Learn About Us and The Eridu Life Project

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If you are coming here for the first time, welcome! In this article you will learn about us and the restoration of our abandoned farm in Spain using permaculture principles.

Our farm features a 300-year-old stone house that we aim to transform into our off-grid home. We are documenting the entire restoration process as two newbies learning along the way.

If you want to follow our journey during the restoration of our Spanish farm and the historic 300-year-old stone house, subscribe to our Youtube channel.

The Project

It is a big restoration project as the Spanish farm has been abandoned for over 100 years.

The is no access road to the Finca;
The bush took over all the terraces;
The stone house is in ruins;
Some of the walls are collapsing;
The rainwater cistern has cracks;
The water well is full of mud and dirt;

There is a lot that needs to be done before going off grid and live in the Finca.

It is not a very big property. The total surface is over 11,000m2 (about 3 acres), formed by stone wall terraces.

There are about 103 trees planted on the stone wall terraces. 63 of them are mature olive trees.

Before we can harvest the olives and produce olive oil, we need to prune the trees. We have no experience on that.

Protected area

The Finca is located within a national park. It’s a protected area and there are a some of restrictions on what can be built or restored.

The place is rustic, wild, beautiful and surrounded by mountains.

On the documentarion the stone house has a total of 108m2. Unfortunately about half of the house collapsed.

The half that is still standing is made up of 2 floors with 59m2 in total. The lower part was used a corral and the upper part was used as living space.

Due to the house being in a protected area, we need to follow the building legislation during the restoration work.

We are only allowed to restore the part of the house that is still standing with walls and roof.

The legislation says: If we dont have a stone house to be restored, than cannot build anything else on the Finca.

Cistern and Water Well

As we don’t have running water, we need to build the off grid water system for our Finca.

The rainwater cistern has cracks and the water well needs to be restored and cleaned before the water can be used.

To get water, we need to drive to the village, buy water from the machine and then transport it back to the Finca.

This is a big restoration project that will require a lot of planning and a lot of financial, physical and emotional support.

The Plans

Our plan is to carry out this restoration project debt free no matter how long it takes.

Our first milestone is to get the stone house restored.

For that we will need an architect and a stone mason.

Once the stone house is restored we will move to the Finca and continue the restoration work from there.

We are going to:

Restore the house using natural materials such as lime cement, stones and wood.

Build a solar powered system to meet our electricity needs.

Use starlink as internet provider, so we can work online from the Finca.

Build a rainwater collection system for use water on the Finca.

Use composting system toilets. There will be no flushing toilets!

Since 2013 we become vegetarians.

So, we are going to make a garden to plant and harvest all the food we need.

In this restoration project we are going to follow the principles of permaculture.

Restoration

After working on the initial plan, we have decided to give priority to the stone house restoration.

The stone house is located on a protected area;
There are restrictions on what can be built or restored;
The system does not allow us to build a new house;
We cannot restore without a building License;

So, the solution we have is to apply for a building license and restore the part of the stone house that is still standing with walls and roof.

There is another problem. The system does not allow us to restore the house ourselves.

The restoration work needs to be done by professionals. So, we are going to have to hire the expertise of an architect and of a stone mason.

These are local professionals that have experience in this type of restoration work.

We are goint to take advantage of the stone mason to restore the water well and the rainwater cistern.

All the rest of the work will be done by ourselves.

The Money

We are intend to carry out this restoration project debt free. For this reason we will need to work and make the money.

In addition to the expertise cost of the architect and of the stone mason, we will also need to purchase materials such as lime cement, stone and wood.

Our initial idea is:

Live in the UK for 9 months, work and raise the necessary money.

Then move to Spain for 3 months to carry out the necessary projects.

We are going to do that for 2 or 3 years.

It’s a good plan that will require lots of work.

We are willing to do what needs to be done to complete this restoration project.

About Us

I’m Ricardo dos Santos. I’m 43 years old. I was born in Brazil and I became British in 2013.

By the Brexit agreement I got the “Permisso de Residencia” to live in Spain.

My wife Agnes dos Santos is 46 years old. She was born in Poland and became British in 2011.

Because she has a Polish nationality, she can live in Spain.

We’ve been married since 2007.

We don’t have children, but we have Kala, our beloved dog. She is 15 years old, and she is a Havanese.

In 2020 the world turned upside down.

Those events and nonsense restrictions kind of scared us, and got us thinking deeply about the future.

Decision

At the time, we decided to sell our house in the UK, pay off debts and buy an abandoned farm in Spain.

As we no longer have a fixed address in the UK, this gives us the flexibility to run this restoration project.

The money we saved was enough to buy the Finca, to sort out the documentation and to start the restoration work.

But it’s not enough to complete the Eridu Life restoration project.

For this reason we need to go back to the UK to work.

I am a professional driver, I drive trucks. I like what I do because it gives me the flexibility to live in the UK and in Spain.

Agnes is a therapist, coach and writer. She likes what she does because she has the flexibility to work online from anywhere.

I have worked through the internet in the past, and I will go back to work online so I can support myself once we move to the Finca.

The Future

If all goes according to plan, we will be living between the UK and Spain for the next 2 to 3 years.

This way we will raise the money to carry out the Eridu Life restoration project debt free.

The completion of the stone house is our first milestone.

Once the stone house is restored we can move to the Finca.

If things go sour and the events and nonsense restrictions come back, then we will move to the Finca before the completion of the first milestone.

We don’t want that to happens. But if it does, we will be ready to move to the Finca.

The Finca is surrounded by nature and we want to grow old there.

The Content

We are not professionals and have no experience in construction, carpentry, plumbing, electricity or agriculture.

We are learning as we go along.

To do anything on the Finca, we have to do a lot of research before being able to execute the projects.

So instead of sharing “how to” kind of content, we’re going to share “how is going” kind of content.

Everything is new for us, so be patient.

As we run the projects, we will create the content and when we don’t know what to do, we will ask for help and advice.

That way we will share the challenges, the struggle, the mistakes and the learnings.

Seasons

To make things interesting, we are going to divide the content into seasons, something like Netflix.

Each season will run on a different year with specific projects and priorities.

For example:

This first season will be about documentation, land clearing, water storage, emergency repairs on the house, etc.

The second season will be about the plans with the architect, the beginning of the restoration on the stone house, etc.

And so on.

We are doing the Eridu Life project as a family.

So, from time to time you will see Agnes and Kala in the videos helping or giving moral support.

Project Updates

Eridu Life is a big project that will take a long time to complete.

To keep you updated, I created an article called our abandoned farm.

There I will share all the updates, month by month. Check it out!

Conclusion

This about us article is intended to be an introduction about us and about the Eridu Life project. Also to show you that we’re two newbies with no experience and that we are learning things along the way.

If you liked this article and want to follow the updates on the various projects we are doing at our Spanish farm, consider subscribing to Youtube channel.

That’s it for this article. Did you like it?

Leave your comment or suggestion below. I love responding to all comments and I always do it personally.

Talk to you soon 🙂

P.S. If you would like to help us build our dream home, you can do it here. Or if you would like to help us continue recording videos, you can do it here. Either way, your support is very much appreciated.