During one of our weekend house hunts through Portuguese villages, we ran into a nice old and broken house and got curious to find out who the owner was to ask if it is up for sale.
A Happy Coincidence
We were pointed to another location in order to get more detailed information about this house that we have ran into and that was it, from the first moment we entered the tunnel of centenary oak trees that lead to the front of the house, we just knew that we’ve accidentally found our dream property – an 80m2 traditional house – with an interior garden area, old barns, totally destroyed wine cellars, a backyard with 425 pear trees and lots of potential to up-cycle it into a beautiful rural home with around 500m2 of living area to make use of.
60cm-thick Stone Walls
The house is mainly made of stone and adobe walls, with primitive versions of natural concrete binding everything in place.
We learned that the current owners live abroad for many decades and that the place was just abandoned for over 20 years since someone lived in here.
Over 7.000m2 of Land
We’ve contacted the representative of the property owner that same day and got to know all the details about the ground areas, a little background story on the house, how it was progressively built prior 1951 and the most important part that it might be for sale!
We’ve received a quote from the owner, exchanged phone numbers, and just slept on it for sometime. Corona Virus was at this point just starting to be heard of.
The more days passed the more concerns were had – World Health Organisation declaring COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic – the more we knew that this was going to be the place of freedom while aiming to become a self sufficient family.
We made an offer and negotiated a deal for nearly 40% less than we were initially being asked, leaving us plenty of room to restore this amazing place and add value to the local cultural heritage.
Follow along our biggest DIY project yet. Feel free to share insights or just say hi anytime.