House Reform - start of work

For the next 2 – 3 months, the blog will chronicle the reformation of an old townhouse in Southern Spain. It will report on the expected ups and downs, and any interesting observations on Spanish life.

Day 1 - Monday October 2^nd

There was some confusion as to when the builders would arrive.We awoke at 7.30 am just in case Ricardo’s men arrived for an early start ……it was still dark so it seemed very unlikely, and so it proved to be. We got up at 9.20 am and had breakfast ready for Ricardo’s arrival………..10 am came and went as did 11 am. Just as we thought Noon would come and go, Ricardo and 3 workers arrived in his battered Range-rover, towing a trailer with cement mixer and wheelbarrow.

It was like a whirlwind, as they started work immediately on the terrace, smashing down the upstairs asbestos roof and the terrace wall ready for the crane tomorrow……..I guess to lift up cement, floor tiles etc.. We went up to the town to get Ricardo’s deposit.

When we got back,, we were taken down to the builder’s merchants with Ricardo in the landrover, choosing the tiles for the upstairs roof, and tiles for the terrace. Once chosen quite quickly with Ricardo’s advice, they were loaded into a skip and transported to the house ………apparently saving a delivery journey and cost of 30 euros.

All this occurred within 2 hours, and by 2 pm we were having lunch in the kitchen trying to keep out of their way.

The 2 labourers Franchico and Juan then unloaded the skip, putting the terrace floor tiles in the small room downstairs, and the roof tiles in the small bedroom upstairs, and removing rubble to the skip. Thirsty work and we tried to ensure they had plenty of cold water.

We noticed that there were a large number of roof tiles, and hoped they were not for the lower roof terrace roof, which should be of clear conservatory plastic. Ricardo and the German builder Kurt came back at 3 pm with a load of cement and the crane ……well more of a heavy duty electric hoist.

They then lugged up the stairs ….all 80 kilos of it, and proceeded to install it near the new hole in the wall.

Meanwhile, Franchico started drilling another hole in the wall, which will be the door to the lower roof terrace and hopefully a toilet as well.

Juan was busy waterproofing terrace with gauze and red stuff, and did about third of it. The work we did over a year ago seemed to have held up well.

This last phase of frantic activity became too much for J who said she needed a break, and we walked up to the square and sat awhile, and then wandered around the lower part of town near the Church, looking at outer tiles on the houses ……black quartz with blue current favourite.

We returned to the house at 4.30 pm, and the builders had gone, leaving the place reasonably tidy, except we noticed that the crane supports had been bolted to the front bedroom ceiling ……just drilled through roof and inserted large bolts, and dust on beds. In just over 4 hours, the house had become a building site, and we were going to try and live in it…….famous last words.

We pondered that here we were in Spain, where the word “manyana” conjures up in the mind stereotypes of slow workers taking lots of breaks, yet the opposite was the case ….we have an international mix of Spanish, German and Romanian builders working very hard, albeit for 4 hours per day, although they had started on to their other project at 7.30 am.that day.

Ricardo is a remarkable young man, and a real worker and motivator of his team. He is very self assured and matter of fact, as some of the following exchanges show :

Roberto “ We have to knock down wall for crane “

J “ Will you put it back after ?”

Roberto “ Of course …no charge”

J “I’m worried about the house falling down …(after demolition of walls)”

Roberto “Don’t worry, I build you new one if that happens”