Estamos de vuelta!

Oops it’s been a little while hasn’t it.. 6 months actually if anyones counting…In hindsight I wonder if I should have prefaced my blogging career with the tiny disclaimer that I do in fact have adhd, not a surprise to many and not something that I hide very well to those that know me, but something that sometimes means I get a tiny bit ahead of myself with hundreds of exciting ideas like blog posts, design ideas, business plans…whilst simultaneously executing 1 or maybe 2 of them. Sort of like that time Brett and I decided to move to a new country build a house and learn a new language, anyway...

So! let’s try to roundup the last 6 months, what have we been up to? Sitting down to write now I actually can’t remember, but luckily that’s what the hundreds of photos i take are for, small reminders on how we’ve spent our time, ok let’s start with Agosto..

August - honestly not a whole lot got done on the house, we took it fairly easy. Brett had got himself a job working as a maintenance man for a rental business in Gijón (our closest city, 25 minute drive from us) and we were getting used to our new normal. Whereas previously we had everyday available for working on the property, we were now having to set a different timetable and routine. At this point I was still waiting for my Irish passport so unfortunately still under the umbrella of my non lucrative visa, (work is very much prohibido with this visa) and honestly it was a challenge to re-adjust. Brett was busy finding his feet within his new job and I was honestly pretty bored and fairly lonely at home! I will put my tiny violin away though as the month wasn’t all bad, we managed to spend sunny days at the beach and discover even more incredible walks with señor goose, we also finished up on all the little jobs we needed to finish before the plasterers were due in September, and not forgetting this was the month I truly honed in on my brick laying skills, feeling as though I may have finally found my calling in life… dreams quickly dashed when I also realised it meant carrying buckets of cement up to the third floor…guess I’ll keep searching for that calling…

In September we had two weddings, la Vuelta and plastering! Similarly to the outside we decided to get the professionals in to plaster the place, it was something we’d considered doing ourselves for a short period of time, but knowing that they could come in while we were away and get the entire place done in the same amount of days it would have taken us to plaster one ceiling was enough for us to hand over the reigns. By the time we’d returned from our second trip, the house was done! The plastered walls have absolutely elevated it from a building site to the start of being a home and has reminded us of the end result we’re aiming for. All of a sudden it didn’t feel like we were a million miles away, exciting and terrifying all at the same time - essentially our mantra for this project all along. We also managed to go and watch la vuelta for the second year running. This time we headed up into the hills,we watched as they flew past us at ridiculous speed. It ends up being over within a couple of minutes but is a good day out nonetheless , we even got ourselves on tv! (thanks dad for spotting us, no autographs please xoxox)

This leads us into October - the month of the patio! A project I will save for the next post as it was a big one so stay tuned and check out the videos on instagram!

Finally we find ourselves at the last months of the year, it was at this point that we started to find ourselves a little bit burnt out, I think we were trying to do it all and it all started to catch up with us. Living on a shoestring budget, continuously learning new skills whilst attempting to also lead a new normal life and no heating started to take its toll, and after a 2 hour walk around the supermarket where we could not make a single decision on what to eat that week, we decided it could be wise to take our foot off the gas for a minute. We halted work on the casa, took the pressure off our shoulders, spent some time with family and enjoyed our first Xmas in Spain just the three of us (myself,Brett and Goose of course). Although it can be hard to take a break when you feel deadlines looming, sometimes it’s really important to, you cannot pour from an empty cup my friends, cheesy but oh so true…

We took our break and are now heading into 2024 with not only my new Irish passport, new jobs and Spanish lessons underway, but also a refreshed state of mind! We’re full steam ahead into getting the first stage of this project finished, and with the majority of the supplies ordered and ready to be fitted, we are more optimistic than ever before on a year full of progress… I won’t promise a weekly blog, (trying to learn from my mistakes) but will try to keep our socials up to date and check in every now and then with the latest news. I love reading them back and reminding ourselves on how far we’ve come so hopefully they bring a little bit of joy to y’all also!

And with that, I consider the catch up caught up.

Best wishes and the kindest regards,

Ellie xx

*took me three attempts on the bus to figure out how to get it to stop…it’s not like a bus in the uk, it’s a big coach and there aren’t bus stops in the country side. Turns out it ended up being a red stop button on the ceiling of the coach and you can press it literally exactly where you want to get off! Who would’ve guessed it…not me, I had to wait for someone else to get off before me to figure it out…never mind we always get there in the end..!