The Not So Savage Files - Casa Del Sangria

Hard at work in the Andalucian Mountains.

Casa Del Sangria is the name I gave to the 150 year old stone farmhouse that I renovated in the Andalucian Mountains of Spain. I spent a month of my life working on that house, and for that reason Casa Del Sangria deserves its place in the Not So Savage Files.

So how did I end up living and working in a small village in rural Spain? Well, the story begins in May, back in rainy old England. I'd just finished a three month project renovating an old Victorian house in southern England, and had set off hitching around the country. I had just spent a few days with my old mate Mike in Cheshire, and was headed across to York, when the hand of fate took over. Here is an extract from my journal entry that day:

This morning was fine and sunny, so I set off hitching to York. Of course, the temperature dropped markedly and the sky clouded over as soon as I reached the motorway. A few light spots of rain were starting to fall just as I got my first ride. He brought me as far as Brighouse, where the heavens opened up mercilessly. I sought refuge in a tiny roadside cafe, and tucked into a hearty cooked breakfast while I waited for a break in the weather. The rain didn't ease. Rather than confront the other diners for a ride, I asked the waitress for directions, and whether I could catch a bus from Brighouse, should the hitchhiking not work out. I made sure the other diners could hear me, and as I stepped out into the rain, a couple of guys called me back in. They could give me a ride towards Leeds, if I waited while they finished their bacon and eggs.

Over the next ten minutes, another of my theories was proved. My new friends Robin and Nick are property developers. They buy old houses that are in need of some TLC, renovate them and flog them off, or rent them out. When they found out what I'd been doing in Bletchingley for the past three months, light bulbs flashed above their heads... and mine! "Where were you four weeks ago when we needed someone?" they asked. They drove me to a small town near Bradford, where they've recently bought three adjoining houses. Two have been renovated, and the third has just been started. I was interested to see what they've done, and what needs to be done in the third house, so Nick and Robin gave me the guided tour. The long and short of it is that I've lined up a couple of weeks' work for them in Spain in late July, finishing off a renovation they've got underway over there, proving my theory about the randomness of life.

I kept in touch with Robin and Nick as I trekked around Morocco, and they asked me if I could make it to Spain to start work at the beginning of July, a couple of weeks earlier than we'd planned. That was fine by me- six weeks had given me enough time to see and do what I wanted in Morocco. So, on Friday the 2nd of July I met the pair of property developers in the coastal resort town of Almeria, and the work started the next day.

Robin and Nick, standing outside Casa Del Sangria.

This ingenious washing machine also mixes cement.

After a few days, Robin and Nick returned to England and I took up residence in the old stone house. My backpack was bursting with stinky, unwashed clothes after six weeks in Morocco, so I set about doing my washing in the handy cement mixer. At that point, there was still no bathroom or toilet, in fact there was no running water inside the building at all. Hence my first priority was plumbing. By the end of the first day I had a functioning toilet, and by day two a lovely (and very welcome!) bathtub, albeit cold water only!

Celebrating the successful installation of a bath with a carton of 43 cents-a-litre wine!

There was a huge job ahead of me. My initial converstaions with Robin and Nick were that I would be brought in near the end of the renovation- after all the heavy construction work had been done- to take care of the finishing touches- filling gaps, painting, that sort of thing. However, for one reason or another, they decided to bring me in right at the beginning. When I arrived, I was greeted by a mere shell of a building. Some rooms had old rough cement floors that would have to be redone, other rooms had no floor at all, just piles of rubble. The yard was steeply sloping, wild and overgrown. My bed was a sheet of chipboard on the floor, to keep me off the dusty cement.

Breakfast on the roof terrace, my first morning in Casa Del Sangria.

Since it was such a big job, the boys had allowed me a budget for hiring help, and I sent out the call. One of the backpackers I had met in Morocco was keen for some work, and three days after I sent out the email, he arrived at the front door of Casa Del Sangria, a mile or so outside the tiny village of Chercos. My friend doesn't want his real name to be used (since he is being tracked by Interpol in relation to a huge jewellery heist a few years ago) so for the purposes of this website, I have named him Wilson.

A week or so later, I received an email from Bhu, another one of the travellers I met in Morocco. Bhu was keen for a week's work, so I invited him to join Wilson and me at the Casa. Below are a few 'before and after' style photographs, but for the individual journal updates from my time in Casa Del Sangria, click here.

To read what Bhu later wrote in his webjournal, click here.

This is the loungeroom, after I knocked holes in the wall for windows.

A slight improvement, after concreting the floor and building a waist height wall.

...................................BEFORE....................................................AFTER..........................................

Wilson, starting the landscaping of the wild terrain.

A much more pleasant, user friendly area.

...................................BEFORE....................................................AFTER..........................................

I COULDN'T HAVE KNOWN WHEN I LEFT CHERCOS, THAT TWO YEARS LATER, IN THE SUMMER OF 2006, I WOULD RETURN TO CASA DEL SANGRIA FOR ANOTHER TOUR OF DUTY

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