Cortijo Gallombar - How it all began. The story of the restoration of a rural farmhouse to offer accomodation with a private swimming pool in the Alpujarras

How it was

We arrived in Las Alpujarras (having visited several times) on the 23rd June 1997 with car and trailer packed with as many everyday things as we could carry, plus two dogs ... homeless and jobless ... a totally strange situation for us!!!

We had decided we wanted to own an old farmhouse (Cortijo) and had started to look ... and look ... and look ... until we finally stumbled upon Cortijo Gallombar, but not at all like it is today. It had not been lived in for fourteen years and was definitely unloved!

We eventually moved in on the 1st August 1997 ... and on the 2nd August we wondered what on earth we had done!

The first year here was a good test for our relationship. Living in an old Cortijo while the renovation work is going on around you is not the easiest thing to do. No matter how hard you try, dirt and dust gets everywhere ... we even had grit on the soap! There were times when Val wondered if it would EVER be finished.

We continually changed our minds during the rebuilding (as you do!) - would the door be better here or over there? We did make one or two mistakes which had to be knocked down and resited ... and we do have one or two extra "rustico" bits!

By June 1998 we were building the pool, having finished the first stage of our guest accommodation plus our own part of the house, and we welcomed our first guests on the 2nd August 1998 with the pool still being filled. We had a rest from building until January 1999 and then started on the ruin adjacent to the main house. This took much longer than we anticipated and we almost had the first guests arriving to help us finish it! This was in June 1999. El Sol was up and running!

Winter 1999/2000 we decided to add a sitting room complete with wood burning stove to our first guest accommodation and La Luna was complete. We then applied for extra accommodation and we were able to offer our third casita which is La Estrella.

We do feel very proud of what we have achieved and very much enjoy sharing our lovely home and pool with our guests. We never get tired of looking at and walking our mountains; they change colour with the light ... stunningly beautiful. We very much hope you will visit us in our special part of Spain.

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