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In Part I Paul Whitelock described how he came to buy the house that was to become Casa Real and the early stages of the work. Then disaster struck …
Everything was going fine until we discovered that the kitchen ceiling, also the floor of the room on the first floor that was to become the second bathroom, was unsafe. On investigation, we discovered that the wooden beams had rotted.
Andy, a structural engineer friend, who lives in the village, advised that we would probably have to demolish that part of the house and rebuild it – not cheap!
Jorge and José, however, reckoned they could avoid that by replacing the wooden vigas one by one with reinforced steel concrete beams. This is what they did painstakingly, but with great success.
That crisis over we spent the next several months gradually renovating the house. The two Js did the masonry and plastering and heavy lifting, while I converted the existing bathroom into a modern and stylish wetroom. I had a bit of help from José with the plumbing, but I did all the tiling myself. A very relaxing and satisfying enterprise – it easily beats inspecting schools, my last job before I retired.
Despite two further Covid-19 lockdowns, which cost us four months when we couldn’t work, a year after we started, Casa Real is nearing completion.
I decided to call the house Casa Real in honour of Armando and his family and forebear who had owned and occupied the house for three generations, its entire life in fact. Why Real? That means royal or real, doesn’t it? Well, it’s also their family surname.
There were tears in the eyes of at least one sibling when they found out. They were dead chuffed!
The concluding part of this trilogy, Casa Real Part III – What next?, is coming soon.
