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| Spain for house hunting - Sept 2006 |  |
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| Having fallen in love with Spain, and particularly the Almeria area, we returned in September to concentrate on house hunting. The name Almeria comes from the Moorish word meaning 'mirror of the sea', and the coast is beautiful, but we decided we preferred it up in the mountains, so we headed for Albox area in the north of the province. We'd been around that way back in June on our honeymoon so we knew the area a little. We were staying in a rental cottage that we had chosen from the internet - and a good choice it was too. In fact, although we had looked at 100's of houses on the internet before we went, and actually visited about 20 whilst we were over there, the one we chose was a mere stones-throw from where we were staying! There's a map of the area if you want to see where we are |
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| So this is the house we decided upon and are negotiating to buy. It's the single-storey one just above centre of the picture, facing straight on to camera. About 100 years old, it is a 3-bedroom cortijo |
As you approach the house, you go through this gate to the front terrace ... |
... which, as you can see has spectacular views of the mountains |
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| Looking backwards from this point, you see the track that you came down from the mountain road, almond trees to right and left. |
... and this is to the left of the last shot showing more of the land and, just to the bottom left corner, the top of the 'deposit' |
Again panning left-wards again you can now see more of the 'deposit'. This is the water storage tank. There are two water supplies, an agricultural right to some of the water that tumbles down the valley from the mountain top lakes and a well which is fed into the tank by gravity. |
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| And finally, the back of the house and the Aloe Vera cactus that mark the border |
So back to the front, so to speak, and this is the view from the terrace over the valley ... |
... and again from the terrace, panning from right to left |
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| finally a view from the land at the far side of the house (where the pool is going to be built) and across the front of the house down the valley |
This is the view from the the small-ish lounge into the kitchen |
And the main means of heating, a wood burning stove |
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| The kitchen isn't actually this dark in real life |
At the opposite side of the lounge is the dining area and this is the view from it, across the lounge and into the kitchen |
And the final picture of the house is the main bedroom. Behind the far wall is an outhouse, only accessible from a door from the terrace. We're looking at opening it up into the house and building an en-suite. |
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| And the other side of the main bedroom |
The next views are those from the cottage we rented just a little way further up the valley, but they give an idea of why we like that area so much |
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| Peeping over the top of the mountain is the monastery of Saliente - now restored as a tourist attraction, restaurant and bar but it still holds religeous ceremonies |
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| And finally, the semi-feral cats that live around the rental property. Here, on the car, is a small selection of them - there are about 12 all together! ) |
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All original content on this page is © Stuart & Darryl 2006 |
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