Reno update and the ferry ride

Docking in Bilbao

Hello again!

I think I’m overdue an update on the house. We are well and truly settled into our first home and loving it more than ever, I think!

But first, a little on ferry travel.

We just got back from a ferry trip to Ireland to pick up the remaining boxes and garden tools. But who are we kidding, really? That was just the excuse! We just wanted to ride the ferry again and see our friends and family. ;) 

We highly recommend taking the ferry and making a few stops in the north of Spain, if you’re able! The ferry is not cheap, though - that’s the most asked question. Unfortunately, if you’re taking a car, the ferry can be quite pricey. But, it is a very relaxing way to travel. It was 32 hours of being disconnected from the world. 32 hours to eat, drink, sleep, read, watch videos on demand, play games, crochet or knit. It’s a dream! Basically, you get to do the things you never have time to do.

We took the dogs, so we stayed in a pet-friendly cabin. This is exactly like a normal cabin, except that the floor is lino rather than carpet and we have access to the dog walking deck so the dogs can relieve themselves. There are hotel-like rooms available for just a little bit more, if you’re not travelling with pets or if you’re keeping them in the kennels on board. I’m not a huge fan of the kennels… It just seems a bit cold and wet and loud in there.

This time around, we were better prepared! We took ‘indoor shoes’ for the cabin. The deck and the hallway in the pet section of the ferry can get a little ‘wet’ with dog pee and water. The deck does get rinsed down periodically, but we all track it in. So this time we brought shoes for the cabins.

We also packed more efficiently. We brought a carry-on suitcase just for the ferry so we wouldn’t need to bring the big suitcase up to the cabin. That seems obvious, but we didn’t think of it last time. We also brought a carton of milk and cereal for breakfast and a bottle of wine. It was lovely.

Now on to the house!

We have made it functional and we have painted a few walls. After weeks of waiting for our original electrician to get back to us, we finally gave up and contacted the electrician who installed our kitchen appliances. He’s been great. He picks up the phone, replies to messages and actually shows up! 

The first guy came out and had a look at everything, gave us some advice and sent us a quote. But after that, he basically ghosted us. Shame. He came very highly recommended. 

But, the work is done! The electrician had to entirely redo our upstairs fuse box. Quite worrying actually, the switches had all but caught fire… He also put in a new ground for us, as the original one was not doing the job. We can now rest easy. And, we can now use the kettle without having to switch off the radiators! Thank you, Hugo!

We have had a windows guy come out and roughly price up how much it’ll cost to change out all the windows and doors. We have a lot of windows and doors. Honestly. It’s abnormal. And somehow, we don’t have a single normal-sized window on the back wall of the house. Anyway, we decided to get someone out for this after receiving our first electrical bill for the house. It was alarming. It was about double what we spent in the apartment, and somehow this house still feels warmer than the apartment by at least 2 degrees. I don’t get it, but we need to get them done. Our pockets will undoubtedly shed a few tears.

So anyway, we’re hoping the windows will be installed around May. I’d originally written that we were hoping the structural work would get done then, too, but, we got a phone call from our builder around 8 pm on a Wednesday. He asked if he could start the demolition at 8 am the next day. By the Friday the demolition was finished! He still needs to put in a girder and column, build a garage wall and level the floors. We don’t know when this will happen but once he’s done, Luke and I can start putting up partition walls! So exciting. I’ve watched a total of one single YouTube video on how to do this. I’m totally ready.

As for the garden, before we left for Ireland, we started pruning back our vines. Our neighbour reassured us that we had until about mid-March to get them done. So we knew we’d have about 2 weeks to get the tops done when we got back. I am still in disbelief. Our neighbours came over and pruned the rest of the vines and a few other fruit trees while we were away! Can you believe it? They left the cuttings in neat little bundles for us, too, for barbeques. Honestly, how did we get so lucky? All that was left for me to do was to think of a way to thank them. Just like that, we had all our evenings freed up for other projects. It was such a blessing.

Here’s a checklist of the work so far.

Big work completed:

• Connected house to mains sewerage.

• Redid fuse box and put in new ground.

• Vines pruned back.

• Demolition completed.

• Roof washed.

• Walnut tree pruned back away from electricity wires.

Smaller projects completed:

• Kitchen made functional.

• Full bath made functional.

• Utilities made functional.

• Master bedroom painted. You can check it out here.

• Guest bedroom finished. You can check it out here if you missed it!

The next projects are:

• To finish the wood trimming in the half-bath and put up the light fixture.

• To build a new hidden cat litter box for the hallway.

• To paint the front hall and hallway.

• To organise the attic.

The list goes on… I have the paint colour and light fixtures picked out for the living room. That’s going to be a big job after the smaller bits are done. And we still have Luke’s office to sort out. It’s still ‘the dump room’. I also have all the equipment ready to paint our bedside lockers, but that’s another big job for later.

So here we are. It’s endless but it’s rewarding and very exciting. I will post real-time updates on our Instagram page if you’d like to follow along.

And hopefully, I’ll see you back here soon enough!

Take care!