Plan B

My nephew Bart is here for about two weeks. Specifically to help us renovate the main house, the first floor. We’re brimming with ideas, enthusiasm, zest for life, and willpower; there’s a allocation of tasks and a Plan.

We all know from experience: you have a plan, and then you move on to Plan B

Plan B is the improved version of the original plan. That’s especially true with renovations. Novation is very different from renovation. With renovation, the emphasis is on the RE. And that means you have to come up with all sorts of clever solutions for problems you don’t encounter with new construction.

The Casa Principal – the Big House, as we call it – is due for a major overhaul after 20 years, not only because the previous tenant, who lived there for five years, did all sorts of things they shouldn’t have done. I always like to build relationships with people based on trust, but that’s changed a teeny-tiny little bit after this.

Anyway, enthusiasm makes up for a lot, and ideas are pouring out of the sky (as is the rain), so we’re going for it. We started in July. First, demolition, removing the bath, shoring, supporting, scraping, sanding, plastering the wall, making holes; then insulating, tiling, filling the floor, and finding a new secondhand kitchen. Sanding tables, finding nice chairs online, giving a bed that’s no longer wanted in a former hotel room (too big) the attention it needs…

“Hello! There’s a bed on your dining table,” says cousin Bart as soon as he’s flown in. “Oi, yeah, that little motor needs to come off, I was working on it, nobody actually uses it … but I’m afraid I’ll unscrew things that should actually stay together …” “Well, that’s no problem, it’ll be a piece of cake!” he says, but I reply: “Wait, let’s take a tour first and see your room – that bed won’t go anywhere.”

After the tour, he gets to work with wrenches

That pretty much sets the tone. In the days that follow, I can barely keep up, and I’m very happy that son Broes — cousin Broes, because B and B are full blooded cousins — is getting busy with various Plans B. The sharing of tasks is as follows: the B’s do the things, and I make sure there are things to do things with.

“Okay. So. The list is ready, I’m going to Maternunes, Modernação, SoureTubo, and Lidl. (Yes, hello, we need to eat well too, and the strawberry ice cream is just sitting there.) Then to the sawmill, a quick visit to Silvério and Dom António, and I’ll be back around two o’clock. I have my phone with me.” Yeah, yeah, the cousins are already busy; they’re not paying attention anymore.

Men, eh. Focus. Women … multitasking ….

So, uh … end of blog, because multitasking has its limits as well, and I can’t sleep and think at the same time.

Or can I?

.

(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings.#renovation #cousins #PlanB )

We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.

You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.

Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.

Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.

In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.