Four years in and the house isn’t looking a whole lot different to 2021, though it smells a lot better. I’ve painted, plastered (leaving that to the experts in future), hauled furniture up and down (mostly through windows), bought a shed load of unnecessary stuff that I now need to off load, and carried random items over from England, only because it was surplus to requirements there, rather than having any real place here. Plus, I’m only in Estribela for short stretches of time, and whilst my good intentions are thriving when in England, the reality here is a little different. Especially if it’s sunny. Know the feeling? So, a single electric ring and a George Foreman grill still serve as the only kitchen appliances, from which the toilet is still separated by a single curtain, and my king sized, gold framed bed engulfs most of the shabby top floor. Decadent maybe, but an utter drag when bedtime books or ear plugs disappear underneath and emerge covered in paint flaking from the walls. A Galician friend said the distressed-wall look is one that bars and restaurants pay for. They can keep it. There’s no romance in fishing out bits of plaster from your morning cuppa when you’re 53.

As per, I listen to what my neighbour has to say about the layout of the house. Move the bathroom to the top floor, he advises. Let gravity assist the toilet offerings into the sewage system, and add an extra two meters square to the kitchen where the bijou bathroom currently sits. This year seemed like the right time to get on with it. After scavenging around the Rastro Reto house clearance and searching Wallapop, the popular second hand app here, the rest of the bathroom furniture was purchased from Brico Central and Brico Mart in Pontevedra. All fairly thrifty. A kind Galician friend collected a white-framed shower cubicle from Obramat in Santiago, as I didn’t like the the shiny aluminium finish available more locally.

Et voila! A few weeks later and a helluva lot of dust, the bathroom is now on the top floor, next to the balcony. A single bed completes the room, and when all is assembled, it’ll feel like a little studio. That’s how I’ve sold it to the boys, who have forfeited the largest room for one a floor higher and now half the size. The bright idea of friend and fairy godmother, Sarah, to install an Ikea Kallax set of box shelves (also snapped up on Wallapop), which will double up as a divider for the bathroom and some storage for the new studio bedroom, was inspired, and a reminder that time spent watching Alexandra Gater’s small spaces videos on YouTube, is time well spent.