Traditional stone house
Most of us moving to central Portugal have in our sights a traditional stone house as an ideal property to refurbish or do up into our next home. The advantages of a traditional stone house are clear, Attractive coloured and textured stone, feeling of robustness and strength and of course the fact that they sit in the location well.
What type of traditional stone house should you be considering. There are many traditional stone houses which can accommodate three bedrooms and a bathroom within their existing walls with a little opening up and possibly adding more internal light with a new window knocked through. Most traditional stone houses however will not be able to accommodate 3 bedrooms a living room, bathroom and kitchen unless you use the Lojas or space under the house on the ground floor. This may have to be waterproofed or dug out so that the correct head room can be obtained for comfortable living.
Sometimes its best to locate the bedrooms downstairs and the kitchen and living room
upstairs so that you can take advantage of a vaulted roof to provide a more airy living room.
However you decide to arrange the living space in your traditional stone house is up to you but remember that most old stone houses don’t have stairs going into the ground floor and as these take up quite a lot of space its good to remember to accommodate them when you are designing the interior spaces. Unconventional and steep stairs will not help you sell your house when the time comes.