Ceiling and tile talk

Wednesday 29^th November

Again awoke early to a fantastic sunrise. After breakfast, drove down camino road to house, arriving early to meet Ricardo at 10.00am.

We discussed the neighbour and his wish for the boundary wall to be raised, and Ricardo’s view was that J did’nt need to, and it did not contravene any planning regulations. Tried to meet neighbour but he was out or not answering door.

Then off to buy tiles. Whisked around shop with a girl taking our order……lucky we had spent so many hours in the shop, but there were still problemos ………the terracotta floor tiles for the kitchen and downstairs bathroom were a bit too light for J’s liking, but Ricardo’s said not to worry as they would not be exactly the same colour…..each order was slightly different.

The other problem was that the edge tile for the upstairs bathroom did not match the grey floor tiles we had chosen for the other edge tile. However, soon found a matching grey tile which should be fine. Then went on to sinks and toilets………Ricardo and the girl spent about 15 minutes going through catalogues looking for small sinks with a tap hole in…….and then took us through to the warehouse, where they had a large stock of small sinks with no tap holes, but with the facility to punch out a right or left tap hole……….another decision to be made ……..tap on right or left of sinks ???

Ricardo bought the sinks on the spot for 20 € each and ordered 2 toilets which were not in stock, but needed to be collected from the yard in town.

Back to Ricardo’s house via the river bed road, while he calculated the latest bill, which included the tiles @ just over 1,000 €. He dropped us off at the house , whilst he went to get the toilets (rather expensive @ 132 € + vat), and J and I went to bank to get latest instalment of 4,000 €, covering work to date excluding the electrics.

We decided to give them their Navidad presents, as the beer was being severely shaken on the camino road twice a day. All were surprised and pleased with unexpected presents, particularly Sergio with his bottle of Russian vodka……..nod nod, wink wink. J gave Ricardo the money, and we left them and went for lunch of bacalao etc..

After lunch, popped back to house, as J still wanted to see the neighbour about the wall. Discussed the height of the wall, and agreed on 50 cm higher…..other options discussed such as building across the other neighbours wall…..getting complicated.

Then went shopping at Mercadona for wine, and on way back to car, met Tommy with a spade looking for gravel in the street for making coarse wall cement……..ordering system seems to have gone awry…..

Back home, J did schematic diagrams of both bathrooms to indicate location of edge tiles, sinks, mirrors in relationship to each other.

Went out for a drink at our favourite bar and had a few wines, and got chatting to a local chap who we had seen in the other bar…..always pissed , with others locals having a laugh at him, rather than with him. We had heard that he had been a successful restauranteur in Marbella, but had succumbed to alcohol, and ended up in the mountains. We had also heard he was gay, with his favourite saying ….”I like Elton John”…….not that he liked Elton John , but that he was gay, like Elton John.

The Mother invited us to have a drink with her, and told us that her husband had died 2 months ago in September…… C put his foot in it by asking if he was asleep, as she made a sleeping gesture whilst explaining this, but he hadn’t heard or understood her say “muerte”…… Our gay friend said C was very handsome, but J said …”he’s mine, no doubt muttering under her breath……you can have him !!!”

Thursday 30 November

Awoke to a cloudy sunrise, and after breakfast drove down to house via camino road. Sergio was putting the trompe d’oeuil in place and building up the curtain walls. Went up to bathroom to check out ceiling light and shower, and asked Tommy to join us for an impromptu site meeting ……3 of us squeezed into the tiny bathroom.

We debated the shower, which we had previously explained should be fixed in the wall, with the mixer taps below, already plumbed in. However, Tommy understanding was at odds with this, as there were no pipes from the tap points to a shower head point. Eventually established we would need a flexible shower pipe and head and bracket, rather than a fixed head and pipe (already purchased and discussed previously).

The ceiling light discussion was similarly difficult…..Tommy has wired the electricity feed to a side wall by the toilet, blocking light to the sink. This problem led on to a discussion about the ceiling….or lack of it. We had assumed that they would build a suspended ceiling …..as the room is so high…..and that the light would be appended to it. Apparently, Tommy has never built a ceiling in Spain……they are all concrete or unfinished terracotta blocks……the latter as in the upstairs bathroom and porch roof.

Needed a break after this discussion, and went to the Thursday market at the bottom of the road…..C bought a shirt and top for S. On to a coffee and bocadillo mixto , and then half hour on to Locutorio catching up on e mails.

Decided to go to Marbella to look for plasterboard for a ceiling, and a shower head and bracket. Quickly found some placa carton-yeso (2500mmx1200mmx10mm) ie about 3 square metres @ 9.11 € per placa. …….very reasonable.

Back to the house for 4.00 pm, to try and see rich neighbour , but Ricardo had come and gone. Saw next door neighbour and gave her her Navidad presents, and asked her to come up to the 1^st floor to talk muros (walls)……..big mistake, as she did’nt really understand a word .