Our Dream Home Build Took an Unexpected Turn - Restoring an Old Abandoned Portuguese Stone House

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:24]This week on our off-grid journey, the walls  of our dream home are starting to reach new heights. lights and the land surprises us once  again with some incredible stone finds that feel almost too perfect to be real. Give me more.  I tell you, I feel like a billionaire right now just cuz I have a lot of stone. What a nerd.  What a stone nerd. But while taking a closer look at one of our longest walls, Luke also notices  something that could turn into a future problem.

[00:00:59]And it's doing the same on the other side  inwards. So this week became a mix of excitement, hard work, and a few moments that reminded us  just how carefully this dream needs to be built.

[00:01:20]We left the rat race far behind. Left  Malta searching for a different kind.

[00:01:25]17 of wild abandoned land. Four old ruins and a  dream in our hands. Clearing the bushes day by day. Uncovering the life that slipped away.  Solar on the roof and water from the well.

[00:01:38]Living off the land with stories to tell. This  is our life. Raw and real. Built by our hands.

[00:01:48]You can see and feel while you go beneath an  open sky. This is the life we chose to live.

[00:02:10]So, I'm just collecting some more stone before I  go and continue building walls at the ruin. And I remembered about eight years ago, I had pulled out  some really nice stones for here. I forgot what I was using it for, but I just remembered these  are like they've been like cracked naturally and I'm quarrying them out of the floor. But you can  really see it here. And it's really weird because look at all the straight edges. Look at this  one I just pulled out. I mean, look at that.

[00:02:48]All the sides are completely flat. I mean, that's  going to make a great Once I get it straight, it's going to make a great stone. Hello,  Molly. I'm going to be acquiring a lot of rock from here. Probably even that thing you're  standing on. But there's loads here. And look, they're so straight. Let's see  if I can get another one out.

[00:03:18]Yep. Awesome.

[00:03:23]Check that out. Another one. Look at  that. I don't know why I'm so surprised, but I guess it's cuz I've never  really quirried stone before.

[00:03:34]How awesome.

[00:03:37]Look at this.

[00:03:41]or straight edges. Geologists,  tell me what's going on.

[00:03:59]No. Yep. Easy peasy.

[00:04:06]That's a big one. That's a big one.

[00:04:19]Wow, that looks like it's 50 cm. I don't have a  measuring tape on me. Nice. I hope it is. Wow, I'm so excited.

[00:04:42]What beauties?

[00:04:46]What about this one? Calm  down. Look, it's only stones.

[00:04:58]I mean, even this I'm going to harvest probably.

[00:05:03]So awesome. So much sewn. It's tiny little place.

[00:05:09]So cool, right? How many can I take  with the tractor this morning? One, two. I've got another big one there. Three.  Couple more maybe. Let's see what this is.

[00:05:26]I just don't understand where these  clean edges are all coming from.

[00:05:34]this. I don't know how I'm going to get it  up there, but we'll see. There's another one.

[00:05:51]Oh, big one.

[00:05:59]I'm cracking it as I'm doing  it. Proper quarrying. Awesome.

[00:06:11]And it's a very hard feels  like quartzite even though it looks like does it? I think it's quartzite.

[00:06:28]I'm too excited. I can't catch my breath.

[00:06:42]Awesome.

[00:06:49]Another beauty.

[00:06:56]Sorry, lavender. We've got loads.

[00:07:07]Such straight lines. Give me more.  Boom. That's a nice big one here. Okay, I think that's enough for the tractor.  I'll take these and continue building W. But every morning, come and grab some  beauties from here. I think too easy. Wow.

[00:07:46]Check out that lovely tractor  box of stones. Oh yeah, I'm a fool. I know.

[00:07:59]I'm getting I'm a bit excited, but for good reason. Come and see these  beauties. I just dug up in 5 minutes.

[00:08:10]From where? Remember I had gotten that really  straight one like it was thing years ago over here. Yeah. Where we were digging up the  soil. Where we were digging up the black soil when we did our first garden. Look at them  all. All straight edges. Look. All of it. Every side. Look. Awesome. And down there, I left the  big one. It's like this. And it's like dome or flat. And I'm breaking them. I'm cracking them. I  think it's quartzite. Either quartzite or a very hard granite. Because it's super solid and dense.  Like it's quartzite. It's quartzite. Granite. It's amazing. How cool. E. Okay. But there's so much  there. And over there eventually I went to pool anyway. So yeah. Yeah. I mean anything you can get  from the ground. I prefer not taking from walls, you know. I mean, yeah, ideally beautiful. And  I really needed quartzite cuz over there out of the ground there, I'm getting crumbly  granite of the house. Yeah. So like this, I've got the mix. And these are amazing.  And this is real quarrying. Proper proper.

[00:09:16]And it's cracking as I'm doing it. And  I just managed to move one. It's huge.

[00:09:23]Maybe tomorrow I'll do it. I'll have to break  it into smaller pieces. This is so much fun.

[00:09:37]One, two, three, four. Let's see if this works.

[00:09:54]Okay. One, two.

[00:10:03]H. What was that? What did you do with an ant?  I know I sat here cuz I dug and it's cool. Hey, it's okay. You can stay. I'm going to  take something from underneath. Okay.

[00:10:15]But you can stay very clever keeping it in front of me. You have a go. Can I take just  some from under your poop? It's okay.

[00:10:35]I think it has potential like this. Uh, not bad.

[00:10:49]Okay. You have a lovely purple, by the  way. It's very beautiful there in the way.

[00:10:56]Would you have an ant bugging you? What's  that on your on your Oh, it fell already.

[00:11:06]Okay. I do need to tie this down  then. Well, it's going over you now.

[00:11:14]I do have to make it stronger and also find  another piece for the other side and a long cane for the other side. But I will do that  another time. But I've really seen them change color since we took it off. It's only been two  days and yeah, they were much brighter green the leaves. So I do want to protect them. But  I think it's going to look something like this.

[00:11:58]All righty. Now, yesterday I built up  this bit of bit. I don't film everything because otherwise our videos will be  like 4 hours long or something. So, I did all this bit. I did a bit there. I did  all there. handle there. So now both corners are pretty much the same height over here. And  this is like so solid. E this big T there's 40 cm of floor but it's already up to I would say 1  three so 1 m 1 m and I think the low sides which are the outside of the walls are around two 275  maybe. And the middle where the ridge beam is going on this part is about 3 something. So what  seemed like a completely impossible task I think I don't want to promise too much cuz now it gets hot  and things change when it gets like 40°. But I'm feeling very positive anyway. So let's uh unload  all these stones. Beautiful stones. I tell you, I feel like a billionaire right now just  because I have a lot of stone. What a nerd. What a stone nerd. Hopefully this  episode we will see how much of this wall we can build. Very long one. And I am looking  forward to the day where everything out here I mean everything everywhere. I'm looking forward  to the day for it to be finished, but to be at this height, you know, it's just like a milestone  in my eyes. Anyway, I'm going to stop talking and get working. Raise the walls, Luke. Raise the  walls. Yesterday, I only did two mixes cuz then I ran out of big stones. So, I went to get and I got  all these these. All of those. Two loads, I think.

[00:13:58]So collecting stone is becoming  easier and easier, which is nice.

[00:15:07]Yay!

[00:16:31]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:16:48]Hey.

[00:17:00]Hey.

[00:18:32]What to do here?

[00:19:49]Wow, that hit him.

[00:20:40]Pretty hot today. I told you summer  was going to start today.

[00:21:09]Um, I've been here a couple of hours cuz I was was  going to build this wall up. As you can see, I've got the lines on both sides here. So, I was going  to try and come up to this level more or less. So, it's the same all around to there. Anyway,  um, but yeah, after setting up these lines, maybe not. I think there's a problem. Well, there  is a problem. I just don't know the solution yet.

[00:21:40]I took a couple of videos and sent them to my uh  two advisors. Uh Durk, our friend, who's done all the plans and everything, and Sensei Nick, who has  been teaching me how to build walls. Sensei. Um and I'll be waiting for an answer from them. Uh,  basically, yeah, this long wall, the longest wall of our ruin is wishy-washy. And I I'll tell you a  bit later. Today, I've already been here 2 hours, so I kind of want to get on with it and continue  building. So, instead of doing this, I'm going to do that. Tada. So, I had said that I'd always  build on the lowest wall, so it goes up together.

[00:22:33]And even though I was going to do that, I  think this is like 2 cm under that one. So, I'm still sticking to my word. Okay, let's put  a mix on and get this up. I do have a arch here, but I don't think it starts to somewhere here.  So, I'll just remember that. Otherwise, it's just no windows, no nothing. Just build it up. Yay.  I'm going to get rid of some of my 90s corners.

[00:23:02]So, I just moved a shopping bag that I had here  full of little pebbles, flat stones for to prop up any other bigger stones. And yeah, I moved it.  It shattered the shopping bag, fell on the floor, and I got stung twice by wasps. I had to get rid  of the nest because it was just where I'm working.

[00:23:26]And yeah, now I'm surrounded by a bunch of angry  wasps. Sorry guys, they make a nest in everything.

[00:24:12]Nah.

[00:24:45]Another scorcher today. Today Nick is coming. I'm going  to get some advice from him. Uh, so I thought I'd tell you the problems with the longest wall in our  ruin. So, a couple of months ago, maybe more than that, Durk, who is a a friend of ours who helps  us with all the architectural needs, told me, "Run a couple of lines down the longest wall to  see if it's dead straight because he said it's very important. It's the continuous continuous  roof all on one plane. So, it's very important that we build it. Hopefully, it's straight. So,  I've been putting it off just because I haven't gotten around to it and it doesn't really matter,  I guess, um when I do it. A couple of days ago, I did it and realized we have three problems with  the wall. So, number one is that part of the wall, you can actually see it by eye. I knew about this.  Um the wall kind of caves in a bit at one point.

[00:26:08]It's only a section I would say maybe a meter and  a half by a meter and a half round about in the middle around here. Probably around I don't know  six seven mters in from the front. Um and I think the solution to that is taking as many stones  as I can, rebuilding most of it. But if there's some where the level is slightly like that, I can  go down a bit and then put a stone like this. If it's not too much, you know, there's certain  allowances that would be okay. So that's one problem. The second problem is there's parts of  the wall that are built like this. So instead of being dead straight like that, the inside is  leaning in and the outside is leaning in. So they're both like this. Not this much obviously.  Here it's only about an inch I think between uh between a meter and a half span. So it's  slightly so I'll probably just take off a couple of courses. I need to anyway when I build  on the old wall so I can tie the new wall into it.

[00:27:15]I don't want it to be flat on top of the wall. I  need it to get into it so it's really tied to it.

[00:27:21]So that's I think the same solution is take  out as much as I can and then same again if it's slightly tilted lay the next stone like  that as long as it's not a huge hole. Now the biggest problem number three is to see if  the wall is straight and it's uh not. So, I'll explain on this beautiful piece of  cardboard. This is the string onto a stick in the wall and the other  side as well. This is the wall and this is the wall. So there's about 7 cm  on each side. So then the wall is 50. I mean it's much longer than this like but and then  it's like that. This is looking from the top here's eye. So that's the string and the two  walls. This we want to be straight cuz the roof rafters will be going onto it on the wall plate  which is like a wooden beam that goes on top of the wall on the outside edge. So along this wall  there'll be a wooden beam called a wall plate.

[00:28:58]So in our situation at the moment, if  I build where the bottom of the wall has actually been built years and years  ago, the wall plate will be like this.

[00:29:14]Now it's not this crazy. It's only 7 cm  over here. The line touches the wall and this is about 7 cm and this is about 7 cm.  So, that is the main problem really. And I'm not quite sure what to do because  I'm not going to just build the wall coming out as it goes up because otherwise  it's definitely unstable. So, yeah. Anyway, I've asked my two advisers and Nick's coming  today and I speak to Derek on the weekend.

[00:29:48]So, in the meantime, I'll keep building up these  walls like I've been doing on this side, and hopefully by Sunday, I'll decide I'll get all the  information I need and decide what to do. Right.

[00:30:04]It's definitely not this crazy. Don't worry.  It looks straight, but it's not. So, it's very close. It's only 7 cm. All right. Okay. Let's make  another mix and get on with it. A bit slower now that it's gotten hot. Today is 35, I think, and  tomorrow's 36. So, I mean, compared to summer, this is luxury. So, I'm not going to complain  cuz yeah, 42 days, 43 days are not too far away.

[00:32:34]Hey. Hello. Hello.

[00:32:39]I like your t-shirt. I always  like your t-shirts. I got lots.

[00:32:46]What's going on, man? It's going tougher, but it's  getting hotter now. You haven't seen this in real life, eh? I haven't. No, she hasn't. No, no. I  mean, she hasn't seen the ruin at all. Nick has seen it. Oh, that's nice. Uhhuh. That's It is.  I haven't. Oh, very nice. So, say Nick is here.

[00:33:12]So, what? Um, so this wall is the longest  wall. But I think it's 22 m or so.

[00:33:53]But on the outside, it's a neat in as well. I  think it was built like this, like a pyramid.

[00:34:00]Yeah. I can hardly see through the dirt on the  level to be honest with you. I just told you embarrassed I need to watch it. You tell everyone  on YouTube. Ah, they know. YouTube knows they can see it. And it's doing the same on the other side  inwards, not out. So it's not leaning, you know.

[00:34:18]That's that's good. But now when I build, do I  come out here? Do I come out here like over here?

[00:34:23]Next stone. Does it come like that? I mean, it's  not much. It's not much. Okay. Do you think I need any reinforcement since it's the eaves over here?  Way the roof will be designed then is to for all the rafters to take the weight vertically. Yeah.  So, the weight of the rafters out here won't be pushing out. It'll be vertical. Fair enough. Fair  enough. I'm just worried because of the I'm not sure how strong this wall is. You know what I  mean? That's all. Yes. The only way to tell is push it over. Okay. Roundhouse. Knock it down.  And then Oh, there. That was quite strong. Two.

[00:35:35]That's better. Bit respectable now. Barely.

[00:35:42]Been meaning to do that for ages. Lunchtime. I  did get the cooler with me now that summer has pretty much started and I have one of my favorite  things to eat. I'm going to be eating a lot of these cuz they're perfect for summer. Ice cream.  No, summer rolls. Vietnamese summer rolls. We used to make loads of these on the food truck back  in water. And I've got some nocham fish sauce, sugar, chilies, garlic, lime juice.  That's it. Really nice for summer, for any time really. But I haven't made  them in ages. And I have cold water now.

[00:36:34]And I can start getting some beers with me.  So at the end of the day, I can kick back and admire my work, which I like to do. Yummy. So,  basically, if you don't know what these are, if you've been living under a rock,  it's vermicelli rice noodles inside a spring roll wrapper with veggies. I think the  traditional Vietnamese is pork belly and prawns as your protein. And then a garlic, chive,  mint, Vietnamese mint, perila, and cucumber, spring onion, carrot. I'm not sure about the  carrot. What else? That's it. But anyway, you can put a protein, you can not, you can  put loads of veggies, whatever you want.

[00:37:27]And that dipping sauce, they do make an awesome, normally they serve this peanut butter and  hoyen sauce, dipping sauce, which is nice, but I prefer this one, especially for summer. I  love the chilies in it. But it's like chilies.

[00:38:06]Heat. Heat.

[00:38:52]Hey everybody.

[00:39:48]like that.

[00:42:54]It's all about technique, guys.

[00:43:04]That's a good stone, eh?

[00:43:17]Woo! That is a good stone. Boom. Solid as a rock.

[00:43:29]So, either like that or upside  down. Maybe it's better upside down.

[00:43:56]All right. Whoops. It's a bit late. Did I make  a mix? So, I'll leave it for the tomorrow. But that is a good stone. Like this one is same.  Same. And the one there. So, it's like boom.

[00:44:19]Strong wall.

[00:44:44]Okay. So, I've got an advice from Nick and from  Derek. Um, unfortunately I gave Nick and you guys, I guess, uh, the wrong information. The wall  plate, which is the beam the rafters are attached to, isn't flush with the outside of the wall. It's  flush with the inside over here. The full length, the full, I think it's 20 25 m. So, we don't  have an overhang on this side. So the fascia, the piece of wood that's attached to the outside  wall between the roof comes slightly over it is attached to the wall. So the outside wall needs  to be one straight line and also the inside wall has to be one straight line cuz the the wall plate  will be one straight line. Um, now both of I think I made a bit of a mountain out of a molehill in my  head because it's so slight like the main problem that half the wall is slightly this way and the  other half is like this. It's so slight over 25 m um that with little adjustments all over the  place, we can make it right. Over there it's touching in the middle this line and over here it  starts as you can see getting slightly bigger but it's not even 7 cm. Look it's I mean 3 cm maybe.  Then over here this there's parts that it actually does go in which isn't a big deal cuz like the  top one is outer and then it does go in a bit here at the over here. You know over here is 7 cm but  already here it's not. So, it's not that much of a big deal. Just keep an eye on it and work to the  two outside lines. Derek did tell me, get a couple of nice strong posts, wooden posts, decently  thick, and bolt them one at this end and one at that end. So, it's like a batter board. And I can  run my lines, maybe put one in the middle as well, such since it's such a long span, so we don't get  much sag. Um cuz those they can stay till the end, you know, and we can bolt them into the  wall and then take them out um when we're done. So, I'm guessing I'll uh go and buy the  scaffolding next week, buy the boards and yeah, sort it out. From out here, it doesn't seem  too bad at all really. I think this line is better than the inside one. There is a bit  of a gap over here. Like here is about 6 7 cm and here but then it starts closing from here not  from the middle you know. So this stone looks like where the wall really should be over here. So, I  might take out some of these and slowly bring the top of the wall, which is another 2 m or a meter  and a half, to this level. So, it'll be sloping outwards and you won't even see it. I think that's  about it for me this week. I'm really happy with the progress. Really happy that I have two people  who I can contact anytime and they can advise me.

[00:48:04]Very grateful for that. And yeah, with little  adjustments over such a span, it's not a big deal and it's going to be sorted. See you next  week, guys. Thank you so much for being part of this journey with us. If you want to see this  dream home continue rising stone by stone here in Portugal, make sure to subscribe and follow along  because the best parts are still ahead of us.

[00:48:49]These days are running slow.