J puts her foot down

Wednesday 4^th April

Continuing rain over Spain with numerous rivers breaking their banks. I got up early and soaked off the brown paper off the tiles. I was concerned that the cement was still very soft, and that there was no need to grout the tiles as they were full of cement, and that water could get under the tiles and lift them. J was also concerned, and we discussed the option of ripping the whole lot up and starting again, dependant on the swimming pool shop being open…..as it is the day before the long Semana Santa holiday…..and tiles being in stock. If it was shut, we would have to live with it.

We decided to do all the shopping in one go, and first stop, we were in luck….swimming pool open and tiles in stock…..1 square metre (9 tiles)…1,521 mosaic tiles !!....bargain @ 16.75€. On to Barrionuevo to get grouting mortar….another bargain @ 1€ for a 3 Kg bag……surprisingly, we had sufficient tile cement, as I had started with a 25 Kg bag (4.40€ if I recall), so another indication of cheap building mterials in Spain.

On to Beltran to get wood cut to repair tv cabinet, the ferreteria to get another u bend to repair kitchen sink drain, garden centre to get a bit more of the nice pottery, and a big holiday shop at Mercadona.

After lunch on the porch, I hacked off the tiles and put them in a bucket of water to be cleaned off and reused……mosaic table perhaps…..and scraped off the cement, most of which was still quite soft. I layed out the tiles ready to cement and J then took over to fine tune the design and do the cementing. I made up a 1/3^rd bucket of cement which J though would be sufficient, explaining the notched trowel, the purpose of the 4 mm notches being to control the depth of cement……..mmmmm……that’s where I went wrong !!

J made a fantastic job of the tiling and the step, my main role being to cut mosaic tiles for the edges and make tea. During a mid afternoon break, we fine tuned the reticulation system to equalise water flow to each pot.

Dined out at our favourite restaurant, where I choked on my red wine as we laughed about the shower fiasco (not funny at the time). J conjoured up the image of someone using my shower and wading in cement and getting out with concrete boots, whilst I suggested them getting out with tiles attached to their feet and tap dancing on the floor !!.....its the way you tell them I guess lol.