Allie in the South of Spain

One of the biggest investments of our renovation so far has definitely been new windows. Jose and I decided to replace all of the old, super not energy efficient windows with what ended up being the most expensive options we could find. They are also the highest rated for sound and energy which we are hoping makes our house much more liveable in the heat of summer. They were finally delivered a few weeks ago and we had them installed. We opted for a dark brown frame which will contrast nicely with what will eventually be a white exterior of the house. I'm not sure if I mentioned in previous posts or not but almost all houses here have security bars on their windows, at least on the first floor. Right now the bars on our windows are in good shape (they are strongly welded and in that sense safe) but they are really retro-looking and will need a lot of work to get sanded and painted. I'm hoping we will have to budget to switch them out this spring. The layout of this house was a ...

 I mentioned here previously that we had found a house, put in an offer and were waiting and waiting and waiting for the paperwork to go through but I hadn't been back to say that we finally signed on the dotted line a few months ago in November. My mom reminded me that I have followers back home who would like to know how things were going on our renovation so I've hopped over here to post some pictures of everything that's been going on. Before shot of kitchen Bathroom that was next to kitchen Wall that came down New wall in the kitchen Not long after finally getting the keys the demolition process started on our house. We decided to take down a wall between the tiny kitchen to take up some of the space that had once been a tiny bathroom. We were able to expand the kitchen into a small one and then have a nice sized (for Spain, mind you) bathroom. Basically we combined two bathrooms into one and the kitchen got a bit bigger. Wall down in the girls' room We also took o...

This is a follow up to my last blog about our trip to Extremadura, 3 hours to the north of Seville. While there exploring some of the monumental cities in the region we stayed in Trujillo in a hotel that was a converted monastery from the 16th century. One of the cool things that Jose and I have done a few times (hoping to do more in the future) is to stay in hotels which have been created in historic buildings. Here in Spain there are lots of options like castles or paradores where you can sleep in a unique place. Our hotel had a pool but unfortunately we could only go for an hour a day due to COVID restrictions. We took full advantage in the afternoons after spending our mornings sightseeing. The hotel also offered a good breakfast which is always a plus. Trujillo was the home of Francisco Pizzaro, the explorer, so of course the main square is crowned by a gigantic statue of him. We were pleased to find that there weren't many other tourists around and at some points it seemed we...

  This past week Jose, the girls and I drove about three hours north of Seville to visit Extremadura, a region of Spain which was used pretty extensively in the Game of Thrones series because of its beautifully well-preserved architecture and natural scenery. HBO shot throughout Spain (including in and around Seville) during the series' run and it's easy to see why. Although we stayed in another city, we spent one day in Caceres which is famous for its medieval walled city that has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We contracted a walking tour and braved the high temperatures to explore the many palaces, churches and stone streets found inside the Monumental City, several of which were used by GofT. I especially liked hearing about how the squabbles and fights between the city's nobility affected the architecture as they tried to outdo one another with family shields, balconies, towers and how one family financed changing the angle of the most famous arch so that a c...