In April 2023, I bought a house in Portugal and am now sharing its renovation. Follow the progress here and on my YouTube channel as I turn this abandoned house into a home.
Hello! My name is Michael, I am currently renovating a house in northern Portugal.
In July 2020 I set off with my partner Verity to explore Europe in a campervan for what was meant to be a 6 month trip. Three years of adventure later we decided to find somewhere to call home. The more time I spent on the road, the more the idea of going back to my ‘old’ life in the UK sounded less and less appealing. So we decided to try and live somewhere else.
Together, we decided to move to Portugal and after six months of searching, we found a house with a bit of land for sale. We were given the keys to the house in April 2023 and have been slowly renovating it since. I have been documenting the renovation through this website, a newsletter and my YouTube channel.
Follow along to see how we get on.
The Property
The house we bought was in far better condition than most of the properties we had seen. It ticked so many of the boxes that we were looking for in a house with land.
The house was built around 1950 and was refurbished and extended in the 1970s. The footprint of the house is 79m² and has two usable levels. The ground floor or adega was used as housing for animals, wine production and vegetable storage. The first floor is dedicated to the living areas, with three small bedrooms, a kitchen, two reception rooms(ish), a bathroom and tiny store room.
The house is situated off a quiet road at the edge of a small village. The land is half an acre of relatively flat land with five olive trees trees, fig trees, two orange trees and three black walnut trees among several other fruit trees.
The Project
I had always wanted to buy a project, one that would require some work, but not too much of a ruin that we couldn’t move in fairly soon after purchasing. I had been living in a van for the last few years so had my fill of temporary living!
The idea of having my own place to tinker and experiment with was a huge draw for me. The house offers lots of opportunities for development and refurbishment. I’d like to to as much of the renovation as I can, learning new skills along the way, but I’m aware that there are times you need to call in more experience.
With a background in architecture, I’m hoping to turn this abandoned house into a home.
Watch my videos on YouTube
Creating a YouTube channel has always been something I wanted to do. The house renovation seemed like a great focus for my videos. Since moving in, I have been recording most of the work I have done on the house and land. The channel itself started out as an experiment, a creative outlet that I wanted to explore. After releasing the first several videos I have realized that it’s much harder to maintain and keep creating that I thought! But it’s also been fun and rewarding at the same time. It’s not my full-time job and I never want it to be, so although I aim to put out weekly videos, it’s not always possible. Make sure to subscribe to keep up to date with the latest goings on.