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

Where has the summer gone? It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since I was putting a note on the blog about the Fiesta and now we’re about to start Autumn!

The fiesta went off with a bang – as is usual here in Spain – loads of fireworks, lots of visitors to the village, music, dancing etc. We had some friends over for a BBQ on the Saturday and later on we all went down to the entrance of the village to watch the spectacular firework display – the best yet! After that we all walked back up to the church square to watch the Banderas and majorettes – a very good evening and great company.

We’ve now finished the new small terrace off from the lounge and the metal stairs are installed and we can now access the top terrace from there. The next job to start once that was done was the refurbishment of the other small terrace at the front of the house which is above the main staircase. We started this in August and had the centre of the house open to the stars for a few weeks whilst we got the new concrete beams up in place. We can now report that it is all finished and watertight again and much better now that the old lightwell has gone and we have new glass blocks in place to give us light. It should be a lot warmer this winter too as the old lightwell used to let loads of cold air into the house.We are just adding the finishing touches to the terrace area with some rendering on the walls and the final top coat and then I can give it a coat of white paint and it’s all done. We’ve fitted a new double glazed glass door leading from the Azotea (3rd floor room) out on to the terrace – it’s a lot better now as the old wooden door wouldn’t close properly and it used to leak water when it rained. We’ve put a temporary tarpaulin cover over the small area between the new refurbished roof terrace and the old roof which needs replacing next year and hopefully this should stop any leaks over the winter.

The weather has definitely broken now and the rains have arrived with a few storms but when the sun comes out it warms up pretty quickly and after a few hours you forget it rained. There have been some pretty fierce storms inland in the Cordoba, Sevilla, Madrid, Valencia areas with a lot of flooding and storm damage but fingers crossed we won’t get hit with the same sort of storm we experienced last year. Thankfully we had another delivery of sand and a skip for all the building rubble delivered before the rains started so that was a stroke of luck and after 2 days of backbreaking work the skip was filled and the sand moved to outside the house.  We’re off to Gran Canaria at the beginning of November for a weeks holiday and really looking forward to it. We have been invited to join our friend and her family at their flat in the south of the island and we are hiring a car so that we can go and explore the interior of the island which is supposed to be very beautiful and green – very different to the coastal resorts. We’ll update you on how we get on.

Well that’s about all for now – hope everyone is well and not working too hard.

Hasta luego

Hola everyone and apologies once again for the tardiness in updating our blog.

We are now in July and I’ve been here 2 years already! Work on the house has moved on quite a bit and our new kitchen is now finished and in full use – it’s wonderful and spacious with beautiful granite worktops – something we could never afford back in the UK. The lounge, bedroom and office have now all been redocorated and pictures put up on the walls so everything is now finished on that side of the house.

We took off the old roof next to the lounge area and have made the area into a lovely small terrace which we can now access from the new lounge and we have built a lovely little water feature to give us the tinkling of water when the weather is hot. As I type this we are waiting for the new metal stairs to arrive and be fitted to give us access to the top terrace – hopefully this should be later this week. Once they are fitted we can finish off the floor tiling on the terrace and it will be ready to use. We now have an automatic watering system so that makes it easier keeping the plants alive in the heat (we’re averaging 35 degress or more now so things dry out quite quickly).

The next job to start is to renew the flooring of the small terrace at the front of the house and get rid of the old lightwell and put something in like glass blocks to let the light in but keep the cold out in the winter.

Well that’s about all for now – the work carries on and one day we’ll be open for business as a little B&B but until then the satellite tv work keeps us ticking over.

Have a great summer whatever you do and wherever you spend it.

Hasta luego

Well it’s been nearly 3 months since our last update and Spring has arrived here in the beautiful Lecrin Valley. Almond blossom has adorned the hillsides and the scent whilst out walking has been beautiful. The spring flowers are now appearing and the hillsides are looking green and fresh – perfect time of year to visit. The temperatures are on the up and it’s great for walking and mountain biking as it’s not too hot.

We managed to get a days snowboarding in during January when my brother visited and we had a great time. As we’ve been busy with the house I think that will be our only trip this year but it was good to know that after 5 years of no snowboarding we still remembered how to do it!!!

Work on the house is progressing well and at the end of January we moved into our new lounge and bedroom! It was great unpacking boxes of ornaments and belongings that hadn’t seen the light of day for the last 2 years – it was like Christmas all over again. It’s heaven being able to use our new ensuite and not having to negotiate the steps up and down to the old bathroom.

We are now working on the room which will become our new kitchen. All the plumbing and waste has been installed along with the conduit for the new electrics. Phil is currently tiling the floor area prior to us installing the new units. Once this is done it’ll be a trip down to Ikea in Malaga for the new kitchen. Although hubby hand built our last kitchen in the UK he’s decided to go down the Ikea route this time for speed as it was a lengthy job building units from scratch and we have so much more work ahead of us still. Fingers crossed we’ll have a working kitchen installed before our friend arrives for her holiday at the beginning of May.

Once the work on the kitchen has finished then our next job will be to remove the old roof above the store room in the old mill area – another skip will be required me thinks!!! We’ll be doing as much of the outside work as possible during the summer and then from October onwards we’ll move back to the work inside the house and hopefully start on the new guest rooms and their en suites.

The satellite work is quiet at the moment but that is expected due to the time of year and also the current economic climate in the UK. We are looking at other options to earn a crust but our main efforts are being channeled into the work on the house. The sooner the work gets completed the sooner we can start running as a B&B.

Well that’s all for now folks and all that remains is to wish you all a very Happy Easter.

Hasta Luego

Happy New Year to you all and hope you all have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008

Christmas for us passed by quietly and we had a nice lazy day opening presents, watching a bit of tv and taking a nice walk in the winter sunshine around the olive & orange groves surrounding the village. As we decided to eat early evening we didn’t BBQ the steak as it was dark and nippy up on the terrace and so cooked in the kitchen and relaxed afterwards by watching a film.

26th is back to normal here in Spain (no Boxing Day) and so it was back to work on the house and Phil doing more plastering. The weekend just before Xmas we filled a huge skip with building rubble and then moved a load of sand back to the house from the top of the village. Took us 2 days of hard graft but satisfying when it was all done. We shouldn’t need any more sand for a while now as there is a massive amount to keep us going.

In between Christmas and New Year we had a few satellite tv installations to keep us busy and New Years Eve was spent tucked up inside with a few drinks, and as Spanish custom goes I stuffed 12 grapes into my mouth at midnight to ensure good luck for the forthcoming year! Not easy trying to keep up with the church bells and not choking!! We then watched the New Year celebrations on the tv back in the UK and the huge firework display in London – after which it was off to bed ready for another day of work on the house!

My brother is coming over to stay for 12 days on 3 January and so looking forward to having him here with us. We are taking him into Granada for the 3 Kings Procession on the night of 5th January and then the next day we are off to the Conchar Mosto Wine Festival – should be a good day!! After that we’ll play it by ear – have fixed up some rock climbing for him with another English guy who lives in the valley so he’s looking forward to that. We might also get a chance to go up to the ski resort and get some snowboarding in. There is some rain forecast for later this week which means some more snow higher up which is good news.

Work on the new living area and bedroom is progressing steadily and fingers crossed by end January we might be able to move into it – the new log burner keeps it lovely and warm.

That’s all for now folks – hope you all had a great Christmas and best wishes to you all for 2008.

I can’t believe it’s December already – the year has flown by and it’s nearly Christmas!! I’ve been very good and have written all our Christmas cards and bought all our presents and wrapped them ready to deliver. Well I’ve had to be an early bird as we are flying back to the UK on 13 December for a few days to visit family and friends before Christmas and to hand out cards & presents. We’re flying back on 18th to spend a quiet Christmas here in Spain and of course to carry on with the building work. We’ll have a quiet day on the 25th and plan to BBQ some steak on the terrace and relax (fingers crossed the sun will be out). Then no doubt we’ll be back to work on the house on 26th.

As far as the building work progress goes – we now have the new bedroom, ensuite and lounge/diner built – the walls have been plastered and given their first lick of paint and we are just finishing off the tiling in the ensuite and will be ready to fit the new bidet, toilet & sink before we fly back to the UK. We bought our new Estufa (Woodburning Stove) a week ago and it is now installed and working – it’s lovely and warm in the new part of the house and we’re really looking forward to moving in – however it won’t be until Jan/Feb as we have to do some other work first on the new workshop door before we can finish the rooms upstairs. Still it will be worth the wait. Once all that works finished then we will start on the new kitchen which I am really looking forward to. Once that’s done then we can start on the main part of the house for the guest rooms. My estimate now is that it’ll be another 2 years at least before we are completely finished and can finally operate as a proper B&B but there’s always a room ready for family & friends who what to visit us. We keep plodding on – poco a poco (bit by bit) as our Spanish neighbours say.

The weather this autumn has been quite mild and when we have sunny days they are usually warm in the sun but a little chilly in the shade. The nights now are a little nippy and we’ve been using the gas heaters now since mid November in the main part of the house and they are enough to keep us warm. We’ve had some more rain recently which has given a good dump of snow on the mountain tops and the Sierra Navada ski resort opened on 1st December. We are hoping in Jan or Feb to go up and try out our snowboards again – it’s been 4 years since we were last on them so I can imagine there will be more time sitting/kneeling in the snow than actual boarding but it’ll be good to get back into it. At least we’ll be able to go in the week when it’s a bit quieter – the weekends are manic (apparently).
The satellite tv installations are ticking along steadily and helping to keep us fed and watered (well wine rather than water!).

We’re looking forward to the forthcoming Conchar Wine Festival which takes place in the Village of Conchar in Lecrin Valley and this year it is being held on 6th January. We’re hoping the weather is warm and sunny like last year as it makes it a great day out. You buy your Wine Festival Mug (large or small depending on preference/or if you’re driving) and then keep filling it up with the local Mosto (young wine) for free! There is a band playing spanish music, food freshly cooked on a big BBQ and young and old have a great time. There is lots of dancing and chatting and families come from all over for a great day out and to meet up with old friends. So if you are in the area on the 6th or fancy coming over for the festival we can highly recommend it.

Not a lot else to report so we’ll bid you adios for now and update you on events and the work on the house in the New Year.

Have a great Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008.

Abrazos y besos (hugs and kisses)

Things are progressing slowly – we’ve been busy with satellite installations and some friends came to visit which gave us an excuse to down tools and have some R&R with them. However we can report that all the internal walls are up and rendered in the new section on the first floor.

The ceilings took the longest to plaster but at last they are all done now. We’ve now got the new toilet, sink & bidet for the ensuite and have ordered the taps and tiles for the floor and walls. There is still a long way to go as the walls all have to be plastered yet and Phil needs to knock out the wall in the garage below to put the new garage door in before we carry on upstairs. We’ve got a pile of rubble upstairs that needs to go so we may as well order a skip to get rid of that and the rubble from the wall coming out for the new garage door. We were hoping to be settled into our new half of the house by Xmas but that’s not going to happen now – think it’ll be more like Spring. Still we’ll get there in the end – these things never go to plan and you just have to go with the flow and not get stressed about it. One nice thing living here – stress never seems to raise it’s ugly head very often.

We’ve now changed the plan for the layout of the house again and are going to put the new kitchen upstairs on the first floor next to our new lounge & bedroom. The dining room will also be on the first floor and the two new bedrooms will be on the ground floor. We think this will work better and it will be easier from a plumbing point of view. However I don’t think we’ll be starting work on that lot until Summer next year!! With the way things are going I can’t see us having it all finished for at least another 2 years but we always have one bedroom ready for any family or friends who want to come and visit us for some R&R and sunshine (as long as they don’t mind a bit of dust and a home that’s a “work in progress”!).

Well that’s all for now folks.

Hasta luego

After 6 months of hard work in all types of weather we can now report that the work on the roof is at last completed!!!! It’s been a long hard slog and we had to stop work for a while recently when we returned to the UK, my aunt, lost her battle against cancer and we returned for the funeral. I’d also spent a few weeks on and off traveling back to the UK to spend some time with her just before she went into LOROS and again whilst she was in there for her last few weeks. It’s not been easy for us and I really miss her – not being able to phone her in the evenings and update her on what we’ve been doing each day and just having a general natter. At least she is now at peace and I hope looking down on us and supervising our work from above.

We’ve now started on the work inside of the old mill above what is now the garage. We’ve installed 4 new windows and rendered and put the finishing white render on the upper part of the external walls at the back of the house (the old mill section). Over the last 2 days we’ve been knocking through from the mill to the main house and now we are able to walk through to our new section (much easier than climbing a ladder and crawling in through a gap which will eventually be filled with glass blocks!).

We are now building internal walls in our new section of the house and installing new doorways. It seems to be coming on quite well now and we are thankful that the work has moved indoors as the weather has been a little on the hot side (40 – 44 degrees C!). We had a bit of a thunderstorm the other night which helped to cool the air down a little. Luckily we get a nice fresh breeze most evenings which helps to cool things down a little but we have been seeing temperatures of 30 degrees in the house! Thankfully we’ve fitted ceiling fans which certainly help us sleep at night (also reminds us of our years living in sunny South Africa!). There’s still a long way to go before we can move our lounge and bedroom furniture into the new section but fingers crossed we’ll be in there before Christmas and the cold weather arrives. We are going to install a log burner in our new lounge and the heat from that should keep us nice and toastie over the winter period – having new windows that actually close and seal properly will also be a big help! We’ll keep you posted on progress.

We’ve been keeping track of the recent bad weather in the UK (and experiencing it first hand whilst we were visiting a few weeks back) and can’t believe the amount of flooding that has occurred – especially at this time of the year. Just hope the sun comes out for everyone in the UK during August so you can enjoy some Summer! Failing that there are always the cheap flights out to sunny Spain!

It’s fiesta time here in Pinos del Valle in a couple of weeks time (14 – 17 August) and we’re looking forward to all the action! Hopefully this year we’ll be more adjusted to staying up later and will manage to get along to some of the late night festivities. We’re looking forward to the firework display again this year – last years was very impressive.

Well that’s about all for now – hope you all manage to enjoy whatever Summer you manage to get.

Hasta luego

Sorry for the tardiness in updating the blog however we’ve been pretty busy with the digital satellite tv installations and in between these doing work on the roof. During April the weather here didn’t help as it was pretty wet and the days we had spare to work on the house it always seemed to be raining! Think it’s one of the wettest Aprils they’ve had on record for quite a few years! However at last the sun is out and the temperature is on the up. Our tans are coming on a treat with all the work we are doing outside.

The work on the roof is now in the last stages and we are hoping that by end June/early July it will be finished and we can start on the inside. We’ve already built the internal walls to divide up the space into a new lounge/dinner, bedroom & ensuite. The next stage will be to knock through in to the main house and then install some windows. After that it’s all the plumbing, electrics, rendering and plastering of walls etc. The plan is that we’ll be able to move into the new lounge & bedroom area by the winter as we are installing a log burner to heat that half of the house and it should be a lot warmer. Once we are in there we can start work on the main part of the house. Still a long way to go but it’s keeping us out of mischief and it’s nice seeing the completed work knowing that it’s us that’s done it all.

Well that’s all for now – fingers crossed the next update will be to say the roof is done – but we’re not promising anything!

Hasta luego