Tuesday 22-5-2007
It’s our 42nd wedding anniversary today, what an exciting journey, so far. Mind you it was Elayne that reminded me about it on the way back from Albox this morning.
One plumber has been here all day today, he has fitted all the CH radiators, the bathroom sinks and toilets and the bath. At four o’clock on the dot two concrete lorries arrived and tipped. Four builders then spent over an hour persuading the concrete to lay evenly with rakes and shovels and mattocks, a real hand ball type of job. They failed to get a billiard table finish so we’ll have to probably put some light gravel over the top. The concrete however has made a very good base for the drive that will not erode with heavy rain. It will take yet at least another lorry load to complete the job (a slight bit of under estimating we think, or they have not thinned it out enough. The garage and utility room foundations are down so perhaps the utility room will get built quite quickly.
I managed to get on the internet and the blog today so I have managed to load up seven days worth of blog and some pictures. I was just breathing a sigh of relief at being back on line and then about half past five it went off again.
We had our paragliding friends, Steve and Trudy round to see us this afternoon. Trudy has been on a herbalist holiday down near Orgiva (near where Chris Stewart lives and writes his books). Steve has been back to England to see his family. They brought us an aerial picture of the house that we had ordered. It was taken about six weeks ago when the window rejas were first being installed. It will make a fascinating historical document. We have asked Steve to come over again once we get in and a little established. Trudy is going to come down soon and show us some of the herbal plants on our land.
We are just off dancing (only two more to go) and then for a pint and a game of cards at Lentisco’s with our friends.
Wednesday 23-5-2007
It’s cloudy, cool and has been raining overnight. There was a stiff breeze as we went to bed but it must have calmed down again as it did not disturb our sleep. Elayne said that she was woken (although I was not, but that’s not unusual) by hail rattling on the caravan roof.
The plumber finished all his work on the two bathrooms and fitting the CH radiators yesterday evening. We just have one young man on site so far today finishing the tiling around the bath in the family bathroom. He is doing a terrific job, it is all very neat. Unlike the concrete on the drive, which has been laid so badly that I am going to tell Dario that it is not acceptable at all, I could have made a smoother finish to it than how they have left it. We are not forking out loads of extra cash to have the poor quality of the drive spoiling the house.
Later: Dario and Jose came upto site with another builder. I was able to tell them that the concrete is awful. They say that they will now hand ball cement with the cement mixer and cover the entire area with smooth cement. What a waste of time and energy when they could have done the job properly in the first place. The two builders are now building the utility room on the base that they laid yesterday. Dario indicated that perhaps Carlos would arrive on Monday with the wardrobe doors. Not sure when the kitchen will arrive. The sooner the better from our point of view.
Interestingly, Dario still seems keen on buying the caravan. We have given him the telephone number of Juan that moved the caravan for us to see if he will do the same for Dario.
It’s our 42nd wedding anniversary today, what an exciting journey, so far. Mind you it was Elayne that reminded me about it on the way back from Albox this morning.
One plumber has been here all day today, he has fitted all the CH radiators, the bathroom sinks and toilets and the bath. At four o’clock on the dot two concrete lorries arrived and tipped. Four builders then spent over an hour persuading the concrete to lay evenly with rakes and shovels and mattocks, a real hand ball type of job. They failed to get a billiard table finish so we’ll have to probably put some light gravel over the top. The concrete however has made a very good base for the drive that will not erode with heavy rain. It will take yet at least another lorry load to complete the job (a slight bit of under estimating we think, or they have not thinned it out enough. The garage and utility room foundations are down so perhaps the utility room will get built quite quickly.
I managed to get on the internet and the blog today so I have managed to load up seven days worth of blog and some pictures. I was just breathing a sigh of relief at being back on line and then about half past five it went off again.
We had our paragliding friends, Steve and Trudy round to see us this afternoon. Trudy has been on a herbalist holiday down near Orgiva (near where Chris Stewart lives and writes his books). Steve has been back to England to see his family. They brought us an aerial picture of the house that we had ordered. It was taken about six weeks ago when the window rejas were first being installed. It will make a fascinating historical document. We have asked Steve to come over again once we get in and a little established. Trudy is going to come down soon and show us some of the herbal plants on our land.
We are just off dancing (only two more to go) and then for a pint and a game of cards at Lentisco’s with our friends.
Wednesday 23-5-2007
It’s cloudy, cool and has been raining overnight. There was a stiff breeze as we went to bed but it must have calmed down again as it did not disturb our sleep. Elayne said that she was woken (although I was not, but that’s not unusual) by hail rattling on the caravan roof.
The plumber finished all his work on the two bathrooms and fitting the CH radiators yesterday evening. We just have one young man on site so far today finishing the tiling around the bath in the family bathroom. He is doing a terrific job, it is all very neat. Unlike the concrete on the drive, which has been laid so badly that I am going to tell Dario that it is not acceptable at all, I could have made a smoother finish to it than how they have left it. We are not forking out loads of extra cash to have the poor quality of the drive spoiling the house.
Later: Dario and Jose came upto site with another builder. I was able to tell them that the concrete is awful. They say that they will now hand ball cement with the cement mixer and cover the entire area with smooth cement. What a waste of time and energy when they could have done the job properly in the first place. The two builders are now building the utility room on the base that they laid yesterday. Dario indicated that perhaps Carlos would arrive on Monday with the wardrobe doors. Not sure when the kitchen will arrive. The sooner the better from our point of view.
Interestingly, Dario still seems keen on buying the caravan. We have given him the telephone number of Juan that moved the caravan for us to see if he will do the same for Dario.
No comments:
Post a Comment