The renovation – well, I say *renovation*, but what I really mean is demolition – started in earnest a few weeks ago. We are very lucky that we’ve bagged ourselves a gorgeous apartment to rent, in a lovely western coastal town called Sanlucar de Barrameda, meaning that we have somewhere comfortable and clean and cosy to live, whilst the house is being knocked to be pieces. To be fair, we knew that this stage would be pretty awful, and each time we’ve visited, it has been exciting and awful in equal measure.

Awful because the house is full of dirt and debris. Scaffolding is up in most of the rooms. All of the windows have been removed. Piles of cement bags and bricks are found in most corners. A couple of cement mixers seem to always be whirring away. Exposed wiring hangs from ceilings. Some ceilings have been removed. Most of the internal ground floor walls have been removed. It is absolutely filthy, in every room. It is, in fact, a building site.

But exciting, too, because with each visit we can see the house we bought disappearing, and our vision of our town house appearing. A lot of original features had been taken out by the previous owner, and over the time he had it, a lot of the house had fallen into disrepair. When we saw the house online, the listing featured imagery from a few years ago, so we were lured in – and, when we actually viewed, we realised exactly why new photographs had not been taken. The listing, with photographs, can be seen here. The scale of the potential project was not lost on us, but by then, we were in too deep, as we had already lost our hearts to this sorry looking Andalucian townhouse. I don’t think the estate agent could quite believe his luck when we rocked up and put in an offer on this very ugly duckling…

Yep, it really was a bit of a mess – and definitely in a much worse condition than the listed photos suggested. But, as soon as we stepped inside the house, we felt the bones of the house and they felt good. We knew that with a lot of work and a lot of thought, a lot of time and a not insubstantial amount of money, we could transform this dilapidated building back into an elegant townhouse. A builder came out to assess the house and we were immediately reassured – he lives in the town, is part of a family business which focuses on the renovation of these properties, has renovated the townhouse directly opposite which is now a stunning airbnb, gave us a comprehensive (and very good) quote for the works, and is now our project manager.

And work has started! Wow, has it started. We want to retain the integrity of the townhouse, and keep as much of the structure as possible, BUT we have had to make some quite big changes. The house is large, but felt quite small because there were a lot of rooms, which felt quite disconnected and which, if not changed, would be very under-used. It also felt quite dark – and having bought a dream house in the Andalucian sunshine, we wanted to capitalise on the beautiful light. So, work has started on re-configuring the living space and certainly on the ground floor, some quite key walls have been removed. Already, the house feels lighter and more spacious. And, we will have the space to live the open plan life we want. But, currently. we’re quite long way off living the dream…

There’s a long, long haul ahead, but it’s amazing how much work has been done in less than three months. And, in less than three months, we are out of of our rented apartment. To be continued…