And so it begins: the first two weeks of almost moving

As I’m writing this in Barcelona, where I am for a work trip, I cannot believe how much has happened the last two weekends, and… how quickly the house move is closing in on us. Even thought it briefly looked like we would have to postpone it…. This time next week, we should be in the new home all three of us; René, myself and Lily!

The last two weeks we have taken quite a few important steps to make the move run as smoothly as possible. And there were quite a few steps, as we had to take a few steps back or wait in place for a bit until we could continue.. So, it turned out to be a rather long read. But I’ll try to throw some pictures in here and there as well.

Step 1: Secure an electricity contract so we would have electricity as soon as possible

Quite the easy step. There is an EDP (energy supplier) location in our town (city..) and we went there over lunch the week before last to request a new contract for the new place, and indicate we would be moving away from the current place mid-January at the latest. Within 40 minutes we were back out the door with a new contract, and the promise we’d be connected in the next 5 working days. We had hoped it would be a tad bit sooner, as we were hoping to clean the house two days later, but alas.

Step 2: Buy a boiler!

When we requested the home to be emptied before taking it over from the previous owner, they properly stripped it and even took the boiler. As we like our showers to be warm, getting a new boiler was quite the priority. As we’re planning on moving to a heat pump for our overall heating situation rather soon, we weren’t going to invest in a state-of-the-art boiler. We bought one for 150 euros from Leroy Merlin with a 100l capacity (our current one has 80l) that should last us until we get the heat pump. We also plan to then re-use it in the workshop / guest digs when we get to that eventually.

Step 3: Free up space and clean as much as we could without electricity and warm water

Early Saturday morning (30 Nov) we loaded up the car with the boiler and as many other things that we could fit in to get some cleaning done. We started with the warm-up of moving everything from the first floor to the attic apart from the stuff we needed and the bigger cabinets etc. Now all of that was out of the way, and we could get some cleaning done.

With no electricity, and not a lot of warm water (we took 2 thermos bottles of 1.6l) most of the cleaning of floors etc. was done with cold water and generic cleaning solution. It was mostly dust, but… dust that had settled for quite a few years. After only a few square metres, the water turned black in no-time, and a new bucket had to be filled. We have since bought a steam cleaner that we will use as soon as we have the electricity sorted so we can give all floors a more thorough clean of course, but at least the worst has now gone down the drain.

Step 4: Survey the land and start dreaming

We also took some time to explore our plot of land and ventured out up on the hill into our little forest, which is a mix of mostly pine, but also some eucalyptus trees. The storm of the week before had uprooted two big trees, so our winter wood for 2025/2026 is already sorted. Just need to get ourselves a chain saw and a place to dry the wood.

The land is in an acceptable shape, but we’ll have to do a lot of SOS works in the first few months that will help us in the long run. Mostly trimming of trees and bushes, and of course mowing all the grass back. The previous owners never used it as a leisurely home. It was all very functional, both inside and outside of the home, so we will have to create any relaxing and more frivolous gardening exploits ourselves. We’ll start probably some small things in 2025, but our main focus is to get all the basic maintenance done.

Step 5: Get Electricity… (part 2) and Internet (part 1)

After a week of normal work, mostly, we had made an appointment for the internet to be sorted on Friday 6th of December. So, Friday morning we left bright and early before sunrise, planning to work from there to and to get the internet sorted. We’d spend our first night in the new house, and had brought our blankets, our infrared heaters, some beers, and freshly baked bread.

However, when we got to the house, the electricity was not working… That was a bit of an issue for both our work which is done on laptops…. and the internet to be connected. And for our spirits. We opened the main console where the meter was situated, and did find some weird big loose wires. We also found one of the feed fuses had burnt out. That meant the first emergency DIY supply trip was on the cards. I set off to the nearest Bricomarché, assuming they’d have something as basic as a tube fuse, but alas. The guy directed me to the hypermarket across the road, but, again, alas, no such luck.

In a last resort, I typed in ‘electrical supply stores’ in google and found a little specialist store somewhat between where I was and home that were open. The small store was your typical local spot where trades people would get their things, and I was in luck. The fuse was in stock, and I left with three new fuses…without paying, as my card was blocked because of some suspicious activity, and I did not have any cash on me. ‘Come back later today or tomorrow to pay when you’re passing through again…’

Upon returning to the house, we inserted the new fuse, which immediately blew out again because two of the loose wires were touching. Big sparks and all that. Not ideal. We separated them properly and tried again, hoping that was the issue. No sparks this time, and the fuse held, but, alas, still no power!

René went back to the electrical store to pay, and to see if they knew of anyone who could help us out. They would try and get in touch with one or a few of their contacts and would let us know if successful.

In the meantime, the internet guy, who was still scheduled to come and should be able to do the initial installation, called, and then postponed until 15.30, and within a few seconds postponed again until 17.30, which without electricity would NOT be a great success… so we decided to reschedule. The next immediate slot was the 18th of December, so… well.. we’ll have to have some interim data solution in place after we move next week for a few days, but there is proper 4G/5G even, so we’ll manage.

Step 6: SOS painting (part 1) and meeting the first neighbours

While it was still light out, we started with painting the living room. As mentioned before, most of the house will remain as is until we get to start with all the actual work, so it won’t be pretty living (or cooking…) but, we do know that having a space where we can at least temporarily ignore all the work to be done from time to time (at least a bit) will help us find a bit of rest in what is surely going to be a stressful time.

On Friday we also met the first three of our neighbours. The first couple just drove up to the house when they saw activity and came to say hello and introduce themselves. They mostly owned the land next to it and lived a bit farther afield, but were happy that the place would come back to live again. The second neighbour came to deliver a ‘happy new house!’ card that was delivered to her instead of our new place. We still have to clarify our exact address, but because she opened it by mistake (we got some Mozart Kugeln to say sorry for that!) she figured it was us (the Dutch names inside matched our orange DIY clothes…) . She was from Austria and bought the smaller house across the road a few months ago and is also still settling in. Her mother would be joining her the next day! It’s nice to see people want to connect and are looking out for each other!

Step 7: Book a hotel, find somewhere to eat, and search for electricians in the middle of the night

With no electricity, staying in the house really wasn’t an option as we have no power bank or anything that could have helped us through yet. We found the cheapest place to stay in the town, ventured there with some beers, chilled on the bed watching F1 and F2, and went out for a quick meal. The night was a short one in terms of sleeping. I never sleep well when there is stuff to really resolve quickly, and well, getting electricity falls in that category. Many of my waking hours that night were spent searching for electricians, especially those that could come on short notice…

Step 8: Get electricity (part 3) and SOS Painting (part 2)

My quest to find an electrician was mildly successful. I had found two potentials. One more official company that had posted about their services in a local Facebook group, and one Unipessoal in another local group on Facebook that shared his phone number for WhatsApp enquiries. I emailed the first, and rather quickly got back that ‘they did not service this area’. Great, then don’t advertise in the local Facebook group.

Rene messaged the other guy on WhatsApp, and… got a response within a few minutes. He’d check his schedule and would get back to us. We hoped he could do it somewhere in the next week so we wouldn’t have to change our plans of moving next weekend. But it all was a lot better than that… as he asked if he could drop by in the next 30 minutes. Well. YES HE COULD!

Not even 20 minutes later he was there, a wonderful and enthusiastic Brazilian electrician who started off with a successful company in Brazil, and is now, after moving here, trying to make a name for himself here. The Brazilian accent is a bit more difficult to understand for us, but we made it, and… more importantly, he sorted out our issue and checked if everything was safe and well enough on top of that. He wasn’t (like us) impressed with how the electricity was set up in the house, and we’ve now also already got our electrician sorted for when we start those works. So, all in all, the first disappointment of not having electricity from the get-go, and the bit of panic that followed, were all worth it in the end!

After all that was sorted, we continued with the painting of the living room so that we would have a nice place to move into the next week, and set off for home around 5pm. What a difference it was to not have to shut all the shutters and be left in complete darkness. The light already made the place so much more workable and set us on our way in high spirits, be it rather tired as well…

Step 9: Relax a bit before a busy week

This week was already going to be busy with the final packing and dismantling of all our stuff still in Espinho. But to make matters even more straining, I am now in Barcelona until Wednesday late afternoon for work, and Rene will be in Lisbon for work on Thursday until Friday mid-day for work… That meant that on Sunday, now yesterday, we rested. Because we needed that. A lot! Caught up on all F1, F2 and Formula E racing, some television series, and video called with family to update them a bit about the adventures I shared above!

Up Next

Next weekend is going to be mad, long and exhausting! We’ll have to move all our stuff, and somewhere fit in installing our boiler so that we can have a shower after driving around for hours on end, especially on Sunday when we have to make the journey between the new place and Porto 3 times. One to get there with a full van, then back to return the van, and then back to the house with the car and pick up the cat!

Looking forward to showing you more in the next blog, but until then, wish us luck!