellous. I have been able to swap things around and exchange things without too much hassle and always with a friendly smile!

Energy Efficient Boilers

We have decided to go for a Vaillant Ecotec Plus condensing system boiler. It is SEDBUK band A rated for fuel efficiency, so it is one of the best. It is also solar compatible so it will work with solar panels if we decide to install these in the future. Max heat output 35-39w.

Bathroom sinks

The mistake I made was to order a semi recessed sink without the cabinet underneath and this has led to no end of problems. The cabinet it came with was not to my liking and I thought it would not be too difficult to get the builder to make something up for me. Wrong! My builder does not employ carpenters so he can only get a mdf cupboard put together which again might not achieve the look I am trying to achieve.
On top of that, I would have to order the work top separately and the colours would have to coordinate with the tiles and pebbles I'd ordered for the rest of the bathroom. I knew I had a problem.

Not wanting to hold up on the completion of the bathroom, I found a cheap but effective solution without compromising on style or quality. Take a look at Ikea's ceramic sinks and some of their fairly good quality cabinets. They come with soft close draws, water resistant cupboard doors in high gloss and carry a 10 year guarantee!

Kitchens and bathrooms

Very annoyingly, we have a two week delay on the kitchen now because the kitchen designer miscalculated the amount of panels we needed. This means that the kitchen work top people had to be put off, Russ the fitter can't finish his job and we can't use our kitchen! It's not good and I am not very happy about it. The kitchen company have promised to do all they can to hurry the process a long and have promised to throw in a few things to keep me sweet. It still doesn't make up for being able to move in and use my kitchen.We also have a delay in the bathroom as the fitters have discovered a few scratches in the tub. This has to be ordered and fitted before the tiler can get on with his job. As soon as we have a bath/shower, a loo and a sink in place we are ready to move in.

Problems with kitchens

Our kitchen was delivered far too early and it's only now we are finding out about all the missing bits. Never pay the full amount until you know it's all there. Luckily for us, they delivered the whole lot before we had paid for it.

The Big Lunch - Street Party

What a wonderful event we had on Sunday with the Big Lunch street party held on Ramsden Road. Not only did the event raise money for charity but it was the perfect opportunity to get to know the neighbours.
Shame about the rain but it didn't stop people coming out to enjoy some delicious home cooking and splashing around in the puddles.