Selling the old house

If you buy one house you need to sell another, if you're poor like we are. Selling a house requires the services of estate agents, who will make nice pictures of your house, after you have tidied up to make it presentable. 

I hope we managed to do that, it has taken us a while. Much stuff we moved to Aargh already, leaving only the bare necessities for further living, and estate agent photos.

We think the pictures turned out very nice. We appear to have a very tidy spacious house! Lovely! (We had no idea!)

Estate agent no. 1 was first. Have a look here: https://www.olivehouse-es.com/cortijo-for-sale-in-antas-4-bed-olv2016/

Estate agent no. 2 not only made photos, but also a drone video, and a walkthrough! Have a look here: 

Advert: https://www.nicla-casas.com/index.php/nl/component/iproperty/property/775-vl891-molino-de-agua-antas

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVGSkRdv71c

Walkthrough: https://ths.li/6qGiVIt

Homework 3

There is progress, as you can see below. And the donkey ring is back in place again.

Homework2

When you remove the plaster from a 200-year old house you are bound for surprises. Like old openngs in walls that were there in the past. This one is in the back wall of the house, and a lucky one. We wanted a new ventilation opening for the toilet,
as we used the old one for the pellet stove exhaust pipe, just around the corner at the same height. If only we'd known!

This we'll use as the toilet ventilation. And a nice big cap stone! Perfect!

Same with the front wall. We want a solar air heater there, that needs a pipe inside. That needs a hole in the wall. And it's already there! Near perfect spot!

Other surprises are that some people use old cement bags to "fill" holes, and simply plaster that over.
We call that "ansteystyle" work, after the previous owner, who used this kind of "finish" in more places.

Also at the back of the house: the donkey ring. That was used to tie your donkey. And that happened often,
as the ring is well worn. And see how it is attached to the wall? Smithy work around a pebble, and that set in mortar. Sorry the pebble is broken while removing the plaster.

I'm using the opportunity to treat all woodwork of the windowframes that are now accessible, with the plaster removed. Permethrin against termites and woodworm, and a few treatments with tung-oil for protection against water and humidity.
Around all window frames there's actual plaster (gypsum). That is traditional here, but also a bad idea. Gypsum is not waterproof. On the contrary, it attracts water. Lucky we have a dry climate here, and all woodwork is in very good condition. One exception is the lower beam of this window frame. It has been nibbled in the past. Now it has permethrin on/in it, and every termite or woodworm that sets its teeth in it will be taught a lesson.

If you look carefully you can see there was a door here, once.

The wooden beam is still in the wall. Just a bit of tree trunk, complete with bark. The bark is all gone (eaten), but the center wood still has some strength.

Homework

Here we go again. One more job, hopefully, because of the state of the house. The plaster is loose. Wether this is caused by age is a good question.
It's not 200 years. Yet it needs replacing. That will happen the next few weeks. With an electric thing the plaster is hammered off off the walls, and that's going pretty quickly. Which is for the better, as we have a lot of walls.

Concrete

Today it's time for the new concrete edge around the house, but this time with a correct slope to drain off rain water.

On top of the concrete they will apply this bitumen, with a ridge. On top of that a thin layer of gravel, then géotextile, then a nice decorative gravel.

Coup de coeur #9: Serena

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

The filature was the last house in France we visited, in May 2015, before we decided that we'd look further south, and try the south of Spain. To my surprise that is an area that has very many watermills, even though there are no true rivers, and very little rainfall. The region does have very big "aquifers", underground water reservoirs, that were tapped and used for irrigation, and to run watermills.

Those mills are not the kind you see in France, with a big paddle wheel dipped in a river, happily paddling along. The mills in Spain all have an individual reservoir above a horizontal waterwheel that is slowly filled, and is emptied on the wheel on demand. That reservoir can be filled slowly with an aqueduct, and allows the miller to do his work for about 15-20 minutes.

The picture is the Molino de Serena, not far from Bédar, sitting in a valley of it's own, really private and peaceful and quiet. An irrigation canal supplies the mill with water, as it does to irrigate the citrus field that belongs to this property too.

Lovely view away from the house. Can you hear the birds?

For us the location is absolutely lovely, it has much of what we want. Peace and quiet, a lot of space, no direct neighbours, irrigation water, and quite a big house (200m2+).

There are "but"s here, too. The house is big, but the space is divided into a lot of tiny rooms on three levels. There is only one room in the house, on the first floor, that has a decent size. The kitchen on the ground floor is not usable for us, the ceiling is only 2 meters. This is a house that was built year by year, room by room, as more space was needed by the then owners, the available skills, and materials. So there is an eclectic mix of techniques. We've tried very hard so visualize how to better the layout, and even went as far as to ask an architect if the cellar could be converted to a garage, and if some walls could be removed. All in all, we finally decided it was a step too far, even though the location is A++.

It was cheaper than the house we finally bought, but with the work needed to make the house nice(r) we estimated the cost would be the same. And still the house would not be really our taste, as we prefer big open spaces.

It's still for sale as far as I know: http://www.olivehouse-es.com/property_sales/listings/l0806.html