The actor's house

Restoring a house is a dream for many people, and for the ones that actually do it, 90% get tradesmen in to help. This house is different!

It's situated in Southern Spain and belonged to an actor from London. He bought the house several years ago for the price of a small used car. At the time it was a total ruin, but the roof was sound. It was to be a project for the times when he was resting or getting into character (actors language for un-employed). As far as I can make out, this actor did a lot of resting. Over a period of 4 years he created the ideal retreat, and isn't it a spectacle!

Wonderful color, re-cycled stone, ceramics and found items. Local people donated the odd door and sink, everything else was scavenged. The cost of the entire restoration was the price of the paint.

The cottage is spectacular and the actor is a very talented colorist and designer. There are features in the house that I can only believe have been inspired by a theatre set, stairs that go nowhere and do nothing, except display vases of flowers.

Then 2 years ago the actor auditioned for a part in a major West End production. I can imagine the shock when he received the news that he had got the part, he must have fallen off his bar stool. After rehearsals and the opening night he was doing 2 performances a day, 6 days a week. Sadly, the cottage was neglected and was sold last year.

Loving Recycled

I have a lot of photographs of this house, so this first post is just a nibble. Tune in tomorrow for more.

This house is located high in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Southern Spain. It's 30 minutes from Europes most southerly ski resort and 30 minutes from the Mediterranean coast. In theory you could ski in the morning and swim in the Med in the afternoon, but that sounds like a busy day to me. The house was refurbished, decorated and furnished using 90% re-cycled materials. Most of the materials were obtained freely from builders skips around Europe, the remainder came from salvage yards.

The house wasn't created bit by bit, but planned in great detail from the very beginning. Sketches and lists were made for each room and all the materials were sourced before any work was started. Total time spent on the project was about three years. More to follow tomorrow.