My Exciting Top Terrace Plans & A Trip Into The View

A shorter and much quieter week after all the changes of the last 2 weeks.
As promised in my last video, I present more details about my future plans for the area in front of the house. I explain how my plans have evolved and a bit about the planning permission process. I then walk around the key areas, explaining some of the ideas that have influenced my plans.
I also take a trip into the view in front of the house. With a dawn walk up a mountain, a hike to a castle and a visit to a hermitage. I take my first swim of the year in the sea in a nearby beach. And I walk through one of the most popular medieval villages, called Pals.

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chapters
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00:00 intro
01:23 plans
03:00 walk tour
08:26 montgri
14:57 platja
17:00 pals
21:13 lower level
23:48 drawings
24:19 outro

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about my channel and its videos
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My channel is about the renovation and restoration of an old stone house on a hill in Catalunya (North East of Spain). The house is near the Costa Brava and has magnificent views of the forest around it and the Mediterranean Sea.

The house has many beautiful old features, including its stone walls, vaulted ceilings, ancient terracotta tiles and many quirky parts added over the centuries. At the moment, I am working on the house on my own as I try to turn it into a dream home in harmony with the nature and culture that surrounds it.

The house is not in France or Italy and is not a Chateau or Cabin, but I watch and am inspired by channels that are. Especially Martijn Doolaard and Dan Preston’s Escape to Rural France. I love Martijn’s style, philosophy and cinematography and Dan’s energy, humour and ambition. I’m trying to include some of these attributes in my videos.

This week, I’m going
to be talking about my plans for the area in front of the house,
including how I want to turn this shed from an ugly eyesore
into a beautiful lookout. And because I’m going to be talking a lot
about the views around the garden, I’ve also taken a trip down into the view
down there to show you some of it up close. This is what’s coming up As you’ve just seen, while
there has been a bit of action this week, there hasn’t been any of the work
or changes of recent weeks. And that’s
because I only have a couple of days before I head off for a long weekend
to celebrate Laura’s birthday. So rather than start
some work that I probably wouldn’t finish, I thought I’d
spend a little bit of extra time explaining my plans for the area
in front of the house, like I promised in my last video. And hopefully by doing this,
I’ll give my elbow a bit of rest before I make my final big push
for the excavation work indoors. A short and easy explanation of the designs
for this area is that I want as much of it as possible to be the same level
as the ground floor in the house, which is about 40 45cm above the point
I’m on now. But my ideas of how to achieve this
have evolved over time, and it has created
some extra planning permission this year. And right now, my architect and I
are waiting for final formal approval for the modifications
that we’ve requested. So at this stage,
I’ve only been able to do work outside that is part of the plans
that were approved previously, and one of the bigger modifications that
we have requested relates to the shed. And to help
you make sense of some of those changes. I thought I’d better explain some of
the considerations behind the designs. A top priority has been to make
the most of the views from as many places as possible, and I’d like to achieve this
by respecting or reflecting both the current and historic layouts
and levels whenever possible. There are some other priorities
for this area that relate to the hot summer climate, and these include
having a big shaded outdoor seating space, other shaded areas, a swimming pool,
and a large water storage facility. And another priority which would take much longer to
achieve is to have well-established trees and plants,
especially around the edges of the area. That will soften
some of the existing walls and fences. And these are all things to keep in mind
as I start my walk around to explain the designs in more detail, which I’m starting on this corner here,
rather than the entrance space behind, because I’d like to talk about that space when I know
the outcome of my path proposal. As you might have guessed from the markers
along here and the removal work here last week. This space will only extend from the edge
of the house to this point here. And then drop off to a lower level. With this space being a walkway
from the entrance with access to and from the new kitchen area on the other
side, through a new door, there. While this area by the old front door
will be relatively clear, although there will be a small table
with chairs and probably some plants or flowers
dotted around. And all of this old
well structure, at least the parts above the ground, will be removed,
which I didn’t do last week because I will definitely need some help
when I take it away carefully, cover the opening and make it safe. The front terrace will then continue into this space
in front of this wall, which will be the main outdoor eating area with one great big long table where at least half the seats
should have an amazing view with shade provided by a pretty big pergola
running from the edge of the wall. And I also want to plant a number of trees
and bushes along this wall, and to ensure they get as high as possible
as quickly as possible. I’ll be putting in a parallel retaining
wall along here to hold this soil
that I’ve left behind in place. Then, on the inside line of the retaining
wall, I’ll be adding a lower level to provide a long stretch
of shaded seating. I’ll also be adding more bushes and trees all along the wall and the fence behind. Although in this area
I’ll be building a barbecue area into the retaining wall about here, and then moving away from the barbecue and outdoor
eating areas into this space in front, which involves some of the key changes
that we’re still waiting to be approved. In a couple of previous videos. I’ve shown this area and talked about some of the old walls down there
in particular, that used to be there, and in more recent videos, the more eagle eyed of some of you might have spotted
this metal pole here and the three others forming a rectangle. And these have been the markers
for the proposed new position of a swimming pool,
which is a pretty big change from the previous designs, where the pool
was on the other side of the shed. But because this area on the other
side of the shed still has a few meters of earth
that was added above the bedrock, a lot of extra engineering
structure would have been needed. It would also have required walking down a number of steps
to get to this space from the house. And at the moment, that would be true of
a pool that was on this side of the shed. But the big change in the updated designs
looks to change that situation, because the plan now is for the whole of the front terrace to extend from the edge of the house all the way to the edge of the shed, so that you’ll be able to walk straight
from the front door to the pool area, or to this corner of the pool, which will be a hot tub
built into the swimming pool at the same level from which
you’ll be able to get that amazing view. But one big impact of all the changes in this area will be on that open
side of the shed. There, because the planning rules for this parish
don’t allow for any new buildings or any increase
in volume in existing ones. So I’ve always wanted to keep the shed so as to be able to use its
existing space. And my plan has always been to lower
both its roof and its floor level, so that it lines
up with the front terrace. But in the previous plans,
the shed would have been very visible and on top
I had planned on putting some plants. But the plan now is to be able to walk straight out all the way to this point. Here, from where you’ll be able to enjoy
the best view in the property from one of my favorite places, albeit a bit more safely when I’ve added some railings
along the edge. And before I talk to you about the area
down there below, I’m now going to give you a close
up of the view over there with a trip to the mountain,
the castle on top, the sea below it, and a beautiful medieval village nearby. This trip had to start
very early in the morning, as I wanted to capture the sunrise on the horizon
that I can see from the house. And it started with a hike up a hill in the dark, with a bit more light as I got near
the top. And I arrived with a few minutes to spare before the sun rose over the sea. You might recognize some of this horizon line
from the view from my house. Especially these islands,
the ‘Isles de Medes’. My original plan had been to see dawn
from a castle on a nearby hill. But I realized I might not actually see
the sun rise over the sea from that point. So my trip started on this mountain, which is called Montpla And then I trekked over to the castle. The first part was actually pretty flat. The path got a bit steeper
after the goats and the Catalan flag. The Montgri castle was built in the 13th century
and can be seen from miles around. Some say the mountain
and the castle on top of it looks like a sleeping bishop
with his ring finger on his chest. Others say it looks like something else. The path I had
chosen was the most direct ascent but also the steepest. The castle is one of my favorite sites
from my house, which is in the middle of the hills
that you can now see on the horizon. The castle is an amazingly good condition
after 800 years, and that’s because it was
hardly ever used after it was built. And no army ever
needed to try and attack it. Once you get up to the ramparts,
you can see all around. The sea to the east. The end of the Pyrenees and France to the north. And then on the other side and to the west
you can see the Gavarres Hills. And my house. Or at least the church tower and the vineyard in front. From my house to
this part of the coast is about 25km. And later in the trip,
I’ll head down to a couple of points down there. There are a few paths up to the castle,
and rather than walk back the way I came, I went down a slightly longer
and less steep path that I hadn’t taken before. This path leads to a hermitage called Santa Caterina I didn’t see anyone else on this path, apart from one mountain biker
who I think had come down the path ahead,
which would have been quite punchy of him. On the last part. Down to my car. The sun was now fully up, and I was
getting a bit warm in my hiking clothes. And I was also getting a bit hungry. But my next stop after a short drive was for a swim and some breakfast
at the Platja de Grau beach, which can be seen from the Montgri castle
and also from my house. This is one of three
really long sandy beaches on this stretch of the Costa Brava,
but there are dozens of smaller beaches and Calas in between. First of all, I went up a dune to look at the Montrgi Castle. Then I got ready for my first swim in the sea this year. Then it was time for some breakfast. Before leaving for my next stop, which was to be
the medieval village of Pals. Which is only a short distance inland from the beach. Pals is one of the most beautiful
villages in the area, and because it is easy to get to, it is also
one of the most popular for visitors. For this visit,
I was just doing a quick walk around, taking a few side streets
to avoid filming too many other people. I believe there are plenty of stories
about this village, and if you would like a proper guided tour
in the future, I’m sure my language teacher, Francesca and her husband Joan would be able to help you out. The tower wasn’t open that morning. But I believe you can make out my house
from the top of it. You can certainly see the higher parts
of the village from my house. To
get back to my car and finish my trip. I went down some of the outer streets
and a few smaller alleyways. I’ve given you the close
up of the view down there and I’m now going to give an explanation
of the designs for the area down here. And the first thing to say
is that the level will remain lower rather than higher. Like this rock pile. And one of the reasons
is that I want to maintain the view from the shed space behind,
this side of which will become open. But to achieve that lower level, I am going to have to remove or use
all of the rocks and stones that I’ve been dumping here
from my excavation work, which I do have plans for. But I’ll be explaining in a later video. And as for the access
to this whole lower area. It’ll be from the path that I’ve just
taken, and from a series of steps similar to the steps
that I uncovered in this area, and that I’ve now covered up again
with a bunch of rocks. And in this area, once
all the rocks have gone, between the path and the steps there,
there’ll be another shaded pergola area running from there to there, all of which
will be in front of a retaining wall that will be put in roughly
where that line of rocks is. And then in this area in front, there’ll be a number of plants and herbs
with paths running through them to an area with some seating options
and a petanca court, which I hope will have the best view
of any petanca area in Catalunya, or at least in the parish! and then at a slightly lower space below
that. There’ll be another flat area
for some relaxing stretching, maybe some yoga, or perhaps
just sitting down and enjoying the view. And then moving along the front here from the corner point of the shed
and going across the space will be another retaining wall,
just as there used to be. And there will be some steps coming
from the terrace above down to this level, where there will be some loungers
and some parasols, and there will also be a path running from this level
down to the terraces below. But I’ll be talking to you about that
in another video. But the final elements of the design
to tell you about relate to this space here between
what will be the pool and the shed there. Because under the terrace in this space
here will be two water deposits, one for rainwater
and one for the water from the well. While in this corner there will be
another underground structure that houses all of the electrics, plumbing
and heating facilities for the house. And having walked you around the area and talked
about all of the designs within it. Here is a drone view from above. And here is a basic drawing
of the designs, where we had to strip out all of the details for when we wanted
to submit it to the council, but it should give you a pretty good idea
of the overall layout. There are some elements of the designs
which I still need to finalize, such as the exact finish
for all the surfaces and the best options for various plants
around this level. So if you’ve got some good ideas about
this, please let me know in the comments. As I think I’ve said
in a much, much earlier video, I’m almost as excited
about this top terrace and the garden as I am about the house,
and I’m obviously hoping that I get approval
for my new designs as soon as possible, although I can get on with the parts
that I’ve already got permission for,
such as the new retaining wall here. And on a final note, I’m moving
towards this space here because most days that I’m at the house, I’ll take a photo
with exactly this perspective. For example, this is how the house looked
from this point when I first bought it a few years ago, and these photos show some of the recent changes. And in the coming weeks,
I hope that this view keeps moving towards my dream top terrace space. Starting from next week
when I’m back into the work after my weekend away,
so I hope to see you then.