Our Stone House Renovation in Montenegro #TheStoneHowes
Jonathan and I have been living a nomadic lifestyle since 2013 and the last 2 years were spent on our sailboat, S/V Empress, in the Caribbean. From being backpackers/hitchhikers traveling to 143 countries to first-time homeowners!! We're able to buy our house because of our travel blogging income; so yes, you can make your dreams come true even if you're a digital nomad
Last year (2019) when we finally decided to move back to Europe and look for a place to call our home. So happy that we’re able to buy this 200-year old StoneHouse Villa in Montenegro in October 25, 2019.
We now decided to permanently settle down in this tiny Balkans country. We will still be traveling abroad and I still aim to visit every country in the world using my Philippines passport.
By January 2020, we started our renovation project to turn our old Stonehouse to a modern and minimalist interior decoration. We luckily found a contractor who speaks English and can make our vision a reality. His team is amazing and very professional!
My husband used to work in Architecture so we saved money by him doing the design layout, measurements, and other technical things. Then we both worked on interior planning.
In the last 6 months, we finished the first phase of our project - interior stonework, new second floor & stairs, bedroom, kitchen, living room, one guest room, and our building extension for the bathroom and home office.
Later on this year, we’ll work on the swimming pool, outdoor kitchen, and garden then hopefully our two other guest rooms. Just time to save up again!
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Property Area: 611 m2
House Area: 82.0 m2 (1st bldg) and 64.0 + 30.0 m2 (2nd bldg) --> 4 bedroom/ 4 bathroom
Architectural Design: Jonathan Howe
Contractor/ Project Manager: Nikola Radman (radmannick@gmail.com)
DIARY OF OUR HOUSE RENOVATION EXPERIENCE:
Day 1 (January 2, 2020) - Starting our House Renovation Project
Day 2 (January 3, 2020) - Clearing, Digging and Weeding our Infinity Pool Area
Day 3 (January 4, 2020) - Clearing and cleaning our Future Organic Garden
Day 33 (February 3, 2020) - Accomplished a lot while I was away for almost a month! ❤️
Day 38 (February 9, 2020) - Happy & Blessed Sunday, everyone!
Day 41 (February 11, 2020) - Getting started with the interior!
Day 43 (February 13, 2020) - Got the roof for our bathroom extension!
Day 47 (February 17, 2020) - First party at #TheStoneHowes 💋
Day 48 (February 18, 2020) - Main Bedroom’s bathroom plan is slowly happening! ❤️
Day 55 (February 25, 2020) - New kitchen and custom wardrobe for the bedroom! ❤️
Day 73 (March 14, 2020) - Progress in our construction is getting faster 🙏🏽
Day 92 (April 2, 2020) - Finished renovating one of our guestrooms
Day 98 (April 8, 2020) - Installing our Kitchen!
Day 112 (April 22, 2020) - So many delays 😰😭
Day 119 (April 29, 2020) - Kitchen Update
Day 128 (May 8, 2020) - Garden Update
Day 135 (May 15, 2020) - Main Bedroom Update
Day 138 (May 18, 2020) - Main Bedroom, Kitchen and Stairs Cabinet Update
Day 142 (May 22, 2020) - Balcony and Stairs Cabinet Update
Day 143 (May 23, 2020) - Balcony Update
Day 147 (May 27, 2020) - Bathroom Update
Day 150 (May 30, 2020) - Bathroom and Stairs Cabinet Update
Day 153 (June 2, 2020) - Living Room Update
Day 154 (June 3, 2020) - Bathroom and Home Office Update
Day 157 (June 6, 2020) - Bedroom Update
Day 159 (June 8, 2020) - Bathroom Update
Day 160 (June 9, 2020) - Kitchen Update
Day 162 (June 11, 2020) - Home Office Update
Day 173 (June 22, 2020) - Stone House Update
Day 191 (July 10, 2020) - Stone House Update
Day 200 (July 19, 2020) - Stone House Update
Day 219 (August 7, 2020) - Stone House Update (Unedited photos during our photoshoot!)
Day 268 (September 25, 2020) - Stone House Update
