Jolly tall bathroom

Friday 3^rd November

Drove to neighbouring town for our 10.00am appointment, and met nice chap , who had a small apartment with Sky TV for 300 € per month, 1/3^rd of what we are paying Ricardo……..only, its up in the mountains 30 km away. Agreed to view Saturday afternoon.

Met with Tommy at the house to ask about the days work…..building side wall and starting bathroom walls, with Sergio also concreting kitchen floor. Tommy still a bit unwell, but working.

Back to the house to tell Ricardo about moving out, and he was ok about it. We spent the rest of day in Malaga buying lights at AKI and trying to choose showers for the bathrooms……which is’nt as easy as it seems.

Back to the house in gathering storm clouds to review work on house. The side wall was now nearly 3 metres tall, and the bathroom walls started, one of which looks crooked. The bathroom will be very small……and very tall, unless it has a lower ceiling built. Also, a smaller square water tank in place on the roof. J now has a large round electric boiler in the kitchen, when she wanted a small square one, and a square water tank when she wanted a round one ……it could only happen in Spain !!

The side wall shown is from a few days ago ....thats the one that is now 3 metres tall......Ricardo assures us it willnot be that tall..... !!

All in all, quite a bit of progress despite 2 days of no work on the house.

No work and parrots

Tuesday 31 October

Went to house after breakfast, but no-one working there.Ricardo arrived with 1,000 kilo of sand which he dumped outside the house, and was off very quickly. He wanted J to get another key cut to make it easier for workers to pass keys around as they changed jobs.

Drove to the Costa in the afternoon via the mountains to our favourite park, where they have chickens of all breeds, some with chicks roaming around, and green parrots, although we see these anywhere …..see pic.

Work at house seemed minimal with part of the kitchen concreted and a wall started on the first floor roof.

Wednesday 1^st November 2006

Another lovely day……its All Saints Day, a National public holiday, so probably NO work on the house , but they will probably work on the houses El Campo….

We drove to Malaga in the afternoon, but parking atrocious because of the holiday. The train station is being totally rebuilt, and we had to go through metal detector to enter the station, which is of course a good idea……presumably after the Madrid train bombings. Picked up timetable for the Seville line, as we may visit the lakes on Saturday.

Thursday 2^nd November

Again , no work on the house today. J managed to catch Ricardo at lunchtime, and Tommy sick apparently, and he did’nt want to have Sergio there unsupervised.

Found a nice bathroom fitting shop and browsed awhile, and then onto tile shop, and chose most tiles including edging, and photographed them to put on laptop.

The fact of Ricardo is not always working on the house whilst we pay him rent to stay in his house, and being stuck in El Campo with no entertainment is becoming an issue. As we’ve seen studio flats @ 400 € per month, decided to look for flat agent to see if we can find a cheap studio flat in a town. Found an English agent and made an appointment for tomorrow.

Planning the upstairs bathroom

Weekend 28^{th/ 29th} October

Misty starts to both days in the valley El Campo. On Saturday, posted the blog and did the markets for books and dvds…..Lord of the Rings ! Also booked our flights home for 4^th December.

Went to the beach to watch the surfers, as it was very windy, with large breakers rolling in. C popped in to Bookies and backed Blue Ksar, which romped in at 10/1, although this Bookie only pays out at Tote odds which were better @ 12.5/1, so picked up 135 euros, nearly paying for the flights home.

Sunday was a planning day….walked into town after breakfast and went to the house and tried to create the bathroom layout with bricks……the tolerances are very tight , and it is difficult to fit in the toilet and the 2 doors. J eventually happy with a layout with an angled wall to enable the toilet to fit……see pic !!

Monday 30^th October

Ricardo caught us first thing and asked us to go to the house at 10.00 am to discuss plumbing points for hot and cold water. Met Tommy then and went over the plans, including the new bathroom upstairs. Tommy not enamoured with the planned layout, but agreed with an angled wall to get the toilet in.

Ricardo wanted to see us at lunchtime, as the bathroom layout was “shit” as it was still too small! However, he has a view that for every problemo, there is a solución . There are apparently about 1,200 words ending in “ion” in English that are the same in Spanish, other than a c instead of the consonant….so solution becomes solución, occupation becomes ocupación and so on…….should be an easy language to learn, but ………!!

We stressed the importance of keeping our neighbour informed of the plans, particularly if they overlook their house, or block their light. He agreed to meet with the neighbour after lunch, and we all met up at the house and invited her on to the roof. Ricardo explained the plans for the bathroom, and the wall could encroach over their patio area. She was happy with the plans and no problemos……even if it potentially overlapped quite a bit ….so that was fine.

Reviewing the days work, most of the downstairs plumbing pipes is now in place , with just the sink and shower to do downstairs. Made sketch plans of the pipes, in case of a future leak, as they will be covered by tiles and concrete later.

The other main change was the patio which is now formed except for the 3 steel reinforced concrete beams, to be cut off at a later date. The main worry was that the kitchen is still very dark despite the light from the patio, and well designed lighting will be required. J also debated the need for glass blocks in the upstairs bathroom to make it lighter.