Join us and help to rebuild a 1879 house in Asturias, northern Spain

  • Spain
  • Favourited 569 times
  • Last activity: 25 Mar 2023

Availability

  2023 

 Min stay requested: at least 3 weeks

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    We're Suso and Myriam, a couple in our thirties with 2 dogs, 3 cats, 6 chicken and a couple of turtles that bought a beautiful big XIX century house in 2018
    We speak Spanish and English and Myri speaks as well Italian (she was born in Naples) and Suso can hold a conversation in Japanese because he spent long time cycling in Japan.
    Our goal is to rescue this piece of history from decay and make it our home in the way. We plan doing as much as possible ourselves using materials and methods from the period to accomplish our goal.

    IMPORTANT: We offer three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) from Monday to Friday for sure, and for the weekends sometimes we cook sometimes we do not, but there will be always breakfast and probably dinner, though we can't always guarantee. Washing dishes after meals is one of the house chores we ask the volunteers to do, but we set the rule 'If you cook you don't do the dishes'.
    Appropriate footwear is important. It gets muddy and slippery as soon as it rains.we also appreciate if you bring your own working gloves rain coat although we try to avoid working in the rain.

    Also important, we do laundry sunny days between 12:00 and 16:00.

    Autumn 2022 update. Less progress than we where hopping for but we made some fun discoveries that forced us to change our plans. But
    with October excelent weather we managed to add other 6 metres to the wall now we just need decent weather and it'll be finished next year for sure.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Animal Care
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
    Help with Computers/ Internet
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    If you're interested in traditional construction methods and hand made stuff we'll love to learn from you and we're happy to teach you. All good ideas that fit the philosophy of the project are welcome. Also you can experience life in the countryside of Asturias in a wooded area close to the sea and mayor tourist attractions you can visit on your spare time.

  • Projects involving children

    Projects involving children

    This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

  • Help

    Help

    Help us rebuild a 1879 house in north Spain (just 10 minutes by car from the beach ) and make it a passive sustainable home. We don't need any special skill and if you're willing to learn about carpentry and masonry from a professional Suso will love to teach you from the very basic all the way to advance stone cutting and Japanese timber framing.
    This is a construction site, the house is 140 years old and everything needs attention. Half of it needs rebuilding so at times the work is tough and dirty.
    We're at a stage where we finished the consolidation and already started demolition and rebuilding.
    Not all is heavy lifting and cement mixing Myri is very passionate about gardening cooking so if you fancy to help us growing vegetables, taking care of the animals and making pizza you'll find a very warm welcome.
    Again please bring suitable footwear, it gets muddy and slippery.

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent
    Spanish: Fluent
    Italian: Fluent
    Japanese: Fluent

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    We have a guests room in the house, with two bed and a bank beds and a small office downstairs where we can put an extra double bed. Workawayers are expected to share the room but We'll do our best for you to be comfortable and let you know with whom are you going to share and only exceptionally there will be more than two volunteers sleeping in one room. Food will be provided by us and cooking as well unless any workawayer likes to take over that task or any other to keep us working.
    Usually the day starts at 9am with breakfast 9:30 house chores and at 10 am we start working until lunch around 2pm. We plan our day not to need help after lunch or during the weekends so you can rest or explore.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    The bus used to stop just in front of the house before COVID 19 but now to go to Villaviciosa or to Gijón the nearest stop is 3km away. Beaches are quite close too (8 Km to playa España) and the surrounding are perfect for hiking and cycling. The camino de Santiago if pretty close too so if you're hiking to Santiago don't have to divert that much or you can start the trail from home.

    Once or twice a year a workayer will gost us after confirming that is going to stay with us. We don't mind if you cancel your stay but if your travel plans changes let us know ASAP.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    Not the best internet access but at least is unlimited. Electricity is a bit unreliable on cloudy days right now but we hope to improve our battery bank on 2022. So if your device is power hungry (more than 50W) most likely you can only charge /use during day time, and that's a limited resource in winter.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Host ref number: 914648457415

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