Railings and Finishing Doors

Thursday 15^th February

I was up early as usual …..no builders expected today but Antonio the Metalica man was expected 8-8.30 am, although J was doubtful he would turn up. Antonio arrived about 9.30 with his mate, and proceeded to fit the railings, window security grill (reja) and mended the front door , taking about an hour. Problemos included having to weld reja twice on one side and getting their power lead stuck behind the reja, having to cut the plug. New glass was still required for front doors, and Antonio suggested we can bring the window doors down tomorrow and they will fit glass in a few hours. I suggested they take them now, but they were not keen to do so, as they were late for their breakfast.

After they left, we continued separating builders stuff from ours, and transferring theirs to front room and reclaiming dining room. I took all rubbish to punto limpio inc 2 buckets of rubble, rather than fly tip round the corner. Punto Limpio man helped us dispose of right rubbish in the right skips….wood in 1, metal 2, plastic in 3 etc, but as J discovered , there was wood, metal and plastic in all three !! The Punto Limpio man was interested in the sky digibox, which had appeared I the house, and was thought to belong Sergio the sacked Russian, which he had pinched from a cuba (skip), together with a carpet……anyway Punto Limpio man also liked the old reja, which he passed over a fence to a neighbouring “business” …all a bit of a mystery.!!

On the way back, I walked back thru market and bought 5 kilo of oranges for 2.50 € + 1 k of lemons for 1.50 €…..for juicing later in week.

Went for lunch menu del dia….another interesting home made soup…..given a dated token and told we could get a meal free if we collected 10 tokens for having 10 menu del dias ….think we might make in time left here !!

Spent afternoon ….C giving front door a second coat of neranja melio (orange primer), whilst j scraped and painted in patio.

Tommy turned up at 4.30 to fit front room light…..took about 2 minutes to hook support chain on to a hook embedded in espuma de ploiuretano (polyurethane foam), which he assured me was very strong …..surely not !! He then spent 1hr chatting to us, until we had to make our excuses and continue our work.

Friday 16^th February

Juan arrived unexpectedly at 8 am to finish off door cementing and ariel bit on roof …about 4 hours work. After breakfast, I removed the glass doors and metal shutter doors from the front door, and took the glass doors down to the Metalica place. Antonio there, and J chose glass …cheap and frosted. ….ready by 1pm.

Back home and J cleaned and cleared front bedroom, while I helped periodically, and pottered. Went to punto limpio with door frame Juan had kindly cut in half, bedside cabinet with woodworm, and recyclables, inc my vectra boot lock, which punto limpio man interested in. Also gypsy scavenging cubas, and found a bird cage……not interested in cabinet which was rapidly crushed.

On to Ferrateria to take back door handle and lock, and to buy upper bathroom lock, varnish, long handled paint roller, metal filler for front door etc.. Back to fit door lock and help J fix leg back on to pine cabinet.

We drove to pick up windows at 1 pm and get bill…..they were ready, but silicone still tacky, so told to drive slowly and not fit for 4 hours or so. Popped out to buy pliars at another Ferreteria to change tv arial.

Back to house and straight out for lunch, basking in the hot winter sun. Returned to house to varnish bathroom board on roof (very windy), unpack new Mediterranean table set, and paint porch high bits. We were both getting tired about 5.30, when I went out to car to get glass doors to re-hang…few problemas, but ok with a bit of wd40.

For a change, we went out for a Chinese meal…..eve of Chinese new year ….of the pig……excellent beef chop suey and chicken in black bean sauce with special fried rice, and house wine @ 5.50…..excellent value.