The end of a slightly disappointing week for us and the stone team, Lucy’s room proved to need more strengthening and although they have been working flat out there is not much to see other than stone walls with render on. We did have a scary moment when the wall started to fall down but luckily it was only in a small area and was rebuilt. Lucy has a couple of features, Jeronimo restored a shelf built into the wall and there is a key stone which sticks out where a previous dividing wall was which will give her another shelf. There is an obstinate stone at knee height which was too difficult to remove and will have to be grinded off with a diamond cutter or she will walk into it everytime she enters her room.
Jeronimo keeps Milko busy with other jobs whilst he works on the walls so we have had our bedroom started, the footings have been laid and will rest for 5 days before the weight of the new walls are put ontop. The outside of Jenny and Norm’s house that we connect to has been causing some problems, our bedroom wall was filled with small stones and not well built as is the wall to their lounge, which threatens to fall down everytime they look at it. Lots of time has been spent strengthening and working in this area so they can tie in for our corner in our bedroom.
Our job at the weekend was to continue clearing Josh’s bedroom which connects to our kitchen, yet more earth and stones have been removed and now we are struggling for space to put the recycling piles and waste. We have asked Pepe to bring the digger and trucks to take it away but he said poco y poco which is little by little and also means manaña. We did have an exciting moment though when I found treasure! At last I actually found something worth mentioning……..I was picking off the render from the family bathroom walls and found a coin. The coin was treated to a bath in coca cola, brown sauce and then vinegar until we could finally make it out and it was dated 1873. The tradition is to place a coin in the walls when you complete a section so we can now date that area of the building to an approximate time which is nice. I have downloaded a picture of the cinco centimo coin from Alfonso XII for you to see as ours is not very clear. We plan to put a 2006 coin in the walls so that may be found in the future.
Jenny and Norm spent a day digging out the cactus from round the old palm which had started to resprout. Having walked around the garden the nectarine is looking good as is Jenny’s sweetcorn she is growing which has been planted out in the garden. We also have the first pepper on our tree.
Looking back at the camel sheds you cannot believe the huge piles of stones and earth that have been removed from inside, we will try to get a photo with someone in it this weekend so you can appreciate just how much has been taken out!