Beautifully restored architecture, peaceful courtyards and a little understated luxury in the heart of Marbella's old town. Marbella is a place that can conjure up all sorts of images, not all of them particularly appealing to us. But its old town is another story...
There are certain things in life that ought to be simple. Turning on a light, for example. And yet, somehow, we managed to turn this most straightforward of activities into something of a technological endurance test. When we were renovating the house, we bought some...
Our experience of changing electricity suppliers in Spain - and why a lovely octopus has won us over. When we moved into our house in Andalucía, we knew there would be things to get used to. Spanish bureaucracy, unfamiliar systems, the occasional language barrier. All...
...deserve a post of their very own. They are now the most beautiful doors, but it's taken a real labour of love, because when we bought the house, they definitely weren't beautiful. In fact, they looked so awful and dilapidated that the intention was to have them...
Sometimes, it's the smallest details that make a house feel like yours. When we began renovating our old Andalucian townhouse, there were certain things we knew we wanted to retain, certain things we wanted to change, and a few things we simply weren't prepared to...
Meet Henry, Donette and Nettie. Three very different members of the household, each with a job to do. There are now three vacuum cleaners living in our Andalucian house. Two of them are robots. The third has been with us for so long that he's practically family. We...
There are certain things you expect to find outside your front door in an Andalusian village. A neighbour stopping for a chat. A delivery van attempting the seemingly impossible task of squeezing along a narrow street. Perhaps a procession, a horse or two, or the...
Our Istrian renovation, looking back now, wasn't really a renovation. It was a series of jobs (some quite big, so we're not underestimating what was done) carried out by different people, with differing levels of availability and skills. All of the work was carried...
Now that the dust is settling - quite literally - on our renovation project, I've started to reflect on the mad journey we have been on since July 2024, when we finally left Istria. In fact before then, because the journey started for real, when we finished the...
We have no central heating in the house. We could have had it installed when the renovation was happening, but having experienced how the heat is retained over the spring/summer/into autumn months, we decided against the expense. We also decided against air con, which...