Well at last we have finished the new entrance porch – well just about – we still have to fit the light on the wall and entry intercom but they are minor things.  We’ve also finished – more or less, the stone cladding on the lower half of the wall at the front and it certainly sets the house off nicely.  We’ve been getting some nice comments from our spanish  neighbours and are really pleased with it. Just got to carry on with the stone work now around the corner and up the street to the back of the house!  Should keep hubby quiet for a while – if you like jigsaw puzzles then this is right up your street – if not it will drive you up the wall – thankfully he’s somewhere in between!!

Well it’s Christmas again (almost) and we seem to be having a “Ground Hog Day” week!  This time last year we were having heavy downpours and days of rain forecast and yet again a few days before Christmas here we go again!!  After spending all summer waterproofing all the areas where we thought our leaks were coming from imagine our disbelief when yet again a damp patch appeared over the window in our lounge (where the terrace drain is) and on the side wall where we had no damp at all last year! Thankfully the other wall that was absolutely saturated last year has stayed dry with the slightest circle of damp appearing at one corner so all the work sealing the wall seems to have paid off and we don’t have water coming in under the log store in the lounge so all in all we do seem to have cracked 80% of the problem – just got to locate the remaining 20%!  We think it’s the other side of the terrace where the house joins up with next doors and their roof-line buts up against us – the amount of rain running down the roof and into the gully has been torrential so the water’s bound to find a small hole or crack to work it’s way in.  Trouble is it’s so difficult to get to and seal but we’ll have another go in the summer when everything dried out.  As for the leak above the lounge window – we will get the scaffolding out in the summer and point up all the bricks that form the under part of the small roof overhang as we think the water could be working it’s way back up.  Problem with the houses here is that they’re not designed for heavy prolonged rain and many other people are having similar problems with their terraces – some make ours look like nothing (which in the scheme of things compared to last years leaks we’ve got off very lightly so far!!!).  However they are forecasting some dry weather from Friday onwards and we are hoping this year that we’ll be able to get up to do some snowboarding on Xmas Day.  I’ve got some new snowboard boots that I bought back in March and haven’t had a chance to try them out yet!  Been walking around the house in them to bed them in.  Fingers crossed I get to try them out at the weekend.

We’ve managed to get our new front door fitted and it’s looking good.  The old door is still in-situ as there’s some more work on the new porch yet before we take it out.  In the meantime we’re finishing building the new fireplace in the hallway which will house our new log burning stove that will (eventually) run the new central heating system (fingers crossed it’ll be up and running by next winter!).  We’ve now decided to take it easy on the run up to Xmas and hubby is currently on Formula 1 2010 on the PS3 and doing very well with his races!

We’ve been wondering for quite a while if the local town hall would ever repair the little street that runs down the side of our house through to the back street, as they seem to have repaired every other street in the village.  I asked at the town hall a few weeks ago and just got a shrug of the shoulders and a “no se”!  However we awoke yesterday morning to the sound of a dumper truck outside, voices and then lots of thumping noises – upon opening the window to have a look we saw at least 7 people outside starting to break up the street!!!  We had a chat with the Jefe (boss man) who said they were repairing the street – yipee.  However after digging down not too far they started uncovering the old drains that service our house and the old water supply pipework that feeds into our house.  There are pipes everywhere and no one has a clue where they all come from and go to – we have 2 stop taps outside now – one which was buried and we didn’t know about.  As we had to go out working yesterday we left them to it.  Upon returning we discovered that the buried stop tap was turned off which had cut the water to our kitchen, however the water in our en-suite was still running so it appears we have two water supplies feeding into the house!  The street had been left as a rubble building site and we had to clean out the rubble from the broken drain cover and put something over the top to stop rubbish been washed in and blocking it (it services our kitchen, bathroom & water run off from the back terrace and patio so if it blocks we’ve got BIG problems).  As it started raining last night and hasn’t really stopped since it’ll be a quagmire out there by the time they come back to start more work on it – which by the look of the weather will be after Xmas now!  At least they’ve roped off the 2 ends of the street to stop people walking through it.  We asked the Jefe it they were going to install new drains but he said no – however after uncovering the old rusting water pipes he said they would replace them with new ones – once they’ve worked out where they all go to and come from!   I have a feeling the work outside on the side street is going to take a few weeks!  I’ll put an update here in the new year.
Ginger is still with us and well – sleeping at the moment as it’s too wet to go out – she came for a quick walk with me this morning when the rain eased up but she’s definitely not in the mood for going outside at the moment!  She ended up having a shower yesterday as she’d found something a bit smelly and rolled in it so in the shower she went.  She did the same thing a few weeks ago and had 3 showers in one week – she smells lovely afterwards (our orange and chamomile shampoo) and once she’s all dry goes soft and fluffy!

Well that’s all for now – hope you all have a great Christmas whatever your plans (I fear some of you back in the UK may not be going far with all the snow – at least you’ll have a white Christmas!).

Hasta luego

Where did the summer go????  Well the new guest lounge was finished in time for my brothers visit and we are pleased with the end result.

After that I carried on freshening up the outside terraces with a new lick of paint and sealed all the joints between the floor tiles outside to try and avoid any leaks when the rains start this year! Hubby has been busy painting the front of the house this month and boy does it look different now it’s all white!  The locals all seem pleased it’s looking nice and fresh now.  Fingers crossed if it doesn’t rain tomorrow then he will get the final coat on and our scaffold will come down.  For the top half we had to borrow some scaffolding from one of the locals as it is 3 floors high and we also needed to fit guttering to stop the rains soaking the walls.  We managed to get all the top half finished in a week as the owner of the scaffolding needed it for another job and we were glad that bit was done.  Our scaffolding is high enough for the rest of the painting and we’ve been doing it in between sat work and the odd day of rain.

We had an upsetting experience in August just before the local fiesta began – Fred, one of our beautiful dogs, became suddenly ill and after taking him straight to the vets we discovered he’d eaten some poison.  He was a the vets all day but that evening when we went to see him (thinking he’d managed to get it out of his system) we discovered he was in a very bad state and had been on various drugs all day and Valium but the poison was taking it’s toll and it was 50/50 he’d survive the night.  We had to make the hard decision to put him out of his misery as we didn’t want him suffering any more than he already had.  It really upset us and Ginger (his sister) was so lost without him.  It’s taken her a while to get her confidence back but now she goes off with one of her “friends” during the mornings and then comes back and spends the rest of the day with us and stays tucked up inside every night.  When she comes for a walk with us she doesn’t stray too far ahead and waits for us.  We just hope the same fate doesn’t befall her, but living in the “campo” we have to accept these things can happen (as it has to many of our Spanish neighbours animals).

Hubby has now acquired a new (well second hand) off road motorbike to go off exploring the miles and miles of tracks around here.  He’d been promising himself one for a long time but wanted to wait until we’d got most of the big work out of the way on the house.   Looks like the mountain bike will continue to gather dust now!!!

Well that’s all for now – next blog will probably be Xmas!!

At last we have started to plaster the new guest lounge!!  I’ve done my part by spending the last week slowly picking away at the walls to remove all the old lose plaster and paint in order for hubby to pva the walls and start plastering.  Slowly it is beginning to take shape and I can visualise what it will eventually look like.  Once the plasterings finished I can get on and paint the walls once it’s all dried.  We’ve had to crack on with the work on this room as my brother and his girlfriend and her young son are coming over to stay with us for 10 days and as we only have one guest bedroom & en-suite finished we need to make the guest lounge into a temporary bedroom for the lad.  We have until 18 July to get as much done as possible and all being well we’ll have it ready for their visit.

Until last week the weather has been hot and sunny but this last week has turned quite cool and today we’ve had a torrential downpour (had to take the drain cover up on little terrace as it was filling up like a pool!).  Fingers crossed the sun will be out by Wednesday and we’ll be hotting up again.  It’s unusual to have this much rain in June and glad we’ve finished most of the outside work as this time last year we had started taking a roof off!!  We would have had an indoor swimming pool then!

We’ve been kept busy with our digital satellite & terrestrial tv work and so have to catch the few days here and there to carry on with the work on the house.  We are glad we are busy with tv work as there are a lot of people out of work here.  As long as we can keep ticking over we’re happy.  We get a lot of work inland in the Jaen & Priego de Cordoba region as there seem to be quite a few Brits still buying houses up that way due to better prices – more for your money.  It’s quite a drive up there but beautiful scenery and we get to see so many new places.  Beats sitting in a city traffic jam on the way to work!!

I’ve acquired a new mode of transport – a motor scooter!!!  It’s a 125cc so nice and nippy and I got it at a good price from our local Fishmonger!  It was his wifes but now they have two little children she didn’t use it anymore and so was selling it.  It only has 3,000km on the clock and is like new.  It’s been well looked after and had it’s regular services.  I never thought I’d be back on 2 wheels again and it’s a little different from riding a proper motorbike but once you get used to it, it’s so easy and comfy to ride.  Back in the day when I was a hardened biker I wouldn’t have been seen riding a scooter, but now the years have passed I’ve mellowed and am happy to have my own transport again! (Years ago my dad had a scooter and I have a photo of me as a baby sitting on his knee whilst he perched on his scooter, so perhaps it was destiny that one day I’d have one too). It’s ideal for nipping into Durcal for the local market and for getting around the valley.  Not sure hubby is too pleased I’m back on 2 wheels again but I’m certainly not burning rubber – nice sedate pace for me now!
Well that’s all for now folks.

Work has started again in earnest and we have ripped out the old Azotea floor which also forms the ceiling area above what will be the new guest lounge.  We started just over 2 weeks ago and it’s been hard, dirty, dusty work but by the last weekend in January we had the old floor up and the old beams out and now (first weekend in Feb) we have the new steel and concrete beams up ready to fill in and cover with concrete.  Fingers crossed, and all being well next weekend will entail 2 days of solid concrete mixing & laying the new floor.  Once that’s all done we can fix up the shuttering to cast the ramps to the new stairs which will lead up from the lounge to the top floor and guest terrace.  It’s our last REALLY BIG JOB to do on the house and everything after that will seem insignificant (although there is still loads to do!). Fingers crossed by end March the main structure will be finished and the new steps can be put in (the ramps need a month to set properly).  We need to get this work finished as soon as possible as it’s all part of a project we’ve had to have drawn up by our architect to approve and legalise all the work that we’ve done on the house so far.  An unexpected cost but we’ve had to get it done.  Hopefully by the summer we can start working back on the hallway downstairs and try to get the walls all plastered and it looking less like a building site.

The weather this winter has been very wet again and the reservoirs are virtually full – first time in 3 or 4 years so at least there will be no water shortages this year.  The valley is looking very green and the almond trees are now all in blossom and they smell wonderful.

Fred & Ginger (our 2 adopted dogs) are well although they went missing for 2 days and so far only Ginger has returned – she’s left Fred somewhere up in the hills above the village but I’m sure he’ll be back later as he’s not eaten for 2 days so will be very hungry!  They go off from time to time on their little expeditions into the hills but usually turn up again when they are hungry.  They usually spend a couple of days then just sleeping in the house while they get their energy back and then get bored and go off again!  It’s a dog’s life and we are the doggy hotel!

Well better go as things to do but will put an update on here again when we’ve got a bit further with the building work.

Hasta luego

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