Walls & Front Door

Friday 9^th February

A lovely sunny day @ approx 18 C. No-one appeared today, and we spent day paint stripping the front door. I went to the Ferreteria first thing….well about 9.30 to buy quita pintura (paint stripper), a gel that one applies to each coat. Also popped to the punto limpio (tip) to dispose of recyclables.

The traditional steel doors, painted in a sort of Coleman’s English mustard colour, which is the standard colour, proved very difficult to remove, as they had quite a few coats applied over the years.

A passing English chap who lives just up the road, told us that the street is the oldest street in the town., which confirmed what we thought, that the house is very old indeed.

We popped out for lunch about 1 pm for bocadillo mixto (viena & pitufo)(large and small) and after, I drove to the Ferreteria for more quita pintura. The old lady at no 43 came over to show photos of her great grand-daughter born 2 days ago, and also dropped some oranges and lemons with J whilst I was out. We continued working all afternoon until about 6.30pm, interrupted only by a visit from Tommy who stayed for nearly 2 hours chatting.

Holes Bricked Up

Thursday 8^th February

Juan arrived promptly at 8 am but no sign of Franchico…..must be off sick. Ricardo arrived soon after with a large roll of TV ariel wire, and with help from Juan, threaded it through the plastic bendy pipes to arrive in the front bedroom and lounge. They borrowed washing up liquid to aid the process, Ricardo having first asked for soap, so perhaps a new method developed.

J a bit worried about this job, as it has never been asked for, and there was nothing wrong with the old one. Also that Ricardo told me that the wire was very expensive, and that the large roll he had brought cost 200 €. J worried he is doing chargable jobs that are not really necessary, to compensate for the extra expense he incurred with the pipes and neighbour episode.

I painted downstairs ceiling bathroom second coat, and filled in switches and junction boxes, whilst J did more scraping and painting upstairs.

Juan spent the day building the 1.8 metre walls and cementing the big holes in the bedrooms, having to make his own cement. Ricardo irritated Franchico had not phoned him, as he doesn’t have a mobile phone.

We spent the morning on general work, breaking to make a phone call and visit the cheap shops for odds and ends. Back to house in the rain….mist swirling round the mountain, and did a bit more work.

We decided to try a menu del dia @ 7 euro, which was excellent value, and included a drink of orange juice. The homemade chicken soup arrived looking very unappetising, with croutons and what turned out to be egg floating in it…..but it was delicious , other than not much chicken. Followed by chicken kebab for me and fish cooked Malaga style for J, and a flan for desert…..as I said excellent value.

It continued to rain heavily throughout lunch, with the road outside becoming a stream. Went home briefly in rain, before heading off to Malaga to look for a memory stick or discs to back up some of my key files , as the blog files, the web site, and pictures, as they have become valuable to me, if the hard drive crashed or the laptop got stolen.

The weather leaving town was very foggy/misty and driving was difficult for a bit until we got lower, and it was partially sunny on the coast and noticeably warmer.

Shopped in Carrefour where they have a big sale, and got memory discs, shirts, and a terrace set of a table, 4 chairs and a parasol…..in Mediterranean blue for 89 € …except noticed they charged 99 € when we got home, so another job to get refund.

Table set wouldn’t fit in car, so had to empty box and put in car separately. Drove home and unloaded, and read for a bit before going to bar El Timon for tapas supper at 8 pm. Home to update snag list., and a separate list for Ricardo.

J's Brick Design

Wednesday 7 February

Awoke early at 6 am and caught upon blog and a bit of work on web site. Ricardo & Juan arrived at 8 am on the dot and Franchico about 5 minutes later nursing a hangover……in that he got out some pills and asked for agua to take them with.

Main job today for Juan seemed to be painting the front of house white, and Franchico doing the bricks on top of the patio garden. Ricardo issued his instructions and left, and after breakfast, I drove to Fuengirola for 9 am to book car in to fix alarma and boot lock and odometer …..chap at Opel garage very helpful.

I walked into Fuengirola…a couple of kilometres…and went to wifi café , where I was the first customer, and had an all day English breakfast served by a pretty Chinese student. The wifi wouldn’t work properly, and she was unable to sort it, so I asked her if I could have a go, and just pulled out cable which rebooted it, and it worked first time.

J painted all day ….ceiling in downstairs bathroom, roof terrace walls and part of porch.

I picked up the car just before they closed at 2 pm (very cheap @ 117 € for new boot lock and alarm sensor, sorting alarm and odometer light), and filled up with diesel at cheap Esso garage @ 82.9 c (56p) per litre and then drove home. Spent the afternoon on the roof terrace scraping.

After cleaning up, J decided she didn’t like the patio bricks as they were over cemented, and we removed excess cement that was still soft, to make a cog wheel design (see pic). Ricardo arrived about 6 pm (to meet Door Man), and finished off scraping of a top layer to give a more pleasing effect.

Another Antonio ….the security door man arrived to fix the doors, which were very stiff, and he blamed the frames which were too tight….fitted by Ricardo we think. Anyway he managed to improve them. Went evening shopping for paint for the front door, liso (matt) Marron , which is a sort of chocolate /conker colour.

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.

Long Lost Neighbours & Tubos

Monday 5^th February

If there is any day that will be particularly remembered during the whole renovation, it will be this one. It was still raining, and Tommy arrived early with a headache asking for asprin, and then proceeded to try and fix patio door…..lots of swearing in German. Juan and Franchico continued plastering front of house when rain stopped. Tommy gave up on door and started cementing patio wall and bricks for patio garden.

I took the car to Fuengirola to get the alarma fixed, as it has had to be left unlocked at night due to the intermittent fault. Whilst I was away, the Orchard neighbour arrived to discuss the need for a 1.8 metre wall, as the new porch terrace, and there is a legal requirement for such a wall. If its not sorted, he would go to the Ayunmiento (Town hall) to complain. Ricardo then arrived and had the same discussion with Orchard Man….”a wall must be built…” J then heard him talking on the porch terrace, but thought no more about it, assuming he was on the phone.

The Opel garage was unable to fix car that day, so I came back after a couple of hours away, and saw a man coming out of front door of the ruin…I shouted to J if she knew about him, but she didn’t. Ricardo explained, whilst trying to rush away, that he was the owner of the ruin, and he had been chatting to him….that everything was ok…..and he was not bothered about the large pipe running between the properties. J came out to street, and we both shook hands with Ruin Man I asked Ricardo to ask him how much he wanted for the ruin, but ….”No, it is not for sale …he wants to do it up and sell for more money.” Ruin Man departed in good spirits, as did Ricardo.

We then drove to Barrionuevo in Coin to try and find beige tiles locally, but they were too expensive @ 27.50 € per sq m² rather than Pavisan of Pizarra @ 10.50 € per sq m²
, so we drove to Pizzara and ordered tiles +13 border tiles , which came to more than the 6 square metres ordered ….both about 68 €. We took the back road to Pizarra we had never tried, and found it crossed a ford of the Rio Grande or Guadalhorse river…..a heron lazily flew downstream over the car as we crossed, which was quite surreal, and it was clear there was a lot of birdlife there ……a future trip with the binoculars is a must ……….

After lunch, we got back to work, whilst Tommy and Franchico were working to install the pipe next door in the ruin….Franchico drilling ever larger channels in the walls, and Tommy cutting the pipes, with lots of u bends following the walls. Mid afternoon, we heard voices next door….a man and woman arguing with Franchico….the drilling carried on, but the argument got louder, until the drilling stopped. No word from Tommy at this time. It transpired Ruin man and his wife had returned, and SHE was definitely not happy with the pipe. Franchico carried on arguing with them in our defence.

Ruin man and wife appeared on their side of porch terrace, and we introduced ourselves. She was still in full spate, complaining about the pipe through “Mi Casa”, and how the roof terrace should have been sloped towards the street, and that it was poor workmanship to let it all flow towards a small patio drain…we agreed and empathised with them.

Attempts to phone Ricardo by Tommy and J were of course fruitless, as he had his phone switched off or wasn’t answering. Tommy tried to tell them about how J had been trying to trace them for 6 years, and had had to go through a lengthy court process to validate the deeds of her casa (house)in their absence.

After eating out, we returned home to update blog and a general chat about our predicament…..that we might be in serious legal trouble, as must be Ricardo. It is clear that the tube solution had to be abandoned immediately, and the ruin made good. The danger is that they may wish to block access to the ruin to retain evidence in any future Court case, if they decide to complain to the Ayunmiento, which could be a distinct possibility. Alternatively, they may want some form of compensation from us or Ricardo, and it must be his responsibility.

General Weekend News

Weekend 3^rd/4th February

Another rainy Saturday, and after catching up writing the blog, we drove to Fuengirola to the Market, which was much smaller than usual, due to the rain. Then, down to the front to find an English bar to have an “all day breakfast”………something one craves after a few weeks abroad. The bar also housed a Bookies, so quite a find !

After breakfast (2pm), went to the wifi café to post the blog and then rushed back to the Bookies to place a bet on Royals Darling in the Sandown 3.15, forgetting we are an hour ahead of UK…. Anyway, put 20 € on to win (still running !!)…. on to Torremolinos, to book a Hostal for next week’s Mike Sanchez gig at the Rockin’ Race Jamboree. Got hold of the flyer at the Hostal and were horrified to see Mike is on from 12.30 – 1.30 am !!

Sunday’s weather was better with some sun, and we drove to the La Troncha Sunday market in Coin, and bought an under table heater for 5 euro. We had come across this type of heater last week at the Dutch lady’s house when having coffee. The heater is placed under a table, with a table cloth that hangs down to the floor, and everyone sits round the table keeping their legs warm. Returned to car with the alarma sounding….must get it fixed !

Anyway, back home, the heater did’nt work, so I had to take it back. Just as I was about to leave, a Police road block was set up outside La Troncha, and I didn’t have my car documents or yellow jackets (both legal requirements) with me. Spent half an hour looking for an alternative exit, and was just leaving when the road block disappeared as quickly as it had been set up.

We spent the afternoon scraping the patio walls and bathroom ceiling. During a break, I went up on the roof to look at the neighbours pigeons, who have huge billowing crops as they strut about on the roof looking for a mate.