****Sale is now under contract****

For the past 15 years this property has been our own slice of heaven in the Ebro River valley area of Spain just outside Jesus – Tortosa in the province of Tarragona. But now my husband has passed on, my son has moved out with his lovely bride and my granddaughter to another village.

But believe me, we have done all the hard work. This is no longer a fixer-upper though it could still do with some more tender loving care.

Treat it inside as a blank canvas to make it your own dream home.

The potential for this property (with minimal or staged work) is endless:

A second home;

A possible two-family home (grandparents /parents at one corner or end);

AirB&B with a Tourist license is doable;

Sub-let part (but with contract) on short, medium, long-term lease. This means if you need to go home there is always someone there to look after the animals etc.

One no longer need to live in a town (with no outside space just to walk out onto and relax) and then the Finca on the weekend. Why not? Because it is only a few minutes drive down into town. High school kids go up and down on their scooters or use “Mum’s Taxi”. Many people who work in Tarragona or even Barcelona already commute on the train. The train station is across the Ebro River via a dual carriageway that is doable in 15 minutes in traffic.

Ideal for work from home ( we have had House Sitters, who are web designers, and they loved working on the patio under the coolness of the mulberry trees, followed with siestas there in their suspended hammocks. The Wifi download was fast enough for them for uploading huge files.)

Perhaps a family who likes to do some hobby small-time farming and developing a Spanish garden and enlarging the vegetable garden.

A vehicle is necessary, but not a 4×4 unless that is your preference, as it is not on a bus route.

House Highlights:

3 bedroom – master looks onto the back so is very quiet and has own internal annexe. This I use as my Writers Retreat. A lovely sunny corner at the far end of the house so it is quiet to work looking out on green hedge, shrubbery and outdoor BBQ area. There is a free-standing wooden triple door with a long mirror wardrobe( I always wanted to put on French doors out from this bedroom annexe and build a small walled private garden to sit outside and write or dream or snooze. However, this “would-be-nice idea” never got out of planning mode.)This BBQ area could be developed into a full outdoor kitchen as it is protected from the winds in early winter and also a suntrap.

There is a large portable gas BBQ (one bar needs a minor weld) out front on the uncovered patio/terrace by the mulberry shade trees.

The second bedroom is elongated facing onto the front of the house with an access door to the garage if required. It has a freestanding pine wardrobe.

The third bedroom faces the front and will hold 2 twin beds or a double bedroom. The WIFI portal is there. Also very pleasant to have a single bed and a computer desk to look out onto the shaded terrace.

2 bathrooms – The smaller shower room is compact with a vanity basin and mirror, toilet and open shower tray and curtain rail. The larger bathroom off the main bedroom/annexe boasts a huge space and much could be done here to improve by putting in a wet room while retaining the existing sunken, normal UK length long bath with a standing shower over it. It does have a 3 folding shower glass door that needs to be reattached. A large vanity basin unit and mirror

A completely fitted kitchen that needs tlc and new countertops (but they are not expensive and are sourced locally). There is a space for an upright fridge freezer. There is a large butane gas cooker with a rotisserie that holds 4 or 5 chickens-a large oven with grill and 5 pieces hob, glass cover top. Plenty of double plugs everywhere. A double stainless steel sink and two large kitchen windows one facing east and one facing west.

The giant main room serves as a lounge, dining and office with 4 windows of 2 metres across and 1 metre down, with panoramic mountain views out a glass sliding patio door leading onto a covered patio. (This room has so much potential and you are open to choices to improve it to our lifestyle.) This is a sun trap and windbreaker in winter; a siestas shade spot in summer and a cooling and refreshing experience to watch the rain when it does grace us. Yet we don’t get rain all the time like in UK so we marvel at it when it does pound down.

Double-pane, sliding windows all have external blinds though some need the cord replacing. I have fly screens for all the windows and am busy replenishing the netting damage – courtesy damage of my cats!

Wood burning stove in the main living room that has a top oven and I cook in that through the winter. We preserve our tree prunings through the year for logs and kindling. we also save our carib pods and dry them as they make excellent fire-lighters. If you have extreme patience you can crush the caribs as alternative chocolate.

Large utility room plumbed for washing machine, electric boiler and space for a huge chest figure if you have a large family, and opens outside down two smalls steps onto a concrete slabbed patio. For a very reasonable amount and little skill you could easily build a fly-free zone onto this back area if you so desired. Yet, lovely and private to sit out here in the morning with no-one looking at you. Outside washline with three lines. I love it how you can peg your washing out at night and it’s dried by morning, so chores don’t all bite into the tranquillity of your daylight hours on the Finca. The house has various radiators installed and plumbed but you would need a different type of boiler or install a combi-gas boiler. The connections are there to hold 3 huge gas bottles but Repsol would need to come to re-inspect them and you’d need a contract with them for delivery of such ones.

Giant patio concrete tiled top table big enough for any family and their friends to eat el fresco. But totally in the shadow of carefully pruned mulberry trees to spread out horizontally to provide coolness. These we prune in November /December after the leaves have dropped and been composted and branches cut for twigs to spike up the logfire.

Partially enclosed garage/almacen with two windows and an access door if required straight into the house currently being used as a Finca workshop (space for a medium-size car/Kango type vehicle) and artisan area-workshop has a tiled floor with numerous electric double sockets and more than adequate lighting for any task.

We have three Catastrell numbers for the property duly verified at the Tax office and Tarragona. There are two for urbanisation (one for original house (and out buildings /pool )and one for extension) and one for the Rustica, i.e the land.

A satellite dish is behind the house but not connected. Separate Spanish aerial for national TV channels but you do get about 4 or 5 English/American programme channels. We have E-Ports company WiFi installed and we find this has been the best for countryside living and very seldom is our service interrupted and we have mega fast downloads and uploads. This is essential when working from home online- probably more so for the new new-normal since Covid-19 hit.

Property Highlights:

4.5 journals (Note Bene: Will verify exact hectare measurements as Escritura /deeds is with the Notary.)

Views for miles to the hills and mountains. It is so peaceful up there with 250-degree views. The property has a mainly flat roof and the old house is all tiled. The new section every wall has thermal bricks and ring beams so you could easily put spiral steps on the back of the house and make it into a sun terrace.

Dipping pool (newly painted, used every year) with a top private sunbathing deck with storage room and a valve to empty it out onto the vegetable garden on the terrace below. Already plumbed to add a pump or a sand filter if you so wish. Other neighbours have added solar panel to heat their water to get a longer season for swimming. Anyone who has ever stayed with me always recall the wonderful midnight swims just floating on their backs watching the amazing galaxy above or an early morning swim when all is quiet to watch the sunrise or to cool off before dinner to watch awesome sunsets. We are trully blessed with our surroundings.

Unlimited water supply from a community shared well system of 12 neighbours with our own storage cisterna on the land with a water pump to the house supply. It’s billed annually and probably equates to 2 months water bill in the UK.

67 olive trees (various types) have been carefully pruned each year- could be sold as olives to the local co-operative for a small source of income. We prefer to pick our own olives and take them to a local press just below us and enjoy our own olive oil all year round. The terraces below the house have ample room for more olive trees to be planted. The corner plot is mainly olives too but could have the valve changed to accept irrigation to the land. The fenced-in area around the house also has a number of olive trees on it with some olives and carob and fig.

We also have carobs, 1 green and 2 black huge fig trees, 2 big kumquats, 2 lemon trees, 1 mandarin, 1 apple, 1 peach tree, 1 pear tree and a number of almonds ( I must count them tomorrow!) and 2 baby limes. Ooh, I nearly forgot, my favourite, a huge apricot tree. On the corner land, we have ‘Japanese’ crab apple trees. Plenty of fruit for conjuring up preserves or baking -even bottling.

2 Seville orange trees that provide plentiful great fruit.

A vegetable garden can be easily expanded amongst the deciduous trees.

Dog proof fencing with manual opening gates off a side road. There is a large enclosed area around the house. The bottom terraces are not fenced.

On the terraces, we have a number of pine trees. These are protected. Do not cut them down without permission from the Forestal! They were one of the reasons why we bought this property as it assisted my husband with his respiratory issues. He often marvelled how he could breathe so much better over here than in Yorkshire. Lovely to smell the pine cones on the wood-burning stove in the lounge on cold wintry nights.

Other carob and mulberry trees for shady spots in the garden to admire the tremendous countryside and views beyond to the mountains.

Walking distance to town is about 40 minutes or less when you learn where the Greenway crosses and you can join it or the short-cut path between the houses into the village of Jesus coming out by the football stadium. Some cross the old railway line “Via Verde” and hiking trails, but not for motorised vehicles. You’d pass an established riding school.

Optional:

Adjacent undeveloped 2 acre parcel ((Note Bene: Will verify exact measurements as Escritura /deeds is with the Notary.) with its own electricity supply already at the box. This is only fenced in on two sides at the moment. Permission for a gate on the side street.

Assumable first mortgage.