We hit a big hurdle in October, the local police visited the house with a denuncia for us to stop work on the roof. You have to understand that it was a year since Domingo had quoted for the job and we had been waiting since then for him to come and start work, it was only with threatening legal action for the return of the 50% deposit or for him to start work that he delivered some wood and started work and now we had to stop. We were told that the work did not match the plans submitted to the Patrimonio department at the Cabildo and we could not proceed until this was clarified. The local police made it very clear to us that it was not them or the local Ayuntamiento, this was a decision by the Cabildo and they were sorry for having to deliver it to us. We have not had a good experience with Patrimonio since working on the house, they have only been to the site once since submitting our plans some 2 years before. Both myself and Jeronimo were not impressed by the man who came and started to tell us that we should have done this and that etc. Where was the help when we needed to know where to buy the materials or how a particular section should look. What I can’t understand is if the cabildo don’t actually know how old the house is and the local records don’t have any photos, how can they insist that it should look like they believe.
For example, Mum went to great lengths to decide what the replacement windows should look like, she researched the houses in the village, talked to a local carpenter, read an architecture book of designs in the Canaries and yet the design they all agreed on and had made is not correct according to this department. I understand that they would prefer them to be painted green and not wood stained as this is traditional but they are questioning that the shutters are on the inside of the glass and not the outside and this must be changed.
Back to the issue with the roof, basically our architect omitted that the first floor bedroom would have a pitched roof with 4 corners and the lounge room would have a pitched sloping roof with 2 corners. We had only needed the report to get our electricity connected and hadn’t gone to the next level of artist’s impressions etc. It is our belief that the house had these style roofs, you can see the evidence for the ground floor lounge but not on the first floor bedroom and for many years this room had had a flat roof before it collapsed and couldn’t be seen any more. Norm and Jenny had a couple of weeks before a closed meeting would decide what type of roof they would be permitted to build. Please remember that they had paid for a particular type of roof and none of the materials could be used if the style had to change as they beams and planks were cut too short.
As Jenny and Norm were here to work but couldn’t work on that roof they took evasive action and cleared the tool shed to make that room good. They were currently staying in rented accommodation and wanted to make the house habitable to stay on site.