Shoebox Living

I spent two weeks on the Costa Blanca in Spain, along the Mediterranean coast. Also known for many years as the Costa BloodyFortune! Almost everything is "New" there. Most of the buildings are less than 40 years old. The oldest buildings stand out from all the rest because they are only one storey high. These buildings could be a couple of hundred years old but it is often hard to know the age of a villa because they tend to be covered in stucco and the style is all the same! I did notice that the oldest buildings are made of natural stone. Early 20th century buildings are concrete block. There are many buildings that are both stone and block. Stone makes up the ground floor and block makes up the second and third floors. However, post WWII construction uses ceramic blocks. Here is what they do



They knock down an old structure which is generally located between other structures and rebuild using newer materials. You won't find any wooden structures around here. Everything is iron, concrete and ceramic. The apartments get taller. You will often see these ceramic blocks being used to add a fourth or fifth storey to an existing, older building. These apartments average around 700 sq. ft. in area and are expensive. In the area we were staying they range between 170,000 Euros and 225,000 Euros depending on size. Which translates at the current rate of exchange to be around $272,000 to $360,000 for a shoebox! Anyway, here are some more scenes from the streets of Spain for your viewing pleasure.









Since stairs are an integral part of daily life here and many people live on the slopes of mountains the one thing that you will notice above all is that most people are slender and fit. I do believe that this will change soon .....