As most of you already know, we lost our beloved little Alfie in early November. He made the car trip back to France just fine and he was SO HAPPY to be home. Then within a few days, he started to decline and we knew what we had to do. Although we miss him terribly, we are excited for the freedom being “pet-free” will bring us.
We are already stretching our wings—actually went out for Friday Night Cocktails (FNC) with friends yesterday. Can’t tell you how long it’s been! Anyway, in that same vein, last week we hopped on a flight to Spain to visit the house and do the furniture shopping that we didn’t accomplish during our October trip, due to Alfie being fairly ill.
View from our room at the harbour in Denia.
Yep, work has begun…
Well, we are over the moon with the progress on the reno—the team is going great guns on the house. I know many of you are asking for photos—and it seems I mostly have many, many shots of similar photos of the same floor tile, in different rooms. Tile in the kitchen. Tile upstairs. Tile in the bedroom. Tile downstairs. Yada, yada.
Sometimes in renovations, serendipitous things happen. We showed up and I had told the contractor that I wanted to paint out the dark beams in the kitchen and breakfast room, since we were joining the two rooms and the beams were headed in different directions. Well, we showed up and all of the beams in the whole house had been primed. I was surprised, but pleasantly! What a great mistake. It de-Spanish-izes the villa quite a bit, which will go a long way in modernising it.
The wall in the kitchen is history! Note the nice white beams.
Who knew it was this easy to get rid of an ugly fireplace?
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- Creating a bedroom suite upstairs. The dividing wall for the bathroom is up.
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- Plumbing marks for the fixtures in the new bathroom upstairs.
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- New-to-me technique of ensuring large-scale tiles are even.
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- New floors are done downstairs.
My new doorway for the master bathroom.
During our trip, we scored twin sofas and a couple of side chairs for the living room. Also got a couple of tv chairs for our itsy-bitsy media room. We were impressed with the way the Spanish are willing to configure their models to get you exactly what you might want. You want a dining table 5 cm narrower than what they have in the showroom? No problem. You want softer cushions and custom upholstery on that sofa? No problem. Theo’s stamina for furniture shopping did not equal my maniacal endurance, but when we did reach a consensus, I was quick to call it a “done deal!”
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- Not sure Theo likes…
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- …all this shopping business!
The folks at the shop where we ended up buying the lion’s share didn’t have exactly the models we were interested in, so they called the manufacturer and set up a personal visit for us with an absolutely delightful gal who spoke flawless English! We were driving to Alicante anyway, so we took a slight detour inland. We sat our butts in every possible sofa in the private showroom. You just have to find THE ONE that has the right combination of softness, back support, cushion depth and, of course, the right arms. It’s me we’re talking about here. Not just all the comfort boxes to tick, but it must meet the aesthetic criteria as well!!!
Sunrise in Alicante. Living large at yet another fab hotel on the water.
Funny little story about the town, Yecla, where we visited the manufacturer. When we were driving through town, there was one furniture manufacturer after another, with bodegas tucked between. It was quite weird, actually. When we asked about it, the sales gal told us that the town used to be all wine makers, then there was a bad year and the grapes failed to produce, but the farmers had already ordered their wood to make the casks. They quickly reinvented themselves into furniture makers to use the excess wood. Pretty remarkable, actually, tragedy as the mother of invention. To this day, these are the two industries in Yecla: furniture and wine (two of my favorite things, I must say…)
Bloody Mary on the menu after shopping with Mr. T!
The interior vibe for the Spanish house is leaning more mid-century than I had anticipated, but we’re both excited to have something completely different than we have in France.
I have spent the last few days ordering like a mad woman. Where I could profit an extra 10-30% on Black Friday items that were on my list, I went ahead and ordered. Many light fixtures are on their way!
We’re expecting the apartment to be done by mid-December, with the upstairs following in January. Furniture should be delivered in January, so we will plan to head back down (with a very full car, no doubt) after the New Year.
And most important of all…he still loves it!