I’ll try to recap over the last 6 weeks; the photos are all loaded on and dated so you can see the progress at least. Today is the 6th January which is a public holiday in Spain as the kings brought the presents to the children last night it is the equivalent of our Christmas Day.
Electric
Pepe is always noticeable by his absence! I can’t recall the amount of times that Jerome has said he should be here but maybe not, he seems to like to come on site, do a burst of work for a few hours not to be seen until 2 weeks later. Some of it has been down to the fiesta days and necessary family commitments he assures us, but we are still in the normal game of always waiting for someone to finish their part before the next bit can be done. For example, the tiling can’t start until the wires are in place through the conduit or the floor has to come up if there is a problem – the majority of the house is now wired except for our bedroom and bathroom so the tiling has started in the kitchen. There were only two places the wires did not go through and it cleared as they started to dig the floor up therefore so far so good. We have had to bring an additional worker on site to prepare the main house for electric, this is the property that gets the boletin so we can get connected and we have to show sockets and lights in 2 rooms plus the patio, bathroom and kitchen. Ricardo started and made good progress, the front wall of the house was picked and cleaned to find a spot for the electric box, then the connection goes through to the first and second rooms and across the patio to the ‘bathroom’ and ‘kitchen’. We are currently waiting for Pepe to come back and finish the wiring for our bedroom, the main house, the outside areas including connecting the two houses together. The other problem we have is that we need authorisation from the Ayuntamiento to get connected, we will need to visit them in the next week or so to ask for a cedula de habilidad or equivalent which is a certificate that the main house is fit to live in – something it really isn’t!
Roof
Second to Pepe’s promises is Gustavo, always stating he will be there and never apologising for his appearance a few days later. When we last updated the roof had just been delivered and we were excited that we may still be in for Christmas – how wrong we could be. Unbeknown to us partly due to our inexperience and promises made by another person no longer involved on the site the roof has turned out to be a very expensive and time consuming event. We were given a quote for the roof which was €3,000 over our budget but assured that we would be very pleased with the wood and it was available straight away – please bear in mind that this was said in September and you know the delivery was the end of November! It turns out that the quote we had was from a carpenter who quite obviously only quoted for the wood and installing the wood for the roof – what we weren’t aware of was that once this was installed it needed a top covering. The first shock was the additional cost of this and the second was the actual time involved by everyone and extra materials required. To get the beams in place and put the tongue and groove slats on top with claravoyers cut out – windows in the roof – took almost 2 weeks. At this point the roof is very vulnerable as this wood should not be open to the elements, and you’ve guessed it we had almost a week of showers where the plastic sheeting was blown around and the rain poured through the vents into the house. When after many questions we got to the bottom of what we had to do next, we had two options:
We could order a couple of tankers of concrete and poor them onto the roof.
We could have a layer of polystyrene for installation, top this with marine ply and then cover with ash felt.
According to Jerome there was not much difference in the cost and the lighter weight solution would be better for the walls, especially as we had no plans to use the roof.
We agreed with Gustavo that we would go ahead with the second option which he could arrange for us but that before this could be done Jerome would have to block in between all the roof beams and concrete so he could only start when they had done this. Unfortunately at this time we found out that Pablo was starting a course and would not be able to work with us, we waited for a week whilst Jerome rang round his contacts to find someone to work, we thought that with Christmas approaching this wouldn’t be difficult but it was. Finally Gustavo recommended his friend Lucas who could bring a mate called Christian and the work started again. Once all the blocks were in place Gustavo had to come and lay the polystyrene and marine ply, we had a couple of days delay whilst he tested different materials and decided on a new product which is used in USA and is a bright blue colour with no balls in it, no air just a strong warm product. Gustavo and Hussein worked to get the sheets cut between the beams and then the marine ply was nailed on top. The next surprise was that Jerome then needed to concrete the block walls to the top of the marine ply so all the workers concentrated on this, about a week later this was all complete and we were back to waiting for Gustavo to come back on site to complete the sandwich with the ash felt topping. It was decided that Lucas and Hussein were going to do this and they worked all day Christmas Eve to heat the product up so that it sticks tight to the wood. Everyone had a day off on the 25th but on Boxing day we were back on site and myself and Mike took a turn on the roof to give it two coats of paint. There was still a section not finished until recently. We were dismayed to see that the paint had run down 3 of the walls from the roof the following morning, the heavy dews due to the lovely warm sunshine had washed some of the paint down the front of our bedroom which are all stone walls leaving a white waterfall down the dark rock and again in the lounge area. Barbara was hard at work scrubbing the stones the next day to clean the ones we could. The roof at the moment still has no glass on all of the claravoyers, this will only take 2 days to order and fit according to Gustavo but there has been no progress in January so far. We have calculated that the roof has taken 6 weeks so far from an expectation of 2 weeks and has more than doubled in cost with additional labour and materials. Having said that, the roof looks fantastic from the inside and we are very pleased with how it looks.
Bathrooms
Despite Nestor’s concern that the suites and showers would not be in stock before Christmas they were delivered to the house on the 22nd. They are still sitting in the courtyard waiting to be fitted but despite the odds they were here. We did have some problems with the tiles as the wrong ones were delivered initially, we returned these and they were very apologetic and found ours in the warehouse for us to swap. We have had some fun with the glass blocks we wanted for the shower wall, first we argued about what design and if we could trust our calculation on paper, I had to work hard to persuade Mike he was not stacking them up in the courtyard to test the theory. Next we found the the round end pieces would not work with the design, no-one here seems to have the spacers required to help construct them either. Jerome went to the iron maker to get some rods which he has inserted on each row and column to give them strength, being awkward I decided it would look good glass on glass with no grout layer in between and I can still hear Jerome cursing now as he struggled to get each row to stick. After being coached by Lucas and Christian that he had to accept this is how it is, he has managed to construct the wall leaving each row to dry in between.
Tiles and Panda
We had already ordered the kitchen and bathroom tiling from Fuelanza, I had quite fancied having some other flooring in the bedrooms and lounge but as we were running out of time and alternatives were very expensive to tiles, I grudgingly accepted that we had to pick the other rooms. We went to Grupo Rosa this time as they have a large quantity in stock and we wouldn’t need to wait 6-8 weeks for delivery. We arrived at the shop on a Saturday morning but by the time we had picked out the ones we wanted the admin staff refused to put the order through as it was 10 minutes to the weekend, we were told to come back on Monday. There was nowhere else to go over the weekend as everything closes so we dutifully returned on the Monday, they calculated the amount of tiles, they were all in stock except our bedroom ones which would be a week or so. We paid and waited for them to take the delivery address but no………as we had a van we could take them now, they knew what car we had so we waited for the order to turn up. 3 forklift trucks later the tyres were non existent and myself and Mike were filthy in our work clothes loading up our poor H1 with more than a tonne of tiles. Very cautiously and carefully we headed back to work but decided that this amount of weight could not sit in the car all day, so we headed straight up to the house with the van creaking and groaning in protest. We must have moved 50 boxes of tiles by ourselves into the van and out again and the next day our backs were complaining. Two weeks later I had not heard about our other tiles and we spent 2/3 days on the phone and calling in to the shop to see when the delivery was due, eventually one of the staff said they had the same tile but in a smaller size, we saw the sample and decided to go with this instead as again they were in stock. This time the ever efficient staff said did we need panda and grout to go with our order……we did, and you’ve guessed it another tonne load was on its way. The forklift truck driver thought he would be clever this time though and parcelled all this on one pallet and proceeded to try and fork it direct into the boot of the van. The plan worked nicely until the forks would not release out of the pallet, the driver kept pressing down and the van was on the floor, we really thought the tyres were going to explode or the suspension collapse. After much wiggling the fork released and they left us with a van completely overloaded – we both looked at each other and decided to move the weight forward so had to pass the bags of panda which are 25kg over the seats from the back to the middle, finally once again we set off to the house with an extremely illegal cargo. Luck was in and all the workers helped unload including Gustavo, the roofer and his girlfriend also called Julie.
Water
We did have to remind Carmelo to send someone to finish the water installation several times but finally a man turned up and worked for 2 days to completely fit the water piping around the house. The whole system has been under a pressure test for 2 weeks or so now with no problems. We are not connected to the mains as yet, Jerome has been calling them but there are two time slots a day where you can try to get through to them from 11-12 and 1-2 and if you’re busy you forget and then they don’t answer. We just need to dig the road to get the connection but need their permission for a time and date and they may send a man to help. Pepe has been on site to dig our aljibe, he knew that the site behind us needed some rubble to fill in the basement wall area and basically removed our earth for free and charged them to deliver it round to them which was a brilliant piece of planning. The aljibe hole must be 3m x 4m by 2.5m deep it is huge, Jerome being an environmentalist is planning for us to save all our rain water that runs off the roof as well as a mains supply from the road. Lucy got quite excited when she saw it as it’s big enough for a pool. Work has not started on the aljibe as yet as we can manage off the mains supply from the road, it is occasionally off so we do need a tank for the future.
General
Once the roof was finished Jerome, Barbara, Ricardo, Lucas and Christian have all been working hard to level the floors, they start by piling up areas around the room then put in lines between then they fill the gaps. Most of the rooms have a step in between which is how we wanted it, so it is more interesting than being all on one level. There was some final work with cutting out for electric and air conditioning, then the filling in began. It took a week to get all the rooms ready for rendering and then a further week to render each room. They really do look fantastic now and we have started with the painting. With the paint, Jerome sent us to Junio the local paint shop in Arrieta, this is run by two brothers who are painters and are great for recommending what paint to use where and how much water to add. We decided on a non plastic paint so that the walls can breathe, first we had to wash down the walls with a product like a PVA school glue, then the first coat of paint was a 50% mix which is very sloppy and then the second coat is a 10% mix with water. We’ve finished our bathroom, our bedroom has one coat on as does Lucy’s and Josh’s rooms. Our plan was to try and paint before the tiling as the floor does look like a flock of seagulls have passed through but no such luck as the first room to be tiled was the kitchen and we’ve not started there yet. This week has seen Jerome and Barbara building the shower walls, Lucas has been rending the front outside walls and Christian has been tiling. We need 4 more boxes of kitchen tiles and they’re on a 15 day order so work will need to start elsewhere. Jerome surprised me this week, he’s kept a gargoyle I gave him to build in somewhere for a couple of months now, I thought it had been lost but he’s found his place on the entrance to the kitchen, he’s pulling a silly face at everyone who passes.
Doors
We have ordered our doors and 3 windows from Gustavo, he has been saying that he would start them for the past 3 weeks but this week he told us that the wood has been cut and the workshop are now making them. We were surprised at the cost, but when discussing it with him our choice was to have doors that were cheap, or ones that were ok or ones that would have us weeping with pleasure every time we looked at them. Of course we went with the third option! We have opted for country style which are panels that look like tongue and groove at the bottom and one large glass panel at the top. The lounge doors will fold back on each other, the kitchen door is a stable one as is Josh’s and Lucy has a traditional door with 1/3 on one side and 2/3 on the other with glass in, our bedroom doors are like french doors, the same as the lounge. He is also making 4 internal doors for the bedrooms and bathrooms. We have had quotes for a pergola so that we can dash from door to door without getting wet if raining, but all non essential work is being left until later in the year, so I need an umbrella for occasional use! We are expecting the doors to be ready for February, we have given up with deadlines for moving in and will just go as soon as we can.
Kitchen
We presume that this is here and in stock but we’re not chasing them as we’re not ready to take delivery or make the final payment yet!
Well I think that’s about it for now, don’t forget to check out the photos loaded to December 2006 and January 2007, we’ll take some more this weekend to show the changed this week.