Growing Snag List

Thursday 25^th January

Awoke early to a very cold morning, and Tommy told us there had been a frost, which is very unusual for the Costa del Dol. The whole of Spain is having a cold snap with heavy snow in places that rarely see snow, with lots of accidents.

I swept the roof of sand that had been released from the cement by the over-use of the agua fuerta yesterday. Tommy spent the first couple of hours cementing arches, and cemented the hand painted Turkish tile from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul above the first floor arch. We scraped the porch terrace walls ready for painting.

As there was no sign of Ricardo, and Tommy needed more sand, we decided to go to the Irishman’s house again to get more sand, and go to the Ferreteria to replace some plumbing parts. However, we passed Ricardo going to house about 10.30 am and turned round to meet him, as J was very cross with him by this time.

J went through the snag list and the bill query (€1034 in our favour), and Ricardo then went off again to get sand and scaffolding for the front of the house, and we went to the Ferreteria for the plumbing parts and change the shower plug, and get masks for using the agua fuerta. Before he went, J extracted a promise that we would have upstairs lights for the long weekend, as they are not working tomorrow Friday, as Ricardo and Tommy have to go to Almeria to pick up his new boat……more of that another time.

We continued with the agua fuerta on the tiles, this time in modest amounts, trying not to get it on the cement. We experimented with different methods, squirting it directly on to the tiles left marks, and water also seemed to react with the agua fuerta, leaving unsightly marks , e.g circles where the water bucket had stood.

We eventually developed the following method :

1. Treat 6 tiles at a time (0.66 square meter)

2. Apply agua fuerta to each tile with an abrasive pad; rub vigorously with a horizontal/vertical action, trying to avoid cement grouting.

3. Allow to dry

4. Apply water with a damp sponge (wiping horizontally/vertically), to remove agua fuerta, avoiding previously treated tiles.

5. Apply water to grouting to neutralise any agua fuerta.

6. Dry each tile with a clean cloth.

We soon learned that the snag list was active, and as soon as jobs were completed, other problems occur to take their place. A good example was when it started raining that evening. Water started dripping off the porch terrace (this takes all the roof terrace run-off as well), and instead of dripping into the patio, was running down the wall, down the door and flooding the kitchen. The water was also running through the newly fitted porch lantern !!! Cold water everywhere…..kitchen floor, both bathroom floors from toilets, and pool in downstairs shower !!