End Week 3

Friday 20^th October

Weather continuing overcast and windy. After a quiet morning, we visited a local tile showroom and tried to choose tiles, taking pictures of possible colours, including the Andalucian style for the patio walls (see pic).

After lunch of bacalao tapas at our favourite bar, went to the Locutoria (cheap phone and internet café) to catch up on e mails. Weather set to be cloud and rain for next week.

Inspected the days work later, and the kitchen wall was down, footings dug, and the cuba full.

All in all, a discouraging week, with all the “small problemos” necessitating so much demolition, with no building work at all, but the plumbing installation and kitchen wall should commence next week………hopefully !!

Problemo

Wednesday 18^th October

Awoke about 9 am and got up. Strong winds and storm clouds, interspersed with sunshine, but quite cool.

Ricardo arrived mid morning on his quad bike hotfoot from the house with another “small problemo…..”. The wall in the kitchen was unstable as it was so old, with no mortar to hold the rocks together (huge boulders and no bricks … very old construction, rather like a medieval castle). He gave us 2 solutions……either to concrete the wall with a mesh of steel, so it wouldn’t buckle with more weight from the planned construction, or steel reinforced concrete pillars at each corner to support the roof, and just concrete the wall.

We were unsure of the best option, and Ricardo didn’t want to choose for us, so he suggested we get an Architect …….his friend Alberto……to come over and advise us.

Popped up to house about 6 pm to look at progress in house …….not much other than kitchen and bathroom clear of rubble and half the little room wall demolished.

Thursday 19^th October

Drove over to house first thing, and Sergio was just about to demolish the rest of the wall of the downstairs front room, making it quite a large room now. The room and the corridor are slightly different levels ……just another minor problem to sort out.

By the time Ricardo arrived, the rest of the wall was down, but the rubble was blocking the door to the kitchen, so Sergio had to clear it to get in. Meanwhile Alberto hadn’t arrived by 9.10 , so Ricardo called him on his mobile…..“I thought I said 9.00am for the meeting not 9.30 am …..

We went into the kitchen to survey the wall, and Alberto soon joined us. Much animated conversation about walls and ceilings, and sucking in of breath by Alberto.

After much debate, Ricardo said the best option was to knock down the old wall of rubble and put in proper foundations, and rebuild with new bricks, and also have reinforced concrete pillars to support the ceiling, Although I had listed this as an option, I didn’t think it was really viable.

J tried to get an estimate of the additional work, but Ricardo was unable to give one, other than to say that it would take a day to remove the wall…it must be more then 1 metre thick….and that it was several days labour to build the concrete pillars and wall, so not too expensive …….. “I will keep it as low as possible …..”

We sought Alberto’s advice on the upstairs bathroom, which is to be built on an existing void, ie a new floor has to be built, and I have been concerned for some time that there was insufficient support for it with the weight of a bathroom and roof. Alberto suggested a thick brick wall to partially support the new floor, which would be pinned to existing floors of the main building.

J wanted advice on a crack on the front of the house, which he said was superficial, but he was concerned at the general state of the wall, which is of the same construction as the wall to be demolished.

Back down to look at the front wall, and it wasn’t clear if it needed re-enforcing with steel mesh…..a decision to be made later. What was clear that Ricardo’s original suggestion of putting in a window was a no-no !!

Site meeting over, and Ricardo said to Sergio “Mucho trabaja”…..much work for you, and after agreeing with us, told him to demolish the wall and dump the rubble next door in the unoccupied ruin of unknown ownership…….it will save on cost of another cuba (skip).

He then wanted to know where we wanted the upstairs toilet, as he was going to order the pipes and other plumbing materials…….we asked if we could let him know at lunchtime, as we needed to design the room in detail.

After measuring up, back to his house to draw a scale plan with templates of toilet and wash hand basin, and also try and fit in a wet-room shower. The room will be very small….. just over 2 square metres, so design is important. (and it is not guaranteed that we will get the design right!!!)

I drew 1:10 scale plan, and we cut out templates of Ricardo’s toilet and sink, and a 65 cm door, and played around with designs. This included me sitting on the toilet and measuring the “space” I needed causing much hiliarity……. Eventually came up with a design that we think works, and also allowed a door to be formed leading out on to the veranda on the first floor.

Went back to house about 6.00 pm. The ceiling was supported by metal posts, and Sergio had knocked down about half of the kitchen wall….which actually looks quite strong!

Russian Demolition

Monday 16^th October

We got up early …….well just before 8.00am, and were surprised to see Francico , who was worried Juan was not there. We tried to explain that Juan would probably not be coming, but he was sure he would, and proceeded to make up some cement for grouting the roof tiles. Ricardo arrived about 8.30….. and went up to see Francico. After an animated conversation, Francico stayed on the roof working and putting right some sub standard work, whilst Ricardo shot off with raised eyebrows……..obviously a planning glitch regarding labour allocation.

He returned with a Russian chap called Sergio, and quickly started to explain the work programme, digging out the patio and kitchen tiles for a new drain to the patio. He explained the rest of the plans for the house……at least I think he did……Sergio nodded and uttered a few words of Spanish, so we hoped he understood , as Ricardo disappeared again.

Meanwhile we packed our stuff in the car for our stay en el campo. Sergio started drilling in earnest, but just as were leaving, we heard him ask Francico what to do next ……..a bit worrying, but we left them to it.

Lunch was interrupted by Ricardo arriving back on his quad bike , bringing news ……of a small problemo. There was a large void under the kitchen, which was below the new patio wall which was also supporting the roof …….so there was a need to fill in with steel reinforced concrete to hold the weight of the new upstairs bathroom.

We had no option to agree with the additional work, although unclear of the cost at this stage ….Ricardo said reinforced concrete was 200 euro per cubic metre, but he wouldn’t charge us that…..so have to wait and see.

We visited the house late afternoon, and Sergio still there loading rubble into a new cuba (skip). The kitchen hole didn’t seem too big……..as we probably couldn’t see most of it. Kitchen and bathroom gutted back to old stone walls, and wall on first floor adjacent to ruin knocked down. The roof terrace was now completed with final grouting.

We chatted about the days problem, and how the void was probably an old kitchen similar to the ruin next door …..the issue was whether it extended under the bathroom, and the need to underpin the new patio wall which was built over part of the newly discovered void.

Tuesday 17^th October

Awoke about 8.30 am to an overcast day, with a strong breeze, and storm clouds gathering over the mountains, but with shafts of sunlight hitting some bits of the mountains.

We visited the house about noon , and Sergio was still working hard clearing rubble from the kitchen. We were greeted by Jeffri , the little dog who lives opposite, who has become very friendly since we arrived. He is very street wise, and every time a car or motorbike come up the road, he dashes for his house and sits out the way. Once the danger has gone, he resumes his activities. Jeffri followed us back down the road, and had to shoo him away to go back home.

Went to Bank to withdraw cash for the next phase of work, which at the moment seems to be demolition, removing rubble , and the hire of additional cubas (skips).

On the way back, we were stopped by the police (wildly waving and blowing whistles) to show them C’s driving license and car insurance…… fortunately ‘no problemo’!!

In the afternoon, drove to Malaga to look and price up various house items in Hipercor and Carrefour, another huge Hypermarket.

Finding the Hypermarkets is not easy, as they are poorly signed, and on either side of a busy motorway, and one has to navigate along various service roads and cloverleaf junctions to find them. Occasionally, there is a tantalising small sign on a lamp-post, and you think you are on the right track, but they soon peter out, and you are left to find your own way.

Returned to house late afternoon to take pictures ………note the hole under the kitchen which is new today !! Pondered awhile why we were here , paying out rent to stay in the builders house, who wasn’t building our house , but was continuing to demolish it.

Ricardo assured us in the evening that there would only be one more day of demolition ……..the small ground-floor room wall, then he would start the plumbing works which he would do himself. We queried the size of the huge water-tank, but he had already re-ordered another one ……J suggested a round one which he concurred.

Big thunderstorm in the night but little rain, but the storm didn’t last long

Moving in with the Builder - El Campo

Saturday 14^th October

We did about 3 hours scraping of walls, which is a thankless task, exposing crumbling plaster and parts of the old walls……more of that later !!

Posted my blog quite quickly, and joined J on the beach about 4.15 pm, and went to an English Bookie I had noticed previously. The Champion Stakes was on at 4.30 pm local time, so quickly scanned the form and plumped for Pride, a French filly who came second last year, and she won easily. Had 10 euro to win and got back 39, so paid for dinner.

In the evening, we went for a nice meal at a new restaurant in town. As it was early, the owner phoned the cook on his mobile and then gave us free olives and tapas to keep us there while we waited for the cook to arrive, but it was well worth the wait.

Sunday 15^th October

After a cooked breakfast in an English bar, we scraped walls and ceilings until about 1 pm. Then moved all the stuff from the little room downstairs up to our bedroom and piled it up in the centre of the room. Also packed our stuff ready to move to Ricardo’s next week sometime.

Ricardo arrived unannounced about 3.30 pm, and said we would need to move tomorrow, and invited us over to see the accommodation at his place , en el Campo…….in the Country. He also told us that as he was under pressure with his other 2 houses, he would have to have his best workers there next week.

The good news was that we would have 2 new workers, and that he would closely supervise them personally. One was a Russian he had just taken on, and the other would be another young lad like Francico from the town. We asked if the Russian was a builder , to which Ricardo replied …” No, I don’t think so….”.

The main work would be the plumbing of the new water tank and system and associated work.

We followed him to his house en el campo, which we had been led to believe was a converted garage, but it turned out to be a self contained part of the ground floor of his house with a sofa bed and small kitchenette, with a large bathroom, but not en suite. Ricardo had built the house himself, which is set amongst a grove of old olive trees.