My Andalusian
HOUSE PROJECT by Päivi Halt WHEN INTERIOR ARCHITECT PÄIVI HALT’S FAMILY MOVED TO SOUTHERN SPAIN SHE FOUND THE IDEAL PROPERTY TO TURN HER DREAM OF A VILLA IN TUSCANY INTO AN IDEAL SPANISH HOME. HERE SHE CHARTS HER EXCITING JOURNEY FROM FINDING THE PERFECT PROPERTY THROUGH TURNING IT INTO A FAMILY RESIDENCE THAT TICKS ALL THE BOXES. A DEMOLITION JOB! This week has been an amazing start to our project. On Monday afternoon the house started to look more orange than red. Every corner was full of guys with orange vests carrying furniture to the storage or to the skip. Already, on the same day, the house started to look very empty. On Tuesday the walls of the master bedroom were down (I’ll explain my plan there later) and by Wednesday the kitchen walls had disappeared. So what is all that talk about mañanaworkmen? If the guys continue at this speed, I’ll be the one struggling seriously with the timetable for finding my fixed furniture! Inevitably, I’ve had to rethink some ideas. The fireplace chimney only reached the next floor and in the master bedroom it changed into a rectangular shaped duct made of bricks. We decided not try to fix the chimney, but replace it and renew the old fireplace.
UTOPIA - 92
Quite often it’s much cheaper to build a new one than repair the old. And this is true with houses too, but hopefully not in our case. We also opened the exterior wall to see how the house had been built. The walls are made of two brick walls with a good gap in the middle. This is the correct way to built here I was told, because it prevents damp. I can believe it as the air inside the house has always been very fresh and rooms never too cold. So it must work as a good insulation too!