More Frost

Saturday 27^th January

Awoke to another cold and sunny day, with a hard frost on the car for the first time. I never thought we would have to worry about frozen pipes (water tank pipes on roof has exposed pipes).

Off to Fuengirola to post the blog and go to the market to look for collectables to sell on E Bay.

We’ll see what next week brings. By the way, the comments function is now enabled, so readers can post comments if they so wish. This is part of blogging…..feedback is essential, and the Old Blogger gets demoralised when he thinks no-one is reading his blog…….unless that is the sad fact lol.

Unexpected Bonus

Friday 26^th January

There was another frost last night, which is exceptional in this part of Spain. We had planned to do more jobs from our list today, as they were going to Almeria to pick up the new boat. However, Tommy arrived about 8.45 am, as their plans had changed owing to poor weather conditions at sea……Ricardo had planned to drive the boat from Almeria to Fuengirola with his family…..a trip of nearly 300 kilometers by sea, which had never been very sensible with the cold weather. They were now going to pick up a trailer and bring it back by road.

Tommy wasn’t too bothered about the flood and said it was easily rectified by cutting a groove in the door lintel, which he did, and made the lantern waterproof. He spent the morning doing jobs from the snag list, including building a new step from the hall to the upstairs bathroom.

We spent the afternoon working, J scraping and painting the porch terrace walls white, and I carried on with applying the agua fuerta.

All in all, an eventful week. J had phoned Ricardo before we arrived, and he was confident there was only a weeks work inside, and a couple of weeks outside…..this seemed to be the case as we walked up to the house Monday morning, when we saw him working outside the house, but the snag list tells a different tale ……….well its Spain……manyana !!

Growing Snag List

Thursday 25^th January

Awoke early to a very cold morning, and Tommy told us there had been a frost, which is very unusual for the Costa del Dol. The whole of Spain is having a cold snap with heavy snow in places that rarely see snow, with lots of accidents.

I swept the roof of sand that had been released from the cement by the over-use of the agua fuerta yesterday. Tommy spent the first couple of hours cementing arches, and cemented the hand painted Turkish tile from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul above the first floor arch. We scraped the porch terrace walls ready for painting.

As there was no sign of Ricardo, and Tommy needed more sand, we decided to go to the Irishman’s house again to get more sand, and go to the Ferreteria to replace some plumbing parts. However, we passed Ricardo going to house about 10.30 am and turned round to meet him, as J was very cross with him by this time.

J went through the snag list and the bill query (€1034 in our favour), and Ricardo then went off again to get sand and scaffolding for the front of the house, and we went to the Ferreteria for the plumbing parts and change the shower plug, and get masks for using the agua fuerta. Before he went, J extracted a promise that we would have upstairs lights for the long weekend, as they are not working tomorrow Friday, as Ricardo and Tommy have to go to Almeria to pick up his new boat……more of that another time.

We continued with the agua fuerta on the tiles, this time in modest amounts, trying not to get it on the cement. We experimented with different methods, squirting it directly on to the tiles left marks, and water also seemed to react with the agua fuerta, leaving unsightly marks , e.g circles where the water bucket had stood.

We eventually developed the following method :

1. Treat 6 tiles at a time (0.66 square meter)

2. Apply agua fuerta to each tile with an abrasive pad; rub vigorously with a horizontal/vertical action, trying to avoid cement grouting.

3. Allow to dry

4. Apply water with a damp sponge (wiping horizontally/vertically), to remove agua fuerta, avoiding previously treated tiles.

5. Apply water to grouting to neutralise any agua fuerta.

6. Dry each tile with a clean cloth.

We soon learned that the snag list was active, and as soon as jobs were completed, other problems occur to take their place. A good example was when it started raining that evening. Water started dripping off the porch terrace (this takes all the roof terrace run-off as well), and instead of dripping into the patio, was running down the wall, down the door and flooding the kitchen. The water was also running through the newly fitted porch lantern !!! Cold water everywhere…..kitchen floor, both bathroom floors from toilets, and pool in downstairs shower !!

Playing with Fire

Wednesday 24^th January

Tommy arrived bright and early, but was unable to do much, as he did not have sand , and there were missing bits to fix toilets, downstairs shower, and sinks. As there was no sign of Ricardo, we decided to take matters into our own hands, and offered to drive to the Irishman’s house El Campo and get some sand, and go to the Ferreteria (Hardware Shop…..to be featured on a future posting) to get the plumbing parts he needed, and some “agua fuerta” …..fire water literally translated, which is a strong solution of hydrochloric acid for cleaning and removing cement from the tiles.

In the afternoon, we decided to experiment with the agua fuerta on the roof terrace, gingerly applying small amounts and rubbing gently, getting strong whiffs of choking chlorine vapour I think, although it seemed to react with the cement grouting, producing a yellow sulphur froth, so not sure of the chemistry going on.

Tommy came up and said we had to use much more solution, and squirted it everywhere, producing clouds of the noxious choking gas, which cheered him up “ very good stuff” he said . We foolishly continued to apply the agua fuerta liberally, but could’nt do much because of the fumes produced. Little did we know it was eating into the grouting cement.

Tommy managed to finish a lot of snags with his new materials, including the downstairs sink and shower. We had our first shower downstairs late afternoon. The shower floor area now had a step built in to it, which we had not specified. It had been intended that the floor would slope towards the drain, allowing water to drain away, but it was clear the step had been built to contain water within the shower area, as the floor was level, and a pool remained after each shower.

By now, our euphoria of the real progress that had been made whilst we were away had evaporated, and we decided to make a “snag list” (I think it’s called that in the Trade) for each room. The main snag …..well its more than a snag…..more like a big problemo, are the 3 expensive glass security doors, which don’t close or lock properly, handles graze the frames, and are very noisy and difficult to open/close, as they don’t really fit properly. Another irritating snag is that the light switch for the front bedroom is behind the door…..my fault as I drew the door opening the wrong way on the lighting plan…..at least, that is easily fixed , by changing the hinges and re-hanging the door.

House with exposed beams

Tuesday 23^rd January

Tommy and Ricardo arrived early at 8.00 am and started wiring work, and requesting light pendants and bulbs for each room, which we didn’t have, so we drove to Malaga first thing, getting there about 9.45 am…..both Carrefour and Aki were still closed, as they don’t open until 10.00. We could’nt find pendants in Carrefour, so went to Aki and bought 5 pendants and a nice light for the front room.

Arrived back to the house about noon, and Ricardo rapidly fitted most of the downstairs lights (except the front room as it needed some special 3 way switch), and wired up the boiler, so we had hot water at last. He then disappeared for the day, but at least we had a bit of light and hot water.

Tommy seemed generally fed up and de-motivated, as he seemed to be doing most of the work, and did’nt have the materials or tools for the jobs that needed fixing, and J had to jolly him along. In the afternoon, he started hacking off the plaster and cement from the outside of the house, exposing a couple of timber beams……not what we had expected ……

We still had no light upstairs, and toilets had started leaking, the upstairs shower tap leaked. However, we were able to have a shower in the upstairs bathroom, and proved it was possible, albeit in very cramped conditions.

Back to the House

Sunday/Monday 21^st/22^nd January

We checked in for our flight in good time (about 3 pm), but our plane was delayed by 1½ hours because the incoming flight was late, and we got to Malaga about 9.30 pm. As there was no Shuttle, we had to get a taxi to the Hostal Hispanidad opposite the new train station.

Monday dawned bright and clear, and we walked to the nearby Bus Station and caught the 10.15 bus, a 45 journey to the town. We were greeted to the sight of Ricardo drilling off plaster from the front of the house…….great we thought…..he must have finished inside, and is now starting on the outside……little did we know !!

As we entered the front room, there was little difference , in that it still resembled a builders yard, except the curtain walls are finished and painted, with air vents in the wall…..top and bottom, which looks a bit unaesthetic, but they serve a purpose in trying to contain the damp (air circulation). Same for the next room, the main feature for both rooms being that the electric sockets and switches remain unfinished, with wires protruding from sockets and junction boxes.

On to the Kitchen, where the floor is tiled , walls finished and painted, and the water boiler in situ, and not as big as we thought. J was very pleased with this , together with the patio, which has its little “garden”, and also floor tiled (not quite the small rustic tiles we had specified), with most of the wall tiled with the andalucian patterned tiles, with a few missing. However, the door is very stiff, and the handle knocked the side of the door frame…..a feature we to find with the other 2 doors. The bathroom is also tiled, although none of the sanitary ware , shower or sink was fitted, and the mirror was not cemented in the wall as requested.

Up to the next floor, and again, the bathroom is tiled with the mirror in situ here, and the toilet, sink and shower in place, and looking very nice. However, the toilet did not seem to flush.

We then went out on to the middle terrace through the new door, which was very stiff, and opened outwards the wrong way, rather than against the wall. The terrace was tiled and looked good. Then up on to the roof terrace via the new glass door…..again very stiff. However, it does let in a lot of light to the hall.

Ricardo was obviously on good form and happy with progress, as were we, but that feeling was short lived. Ricardo promised we would have light in a few rooms today, and set about sorting out the wiring, whilst we made up the bed in a very dusty bedroom.

We spent the rest of the day doing a big clean as best we could working around them. By 4 pm we had 2 lights downstairs (kitchen and small back room), no hot water, no lights upstairs but at least a working toilet upstairs.

We decided we needed more light and popped out to the light shop at 6.30 pm ….as one does in Spain, to buy an anglepoise light and a torch …..essential for negotiating upstairs in the dark.