Portugal Off Grid

decided to take all the brick out cast iron firebox plate looks pretty good!  

The first major repair is underway: a stainless steel sheet has been cut to fit and is being pop-riveted on to the original back wall. this will seal up the rust holes and provide a new lip for the top cooking surface to be bolted on to. Tomorrow I need to pick up more drill bits as I've only managed to get two holes done and riveted. I will do the oven section next, then look into insulating the firebox with high temperature ceramic wool.  

I've managed to unscrew the holding brackets on the cook top and started cleaning the oven It's been two buckets worth full of old mortar and broken fire brick. The oven box has a few holes. Here you can see the new stainless steel sheets I recycled and started cutting to rebuild the oven with. I've sanded and started working on the chipped enamel. the legs got a sanding and covering with silver spray paint. The back got heat resistant oven paint and will get a new stainless steel sheet.  

Who ever owned this oven before had wanted to repair it. Inside the oven I found spare parts collected from a different oven. I'm so happy because this eye fits! Last night I searched for possible replacements on Ebay-- which were anywhere from 30 bucks to 100 bucks, plus shipping. Amazon.nl (the amazon for Netherlands) has whole new casted tops, but I'm happy to keep the one on here.  Having a new top would be useful if I was building a new stove and oven from scratch: The oven only needs sweat, elbow grease and tears....oh and I'll cut myself, so blood for the blood god.

 Ah... in the Netherlands, old technology is cheap.  People dont want it. I picked up a woodburning kitchen stove for 40 euros. It will need repair of course, but the bones are good and I have some sheets of stainless steel I got for free.   The plate directly over the fire box has been run too hot and has cracked. It should just need a new plate. It is wedged in the rectangular piece, but I am hoping I can pop it out with a hammer. Baking box is shit. This will be completely rebuilt in stainless. lots of odds and ends inside the baking box.   The side with the firebox is damaged from being run too hot, but this is an easy fix. very minor rust on front   firebox looks good. Bottom of firebox looks good. Often these iron grates are in bad shape. ash box has been repaired once before and is still usable.

We have had some sad news from a friend this week. They found out that the property they purchased in Portugal was agricultural land and the building ruin AND wooden cabin on the land were illegal. The local camara (government) is permitting them to stay in the wooden cabin for now, probably because it still has wheels or it isn't considered a permanent structure. How did this happen? Non-Portuguese folks sadly often purchase cheap land with a ruin, believing they can put in sweat equity and have a lovely future home. They don't realize the odd history of these cheap land lots. They believe anything the real estate agents tell them. In the past, all land was "urban" or "rural". You could only live/reside on urban land. To avoid paying lots of taxes, farms would only make the smallest footprint of the house "urban". Illegal structures would be built, or the main building would be built on to illegally. Now we have Google Maps Satellite images, and t...