6. Portugal — The Land of the Light — Finding our Forever Home
We found ourselves now in limbo land, we had really hoped to enjoy our rented home for a few months and were looking forward to making it beautiful and our home, but now we didn’t want to do anything at all there and just wanted to leave. I got out the laptop and started to go through every agency website I could find, I joined lots of facebook groups to also help in the search. Years before our move I had joined a group called Pure Portugal, it was full of expats and I remembered how bad they could be from when I lived in Greece. I used to stay well away from them as I found a lot of them so rude to the local people it made me embarrassed to be from the same country. I begrudgingly looked at their website where owners advertised their properties but I wasn’t going to join their facebook group again as I had left it after seeing so many people get abused in there for asking simple questions, it had started to put me off moving to Portugal previously and that was the reason I had left. Leon had stayed in the group though and I used to sometimes go on his profile to have a look and quickly be reminded of the reason why I had left it.
One day while we were house hunting online Leon asked a simple question in the group, the abuse he received was incredible and he actually got kicked out for asking an innocent question. I was beyond furious as to the way he had been treated and I decided to set up my own group so people like ourselves would be able to have a safe place to ask questions without having to deal with the abuse that I had seen others receive. I had set up and run countless successful facebook groups previously and one more was no problem so ‘Portugal — The Good Life’ was created on the 27th February 2017.
Leon got a phone call to go back to the UK to work after only being in Portugal for 2 weeks so I drove him to Lisbon airport, again Mandy was immense and didn’t let me down although everytime I started her I would say a little prayer but I had my can of WD40 always at the ready in case she started to play up. I missed Leon terribly when he went back, it was the first time we’d ever been apart and I wondered what he would think of the UK and if he would regret his decision to move to Portugal. We spoke daily and it was clear he wasn’t enjoying his visit there but we needed the money as we had only brought limited funds with us and they wouldn’t last forever. While Leon was away I spent my time searching for properties and perusing facebook.
One day I saw a post in our new group about barking dogs and someone suggested that they poison them, I was disgusted by what I read and so was another man called Paddy who was commenting, we got talking and I found out he lived 5 minutes away from us. He invited me over for a coffee but I was a little nervous and so didn’t go. Then a few days later I had to take Yoda to the vet to be castrated and I wasn’t sure of it’s location but my new friend Paddy did so he offered to drive me there with Yoda. I agreed and he came to collect me the next morning. He was recently separated from his wife and was in his 60’s, living alone with his 3 dogs. He loved dogs as much as we did and our friendship was strong from day one. Paddy became a huge part of our life from that first day.
Leon had been away for just over 2 weeks and returned with money for us to continue our house search, we didn’t have a lot but Leon would be going back again to work in a few months time which would keep us going financially. Leon took to Paddy as quickly as I did and we would often go down to see Paddy at his house, have a beer and a swim in his pool or he would come to ours on his beautiful trike for him and Leon to drive and I would make him a cooked dinner.
We kept looking for places but nothing seemed suitable for one reason or another. The week after Leon got back he had a phone call from his friend, his work in the UK was finished and there wouldn’t be anymore. Leon was shocked, he had been working with his friend for months and had covered for him so that he could work elsewhere with his friend promising to do the same when Leon came to Portugal. He let him down badly and once again we seemed to be up shit creek without a paddle. Now our funds were severely short and I had no idea what we were going to do next. Nevertheless we kept looking but now we were looking for really small and cheap plots of land, we didn’t care which part of Portugal but it needed to have year round water, no neighbours and not be too far away from a small town as we would now also have to find a way to support ourselves here.
We went to visit lots of properties and I was starting to give up hope, then one day I was again on facebook and saw a video of one of my old friends singing while he was drunk, he had an amazing voice and I messaged him to tell him so. We started chatting and he told me his cousin was living in Portugal and maybe she would know of some places for sale. He gave me her details and I recalled her name as she had also recently joined our new group. I sent her a message and she told me she was living near Guarda and that the people she was buying her farm off had other properties for sale. She had agreed a rent to buy deal for her farm and I wondered if they might do the same for us. It was something I’d thought of many times before and so I took their number and called them. I spoke to their son who spoke really good English and he told me they had a few farms but none within our price range, his parents however may consider a deal on one of them. Leon wasn’t keen on a rent to buy deal but said he would at least have a look at the farms. They were a 3 hour drive from where we were renting but I really wanted to go and see them because of their location.
When we were living down the fields and had the Portugal map up on the wall I kept being drawn to the area to the left of Guarda and so my universal alarm bells were ringing. I called the son back and we arranged to go and view one of the farms with his parents. By this time we had now been in the rented house for just over 2 months and the landlady was sending us letters asking us for more money and I was sending a letter back disputing her requests, it was a horrible environment to be living in. We secured the dogs in the house and set off early one morning to see the property. His parents Augustine and Bernadette lived in Celorico da Beira and the farm was just outside the town, we found their house and they welcomed us inside with the usual wonderful Portuguese hospitality we’ve come to know and love. Beers were put on the table, out came the bread, cheese and ham. They had lived in New York for many years so their English was almost native but they sounded like gangsters which was really funny.
They asked why we were looking for a farm and we explained we wanted space for the dogs and to continue living the simple life we had been living in Wales but to be able to grow food and relax in the sunshine. The father told Leon he would be able to find him some work if we moved to the area too. They drove down to the farm and we followed them in Mandy, they motioned to show us where the land started and then parked up. We parked behind them and followed them down some tracks and could just make out a house. They explained it had been rented out to a Spanish sheep farmer but he hadn’t come back and the roof had fallen in at one point so it had recently been replaced. We went inside the house first and it felt like we were in an amusement park as we walked across the twisted floor, all the beams were out of place and all the wood inside was totally rotten.
There were 4 rooms upstairs, one of which was the smallest kitchen I’ve ever seen in my life, it was no more than 1.5 metres square with a beautiful old fireplace and a small hole in the wall. The walls were black from all the soot from the fire. The other rooms were larger but full of the Spanish farmers’ belongings and some old tyres and tools that Oggie (Augustine) was storing there. We looked out of the window and I could see the river that ran along the bottom of the farm and I squealed with delight when I spotted the most gorgeous little waterfall. We went to look downstairs and the floor was about a foot high filled with sheep and horse poo. It was just one massive room and had been built using massive granite blocks, this was where they had been keeping the animals.
Next to the main house was another smaller building, again it was full of poo and had a rotten wooden mezzanine floor that Bernie (Bernadette) told me was used for keeping vegetables in the old days. Oggie was now keeping his horse in this building. Attached to this structure was another block room that had been used as a chicken shed and behind it was an old bread oven. We walked across the fields as they wanted to show us something else, I went down through the shoulder high grass until I reached the waterfall, everything was so overgrown but it was stunning. We continued to walk across the fields and they showed us a water well, it was one of two, the other was further over and then another huge building. This was also a house but in worse condition, it was however an incredible shape with a sloping roof and much bigger than the first house. I asked if this was also part of the farm and they said yes, I started to realise how big this place was and probably way out of our budget.
I was in love with this place and I could see Leon was loving it too, we started to walk back towards the vehicles and I had to ask the dreaded question ‘How much is this place?’ Oggie’s response took my breath away, 55,000 euros he said. I didn’t show him I was fazed by the amount and just nodded and walked a little further. I then asked if he would consider a rent to buy deal if we agreed to that price and didn’t try to negotiate. He asked what did I have in mind, I said a three year deal and we would pay you monthly until the end of the period and then we would give you the final payment. We’d need a legal agreement drawn up and then both parties would sign every month to show the payment had been made. He went to speak to his wife and I went to speak to Leon.
Leon had no idea I was going to suggest this so he was a little shocked. I explained that realistically we didn’t have enough money to buy anything of substance and this would give us time to get sorted here and somehow we would find the money to pay for it. Worse case scenario we would lose the money that we paid but if we rented somewhere it would be dead money anyway, Leon nodded and agreed. I walked back to Oggie and as he walked towards me I said ‘Deal?’. Deal he said and put his hand out to shake mine, I gave him a good firm handshake and a big smile, we had found our forever home.
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