Welcome to our Portugal Home

Monte da Casa Branco is the name of our new home in Portugal. It translates as ‘white house on the hill’. The house is very white but the area it sits on is not much of a hill since this area is mostly farm land. I still like the name so we’ll keep it. Addresses here tend to be a bit vague. No house number, just the name Monte da Casa Branco. I was thinking this would make package deliveries a bit of a challenge but after looking around the neighborhood, using the house name as an address, you’ll spot this baby from the moment you turn up the street. You can’t miss it.

The house is located in the small village of Sao Miguel da Machede in the district of Evora. The village has a population of roughly 1000 people yet it still has restaurants, a winery, coffee shop, a bakery and market and of course a church. Our new home is just a 10 minute bike ride to the village which makes it easy to grab a few supplies or coffee when needed. We’ll also be very close to Evora for more serious shopping and Lisbon is just 1.5 hours away by car or train. We have a perfect combination of country living with quick access to restaurants and culture. This entire area is very enchanting. Plus, the abundance of castles definitely adds to the fairy tale factor around here.

The arrival experience of the house is pretty amazing. You drive up to this very modern black gate that ever so slowly slides open to reveal the olive trees flanking both sides of the gravel road leading up to the house.

I have to admit, I really love the electronic front gate (remote control operated). Not only does it keep out the riffraff (not sure what that would look like around here since it’s hard to meet someone you don’t like in Portugal), but even if we had unexpected guests announcing their arrival at the front gate, the driveway is so long, I’d have enough time to clean the house and shower before they got to the front door. If they linger in the orchard and vineyard I could also bake a batch of cookies and greet them at the front door with plate in hand.

The entrance to the house isn’t exactly obvious. It’s tucked into a courtyard resembling a modern version of Stonehenge. I’ll need to figure out how to direct guests to its location without the need for runway lights.

The house sits on 1 hectare (2.3 acres) of land with a pool and essentially zero landscaping. The previous owners installed a small orchard, a few olive trees and that’s about it. It’s a blank canvas for my many ideas. This area of Portugal is in planting zone 10b which is similar to Los Angeles so my planting options are vast. We also have two bore holes (which are basically smaller versions of a well ) to supply the pool and landscaping with plenty of water.

The interiors are classic modern design. Very clean lines and lots of white. The thing that struck us as amazing when we initially viewed the house, was the sweeping views and the floor to ceiling windows in every room. Actually, there are very few windows in this house. It’s all glass doors! Even in the bedrooms. You can walk out to the yard from every room in the house (excluding the bathrooms). The house is an ‘L’ shape with two wings. One of the ‘L’s’ is the private area (mainly the bedrooms) consisting of 3 bedrooms with a bathroom plus a master bedroom with an ensuite. The 2nd ‘L’ contains the main living area (living room, dining room, kitchen, social bath and laundry room). Describing the house as ‘two hallways’ would be accurate but the flow and floorplan are fantastic.

From the back of the house there are sweeping views of the Serra de Ossa mountain range as well as a view of the Castle in Evoramonte.

There is also a dog kennel on the property (located on the east side of the house). We don’t have dogs so this will be converted to an office/studio for Mike. We’ll continue to call it the dog house as it just seems appropriate since Mike will be spending a lot of time there.

The pool area is very clean and simple. Since swimming is my primary form of exercise, this area will get a lot of use. I’ll be adding loungers and umbrellas fairly soon since there’s no shade around the pool. There’s also an outdoor kitchen (called a churrasqueira) with a built in grill and sink. I’ve gotten several suggestions to grill sardines out here. Not sure that would be my first choice but I’ll give it a try since sardines are in abundance in Portugal. Also very handy is the outdoor bathroom. No need to go inside with wet bathing suits from the pool or dirty boots from the garden.

I can’t wait to start adding our personality to this house. But first we need to move in.