Old Spanish Houses

A while ago, my husband John said that he had been thinking of extending our kitchen. One of the reasons for this is he has bought me so many beautiful kitchen aids such as a mixer, a bread machine, a smart oven/microwave and an air fryer that now, we don´t have any work surface left!

So, that has meant some serious redesigning of the rooms in our house. Previously the spare bedroom led off of the kitchen, and down the hallway, past the main bathroom was a bit of wasted space. It was difficult to make it into a third bedroom as it had the access to the back pool terrace, so ended up being a room in which we stored things.

Now, John has converted it into the spare bedroom, complete with a built-in wardrobe, and what was the spare bedroom, leading off the kitchen, is now available for the extension of the kitchen.

So far, so good. That is where the title, Old Spanish Houses, comes into play. The wall between the kitchen and the old spare bedroom needs to come down. However, is it a main supporting wall? We are in the process of getting quotes from local builders, and they all do the same. Stop, look and walk backwards and forwards, staring up at the ceiling, looking from one room, and then from the other side of the wall. Hmm, it seems to be the old exterior wall, and that the bedroom was an extension at some time. Okay, so what does that mean? The point is no one seems to know where the support for the roof is, and it seems that a supporting beam will have to be put in. Well yes, of course, we expected that! So, what is the problem?

One builder wants to bring his more experienced father to have a look, whilst the other wants to bring a friend, a retired architect to have a look. That, as John said, is why we are getting builders to take the wall down and not doing it ourselves!

I love this house, because I live in it with my husband John … it is our home. However, I would seriously like to slap the face of the person that did the renovation! The roof was done badly, not one wall is straight, and all the floor tiles are uneven. Also, old Spanish houses are known for being cool in the summer and warm in the winter, but not this one!

My house is Extremadura was an old Spanish house, and the downstairs was exactly as I said above, cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Thick walls and small windows are the clue to achieving this. The other advantage that the house in Cáceres had was that it was only the ground floor that was inhabited when I bought it.

When I started to reform it there were two large unused rooms, one at the back of the house and one above it, that had originally been used to house the animals below, and their feed above. The downstairs one I had converted into a kitchen and the upstairs one, into a bathroom, The rest of the upstairs became my bedroom and the spare room. Whilst downstairs stayed at a great temperature according to the season, the upstairs bedroom did not fare so well, being hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter! I had had a new roof fitted, it was one of the first things I did when I bought the place, but naïve as I was, I never asked if there was any insulation being put in, or when they did the internal ceiling, with plasterboards.

However, old Spanish houses are being reformed by many expats here and there all over Spain, and in one way that is a good thing, otherwise the buildings would just fall down and become ruins, like we sadly see in many places. Whether they are successful reforms or not, depends on the reformer and the house.

No doubt I shall tell you more in the near future about the kitchen reform, so watch this space!