We were down in Casa Azul sorting things out there when the builder (alive and well, thank goodness) messaged us to say work would begin on Tuesday. So that morning Richard walked up to the house with Betty to see what was happening: nothing. It seems that they would start after lunch…

Not long after 1.30 pm a couple of blokes in a lorry turned up as did the builder in his van. We spent some time with them all discussing (in Portuguese!) what we wanted to keep and what was to be thrown out. Then the builder left and there was us, two men and a crane. We had waited 1,197 days for this, there should have been fireworks! Bells ringing! A choir!

Despite the lack of fanfare the guys slowly but surely over the following days began demolishing the house (we had actually only bought 4 stone walls) and the reality of it all began to set in. At last we are feeling excited.

The crane has proved very successful. The guys fill up a container which is then lifted high over the house and down to the bonfire. The contents are tipped out and off they go again. It’s operated by remote control, all rather nifty.

We missed each time the tiles were taken off but we saw the wooden beams of the roof, and the chimney itself, attached to the end of the crane and hoisted away. Note how black and smokey the ones are which had been over the fireplace.

An electrician turned up. He removed the rather ugly electric cables that linked the house from an equally ugly pole in the garden to the street cables. That pole will be removed. I must say I had my heart in my mouth as he scrambled up what seemed a rather unstable ladder and jauntily climbed to the top. He did wear a harness but no-one considers this a hard hat scenario. (We remembered in Vietnam seeing the fireman at work one day, wearing flip-flops…).

So a lot seems to happen in a day. Already this wall I am looking at has gone:

There’s plenty of demolishing to be done still. The gable ends need to come down, as does the extension:

And of course in the basement the stone tank etc used for wine making needs to be removed (and become some kind of garden feature…). We had wondered how on earth they would do that but now suspect, once the floor boards have all gone, the crane will lift them out. Who knows.

It has been raining most of the today and Richard has gone to see what they’ve been up to. Hurrah, again 🙂