FROM THE HEART OF AURRSA: MOVING to BASTORA

The cat is officially out of the bag today!

We are

moving to

BASTORA.

Bastora is a village in North Goa, India. It is located on the outskirts of Mapusa town.

Local landmarks include Holy Cross School, SFS Institute, Asha Bhawan among other prominent landmarks like the renowned Tipografia Rangel.

Cajetan Church.

This parish church with Saint Cajetan as patron, was dedicated to Our Lady of Hope (Nossa Senhora de Esperanca], initially erected as a chapel in 1752. The chapel was consecrated a church on 1 May 1947.

This church, built in stone masonry, is constructed in the Neo-Roman style, which originated in Italy in the fifteenth century, with the vision of reviving the style of old Imperial Rome.

We will be living a stone's throw from the panchayat building, (actually several stones as I am not a very good shot.)

Our flat is located on the ground floor of Ganesh Apartments, the only building erected in the village as far as I can see.

The building is quite old and very poorly maintained. But we pray things will improve and that we can live there safely and peacefully.

At present, renovation work is on. We are waiting eagerly to move and make our home in this beautiful village of BASTORA.

I look forward to long walks and even cycle like that poder you see on top!

Some random shots of our renovation work:

If you would like to see videos of the renovation work, please head over to my channel on YouTube.

Link here:

https://youtube.com/user/Aurrsa

AURIEL RIBEIRO SA is the name of the channel.

Update: I have created a Facebook group called BASTORA - BARTER, BUY, BLESS exclusively for the villagers of Bastora. If you are from this village or surrounding areas within 2 km radius, please do join. Details available on the group.

I have also created a new blog called BASTORA BLESSINGS as I will soon be moving and so this blog will become redundant. Posts archived will be available for reading but all new posts will be on the new blog. Please do save the url and follow it. Thank you for reading my posts. Leave a comment so I know how it has impacted your life.

Update 29 Sept

Kitchen window grille being fabricated

Granite for kitchen platform being cut.

Porch wall tiled.

Breakfast table, moulding still not done.

Kitchen platform.

Porch wall tiled.

Update: 4 October

Today the railing base, seat for steps and the garden bed was completed. Tomorrow being Dusheera I don't think the workers will come.

UPDATE: Oct 6

Today the porch floor tiles and moulding on the kitchen platform was done.

The contractor gave his estimate for the railing and gate.

The pattern for the gate, only instead of GR it's gonna be MB for Margaret Bosco.

UPDATE: 13 Oct

At last, aluminium sliding windows were completed today. We had to hire another contractor because the current one delayed us by a month and we were assured by this second one that we will be able to move in by end October. PTL.

Some pictures of work done

Worker moving the grille to make room for sliding windows

Front porch. This will be our entrance.

I also did a lot of decluttering and gave away stuff that I definitely do not want. But I do realise that once I settle in the new place, I will have to reassess and downsize even more.

Some things that I gave away.

Materials left from works done, some to be returned

Tiles we will use for our kitchen platform base.

Tiles unopened to be returned.

I have already started packing a long time ago. Yesterday and today, I unloaded two of my cupboards to fill them with packed boxes while putting my regular clothes in a suitcase. So, from now till we finally move in and settle down, I'll be living out if a suitcase. Lol!

Boxes 1-10 left unsealed till the day they leave the house.

My clothes in a suitcase

I have decided to have my own version of a garage sale, keeping OPEN HOUSE on the weekend evenings for this purpose. This way our family and friends can come visit us, see the house and take away whatever they like from our RUMBLE TUMBLE JUMBLE table!

UPDATE: 21 Oct

I had hoped we could send the bulky items into the new flat before the painting actually started but Glenn says NO!

I sealed the boxes, anticipating that first trip. Even brought one of the three cupboards into the living room which now looks like a godown.

The electrician took a couple of days to get his work done so the painters and plumber had to wait.

Today they are back again to complete their work. If all goes well, we should be moving on 29 Oct.

Railing n gate fabrication are underway. Some pictures sent earlier here for you to see how its panning out.

UPDATE: 24 Oct

Painting underway. First coat went up today. Plumbing and tile work will be completed tomorrow and so will electrical works. On Wednesday the painters will finish the second coat and hopefully the doors and external painting will be done on Thursday, leaving Friday for general clean-up. Saturday morning we start moving in.

I am so tired of waiting. The first contractor wasted so much precious time otherwise I am certain we would have been in the flat by now.

Pictures we took this Sunday:

UPDATE: 26 Oct

Plumbing almost done, cement work has started today. Glenn says one neighbour has expressed concern as they used to park their bikes in that spot. Let's pray that we can find an amicable solution to this problem.

Packing progressing slowly as fridge and open pantry items gets depleted. Today I was able to empty the open pantry and take it out of the kitchen. I was also able to fill up the first of the kitchen OPEN FIRST BOXES.

Painting is going to get over tomorrow. Today the second coat of paint is going up. I sent the wooden kitchen cabinet and the plant stand for painting too. Same colour as the doors.

UPDATE: 28 Oct

Butterflies 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Its finally here! Hours not days!!

Final touches and clean-up going on today. We couldn't start carpentry but that's ok as I would rather be present to watch what's going on.

The electrician and painters were super fast. We were so glad that we switched to another contractor for these jobs. Plumbing got over yesterday and polishing of the kitchen platform will get done today.

We also got the front area next to the porch cemented and I am going to make it pretty with some selected plants.

Here are some latest pictures of the work done.