Well we enjoyed a hot summer with July and August being very hot but it’s cooling down now and we are enjoying temperatures in the 20’s which is perfect for working outside or walking in the campo.
We’ve spent the whole summer taking off 2 roofs and replacing with a combination of roofs and terrace areas. We first tackled the part above the old bathroom area and boy was it a mucky job! Very dusty with years of muck and airborne dust to remove and the old cane beneath the old tiles. We eventually got it all off after a week and one of the locals who owns a dumper helped us remove the rubble and dump it into the 2 skips – worked out just the same as hiring a dumper from Durcal but with the added advantage we had an extra pair of hands helping us. We finally got the new concrete laid and the new roof/terrace area sealed by early August and then we started taking the roof off above the kitchen. Luckily this was a little newer construction so there was already a solid concrete base below the tiles so it was a matter of removing the tiles and dwarf walls and then rebuilding new ones to form a new pitch and putting new tiles on. We’ve managed to get all the new tiles fitted and finished a day before the weather broke and we had a week of thunderstorms (thankfully no where near as bad as previous years). So far no leaks so fingers crossed it stays that way. We are now rendering walls and built a new storage area on our terrace. The next job is to finish off the otherside and get the rest of the terrace tiles down above the old bathroom area. Once all that is finished we can resume the work inside the house! We still don’t have a new front door yet and I don’t think that and the new porch will materialise now until later in the year or early part of next year. Hubby has a plan of work in his head and I just go with the flow!!! I’ll say one thing – replacing roofs is a great way to keep fit and lose weight!
Ginger & Fred spend most of their time here with us now and as I predicted Ginger had pups! 5th August at 2am the 1st one popped out (in our house) and the last one was born at 5.15am. Needless to say both Ginger and I were pretty tired!! The pups have grown into beautiful dogs (3 bitches & 3 dogs) and are now 7 weeks old. We have thankfully rehomed 3 of them and are just trying to find homes for the other 3. We have posters up in both Spanish and English in the local bakers and bar and some in the bars in Lanjaron. We’re due to put some more up in a local bar in Restabal and also at the Vets in Padul. Fingers crossed we will successfully find homes for the last 3.
We are going to take Ginger to the vets to get her spayed so that we don’t get landed with any more pups and we’ll also make sure both Fred & Ginger have their inoculations to prevent parvo and distemper (as they’ve probably never had these injections when they were pups). It’ll be interesting trying to get them into the car and into the vets as they are so used to running free. Our neighbor has said if we are ever away he will make sure the dogs are fed as we’ll have to leave them outside so at least we know they won’t go hungry and when we are at home they’ll be able to come back into the house. Fred even has his own big floor cushion now after he started making himself comfy on the leather sofa (he ended up on there with hubby & Ginger during the fiesta when the rockets were going off – absolutely scared stiff!!!).
Satellite tv work has been a lot quieter over the summer but in light of all the work we’ve had to do on the roofs it’s been for the best – we’ve had work coming in but not been swamped. It’ll start picking up now that we are getting into the autumn/winter and over here in Spain, just like in the UK, they are moving over to digital tv and the analogue signal is being switched off. Some areas will change over in December and the rest of Andalucia by April next year, so we may start picking up more antenna work then. We are lucky living in the upper part of the village as we can pick up the Granada transmitter and get 26 digital Spanish channels and so have a choice between Spanish or UK TV.
Talking of TV’s – our tv blew up for the 3rd time (the other 2 times was back in the UK whilst it was under extended warrenty and didn’t cost anything to fix) and we decided it was time to buy another (it was 10 years old but had an excellent picture) so we’ve gone for another Philips tv but this time the 42″ LCD Ambilight and can’t believe how great films look on a bigger screen with the ambilight. Just need to get a 2nd hand Sky HD box now so that we can watch BBC & ITV in HD and hopefully the box will arrive in the next few weeks from our supplier back in the UK.
Well that’s about all for now – hope you all have a good autumn and if you fancy a short break then Spain is still having some lovely warm weather and as I manage a few houses in the village, can arrange property rentals for you. Fingers crossed by this time next year we’ll have at least one bedroom & ensuite ready to rent out but we’re not promising!!!!!
Hasta luego