“Every time I look out the window, I smile,” said Diedre Miller. “I always dreamed of having a house with a sea view, but it was never affordable back in California.”
Diedre grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later attended college in New Mexico where she met Colorado native Bart. It was love at first sight. After college, the two moved to Colorado, started a family, and settled into life. Diedre worked as a chef and sales manager while Bart worked as a haberdasher. Their careers later took them to Sacramento, California.
On their first trip to Europe, some 25 years ago, the couple backpacked and worked in 21 different countries. They always knew that they wanted to return to find that perfect home with an ocean view.
“We really wanted to live in Spain but found property with sea views to be too expensive,” Deidre says. “A friend told us to look at Portugal, so we did and fell in love with the country.
Diedre grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later attended college in New Mexico where she met Colorado native Bart. It was love at first sight. After college, the two moved to Colorado, started a family, and settled into life. Diedre worked as a chef and sales manager while Bart worked as a haberdasher. Their careers later took them to Sacramento, California.
On their first trip to Europe, some 25 years ago, the couple backpacked and worked in 21 different countries. They always knew that they wanted to return to find that perfect home with an ocean view.
“We saved money and planned for five years before making this move,” Diedre explains. Bart took a solo trip to look at property to buy. While he was on the flight back home, Diedre found the perfect property online. The realtor called the owner and a sale was made. “We bought the house sight unseen,” Diedre says. “Crazy but true.”
The couple’s home is a six-bedroom, three-bathroom townhome in Old Town Albufeira, in the central Algarve. It features double kitchens, two terraces, and is less than 100 yards from the beach. They paid $333,775.
With a home so big, they have room to spare. In fact, the house features an upstairs apartment that they rent out on Airbnb to the many tourists drawn to Albufeira.
“We never could have bought this much house for this price back in Sacramento,” says Diedre. “We landed in Portugal on March 17th, 2020, the very day that the airports were closing due to COVID. We are so thankful that we made it into the country before everything shut down.”
Now both aged 51, the couple along with their 20-year-old daughter, Daphne, have started their dream life in Portugal. Their 19-year old son, Boaz, is pursuing a career as a neurosurgeon and studying in Spain. “I am so proud of him,” Diedre says. “He speaks fluent Spanish and is paying his own way though medical school.”
The family had plans to open a café in their adopted homeland but the pandemic pushed that dream aside. Instead, Diedre and Bart found work with a British company helping foreigners to move to Portugal and establish residency. “We work mostly with those who wish to pursue a golden visa,” says Diedre.
“Back in California all we did was work to pay the bills,” says Diedre. “There is no comparison between our budget or even our lives here and back in the U.S. It’s like night and day. Here I have a reason to smile.”
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