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Home ImprovementHome Improvement, i.e. re-development by one pair of hands Perleta Magic is a reality borne of default and design, with many creative inputs coming from ideas gleaned when we've been on vacation. Vacation ideas are the out-of-left-field thoughts that unexpectedly emerge from the subconscious and elbow out the current focus in your conscious… much like talking to a friend, and then a celebrity interrupts and starts to talk to you Your reaction is then based on the interest factor (rather than focus on the rude interruption).
That and completely refurbishing the London house and also building a garage extension as well honing my construction skills (other than plastering – best leave that to dedicated artisans). Now that was home improvement, but it got truly worse before it got better. This section is a series of articles describing our trials and tribulations in bringing vacation ideas to life in transforming a tired country property into this thing called Perleta Magic – we’ve done 90% of it ourselves and managed to capture essences of our travels and instil them in the property one way or another. Souvenirs from travels: tourist tat or treasured mementoes? That depends who bought them and why. Some souvenirs you don’t even buy … er, not helping yourself to the Broadway street sign in New York, rather an unexpected gift while you are on vacation. For example, a week holiday in Frejus south of France, 1997. We happened upon an out of the way restaurant one night and enjoyed fabulous food and a delicious bottle of wine that was delivered in one of those rustic terracotta wine coolers, like the ones that appear in glossy magazines and attract an outrageous price. This wine cooler had the vineyards name fused into the side, which was the same name on the bottle… a nice touch, although I dare say only high-priced restaurants in London, New York, LA etc would use this tactic as a differentiator. Maybe we were just lucky, or it is done everywhere in Frejus? Perhaps like in Belgium where beer is only served in the glass bearing the name of the beer. We returned the following night for another great evening, and I asked if we could buy the wine cooler, since they had many of them lining up on a table near the bar. Imagine our surprise and delight when they gave it to us for free. The wine cooler is used on the odd occasions and we fondly remember our time in Frejus. We even use souvenirs as building material: a colourful set of ceramic drinks coasters from a small arts and crafts stall at Merida in Mexico, are embedded in the surrounding walls of the Perleta Magic firepit . I suppose the greater question that has to be asked is: now you’ve got this place, what are you going to do with it, even if you have named it Perleta Magic? We bought the property because we liked the environment in Spain, and needed to relocate to a warmer climate to give Jacqui a better environment for rehabilitation (suffered at stroke in 1995: see Inspiration:Cookbooks tab for details), aim at staying two years, and me to do occasional contract work (am IT consultant). And to utilise whatever materials that were left by the previous owner, using my own resources rather than contractors, given my interest and personal experience in building, electrical, plumbing etc. That and having an interest in construction, including redeveloping three properties in London, UK, so I haven't exactly rushed into creating Perleta Magic without a bit of practice, having cut my teeth, and on occasion other parts of my body(!), on earlier projects. Having a technical background in IT doesn’t exactly lend itself to major building works, but it’s always good to have alternate interest than your given profession. Redesigning an IT infrastructure down to the nuts and bolts and then rebuilding it possibly has more in common with creating a rim-edge swimming pool in Spain than you might realise. Perleta Magic was going to test that to the limit, and it was going to take more than a few interface cards slotted in and a quick bit of fancy bit of typing on the CLI. What we arrived to: a basic property 2900 m2 of land, roughly a rectangle, bordered by a main gate and eight foot high concrete wall at the front and a hurricane fence plus concrete wall and 3m high swing gates at the rear (borders a small country road or a camino, and pine trees). We have Spanish neighbours either side.
The previous owner Older guy, about 70, plus wife and array of family members. He was a retired builder. The rear oficina car park was full of building materials and old building apparatus. This included copious quantities of paving slabs, marble, and offcuts of various type of stone. The oficina was a veritable trove of useless and useful items… in general terms lots to maybe make use of. The oficina was in poor condition, structurally and in general appearance - the first tool I thought of that would make an immediate improvement was a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer. On second thoughts, a pile of rubble couldn't be considered a shining example of what Perleta Magic was supposed to be about, and besides: the only thing Magic in a pile of rock is if it was made of precious minerals. The casa was comfortably basic and liveable, plus, as a bonus some the furniture was left in the house. The casita was a bit rough but tidy, although not really liveable in the normal sense of the word. ... The previous owner may have been a builder but the straight edge and/or square /levels were 'relative' ... but this was his summer house. ‘Summer house’ generally means long days and even longer nights of drinking, eating and watching football on the TV, so perhaps the work undertaken here was after the beer, not beforehand or perhaps the next morning during the lengthy hangover phase. Or maybe working in +38C heat, the sweat pouring down one forehead tends to blur the sunglasses so that little yellow phial in the level isn't really in the middle at all. First thoughts:- Demolish the chicken coops and get rid of all the rubble by extending the oficina car park Orchard needs tiding up, and there are many unkempt trees all over the property that just have to go The rest of the property needs lots of plant colour (other than green) Rebuild the oficina in its original footprint from a garage to a self-contained dwelling Reform the pool to something more acceptable Build a separate outdoor bar + BBQ area Modify and redecorate the casita in its original footprint. Replace the offcut stone car park surface at the front of the house with something else What's been done: The pool turned into a Caribbean-style reset pool Oficina turned in to the ‘bungalow’ Casita turned into the ‘guesthouse’ Huge summer kitchen and built-in barbecue area Colour added to the garden, lots of it… Rear patio now has an exotic circular firepit on it called the 'CrocPit' A practice golf net next to the firepit Car park impression-concreted over Myriad of different projects, in amongst general upkeep of the place… Quite a few guests have come and gone - fabulous guests.. they all had a great time. ... and the chicken coops definitely went: it was one of the very first jobs... See the current condition of Perleta Magic. |
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