Looking for a house in a small town (with an orchard, if possible)
Looking for a house in a small town, with an orchard to be able to be . Garden, school and telephone coverage and fiber . They are the requirements for many to make a leap from their thoughts to the materialization of the desire to leave the city. Here are some who have already done so.
Iolanda Escala and Pere Vendrell They met as bodyguards on Three Kings' Day in 1970, 50 years ago . They went out on weekends to the mountains, a hobby that, from then on, they never abandoned. Both were born in cities of the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Cornellà and Sant Boi de Llobregat and, although they went to live in Torrelles de Llobregat , another town near the Catalan capital, she went to Barcelona every day to work . Between the rush hour traffic on the access roads, schedules to meet, and a traveling companion's mortgage... her mind was looking up at a common dream: a retirement in the mountains.
He retired two years ago and she has last March, just before the confinement . They had been looking for a house in the Pyrenees for a year and this summer they found it in the region of La High Ribagorça , where UNESCO designated eight Romanesque churches and a hermitage as a World Heritage Site, and a stone and wood house awaited them.
On August 5 they sold the house in which they have lived for 34 years and on August 26 they bought the house in the Pyrenees in which they are definitely staying to live. Now, all his wakes and breakfasts are pleasantly calm , accompanied, if at all, by the song of the birds, before their morning walks and at sunset discovering its natural environment. “The landscape is fantastic, we never get tired of contemplating it , and in the shops of the town we find everything. To the capital of the region – 20 minutes by car - we only go down once a month”, explains Iolanda. She is a cushion point teacher. She combines time with them, drawing and playing the piano . It seems that life cannot flow more sweetly. For that very reason, her daughter and her son-in-law have rented the flat where they lived next to the city and, thanks to teleworking, they have joined the experience of waking up every day in the mountains. They have been installed on a floor of the same house in Vilaller.
Iolanda Escala and Pere Vendrell, settled with her family in the town of Vilaller, in the Alta Ribagorça region, in the heart of the Pyrenees
Ruben Bardaji He is the young man, son of a neighboring town, who found them that home. From his small real estate agency, Inmovall, he is doing it for many families in the city. "Houses and haystacks that haven't sold in recent years are selling this summer," he says. “ People who always spent their vacations on the beach, this year have discovered the mountain . Here there are trails to explore for all levels and multiple attractions, ”he adds.
Rubén does not sell a plot, a house or a barn, just plain, “ I sell an environment, a different way of living , in a landscape that my parents and grandparents helped take care of, and among all of us we should continue to take care of it, those of us who already live here, and everyone who wants to come and do so . The attraction for our territory it cannot lead to urban overcrowding as happened on the coast ”, He specifies. As a child, he already gave keys to the guests of the rural tourism house that his parents ran twenty years ago. Being from the valley also confers his confidence on clients who are more sensitive to a welcoming environment. And vice versa, Rubén knows that his clients will also be his neighbors.
THE PLACE WHERE YOU ENJOY LIFE
They always felt that they did not belong to the place where they were born... and they looked for their town, their 'new place of always'.
Alex Calvo and Ruth Espinosa They were born in Barcelona.** They are 34 and 35 years old and have two children aged 8 and 6**. They explain that they always shared the feeling of being born in the wrong place. They escaped from the city every weekend to a house they bought in the heart of Sant Serni (municipality of Gavet de la Conca) , in the foothills of Lleida. And just before the first confinement, on March 13, seeing what was coming, he took the work computer, just in case.
Prepared to be able to telework, he spent three months with the children in the village . The good experience led them to decide, in July, that they are staying there to live. They enrolled their eldest son in school and the mother found work in the county capital, Tremp , which is 15 minutes away by car. he has been able adapt the schedule to be more with the children Y he only goes down to the city one day a week so as not to lose contact with co-workers and attend visits with his clients in the agency for which he works. When asked how life is in the village, he replies: “ Very good, where I was going to enjoy life is where I am now living, there is nothing better”.
One of the moments they enjoy is when they receive visitors on the weekend and accompany them to the square to say goodbye. They say goodbye with that joy of not being the ones leaving the town to return to the city. “ If some weekend we do nothing, here we never have the feeling of wasting time , something that did happen to us when we lived in Barcelona”, says Alex.
SMALL SCHOOLS, A PRIVILEGE
As a teacher, Nuria Pujols she knows what it means a school with 24 students in total . It is where she now takes her daughter, to the Rural School Zone (ZER) of Freixenet, the small town where they live, within the municipality of Riner, in the Solsonès region . “We have the school two minutes walk from home. Here we are always in contact with nature, something that gives us a great feeling of freedom ”, says this mother.
Núria Pujols and her daughter in Riner
her partner, Joan Sunyer , is Riner's son, His parents are farmers and he left the town to study and work in Barcelona . When the couple met, they went to live in the city of Sabadell, but when they had their first daughter about to go to school, seeing the overcrowding of schools in the city, "We thought it was time ”, they explain. Also, Joan's father was about to retire, so he has taken over from him taking care of the land , a task that he combines with his profession as an electrician. In the city he had ended up specializing in it, in the hospital setting.
After two and a half years living in the town, his balance is more than positive. “Here for anything we have to take the car, but distances to towns with all services are short , 12 minutes to Solsona, or 30 maximum to Manresa, which is the largest of the closest cities. The Solsonès is very well located”, says Núria.
She can't help but focus on the advantages of raising hers, now, two of her daughters. “ Having the forest, nature at your side , gives us a feeling of no stress, no pollution. The frenetic rhythm of the city is not here, and time has a different flavor ”, she points out. She teaches classes at a small school in another nearby town and is more restricted to a schedule, but her father combines the tasks in the field in her own way so that he can also take care of his daughters.
“We can go mushroom hunting, the sunsets here are brutal and until now we had not had such a sensation of the change of seasons, because now we see it in the forest”, Núria details. “I wanted Friday to come up here and now I live here. I no longer have the feeling of wanting to go out, or drown at certain times. At 200 meters we have the farm and the orchard . Here no train escapes us, nor are there traffic jams. Sometimes you go days without seeing anyone. In the town we must be about 30 neighbors at most, living in houses, with a garden between them, ”she describes.
The family of Núria Pujols in Riner
Joan Solà, the mayor of that municipality, Riner, is delighted . “It is fantastic that after many years of a downward trend, we have gone from being in January 260 registered and now we are 290, I am super happy ”, he confesses. Of course, from the consistory they have also sided with him. “We have spent years seeking good internet connection services, a quality school and we have been doing a lot of pedagogy, raising awareness among those who come from the advantages of living here and the neighbors who have empty houses in which new neighbors could live all year, ”he explains. "The covid has been a trigger, but many have the idea of leaving the city to go live in a town," adds Solà. From Pallars Actiu, a** public-private entity** that promotes the economic development of the Lleida counties of Pallars Jussà i Sobirà, they have just published the results of a survey of 350 residents of Barcelona in which 80% of whom admit to considering the possibility of settling down to live and work in a town.
In Catalonia, various initiatives have emerged to promote and accompany those who want to do so. One of them is the Twitter @Repoblem , initiative of a young man convinced of the need to revalue life in rural areas and stop their depopulation. Another is the ViureaRural portal , a guide to resources and services for those who want to make this change in life.
Three social factors contribute to encouraging that desire, according to the sociologist Salvador Cardus. The housing problem (high prices and little supply of affordable rent in the big cities), the advantages of remote work, thanks to fiber ,” and the new commitment to environmental sustainability or criticism of excessive mobility and pollution in cities ”, specifies Cardús. "But not everyone can make the change of life from a city to a town, not even wanting to, nor can it occur to everyone, even if they could," he exposes. “It would be necessary to see what expectations of general improvement allow taking the risk of making such a relevant change”, he adds.
Alfred picking potatoes in Clariana de Cardener, in Solsonès
In the case of Silvia Ferrer-Dalmau and Alfred Capdevila , aligning himself to a coherence with environmental sustainability has greatly motivated his change of life. From his store, a very special establishment for the sale of electrical appliances, in the historic center of Barcelona They launched the project Espai Rene , from which disclose home health, energy efficiency and planned obsolescence . His workshops healthy home , how to eat healthier and create emotionally healthy people, families and territories were suspended due to the outbreak of the pandemic, but the intention is to take their courses and activities to the new environment they now enjoy, in the middle of nature.
The spring of last year, after having distributed letters in different towns in search of a house, they saw a photo of a farmhouse that was rented in the center of Clariana de Cardener, in the Solsonès region . It looked very good, and when they got to it they realized that it had everything they had wanted all their lives: space for a workshop, land to grow your own vegetable garden and surrounded by natural terrain . And the price suited them. “As an architect, I was afraid that the reform mentioned in the advertisement had not respected the original soul of the house, but the intervention has been done very well. Everything was bonuses”, says Sílvia. “Right now I have a list of friends who have told me, if you know of any other houses around here, you tell me,” she explains.
Sílvia Ferrer-Dalmau and Alfred Capdevila in their village of Solsonès
Sílvia and Alfred enjoyed their home on weekends and holidays, but with confinement they have taken a firm step . She has now decided to stay with him, for now, he goes up and down from the city. They have bought chickens and ducks, plus the orchard , and all this is leading them to a self sufficiency project . They have even built some furniture themselves. “I am the daughter and granddaughter of Barcelonans, I couldn't be more of an urbanite. I've grown up with noise and city lights , and at first I was very scared, but the desire to be here was so great that I have overcome it, ”she confesses. And for when they have a weekend commitment away from home, the couple has some friends who settle in it, in exchange for taking care of the animals. They are making a chain of sustainable life.
PREPARING THE CHANGE
Marta Mandri and Tomas Arevalo they are rehabilitating the house of her grandparents in the senan village . They hope before the end of the year to settle in it, to be part of the fifty residents of this Tarragona municipality. In the town there are already some houses that, for about 40 years, have been revitalized by people who used to live in a city. The current mayor is an example. Carme Ferrer, also arrived 12 years ago, left the city of Terrassa in search of a town where they could work , her and her partner, and enjoy more free time than they had until then. They also imagine Marta and Tomás their life in brief.
While he is training in computer skills, she, who is an early childhood education teacher, she wants to develop her professional project as a teacher by day, hand in hand with the Llars de Criança association . It is a type of early childhood education with ratios of a maximum of 5 children. That's her plan. The rest, enjoy the natural and authentic environment of the town. “I really want to go live there, being a bit isolated, I already like it. And I would also like to cultivate a garden. I highly value everything that comes from the land. To live we don't need so many things either yes The covid has taught us all a little ”, concludes Marta.
Senan village