Segunda-feira

Can’t believe that Monday has passed again, and that tomorrow is the 1^st of February! We’ve been back from Belgium for a little over 3 weeks now, and you must be wondering what we’ve been up to all this time. Well, let me see, the first two weeks we were back we dealt with all the little jobs left for the workmen to do. Little bit of painting, little bit of grouting, little bit of plumbing, and lots of cleaning up; but that is all behind us now.

With the workmen out of the house for about a week now we have taken the time to get offers made for a kitchen for the 1^st floor and we’ve informed about placing a pool. We’ve also been to the do-it-yourself store about, mm…let’s see, 4 times in a weeks time, to pick up all sorts of things to finish the jobs here, but mainly to pick up PAINT!  With 3 rooms almost completely finished (just the bathroom ceiling and doors), we’ve only got 2 more rooms to paint, and we can’t wait to be able to say we’ve finished.

And last but definitely not least, we’ve been driving from here to there to find appropriate furniture so that we can finally start furnishing our guest rooms. So far, not much luck yet, but we’re not giving up!

We’ll keep you posted on any developments, and pictures will come soon!

ps.: please don’t forget that if you have any questions or comments you can always leave us a message below!

Até logo!

Finished exterior

New pictures have been added after finishing the works on the house!

Now we start work in the garden, finish painting inside and work on the interior design.

Fireplace

The fireplace in the kitchen where breakfast will be served.

Before 

Now

(a coat of paint to the bricks and it's done!)

Pictures

New pictures have been uploaded to the slideshow, and more to come tomorrow!

Fruit Trees/Fruitbomen

After a week of being inside, painting, cleaning up, finishing off  room by room, we spent the yesterday afternoon in the January sunshine planting trees.

In addition to the 14 olive trees, apple tree, pear tree and peach tree that we already have in the garden, we planted several more; we planted 1 olive, 2 peach, 1 apple, 1 pear and 1 cherry tree.

Next step are the citrus trees, but for those we have to wait until the end of February/beginning March.

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Na een weekje binnen werken, verven en de bouw stilletjes aan op te ruimen, hebben we gisteren namiddag even tijd genomen om de eerste bomen te planten.

Er stonden al 14 olijfbomen, een appelaar, perelaar, en perzikenboom, en we hebben er enkele bijgeplant, namelijk 1 olifboom, 2 perzikenbomen, 1 appelaar, 1 perelaar en 1 kerselaar.

Volgende bomen die we planten zijn de citrusbomen, maar daarvoor wachten we tot eind februari/begin maart.

Reception at the end of the day

Take a look at what the reception looks like after a day of painting and cleaning up. Everything that had been accumulating here for the past months has now been moved and the last coat(s) of paint were given to the walls and ceiling. All left to do now is give the staircase it's final coat. Can't wait to furnish and decorate! Almost another room we can scratch off our list!

Tomorrow's work: the hallway from the reception to the kitchen!

Today's Picture

More pictures added to the slideshow 'Updates photos of the works...'

Home Sweet Home

After 2 days of travel we are finally back home. It was great to be in Belgium for the holidays, see family and friends, catch up and of course do a little advertising for later this year, but now it's time to get back to work.

A couple of things that are on the to-do list for tomorrow:
- take pictures of the house to post on blog and facebook
- check all the work that has (or hasn't) been done while we were gone
- check with the workmen what the schedule is for the coming week(s)
- make our own schedule for the next weeks/months

Very excited that we're back to business, but first, a good nights sleep!

Boa noite!

To Portugal

Leaving to Portugal in about 2 hours and hope to arrive back home by tomorrow evening.

Have a great rest of your weekend and we'll be in touch with new pictures as soon as we arrive!

Living/Dining room

Here is a before and after picture of what our living/dining room looks like.

BEFORE

AFTER

Happy 2011

We wish everyone a very Happy New Year and an amazing start to 2011!

Angelique, Frederik and Chopin