Things get started!!! scary!!!!

I know this update is well over due, so sorry guys, I have been trying to spend less time at my PC and more time on the land, which is what I have been doing!

We had moved up to Sella in January if you remember,waiting for planning permission to be approved and also that we had a house with 4 walls and a roof. Rich headed back to the UK for work during July and I drove over to meet him and spend some time with the family.

Great views but too far from the real world for me!

Whilst driving to Orkney so Rich could guide on "The Old Man" we called in at Lancaster and bought a 21ft caravan, as you do! This would kill 2 birds with one stone as we needed to bring back bits and pieces from the house in Devon that we sold last year and we needed a new home down on the land.

Leaving Lancaster with the "lounge"

Once at The Orange House we emptied out all the crap we had towed for miles and started to rip the caravans guts out. It had a large bedroom at the back which I knew would make a great little kitchen and the main part we ripped out the bathroom to allow space for us to chill out and watch our massive TV.

It is still not finished inside but it does look alot better and is a great place to hide from the world!

I wrote this blog entry from there as you can see from the pc on the seat and the pussy cat Thomas sleeping at the side of me.

Before we had left for the UK Phil our lovely builder said he knew of a little caravan that we could maybe use on the land, he warned me it was little and I said that would be great and we would collect when we came back from the UK.

I called him one afternoon and said I could pop over with Jenny and collect the van if that was ok, he took a second to say, “we really need Rich with us” to which I replied “ I am sure I am more than capable of hitching up a caravan” sexist bugger! He laughed and said “ I forgot to tell you its laying on its side!” I laughed back, forgave him and said "OK we will wait for Rich to come with us".

Only I could go to collect a caravan that has been laying on its side in the mountains for over a year!

Off we set in the Nissan to collect it, I wish we had a photo of the poor thing on its side, and when Phil said little, he meant LITTLE, this thing is tiny but it was love at first sight.

With Jen and me on one side, Phil and Rich on the other and one little gentle push, over she went back to the same spot she had stood on over 12 months before.

We pumped up the tyres and drove back and forward a few times to unlock the handbrake and off we went back over the mountain tracks. I reckon she is vintage 70's and I will keep her forever, at the moment she is now making us a perfect dressing room. When all this is finished I will restore her back to her true self and use her in the garden as a guest room. My good friend Kim already spent the night in her and I am sure slept peacefully.

We had a moving out date from Sella, September 1st. I did sort of enjoy living up there but I have not driven up since. The last few drives up drove me crazy and I knew that living only 8 minutes door to door from The Orange House would be amazing ( and it is, now we are back in full season again!).

We worried, well Rich worried about driving the caravans into place, I had more faith, but don’t I always? The baby van went it first, easily pushed into her space, however, she does weigh nothing. Next big van, we had help from family and friends but really she was easy too. Backed in with a great view from my lounge window, Puig and the girls.

"well that was easy"

Then the camper-van, the last piece in our jigsaw, our bedroom and bathroom. She too was easy to reverse in and all sorted, 3 vans under our magic tree and the girls on the terrace just below.

Rich happy under the magic tree as we call it!

Polly watching!

Maybe I should have cut his ropes?

Water will be our main problem living up here, we have none! We do have a little well on the bottom terrace so Rich decided one day to take a look, nothing to see really apart from a large hole in the ground, but he had fun exploring.


Jose and Irene our architects came to draw out white lines in cement dust on the 8th October. This is starting to feel more real, the only downside is we discover that when we dug out a space last year we didn’t dig out enough. The machine and Phil would have to return.

more land needed

Phil and digger return and we have a bigger and better space with more soil dumped at the front to make us feel slightly better about sliding down the hillside.

Jose returned again to mark out the lines again and guess what that is our house!

My home, gulp!

The next instalment will be, how the hell do we get tonnes and tonnes of cement up this hillside with no water and tight bends! Watch this space...

.

Plans approved no stopping us now!

So much has happened since I last blogged where do I start?

The summer was hot but we loved living on the land with our great big tent lounge, we had sky TV and our 42" TV. Sleeping in the van at night with the van windows wide open kept us cool, when all around people moaned about the heat! All our friends thought us mad (whats new?) and would beep horns as they went past the road at the bottom!

My magic tree as I called it!

Who else would have sky and a 42" telly in a tent?

In September my good friend Cathy booked an amazing villa in Altea and invited us to go and stay with her. Real bedroom with en-suite bathroom, swimming pool etc do you think we hesitated at all!

The Orange House then become empty as it was the start of the new season so we took a room whilst we worked on getting it ready.

A few weeks into September and we had a frantic phone call from Danny a friend who passed the land on his way home to say " your bloody tents blowing around, come quick!" SHIT!

It was a complete mess, the weight of the rain had ripped every seem apart, we think the sun must have destroyed the stitching. Poor tent :0(

While the tent was still up one hot August day I decided to search on line for a beach front flat (like you do!). It took me to a website with a little picture of a house which we knew! We could not believe that it was prime climbing land in Sella. Tony Pearson a good friend was over at the time and we all decided to try and buy it. That would give us a home of sorts until we could get this one built!

At the same time I started to search for an architect and during a google session I found this great Spanish website - http://www.casasdepaja.org/

I sent them a message asking if they could recommend anyone that could liase with the Townhall and get my plans passed. I had an email within a few days from a lovely young girl called Irene from a little further south and we started to chat about my plans. This is a house that she has designed and had built -

This house is also built with Straw Bales! 

January 2013 and we get the keys for the old farmhouse in Sella and move in there. Really, really busy season at The Orange House so nothing happens on the land, in fact we don't even visit. We pass it each day  however and both say "god I can't wait till we live up there". Driving up to the other house which takes 45 mins each trip is a pain in the arse.

I downloaded a free piece of software for my ipad and started to have a think about what we wanted to build, (did you all notice the royal "we" been used, poor Rich). We had however spent some of last year in a bungalow near the village and both loved living on one level, so that was an easy decision. NO STAIRS! 

We had cleared a small plot to place the tent on so that really helped to decide the size of the house. As we had dug away from the terrace above I had the idea to build the house towards the front which would allow me to have a very private courtyard garden at the back of the house. This is something I have always wanted and in my head I can already see that finished with massive green plants, running water etc a real moroccan feel.

I can see this in my head already only slighty smaller of course! lol

I sent my designs to Irene and left it to her to get it to a state that the School Of Arquitects in Alicante would approve and then allow her to send into the townhall. At the end of May as she promised and with plans signed off in Alicante we had a quick 15 minute visit to the townhall in Orcheta and that was it! We have been told the plans are approved and they have sent us a letter with the tax we have to pay and thats it! YIPPEE!!!!!

Here are the plans which show the layout, the corner will be 3 long thin windows, ceiling to seat height. The view will be Puig Campana! The actual doors will be double both at the front and into the courtyard. In the future this bedroom will go and we will have a larger lounge and we will build a bedroom and massive en-suite one level down, but thats a long way off!

We will have a walk in wardrobe which I have always wanted and a larder! how exciting! 

Now we are on the look out for bales as we have been told this is the time to buy them. We visited the land today to take a look at where we will store them when they arrive.

This is all getting very real now and can't wait to get started, just need to get the summer out of the way and then no stopping us.........

Too hot to think never mind work!

Its been a while since I blogged but to be honest not much has changed on the land. The temps this week are due to hit 40 in the shade so we are spending most of our time on the beach of finding cool place to chill with the dogs.
Some good news is we have found a lovely Spanish arquitect called Irene who has built in Strawbales before and works as a teacher at the School of Arquitects in Alicante so she is in the right place to move things along!
It might be hot during the day but we are loving the evenings up there, the sun leaves us at around 6pm and we always have a breeze, we are sleeping in the motorhome with the windows wide open each night and we even find it quite cool when sleeping. I guess we are lucky!

This is similair to the method we will be working with starting in October when its cooler to work, although we need to be quick as the bales can not get wet!!

And please people dont say "three little piggies to me"! lol

A few people have been in touch and said "what are you doing?" well we are working hard at The Orange House and have done very little on the land.

I am heading to the Townhall on Wednesday and asking what we are able to build without doing too many plans etc. What we really want to do is have a practice buid with Strawbales which will be quick and cheap.

Watch this space :0)

Resolve testing stuff, or have we made a big bloody mistake?

We know about the strong winds in Spain, we have lost palm trees, and roofs in the past! So what the heck made me think that my tent with its 3 metre metal poles will be fine on the side of a flippin hillside?

It started during the night and we kept out eyes on the guide ropes, pulling em in etc. In the morning we decided to have a quick cup of tea and a some chocolate biscuits, the tent was moving around and making us laugh and the noise outside, then before our very eyes the metal poles just bent nearly over in half! (F*"$ing heck!), I quickly jumped up and moved the TV off the stand and onto the floor and made a grab for the pole to stop it bending anymore. Rich just looked at me and said " you better keep hold of that I need to go and buy some strong large pieces of timber to hold the thing up" and off he ran!

So I am stood in a tent in the pissing rain with it bent in half and I have no idea how long Rich will be shopping. This is where I am really glad that I have an ipad with a 3g sim in it. On with Chris Evans Radio Two to keep me company and I am able to use skype to contact The Orange House.

"Ben get your arse up here quick and bring as many blokes as you can find"

20 minutes later Ben, Tony and Niall, wet through and covered in mud appear in the tent door. I can let go! Rich comes 30 mins later and the poles are reinforced with timber and the tent looks like it should again.

Rich then has to head off to get more supplies and I end up stranded, the road is a mud bath and no cars going up or down, what the hell have we gone and done!!!!!

:0)

We move onto the land!

Woke up this morning and decided I had had enough sleeping next to the car park at The Orange House.

Poor Rich, its his only day off this week and all change again. I wanted to be the one to drive our large campervan Eddie (named after Eddie Izzard as the van is a Transit (trannie!) bad joke sorry!). I set off all full of hope that it would climb the steep hill no trouble with me driving, well I was wrong and after many wheel spins, burnt rubber and stalling I gave up and said "Rich you do it". He managed up the first bend and then got very, very stuck on the second, the ground was just too soft and poor Eddie was just slipping back. Time to attach a rope and hope that Nellie the Nissan (no reason for that name!) would be able to tow Eddie up!

Rich didn't think it would work as the clutch has seen better days on Nellie and the ground is very soft, we have not had rain in nearly 3 months, the whole hillside is a dust bowl. However, I had hope and with Rich behind the wheel of Nellie, me driving Eddie again off we went. The boys had ran away up the hillside to get away from me shouting them and watched from above.

How cool are we? With a few spins and a horrible burning smell slowly up we went, next bend was easy and on the last and we though the worst as its tight, Rich stopped Nellie and we realised we could turn Eddie and reverse from here all the way to the top. He was right and cruised up the next bit with me putting Nellie into the only passing spot we have and waiting.

Tonight we will be sleeping on our hillside I cant wait.

Here are a few more photos as the boys then got straight to work finishing off the steps and the platform for the tent to sit on.

Tyres arrive on site!

We now have one large plot around 10ms squared, however a few corners didnt get dug out as we broke Phils machine! So here is me having a go with the pickaxe.

Pretending to help!

Rich made his first trip to the tyre place and came back with a van full. Shame we don't have the sizes that we need sorted yet. I have since found a great website OffthegridBuild with a guy called Dan Richfield (cool name) I might have to head over to Taos, New Mexico to visit him :0).

Here are the steps in progress, very "suck it and see" at this stage. Goats seem to enjoy having us around!