The Heat Is On ..............

After experiencing one of the worst winter's in over 100 years in Portugal (a quote I have heard before in other countries when on holiday either be it for the summer or the winter!) with the contintous downpours and cloudy days, we are now well and truly into the "hot, hot summer months", well into the mid 30's and rising !!

We decided to try out our first full winter here managing with just the open log fire to see how we coped and which way forward we should go with the heating aspect. Well, I can tell you it was absolutely bloody freezing at times in the house!!!!! Never lived anywhere where it can be warmer outside than inside during the winter months!!!! How I wished so many times for the "flick of a switch" to turn on the gas central heating. Anyway it is not an option to have gas central heating as mains gas in not available here in this part of Portugal. We have looked into the other various methods of central heating, mainly using log burners with boilers run either on oil or logs and the one we would have chosen for its potential and economy unfortunately is not achievable for us to fit, due to the location of our fire place as we have a staircase running behind the fire wall down to the cellar so a back boiler cannot be fitted. We have fitted 2 low cost electric panel heaters, one in the bedroom and kitchen and have a portable oil-filled radiator. We have had several double glazed windows and doors fitted to stop the draught and are, this week, having two more double glazed windows with mosquito blinds fitted in the lounge and the french door is to be fitted soon after.

After a lot of thought we have decided to go down the "air conditioning route". We were thinking of having a log burner fitted into the fire place but since the hot weather has kicked in we decided that air con would solve both our heating issues - the cold and the heat !!!! The hot continuous days during the summer means the house heats up unbearably and is so intense that even opening windows has very little effect on cooling down the rooms so this week we have had an inverted air conditioning unit fitted in the lounge and our initial opinion is that it "is bliss" to sit in cool comfort. As the air con provides instant heat we are definitely having a unit fitted in the bedroom which will also cure the damp issues which we have found occurs during the winter months with the extreme difference in daily/nightly temperatures. Our house is of the more modern build and is not built out of stone with 2 feet thick walls which work both as heat insulators during the winter and in the summer keeping the house cool. Also our roof needs insulating as in the summer the heat comes through and in the winter we lose the heat. That job is on our "to do list" but it will be later on as it will be a large project for us to renovate the loft into living accommodation.

Moving on to our current project - the fish pond and renovation of the "shed". The pond, however cannot be finished until we have brought over the pond filters and airiarators from the UK which will be later in the summer. However, we have almost finished cladding the shed in stone, the rendering and painting, and the stone cladding to the pond walls where possible before fixing the pond liner and it is beginning to look quite pretty.
The pictures show the original concrete shed and caging which we assume was used either as a chicken run or aviary and our new "mini casa" and pond to be which we have named "Anglers Inn". I have a sneaky feeling Rob is thinking of turning the garden shed into his adega (wine cellar) hence the name of the shed !!!!! Can't wait to start digging the pond out in this heat !!! Not!!!!

We have a family of black redstarts nesting in the shed wall so we have had to work round them and leave their "hole in the wall" nest as they have 3 hungry chicks and don't seem at all to mind us being there as they continue to fly in and out taking food for their little ones.