Neighbours Continued

Tuesday 6 February

We both got up early, wondering if anyone would turn up .I was convinced they would want compensation and threaten to go to the Ayunmiento. The 8 am chimes from the Blue Church came and went with no-one appearing, but Juan appeared about 8.10 and started getting cement mixer and making cement. I overheard him talking to Ruin man, who had turned up early to unlock house and we think had gone home, which was odd.

Ricardo arrived about 9 am for an hour or so, and J chatted to Ricardo, who said about contacting Alberto about legalities of pipes through houses, and the legalities of the 1.8 metre wall. After he had gone, Ruin man’s wife arrived, chatting to the Dutch lady , and apparently bad mouthing Ricardo , foreign builders and foreigners in general buying up property etc.. The Dutch lady and her daughter rolled their eyes at us ….

We worked on in a desultory way, as it was difficult to concentrate. Ricardo arrived late morning, and had heard that Ruin man’s wife had been going to all the neighbours and criticising him, and he was getting fed up with it, and if she did not stop, he would go to the Ayunmiento and get an order for her to rebuild her roof, as it was causing his clients (us) major damp problems.

He lectured us saying that Spanish people are only interested in 2 things…food and money….and if they can see a way of making money, they will try. He had heard from Alberto that the pipe was illegal if the neighbour did not agree…but it can be legal if they do agree…..but in this case…….not so…… so the pipes must be removed, and the channels bricked up.

We discussed alternative solutions, including running the pipe through the house completely within the boundary walls, relaying the roof terrace to slope towards the street (too expensive), or digging up the patio and kitchen to lay a bigger drain. Settled for running a pipe into the patio and adapting the existing drain….something that should probably have been done originally.

Also we must have TWO 1.8 metre walls adjoining both the orchard and the ruin, and Franchico set about preparing the tops of the existing walls to take the additional height, breaking one of the Arabic tiles in the process. Juan and Franchico spent the afternoon removing tubes and bricking up channels, and I painted patio walls white, picking out terracotta bricks very artistically…if he does say so himself….The white walls seemed to heighten the colours of the andalucian tiles , making the patio a delight to sit in. J spent afternoon on roof terrace cauchoing the water tank base and touching up painting.