The moment is here! We had the roof delivered on Thursday 16th and it was unbelievable, we had waited a week for both the carpenter Gustavo and the transport man Cesar to have the time and the right weather to deliver the beams and planks of wood and guess what? As the lorry pulled up with the load on it started to rain! And I don’t mean a shower it poured down for at least an hour. The cargo was offloaded from the road behind with a crane, the first load was the planks which didn’t want to be moved, they were soaked which is really bad news as they can dry twisted and each time they were lifted they were all slipping and threatening to drop the whole load on the road piece by piece. It took every bit of strapping and Jerome and Gustavo balancing on the top of the wall to direct the crane driver to negotiate the lowering of the wood in the lounge area but leaving a space for the rest of the load. Finally after some 25 minutes the first shipment was off the lorry, the wood and all around were completely soaked but it could now be covered in plastic and fingers crossed would dry out ok. The next items to be transferred were the huge elm beams which were to support the roof over the kitchen and lounge area and that went without hitch. Following were two massive batches of roof beams which completed the delivery. We were concerned that the wood may attract attention and it could be stolen before it could be lifted into position on the roof so we decided to park Jenny’s van over the driveway so that no-one could actually get close with a vehicle making it harder to take the wood away. I’m pleased to confirm that work started on Monday 20th and first the feature beams were placed in the lounge and kitchen, the huge elm beams were cleaned and cut into position with a support on the stone column that Jerome had built for the task. Next the beams were spaced out completely over the area which is 120m2. At this point we realised that our bedroom could also be a problem as it needed longer beams but fortunately it was resolved with the wood on site.
We’ve had an exciting week other than the roof, last week we took a day out to try and resolve some outstanding issues. Firstly we had a visit from the local Ayuntamiento (council). They had to see if they approved our application for water and electric, they had to see that the property had a kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms that were habitable. We had submitted photos from the main house but now had to show that was actually the case, I was really worried as there was no way these rooms were habitable, the bathroom, although used, has tiles falling off the wall and a bucket of water to throw down as the toilet doesn’t flush, the kitchen is non existent, there is a camping stove and pepsi bar fridge run by generator and one of the bedrooms indicated doesn’t have a roof and the other is the tool shed room which has acrow props supporting the roof which isn’t leaking but is cracked. Luckily for us the lovely ladies that called had a sense of humour and said that it was ok!
Feeling brave we decided to go to the Ayuntamiento to ask about a sewage connection but first had to take our copy of the 52 page escritura to be copied so that they could have a copy on file if required. The only place with a photocopier is the local garage, I groaned when we walked in only to realise that the machine did not have a feeder so each page would have to be placed on the glass and copied. This request took almost an hour, no really it did! The crazy thing is that we have just bought a state of the art copier for the office which would have done the job in three minutes flat! Raquel looked at me in amazement and said you want a copy of every page, and then proceeded to place each page in turn, in painfully slow motion she walked to the copier put the page on, took the copy placed it in a pile on the counter, walked back to the copier put the next page on etc and every time a car pulled on to the forecourt she stopped to fill it up, or served other customers in the shop. After I had read 2 local newspapers and my ankles had started to ache from standing still the copy was done and with a deep breath we headed to find the “man who can” in the Ayuntamiento. True to our luck that day, Herman wasn’t in his office, we waited another 15 minutes and gave up, we wandered back to the house and asked Jerome to pop in later that day. We then walked back to our car parked outside the Ayuntamiento and Herman was there. What a lovely man! Herman proceeded in lovely slow understandable Spanish that we were doing a great job of restoring one of the best houses in Haria and of course if we paid the fee we could have a sewage connection. We completed the necessary form which didn’t require a copy of the escritura after all and was told to go upstairs, ask the secretary to photocopy it 3 times, stamp them and come back down, we duly did so and then Herman arranged for Gregorio to meet us at the house the next morning to inspect the house and decide if the connection was to be in the road at the front or the road at the back. Gregorio was actually the man who could say yes, and he wanted to meet at 8am. After thanking Herman for all of his help and thinking we should invite him over when we’d finished as he knew the house and Don Valenciano we bade goodbye only to be called back and Herman told us to go and get a Certificardo de Antigueaded from the Tecnico office which would allow us to connect water to an old house without needing the boletin from the plumber. Deciding that our luck had changed we ventured into the office over the road and requested our certificate, the answer was no, when questioned, apparently the Ayuntamiento was still to be informed that these certificates could no longer be issued by the tecnico office and you now had to go to the catastro office in Arrecife. We got the directions and decided to continue and head there for the paper. As we were leaving the tecnico office we remembered that the yearly IBI (rates) were due so stopped to pay the first time since buying the property which meant 2 years, this was just over €600 which pays for the rates and almost daily rubbish collection and compared to the UK is great value for money.
We passed back to the house again and told Jerome that we had organised the sewage man and could he also come at 8am the next day to see where the connection could be and then drove to Arrecife. The Catastro office was exactly where we were told, just round the corner from the Trafico office and after waiting our turn we demanded our certificate of age of the property from the administrator. We provided a number of documents required, we’ve taken to carrying an exploding A4 folder around with us with everything in and we were told we could have the document, we just had to take 3 copies of a tasa to any bank and pay €8 into an account and come back. Determined to keep going we headed to the closest bank a few minutes walk away, waited in another queue and paid the money, we got 2 of the forms back receipted and went back to the Catastro office. Unfortunately now there were at least 10 people waiting ahead of us but eventually it was our turn and we got 3 pieces of paper and on one of them it stated the property was built before 1900 – essential for the certificado, although in truth the house was built at least 50 years, and perhaps up to 80 years earlier.
As we were already in Arrecife and even though it was 12.30 we headed for Inalsa (water) to see if this wonderful certificate would actually get us the connection required. This office normally closes at 1pm and after circling around looking for parking we made it in to the office and past the security guard to wait our turn in the new connections section. We were seen and presented our paperwork to be informed that we just needed our Certificardo de Empadronamiento which we have, but not with us and yes we could have the water connection, come back mañana she said and I’ll do the paperwork.
The next day which was a Friday, I headed back to the Inalsa office with a copy of the certificates required, I spent a frustrating 15 minutes around the one way systems trying to park and eventually parked in the multi-storey and ran through the streets to the office as it was after 12.30 and I knew they closed at 1pm. I burst into the reception area and was stopped by the security guard, “Necessito una conecion Nueva” I gasped and he replied “¡No!” “!Por favour¡” I pleaded and he proceeded to inform me that they closed early on a Friday and I would have to come back on Monday. I tried in my best faltering Spanish to argue my case that I had all the paperwork and had been here yesterday but it was already the weekend and although I could see everyone inside I wasn’t allowed to go in. Despondently I plodded away back to the car. Needless to say I was there on the Monday just after 10am and the paperwork was processed without a hitch, I paid the connection fee and was told a man would pass by the house on Wednesday (today) to check the plumbing and where to connect it.
Going back to the sewage, the man who can – Gregorio did come over to the house at 8am and said we were authorised to dig the road, just telephone him and he would come over to check everything on the day. We went back to Herman and said the man from Inalsa says Si, he gave us a bank account to pay the €120 connection fee into which we did and gave him the receipt and we arranged to meet again on Tuesday (yesterday) to dig up the road and find the connection which was in the road behind, which was exactly what we wanted.
Jerome and Pablo met with Gregorio on Tuesday morning and even Carmelo the plumber turned up to see what the plan was. Apparently Gregorio laughed when Jeronimo brought out the tools to dig the road and advised him to rent a jack hammer to get through the tarmac and earth beneath, the connection was meant to be 2 metres out in the road and around 1.7 metres deep. We called around 4.30pm to find an exhausted Jerome and Pablo bravely digging and scraping earth away from a deep hole, they actually were not visible it was that deep. They really wanted to find the pipe before finishing but didn’t have any more energy left. We received a text message the next morning to say they had found treasure at 2.2 metres! We are very proud to announce that we now have a sewage connection, our first service to be officially connected. The even better news is that Jenny and Norman’s house can have a separate connection further up the road when they are ready and it shouldn’t be as deep or difficult to find.
Inalsa have today called at the house as promised to check the system and advise where they want us to connect to the main supply. We haven’t actually plumbed in our system as yet, but Carmelo is working this week to connect all the rooms with piping so there wasn’t anything for Inalsa to look at but we weren’t in trouble, the man met with Jerome and discussed where the box and outside connection should be – this is actually half way down the hill on the main road and means the inlet would be in the middle of the garden, but we plan to pipe along the walls to the driveway and across to the house so it can be split to each one. We just have to call him back next week when it’s done and the water will be turned on, fingers crossed we should have mains water supply through to the camel sheds next week and then the aljibe can be dug and the tanks fitted later.
Gustavo the carpenter has a team of two working on site with him, Boris is German and has a little Spanish and English – he looks Eastern European, Jerome had thought he would be Swedish or Scandinavian and the other man communicates in Spanish and is called Hussein – he’s Moroccan. It is Wednesday 22nd November and today the roof planking has started, our bathroom is covered and Lucy’s bedroom is almost done. Gustavo came back on site and was not happy with the progress as he expected at least 2 more rooms to be completed in the days work so tomorrow Boris has been relegated to the workshop in Arrecife and Gustavo will work on site with Hussein – his normal roofer is a man from the Sahara and we’ve not met him yet as last week he had an injury (not on our site) and is still recovering, a splinter of stone pierced his leg and needed stitching which has not healed adequately to allow him back at work. We’re told that the roof will be finished this week, pending the top layer which should be completed at the end of next week including the glass sections to be inserted in each room.
There is so much progress at the moment that we are going up to the house every day with the camera and there are loads of photos showing the progress. Jerome is concentrating on completing work to get us in to the house around the 15th December, the tiles are in stock and being delivered next week, it is unlikely that the bathroom suites ordered will be here before Christmas, we are still hopeful but waiting for an update from Nestor at Fuelanza, the supplier. The kitchen is due for the first week in December and the plan is for Pepe the electrician to be on site next week to install all the cabling and switches etc.
That’s all for now, lots of news and I’ll try to update more often as so much is happening every day at the moment.