It is a glorious sunny day today with a lovely ambient temperature of 16 (in the sun probably 22). I’ve been out removing the layers of dust from inside the car’s engine compartment whilst Elayne has been catching up on the ironing and watching ‘Place in the sun’.
The builders have been finishing off the roof brick work and now have demolished (it seems to be the only way to describe how they are taking these props, rails and wooden shuttering boards from the ceiling. How they haven‘t had a board hitting them on the head yet is a miracle) some of the downstairs support props. They are starting to build the downstairs walls and already we can see the shape of our bedroom and bathroom coming on.
We do have a problem though.
Some while ago we expressed concern that the builders had not put down a membrane on the concrete to protect from rising damp. We were assured that they had not yet got to this stage and that ‘they do! know what they are doing’. OK we thought, that is re-assuring and we are happy to be told this. It occurred to Elayne, just now, that they are now building the walls and we still have not seen any sight of membrane or damp proof course. We typed our concern into a free translation web site, translated it to Spanish, printed it out and took it up to the builders. The builders then talked to Dario and Jose and one or both of them have said that they will come up to talk to us. We are not sure when this will be but the builders are carrying on building at an alarming rate. If we cannot get any satisfactory explanation then we will have to call Chema (the architect)
BTW this is the third time that we have done a hard copy translation and, with an apology for us not speaking Spanish written into it, it is a very good way of communicating our, hard to explain, requirements after our humble Spanish words fail us. We always do it with a smile and we always get a smile back.
We will have to now await further developments. Meanwhile our bedroom wall is now over two meters tall.
More about this together with wall pictures later.
The builders have been finishing off the roof brick work and now have demolished (it seems to be the only way to describe how they are taking these props, rails and wooden shuttering boards from the ceiling. How they haven‘t had a board hitting them on the head yet is a miracle) some of the downstairs support props. They are starting to build the downstairs walls and already we can see the shape of our bedroom and bathroom coming on.
We do have a problem though.
Some while ago we expressed concern that the builders had not put down a membrane on the concrete to protect from rising damp. We were assured that they had not yet got to this stage and that ‘they do! know what they are doing’. OK we thought, that is re-assuring and we are happy to be told this. It occurred to Elayne, just now, that they are now building the walls and we still have not seen any sight of membrane or damp proof course. We typed our concern into a free translation web site, translated it to Spanish, printed it out and took it up to the builders. The builders then talked to Dario and Jose and one or both of them have said that they will come up to talk to us. We are not sure when this will be but the builders are carrying on building at an alarming rate. If we cannot get any satisfactory explanation then we will have to call Chema (the architect)
BTW this is the third time that we have done a hard copy translation and, with an apology for us not speaking Spanish written into it, it is a very good way of communicating our, hard to explain, requirements after our humble Spanish words fail us. We always do it with a smile and we always get a smile back.
We will have to now await further developments. Meanwhile our bedroom wall is now over two meters tall.
More about this together with wall pictures later.
Muchos later.
Our bedroom outside wall is up to the ceiling already (including window space and lintel). I have just spoken with our friend Allen (our tennis friends Mags and Allen) about a damp proof course and he has kindly re-assured us that in Spain, new builds do not have a damp proof course. Allen went on to tell me that in actual fact an all over synthetic membrane, here, could cause slippage problems over time with all the small earth tremors that they have (I think that I saw an article that said there was something like fifty small tremors every day but of course we don’t feel most of them) I can see that over a period of time a house could go sledging off down the rambla all on its own neoprene sledge. We have now decided we do not really want a damp proof course any more.
We are just settling down again after having five vehicles here at one time this afternoon. It’s gone mad.
We now have Carlos (a really nice guy), in the team, doing all the electrics, plus the kitchen and the bedroom wardrobe carpentry. I did ask if he was any good with a broom as well. He will be working here with us, on and off, for some time now. His English is very good and he has an English speaking secretary called Cristina (his spelling) which will be helpful.
The terrace and solarium tiles arrived this afternoon (all 750 of them). TG they sent the ones that we chose. By tonight nearly all of the east side walls of the house will be up. Muchos rapido, what?
Our bedroom outside wall is up to the ceiling already (including window space and lintel). I have just spoken with our friend Allen (our tennis friends Mags and Allen) about a damp proof course and he has kindly re-assured us that in Spain, new builds do not have a damp proof course. Allen went on to tell me that in actual fact an all over synthetic membrane, here, could cause slippage problems over time with all the small earth tremors that they have (I think that I saw an article that said there was something like fifty small tremors every day but of course we don’t feel most of them) I can see that over a period of time a house could go sledging off down the rambla all on its own neoprene sledge. We have now decided we do not really want a damp proof course any more.
We are just settling down again after having five vehicles here at one time this afternoon. It’s gone mad.
We now have Carlos (a really nice guy), in the team, doing all the electrics, plus the kitchen and the bedroom wardrobe carpentry. I did ask if he was any good with a broom as well. He will be working here with us, on and off, for some time now. His English is very good and he has an English speaking secretary called Cristina (his spelling) which will be helpful.
The terrace and solarium tiles arrived this afternoon (all 750 of them). TG they sent the ones that we chose. By tonight nearly all of the east side walls of the house will be up. Muchos rapido, what?
2 comments:
Paul,
Please explain what the space in the middle of the roof is for. A roof top pool perhaps?
Andrew
Hi Andrew. That area and the area to the right above the lounge veranda, pluds some of the southern back, will have balustrades along them so that we can see the views and what is going on, also to capture as much of the setting sun in the west as possible from the solarium. Does that answer your question yet?? Love to Janet and family.
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