Country house 148 m², Canillas de Aceituno

This is a really lovely little gem of a property, beautiful and yet unassuming, not a huge, grand and impressive country house but a simple, charming, unassuming, but totally delightful and typical country cottage in a rural hamlet between Canillas de Aceituno and Vélez-Málaga. For anyone looking for the ‘real thing’ – charming country neighbours, local folk who will immediately treat you like family; gorgeous countryside; peace, but activity around you – this is it!

First recorded in 1950 on the Catastro, this house is, according to the calculations of the current owners and their ancestors, around 160 years old!

Located along a short concrete road, across a river, this is the middle house of three. It is built on two levels, with an area of ground to the roadside, which would make a good place to park a couple of cars, along with a mature tree and gardens would look very pretty here.

Lower ground floor: A door from this garden level leads into a courtyard patio (3 x 3m) with an entrance to one side to a store room which is 3 x 3m with plumbing for water. Either side of these two spaces are two further store rooms of the same size, with access from the garden. This part, on the lower ground floor, could be renovated to make extra rooms, a workshop, store rooms, or even an apartment. The courtyard patio could be made into the main entrance with steps leading up into the hallway above, thus avoiding the current access to the upper ground level.

Upper ground floor: Walking to one side of the building, and around the back, up a little ramp, we walk past the neighbouring house on the East side, across their terrace, to the main terrace of Casa Bruno Leo. If the main access were made from the courtyard patio below, this entrance could be eliminated. It would also be easy to erect a wall, or fence, with or without a gate, between the East neighbours and this house. The West neighbours already has a wall, as they use a separate access path.

The upper ground floor level has an extensive terrace (around 14m across) with a side outdoor kitchen/barbecue area, and access down onto the land. The terrace is partly covered for protection from the sun and this area makes a perfect outdoor living area. As it faces approximately South, with lovely views, it is the perfect area to use all year round. Steps to one side lead to a large roof terrace with beautiful views across the valley, the hamlet and to the distant mountains, revealing a peaceful, bucolic landscape.

There are two double access doors into this level. The main doors lead into the living room (4 x 3m). To the left, original wooden doors lead into bedroom 1 (3 x 3m) with a pretty, wooden window looking back out onto the terrace. From within this room, a second set of double wooden doors leads to bedroom 2 (4 x 4m), a very spacious room, looking towards to the other side of the house. The wall between Bedroom 1 and the living room is just a partition wall and could be taken down if this bedroom were not required. From the living room, to the rear, another set of doors leads into bedroom 3 (4 x 3m).

To the right of the living room, a corridor hallway looks over the patio below, and this would be the ideal place to add a door and steps down to the lower courtyard patio. From this hallway is access to the bathroom (4 x 1m) and at the far end of the hallway is access to the large, old fashioned, but charming kitchen/dining room (5 x 3m). At the far end of the kitchen is a door to a storeroom or larder (2 x 3m) and at the other end, double doors lead back out to the South terrace and gardens.

The land: the plot consists of around 430m2, sloping down the hill in various terraces, with easy access, and planted with a variety of fruit trees. Given the location, which is not too high above sea level, almost any variety of tropical fruit trees can be grown here. The current owners have two water storage deposits collecting rainwater from the guttering to use to irrigate the garden.

There is ample space in the garden to make a vegetable patch, grow more trees, or even install an above ground pool, that would be flush with the upper ground.

A delightful country house, at a very good price.