Thats another fine mess you've got me into !

Friday 2^nd February

Juan arrived at 8 am shortly followed by Ricardo, and Franchico about 10 minutes late, so chided by Ricardo….being late is not acceptable !! Tommy arrived about 9 am, so we had a team of 4 for the first time in many months.

Juan and Franchico continued with the wall, while Ricardo did about an hour of electrics, including a 3 way switch for the hall landing which worked !! Tommy spent the day forming the arab tiles in the patio as a little roof….rather expensive but they look great.

We left about 10 am to visit Antonio the metalica man and get the quotes for the window, patio railings and front door frame….a little less than 300 €, so well worth it, and agreed date of 12 February to fit railings and steel window frame, take away the front door to make a new frame, and return same day to be cemented back.

Then on to Coin to choose front of house tiles…. It was very difficult and had to get girl to help…we thought that there were special exterior wall tiles , and there appeared limited choice, and certainly none of the black quartz with blue streaks that we had favoured as seen on a number of other houses. We failed miserably, and just bought the number 3 and 4 tiles for the house @ 1.20 each.

Returning to the house……Ricardo had gone of course, and the others continued their tasks, with Juan and Franchico chipping off the upper house plaster (having erected the scaffolding), and then starting to build a thin curtain wall of bricks. We then popped for a spot of lunch, and then on to the tile shop in the town to look at tiles again, and established with the chap that any interior floor tiles were fine as exterior wall tiles. We agonised over various terracotta ones, as again no sign of our favourite quartz tiles, and gave up.

We got back at 1 pm to the house to see a local Police 4x4 outside the house just leaving, having obviously been talking to Ricardo. It transpired the Police had visited specifically to tell the builders to tidy up outside the house, remove the pile of sand, and encase all exterior wires in an aluminium trunking,etc..They had apparently also asked for and inspected Ricardo’s papers and licenses.

We decided to drive to Pizarra to another tile centre, but again, they had no black quartz tiles. Looked at various floor tiles, and provisionally chose a pale beige tile with a nice border @ 10.50per sq metre.

We got back to house about 2.45 pm and sat on porch and watched/talked to Tommy as he finished his arab tiles. He told J about a huge rata (rat) that Franchico had seen next door in the ruin, as it was purportedly the size of a cat. Franchico confirmed this, saying he had seen another 2 rata in the ruin. J decided to block up hole into bedroom, wall near our heads where we sleep, and the 2 others in the small back bedroom, which ajoin the ruin..

J took Tommy’s cement and started trying to cement up the holes, but he stopped her, and she blocked them temporarily with a duvet and pillows. I had suggested the expandable polystyrene foam as a stopgap.

Juan and Franchico more or less finished the curtain wall, and tidied up and dismantled the scaffolding, and stored in house, and Tommy stayed until about 4.30 doing small snag list jobs.

We spent an hour clearing up, and then went to auction at 6 pm. I had my eye on a huge Spanish cookery book which I was willing to bid up to 5 €, but it went for 25 €. We left and went to the Locutorio, which was full again. Went to the one opposite, to do e mails. I nearly got run over on a pedestrian crossing…..not by an oncoming car, but one reversing back onto the crossing whilst I was looking the other way…J just managed to warn me, and it just glanced me……driver totally oblivious !)