Moving In, Settling Down

On Tuesday January 28 we met with a local handyman, Andrew, a Brit who has been living in Portugal for 10 years.  He used to do odd jobs for the former owners here, and will come out on Saturday to move a washing machine and discuss some tree and bush pruning.

Then more shopping.  Andrew will need a hand truck, so we stopped at a couple small general hardware stores.  The people were so friendly, and the clerks we meet usually speak a few words of English.  At the second spot the clerk pulled out his phone and showed us pictures of his friend from New York, who lives just up the road now.  We had a sweet conversation, all three of us (Pat is getting bolder and more confident).  Unfortunately neither of the shops had our hand truck, so we left for a bigger bricolage (DIY) store and got a nice one.

Then off to Pingo Doce, a Portuguese grocery chain, for some lunch and grocery shopping.  We had chicken legs (pernas de frango) and broccoli (brócolos) with a half bottle of vinho verde for lunch.  Delicious!  Gerrit bought some safio (conger eel) fillets at the grocery, so we'll see how that goes.  Eel is quite the Portuguese delicacy.  The fillets are lurking in the freezer till Gerrit figures out what to do with them.

Back home we unloaded our haul and did some more moving in.

On Wednesday we built some of our new Ikea furniture and cleaned house a little.  We now have a nice computer table and one of the new cabinets is installed in the master bath.  We also rearranged the furniture in the front room (see below).  The computer (office) table is now off to the side of the couch, next to the back window with a gorgeous view to the other side from the valley as we sit at our keyboards.  It's very easy to get distracted.

Here are some homey photos of a pork roast dinner at the dining room table with the fire crackling in the background and one of the beautiful sunsets we enjoy here.

We had a visit from our lift estimator too.  She made the final measurements, which she was unable to do due to weather on her first visit, so she has everything she needs to start the manufacturing process.  The target for installation is eight weeks from today.

Pat found in the Portugal News that the electric utility REN is reporting that 73% of its energy in the first part of 2025 came from renewable sources, and EDP (the utility we are currently on) is reporting 95% from renewable sources.  That is pretty impressive!

On Thursday we did more cleanup and organization in the house.  We also made a visit to Café Martins for a reference from Nuno for a carpenter and a plumber, to take care of a couple things needed here, and a trip to the local metal fabricator to see about handrails for the stairways.  Gerrit also laboriously cut out felt pads for our eight kitchen chairs and glued them all on.  No more squawking when they drag across the floor!

On Friday we did some grocery shopping, and our housekeeper Inês came for the first time.  She spent four cheerful hours at it and did a beautiful job on the house, leaving everything sparkling clean including the fireplace.  We got to exchange a little Portuguese with her too.  In the evening we joined up with our expat group at the bar in Ponte de Lima once again, meeting some more new people from all over the world.

Saturday was a big day for home fixups.  We had set up visits with the carpenter and a plumber, and handyman Andrew was slated to do some work for us too.  

Dinis the carpenter showed up shortly after lunch with his daughter Marta, and he removed a huge oak bathroom door, took it outside, planed off a few millimeters, and reinstalled it perfectly all in about 20 minutes.  Professional tools and workmanship, a house call, and a total fee of only €15 ($15.50).  We commissioned him to build us some custom notched shelves for the hall closets after seeing his work.  Gerrit managed to have a little Portuguese conversation with him while he worked and afterwards, too.

Andrew and his daughter Jasmine appeared around 4:00 to discuss the pruning we need done and to move the washing machine from the garage to the utility room.

But the plumber didn't show up.  There was probably a misunderstanding, we never talked to him (only Nuno did), but we'll straighten it out on Monday.

Dinis, our housekeeper Inês, Nuno at Café Martins, and the other locals we meet are all neighbors, friends, and relations with one another.  They live just a short walk away from us, and we are pleased to get to know them.  We hope to prove to be good neighbors too.

Saturday night there was a big festival.  We heard marching drums very near, like in the neighboring village of Calheiros, folk songs playing, and there were fireworks going off regularly until about midnight.  We couldn't find anything to celebrate when we Googled the following day, so who knows?  The Portuguese just plain like to celebrate.

On Sunday we got some chores done around the house and then took a little day trip the the nearby city of Viana do Castelo, where the Lima river meets the Atlantic ocean, to visit the Leroy Merlin DIY store (kind of like a Home Depot).  We found many of the items on our list and did some research on some others, so it was quite successful.  We took the back roads home through lovely countryside as the sun set.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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