Spain: It’s All Ours!

Wow, gotta get caught up with y’all!

Ready to go!

https://www.waze.com

We took a little 2 week break to finalise the deal on the house in Spain the last week of June and first week of July. Drove down in the BMW (the cruiser), since we needed to take Alfie with us. On the way there, we made it a 2-dayer, staying overnight in Girona in northern Spain. But coming home, we decided to stay an extra day and drive it in one lump. It was 10.5 hours door-to-door, including garbage drop off, pee breaks, snack purchases, and gas-ups. I drove most of it and have to admit that I did not stick to the limit…not even close…but no love letters from any cameras along the way so far! Found a great app called WAZE that alerts you to speed cameras and up-to-date traffic information. Invaluable!

Before closing, the sellers showed us all the details of the house and gave us tons of contacts, so I think we’re in pretty good shape. As I mentioned in an earlier post, they left a lot of stuff behind, even staples in the fridge, so it was very, very easy to just move in.

The sellers threw themselves a going away party and invited us to meet their circle of neighbours and friends. It was a lovely evening and a great opportunity to make some contacts in the community (of course, forgot to take some pics).

After taking over the house, we proceeded to start digging through the ‘stuff.’ And boy, there is a lot of stuff! (little secret…there were a LOT of owls). It’s not all keepers, but it sure was nice to not have to rush out and buy things under duress.

The butter yellow leather furniture Theo has lovingly coined “The Walruses.”

Even though we were provided with floor plans, they were not the final build plans, so I proceeded to remeasure and draw the house plan on my computer, which took an amazing amount of time, but I’m sure glad I have it now. It’s so much easier to pick furniture, window dressings, etc, with the measurements. I’m a maniac like that!

We’ve nicknamed this monster “The Beast.” It’s a quality custom-made piece for the entryway, but is massive! The top is 50″ tall and it’s 3-3/4 yards long!!! Will try to repurpose it or find someone else who loves it! Maybe paint it and use in my studio.

So, not that you care, but I plan to share my design inspirations here, if for nothing else, to make me gather my thoughts and start narrowing down what to do with the place.

Even though it’s move-in-able (my word), I need to make some changes. But, of course! It is a fabulous property and I think with some updating and contemporizing, if we want to sell down the line, we will be in great shape.

The biggest think I didn’t like about the property is the floor tiles. They are standard-issue, dated, and not my style. But they are in fantastic shape, so we should be able to tile right over them. There is underfloor heating, so our choices are a bit limited. Am leaning toward a large-scale wood-look tile (even though I’ve never like them much before, being a purist snob, given the circumstance, they make great sense!)

This is what I’m thinking to update the floors.

The second biggest project will be the kitchen. It is a top-of-the-line kitchen from 16 years ago, but it is tiny. And I am not. I need more space. And it’s a bit on the dark side in there. And so the “Siemens” kitchen has to go. Did I mention they said it was a Siemen’s kitchen? I’m hoping to sell it complete with appliances, but if not, we may consider moving it to the apartment downstairs to upgrade that space. My plan is to remove a wall between the kitchen and the winter garden to let in more light and simply open up the space.

Current kitchen.

Current winter garden. The wall (out of the picture to the right) will go.

The bathrooms need to be gutted and redone, but this should be fairly straightforward. Nothing scares me anymore!

Master bath. The baby blue crap is going. The corner tub goes bye-bye. The pissoir and bidet, ugh! And the ugly vanity. It all goes! Square bathrooms are not easy to design, but I’ll figure it out.

And here is the teeny-tiniest guest bath of all times. Would never pass inspections in the States! But I think I can do better. The pink is history!

Did I mention the owls? It started actually freaking us out a bit, as we looked around, in each room, another one! And another one! And did you notice that one??? Eeeks. We love owls, since we have the nesting couple in France, but yikes!, some of these have to go!

I’m still looking for decorating inspiration, but am thinking something on the contemporary side with splashes of antiquties and quirky. Am currently gathering ideas and will be putting together design boards very soon.

While we were there, we made it into a mini vacation. With many dips a day into the pool, I actually read a non-fiction book, which is a rarity in my life these days. But I think I will be able to switch my focus in Spain, since the garden is all on drip irrigation and the house will be finished, I can turn my attention to other things (in contrast with the never-ending long, long list of to-do’s in France). I can actually just enjoy the mediterranean garden and not be so obsessed with the garden, as in France.

Okay, enough for today. More details on Spain soon. In the meantime, we have endured the second horrible heat wave in France, with the garden getting scorched. Then two days of rain! At least everything is greening up again and it makes the weeds a bit easier to pull! All is well with us, though. Lots of social gatherings in the summer and I try to hit as many brocantes as possible to stock up on Etsy store stock!