Long Lost Neighbours & Tubos

Monday 5^th February

If there is any day that will be particularly remembered during the whole renovation, it will be this one. It was still raining, and Tommy arrived early with a headache asking for asprin, and then proceeded to try and fix patio door…..lots of swearing in German. Juan and Franchico continued plastering front of house when rain stopped. Tommy gave up on door and started cementing patio wall and bricks for patio garden.

I took the car to Fuengirola to get the alarma fixed, as it has had to be left unlocked at night due to the intermittent fault. Whilst I was away, the Orchard neighbour arrived to discuss the need for a 1.8 metre wall, as the new porch terrace, and there is a legal requirement for such a wall. If its not sorted, he would go to the Ayunmiento (Town hall) to complain. Ricardo then arrived and had the same discussion with Orchard Man….”a wall must be built…” J then heard him talking on the porch terrace, but thought no more about it, assuming he was on the phone.

The Opel garage was unable to fix car that day, so I came back after a couple of hours away, and saw a man coming out of front door of the ruin…I shouted to J if she knew about him, but she didn’t. Ricardo explained, whilst trying to rush away, that he was the owner of the ruin, and he had been chatting to him….that everything was ok…..and he was not bothered about the large pipe running between the properties. J came out to street, and we both shook hands with Ruin Man I asked Ricardo to ask him how much he wanted for the ruin, but ….”No, it is not for sale …he wants to do it up and sell for more money.” Ruin Man departed in good spirits, as did Ricardo.

We then drove to Barrionuevo in Coin to try and find beige tiles locally, but they were too expensive @ 27.50 € per sq m² rather than Pavisan of Pizarra @ 10.50 € per sq m²
, so we drove to Pizzara and ordered tiles +13 border tiles , which came to more than the 6 square metres ordered ….both about 68 €. We took the back road to Pizarra we had never tried, and found it crossed a ford of the Rio Grande or Guadalhorse river…..a heron lazily flew downstream over the car as we crossed, which was quite surreal, and it was clear there was a lot of birdlife there ……a future trip with the binoculars is a must ……….

After lunch, we got back to work, whilst Tommy and Franchico were working to install the pipe next door in the ruin….Franchico drilling ever larger channels in the walls, and Tommy cutting the pipes, with lots of u bends following the walls. Mid afternoon, we heard voices next door….a man and woman arguing with Franchico….the drilling carried on, but the argument got louder, until the drilling stopped. No word from Tommy at this time. It transpired Ruin man and his wife had returned, and SHE was definitely not happy with the pipe. Franchico carried on arguing with them in our defence.

Ruin man and wife appeared on their side of porch terrace, and we introduced ourselves. She was still in full spate, complaining about the pipe through “Mi Casa”, and how the roof terrace should have been sloped towards the street, and that it was poor workmanship to let it all flow towards a small patio drain…we agreed and empathised with them.

Attempts to phone Ricardo by Tommy and J were of course fruitless, as he had his phone switched off or wasn’t answering. Tommy tried to tell them about how J had been trying to trace them for 6 years, and had had to go through a lengthy court process to validate the deeds of her casa (house)in their absence.

After eating out, we returned home to update blog and a general chat about our predicament…..that we might be in serious legal trouble, as must be Ricardo. It is clear that the tube solution had to be abandoned immediately, and the ruin made good. The danger is that they may wish to block access to the ruin to retain evidence in any future Court case, if they decide to complain to the Ayunmiento, which could be a distinct possibility. Alternatively, they may want some form of compensation from us or Ricardo, and it must be his responsibility.