Renovating The finca

Where do you start on a project this big?

The house

When we arrived we came towing a nine-metre-long caravan that we planned to live in until we got round to renovating the main farm house. It was in such a state that we couldn’t imagine living in it.

However, after a couple of months of finding our feet we sat down to create a scheme of works. With the money we had left from the sale of our UK home, what could we achieve here?

In short, not very much. It was a case of either renovating the house, or creating a holiday cottage. With no income for the foreseeable future on account of having to give up our jobs in the UK for visa purposes, we had to prioritise creating accommodation for tourism. Without a means of making money we would not be able to stay here.

We would then use the money generated from the business to invest in renovating the house.

At this point we realised that this would mean living in a caravan for three years. No thanks.

It seemed completely bonkers to be living in a caravan whilst owning an enormous property. So we looked at it again. Was it really so bad? For the next few weeks we put our efforts into clearing out and cleaning the house. This was no small task. After three months in the caravan, as spring arrived and temperatures rose, we took the leap. We could always move back into it if it was too grim in the house.

It was ok - clean and with our own furniture in it began to feel like home. But then came the spring storms. Multiple nights we were in our pyjamas at 4am mopping up water as it poured through the windows and ceiling. So arose our first major task since the cleaning - replacing (or simply installing in some cases) new windows.