Portuguese Construction (Part 1)

One of the first things we learned after buying the Siesta apartment is that construction methods and customs are different here versus in the US.  Here are just a few of the examples we have found so far.

SWIMMING POOL
We have what is called a "first floor" apartment.  (In the US, it would considered "second floor," but in Europe, they do not count the ground floor of buildings in their numbering system.)  Even being on the first floor, we have a small pool, about 8x14 feet, on our terrace.  Despite being almost four feet deep, the pool has no inside stairs, making it difficult for humans and dangerous for animals. 

For the humans, we installed a ladder, and for the animals, we brought over from the US a device called a "Pup Plank".  It's essentially a floating "dock" which allows an animal to both enter and exit the pool easily.  In the video, Ryder gives a demonstration.

STANDARD FIXTURES
In Portugal, you cannot always assume that items such as appliances, light fixtures, and bathroom fittings are included with a house/apartment sale.  In our case, the Siesta apartment had never been occupied, so there were even more items which we had to provide on our own.

Luckily all of the kitchen appliances were included with the apartment, though we had to contend with the fact that upon move-in, we found that the dishwasher, microwave, and stovetop did not function.  We aren't sure when they stopped working, but since no one had ever lived here, it could have been from the very beginning.  The good news for us was that all of these appliances had a two-year manufacturer's warranty as they were brand new when installed.  The bad news was that it took almost six weeks to get all of them serviced and running.

The apartment has small recessed lights in most of the rooms and bathrooms.  But the spaces were clearly designed for additional ceiling lights which we would have to provide.  ​We chose some basic ceiling light fixtures for the main room and the bedrooms.

Recessed lights (upper left) and an example of additional wiring (circled) for a ceiling light in the main room

BATHROOM
Neither of the apartment's bathrooms had mirrors, and the areas were also pre-wired for light fixtures over the mirrors.  In addition, the bathrooms had no towel bars.  All of these were added to the bathrooms.

But the biggest issue in the shared bathroom (off of the living room) was that the sink which had been installed by the builder was far too big for this fairly small space.  A person sitting on the commode would essentially have the sink covering about one-third of their lap.  ​Our solution was to have a plumber remove the old sink and install a much shallower sink and cabinet.  

Though difficult to discern from this angle, the sink overhung a good portion of the toilet space

The new sink and cabinet

In replacing the bathroom sink, I learned about patching plaster walls and touch-up painting here in Portugal.  I was pleased to learn from our builder that the interior paint was a good quality paint in "white."  Not cream, not eggshell; the shade is white.  It made purchasing the touch-up paint an easy task. 

​​We are still working on a few remaining items in the apartment and will include the problems and solutions in a future post.  All of these changes have made the apartment much more comfortable for us, and we are enjoying our new home.