work on the village house

February 2004
We are now the proud owners of an estufa (wood burning stove). Steve has just finished building a log store for it to stand on and should hopefully have it fitted by the weekend. In the meantime, I have started taking down outbuildings in the garden with a sledge hammer – very satisfying.

The Spanish is improving – in the understanding if not in the speaking and our skills at drawing diagrams of what we are trying to buy are getting 10/10 from the man from the local ferreteria (hardware store).

Most of our electricity problems were caused by trying to run appliances as well as two 2KW convector heaters at the same time. As the supply is currently 3.3KW for the whole house, the system does get rather stressed.

We decided to be bold and fit a wood burning stove (estufa) which would entail cutting through the living room ceiling and the roof for the flue pipe. The ceiling was no problem as it was only a couple of inches thick but the final cut through the roof was delayed because of bad weather. We didn't want the rain in the house and I didn't want to go on the roof in the wind and rain. Eventually, the rain stopped long enough for me to cut through, mount the flue stack and install enough mortar to reseal the roof and channel any rainwater away from the pipe and down the roof.

Whilst up on the roof and with ”height nervousness” temporarily banished, set about re fixing and replacing the loose and broken tiles on the accessible north side. I had noticed a slight damp patch in one of the rooms and although the tiles were mostly in position, adjusted some to cover the clay mortar and removed most of the accumulated moss and weeds which were probably causing leakage by “wick effect”. Subsequent to all of this we had some exciting hail and rain showers and we have no new leaks and the damp patch is receding.

The estufa properly installed, we now enjoy a warm house and look forward to the joy of trying to get the continuous supply of wood to feed it.

The cold weather has produced an unexpected problem with the bottled gas. Butane gas does not evaporate well when it is cold which can result in a tepid second shower. Another gas bottle and we simply swap the regulator after the first shower. When the weather warms up the problem should go away and eventually the bottles will be kept insulated in a utility store in any event.

So warm showers, warm house; now we can get on with the job of upgrading the rest of the house.

March 2004
The good news is that our Spanish bank has at last, relented on the excessive bank charges and we have received considerable refunds although they were still smiling when we left..

Wood Supplies - We initially could not get any firewood – we went up to the farm and scoured the land and managed to find enough to fill the boot of the car which Steve had to saw and chop up. Eventually, we managed to locate a supply of wood with the help of a local estate agent – we met Jesus the wood man and he followed us up to the farm and delivered his trailer full of mature logs into the garage. We put what we needed for the townhouse into our boot and then went back down to the bar to have a celebratory meal and buy Jesus (pronounced "Haysu") a drink. Jesus asked us why we took the route we did to the farm – was there another, we asked. The next time we took his route and cut 8 kilometres off the journey – our saving in petrol will probably pay for the wood over the next 6 months.

We decided to give priority to the ‘indoor’ bathroom – having finally located a reasonably priced bathroom suite (see shopping), we collected it from the shop (the sight of the bath on the roof rack of the Peugeot 106 made the jaw drop of the local population). Having put all the components in what is now the 2nd bedroom, it made us think of the weight now above the kitchen.

The kitchen ceiling has the original exposed beams (rafters) which certainly are large enough and in excellent condition, however, there were some cracks in the wall that the beams disappear into – we decided to investigate. WET ROT! – The cross beam which supported the others was all soft and not a lot of use – we immediately applied support to the beams and went shopping for the wood needed to replace the beam. We fabricated a new beam from several pieces of softwood and in best Scandinavian fashion, laminated them into an humongous“ship’s timber” affair, mistreated it with various implements to “age” it, treated it for fungus and insects, stained varnished it and cemented it in place within 2 days – washing up in the meantime was fun as the temporary supports were right in front of the sink! It also gave Steve his first experience of using Yeso to hold the beam in place before cementing.

I was working away in our little office (translating the telephone manual) and got gales of hysterical laughter from the kitchen – Yeso sets very quickly (hence it is called ‘rapido’) – he mixed it in the garden but by the time he had walked the 10ft to the kitchen it had set solid! – by the 3rd attempt, he had cracked it, however, we now know why most older Spanish properties have hand marks in the plaster from the panic of trying to get it up on the wall. (and they sell rubber buckets in the ferreteria so that you can easily extract the resulting plaster brick)

Now, back to the bathroom – we installed the loo – this entailed excavating outside to locate the drains (thought he was trying to get back to UK the hard way) – thankfully, the existing pipework was pvc and therefore plumbing into it was not too desperate, work has also begun on what is to be the log store, boiler cupboard and camouflage for the exterior plumbing. We now have an inside loo (which we still have to flush with a bucket), however, it is a vast improvement on braving the elements at the dead of night to go to our outside bathroom. I started to remove the paint from a beam in the bathroom, it took me all day and I only managed half a beam – we were trying to think how we could best tackle this (the current rate would have us still doing it next month) – Steve had a go at one of the other beams and it all just fell off! – he did all the beams in 2 days, then tried to finish off my beam and that took ages (so it wasn't just me).

During this time, it rained and it came in through the ceiling – next morning Steve got up on the roof, re-laid some of the tiles – following day, it rained all day non-stop, but only leaked in one place – after one more trip onto the roof, we now have no more leaks!! (mid-April and we still get the occasional “water test” on the roof, but still dry…)

We have agonized over the layout at the top of the stairs – the Spanish way is not to have a landing which is at room level, hence, you step out of a room and immediately drop down onto the first step. Apart from completely rebuilding the steps (which would have to have been even steeper) we could not see a way around it – the biggest problem as we saw it was the trip (literally) to the bathroom in the middle of the night. At last, we have cracked it – we have blocked the doorway to the bathroom at the top of the stairs and created a new doorway from the bedroom so it is now en-suite. This gave us our first experience of Yeso Lento (the slow stuff) – Steve did the brickwork and I did the first 2 coats of plastering and then ran out – the next day we went to the local builders merchant who only sold Yeso Retardo – this, we were assured was "the same" – well, it did not set as quickly as Yeso Rapido but boy did it set quickly – we ended up panicking and slapping it up with our hands – we now have a lovely rustic finish to match the rest of the wall. Steve has put in new lintels and cut a doorway into the bathroom and raised the doorway into the bedroom. I have treated, stained and varnished all the window frames which will hopefully be fitted within the next couple of days.

I searched the internet for info. on lemon trees, fig trees, almond trees and grape vines and Steve then pruned the lemon tree (we were having to fight with it every time we went up the garden). The grapevine had already been pruned but he has re-shaped it to make it more manageable.

We have our first booking for the house at the beginning of September which will give us more incentive to get moved to the Farm.

April 2004
To build a first floor bathroom with a shower enclosure in a small town house with tree trunks for floor joists requires lightweight materials. Weighing various blocks on bathroom scales enabled a calculation that much weight could be saved by using plasterboard on a stud wall. Question: who in southern Spain stocks plasterboard ?

All suppliers look at you a bit oddly when you seek "cartón-yeso" as it is a relatively new product for Spain and they saw no reason why I should need it. (why move the bathroom upstairs, or was it, why have a shower enclosure..) Some had heard of it being used in a town many kilometres away, others just shook their heads in wonderment at this strange English requirement for unsuitable building materials.

Eventually we found one overpriced sheet at a local builders merchant but a chance visit to a larger merchant at Lucena found "cartón-yeso" heaven although the huge size of the sheets meant some nifty measuring and cutting to fit it onto the car roof. (just like B&Q in the old days and much to the amusement of the building yard staff.)

July 2004
The bathroom looks absolutely great, we wanted it to look rustic and it does. This was not without considerable cost in terms of work. The wall tiles have many and various indentations to make them look like stone – I spent a whole day sitting in the shower with a blade picking out the grouting from these lovely rustic indentations. We wanted to keep the walls as original as possible (i.e. not a straight line to be had) – as you can imagine, laying tiles on a less than straight wall is tough going. Having opened a doorway from the bedroom, the floors are at different levels so we made a step in the bathroom which extends a good 2 feet inside so that there is not an immediate drop – this, of course, "he" had to have perfectly level which then showed up how much the rest of the floor sloped which he subsequently covered with a leveling layer of cement. This all added to the excitement of laying floor tiles.

Steve wanted to make the bathroom a bit different – well, he certainly managed that – he built a circular base for the wash basin out of cement which we think looks quite stunning. The plumbing was not without excitement – our local plumbers merchant are really excellent – when Steve had selected all his pipes and fittings, she refused money and said bring back what you don’t use and pay when you have finished. The exciting bit was that they do not supply what are called Yorkshire fittings (with the solder already in them). Having to go back in time to old technology did not sit well with Steve – if he does not import them for the next bathroom, I am going to at least make sure I am out of earshot. It is amazing how much you take it for granted popping into B&Q and buying a tub of tile cement or grout – not so here – you go to the builders merchant and buy a sack – it all has to be mixed and it takes ages and can get really messy. We decided we would like the walls a pale cream – I went to the paint shop, chose my colour from the chart – they mixed it and it came out pink! – they assured me that when on the wall it would look cream – it didn't– I took it back – they added some yellow – it at least looked cream in the pot – I put it on the wall – it was not so much pink now as a horrible flesh colour and rather than have a "bath womb" we’ve decided to use white

Having re-wired the bathroom, it seemed daft and possibly dangerous to connect new wiring to old so we did the rest of the house – this entailed much shopping for all the components and planning where to have lights, sockets and switches etc. We drilled up through the ceiling in the sitting room next to the wall – this came up about a foot into the room above – nothing lines up! We have also had to replace all our UK plugs with 2 pin Spanish ones and we now have proper lights instead of bulbs on the end of a bit of cable. We decided to be very un-Spanish and put in an earthing rod – having taken careful measurements to make sure where he channeled could not be near the water mains coming in, he went straight through the lead pipe with his chisel. Thankfully he had some wonderful stuff from the UK that enabled him to repair the pipe. There was no way that the old plumbing could be attached to the new plumbing so we had a ‘switch over day’. During that day, we had to plumb in new taps in the kitchen and move the boiler from outside the old bathroom to the new boiler house and wood store. This all went without a hitch, as did swapping from the old electrics to the new the previous day. We have put up netting at all the windows to keep the bugs out as we have them open most of the time now.

The new plumbing goes into the old bathroom in readiness for its new use as a utility room. The old bath etc had to be removed and this took longer than expected as the bath was set in concrete. Having got the bath out, we found lots of roots from the grape vine, as there seems to have been a permanent leak from one of the pipes that it has been feeding on. The brick piers for the utility sink have been built, so hopefully Monday should see the washing machine plumbed in.

The lemon tree has obviously liked its pruning and has produced loads of lemons which are currently still green – the grape vine has grown like crazy and we had to build a support to train it on – it is forming a wonderful shade canopy. There are many bunches of grapes forming – we have no idea when they are supposed to be ripe but by the looks of some of them, it should be within the next month.

September 2004
We missed the deadline for our first rental but as they are friends, they were very understanding....

April 2005
The Bedroom ceiling at its highest point is about 4 metres – this made varnishing the beams a job for Steve – I am not very good on ladders! – As the ceiling slopes, the structure to hold the ceiling fan (and ensure the blades missed the beams) looks to me something like part of a totem pole! – Very artistic! – Tiling the floor was a challenge – the floor was painted, sloped and was uneven – we bought some wonderful tile cement that took up the dips, however, it stayed fluid for a long time – this made keeping the tiles in the correct position a two handed job. The bedroom furniture was delivered part through December – this came in bits that were put together by chaps that came with it. The pegs that held the side supports of the bed were missing, so they had to go back to collect them, however, after 2 hours, we had our first civilized bedroom since February 2004. The following morning, I was sitting up in bed, Steve sat at the foot of the bed on my side and the whole thing collapsed! – They had missed out the cross bar to hold the side supports together – no harm done apart from the sudden shock of finding myself sitting on the floor – After we finished laughing, Steve decided it would take less time for him to make a couple of cross bars than go back to the shop and try to explain what was missing.

Taking the wall down at the side of the stairs created the worse mess of all the work done so far. The marble airport tiles came off the stairs and we leveled them (i.e. they now all have the same height riser) which takes out the hard work of going up stairs. The result has made it all worthwhile, it has opened up the hall and stairs and made it light and airy, enabled us to get furniture up into the bedroom and we have built in a desk where someone can sit, in the cool, overlooking the garden and catch up on paperwork. Ideal if someone wants to get away but still has work to do.

In the sitting room, all I had to do was scrape off the loose paint, remove the edge tiles, paint and re-tile (whilst Steve was doing the stairs and landing) – Well, off came the paint and it brought with it copious amounts of plaster, so we had to do a fair amount of re-plastering – I could not get behind the wood burner to paint so we decided to dismantle it and tile behind (making it unnecessary to paint ever again) – this we did and it looked great. Whilst removing the edge tiles, the chisel disappeared into the wall – I had discovered an old fireplace – this we opened up and have turned into a feature where the TV and DVD now sit – it did mean that we had to continue the wood store and hearth around the corner to make it look right. We then painted the walls and put up some Spanish style tiles along the wall where the dining table is. We removed the step down into the sitting room and made it into two so that we did not have such an enormous drop. By this time, it had started to get cold so we lit the wood burner – the tiles behind promptly started to fall off because they got hot and expanded at a different rate to the plaster behind. So we took the wood burner apart, yet again, chopped the legs off, built it into the corner, re-plastered, tiled and painted around it again!

The kitchen sink was set into a solid structure that took up the corner of the kitchen (a waste of space) – so we set about demolishing it so that we could replace it with a sink with cupboard space under – then we found the mountain! The previous builders had simply bricked in a boulder, however, as the rear corner of the house seemed to be supported by it, we left it where it was. The plumbing under the sink ended some distance from the sewer pipe – we now think the damp problem under the stairs will go away! In the corner of the kitchen was a raised platform. We broke this up to level the floor only to find – yes – another boulder – this one lost out to the breaker drill and we now have a level floor. We set some drawers into the space under the stairs with a wine rack above. The existing, built in cupboard was deep although the doors were tiny – we took the doors off, rebuilt and tiled all the shelves and made a curtain to go in front. We put in a circular sink and decided it would be easier to mosaic around this area (wrong) we will not be working with mosaics again unless no cutting is involved. Spanish mosaics are mostly glass, not ceramic – not easy to work with. We now have a brick built double unit with a marble top replacing the old wooden table. Steve and I tiled 2 walls floor to ceiling, scrapped the old lime wash off the beams and repainted them and put up some new lights. The hole in the wall in the kitchen was increased and replaced with a new sliding window that Steve made which, combined with the new fresh décor has made the kitchen light and airy. We now have a rustic looking but very practical kitchen.

Steve made new windows with shutters for the bedroom and sitting room. He made a neat design on the shutters in the bedroom by making a diamond and framing it and gluing it to the plain door – he did 3 diamonds on each shutter, inside and out. This made 12 in all and turned out to be very time consuming – the design on the sitting room shutters is much simpler but just as attractive. We had the new back door made to a basic design which Steve dressed with panels, studs and rejas (ornate iron bars). The old back door was responsible for all the scars on Steve’s head – there was a step up as soon as you opened the door. We decided to give a little more height to the doorway by exposing the supporting beam – just as well, it was rotten and had to be replaced. At last, Steve was able to chop out the step, the plan being to be able to step straight out. He soon discovered why the step was there, the sewage pipe was a foot above the back door threshold. We had to dig down, reset all the drain pipes down a foot, rebuild the back step all the way over to the wood store and boiler cupboard and we at last got our back door with no more headaches.

It is great to have a fully working utility room – all mod cons – wonderful traditional Spanish sink with washboard, washing machine and space for all the cleaning stuff and the ironing board. It is so nice that I can now drop wet washing and not have to re-wash it!

We broke up some of the old steps leading up from the back door and were going to completely rebuild them. We found yet more boulders, except most of these really meant business (obviously been part of the mountain for a long time). Having broken one breaker drill, we decided to work, where possible with the boulders. We have really achieved some good results. We now have steps with even risers, the slippery tiles are gone and are replaced by a warm sand cement finish with rustic tiles set in to form a pattern. We have a level area outside the utility room with yet more artistry in the form of a diamond of stones set into the cement. We used the rubble from the stairs wall we removed to increase the size of the middle patio under the grape vine. This is now large enough for a good size round glass table and four cane chairs. We have planted bedding plants around the bottom of the grape vine and lemon trees – we have at loads of Spanish pots with lavender, rosemary, geraniums etc all around the garden. We repaired and painted the back wall of the house and all the garden walls, which we have decorated with wall plates. We have lighting, although currently it stays light until well after nine o’clock. The patio has now become a wonderful extension of the house.

May 2005
The Ruté house is now finished inside and the outside steps and patio are complete. We rushed to finish it all in time for our first guests (a couple who bought the week’s accommodation that we donated to charity) and had to remove all of our possessions and replace them with the “rental” equipment. This insane period of hyper-activity served to confirm to us that we will not be letting the Ruté house again until we have finished our own accommodation at the farm and moved into it.

We have christened the Ruté house “Casa Luisa” (“Luisa’s House”) after the lady from whom we bought it although we won’t be letting her know until we have the new title deeds safely in our possession as we don’t want any misunderstandings about it’s ownership.

Casa Luisa would now be available for rental from the beginning of 2006, over a year behind our original schedule.

Wendy has to complete the staining and varnishing of various pieces of furniture that we have bought for the house and I have to turn the existing drab, front door into a "masterpiece" of the carpenter’s art. We then only have to finish the plastering and painting of the utility room, repair and paint the outside of the house, convert the old outside kitchen into a sun terrace and finish the garden.

July 2005
The front door has now been clad with rustic looking timber, stained to walnut and fitted with studs. It is now the only door in the street that looks traditionally Andalusian although it retains it's steel frame which will prevent it bowing in the dry heat or damp cold. It has also been clad on the inside making a particularly thick barrier to temperature and the efforts of our neighbours to let us know exactly what they are saying at full volume. In very "un-Spanish" fashion, it boasts draught proofing as well as a weatherboard at the bottom to deflect the rain away from the sitting room floor where it has ended up for the last hundred years or so.

The outside of the house was repaired and painted in the early mornings before the sun tried to bake the painter and the wiring that runs across the front of most town houses was tidied up and blended into the painting scheme. Not without incident, this involved grasping all of the untidy wiring with badly insulated ends poking out, re-insulating (live cables) and then straightening everything to make it look pretty. All went to plan until I realised that the original town wiring which had been replaced with new some years ago, was still in place. This particular realisation manifested itself in the form of a single phase of 110 volts traveling along my arm and then to ground through the aluminium ladder. I did the rest of the work with insulated pliers and a wary respect for the ancient wiring.

One of the benefits of this episode was that the toaster, which had always ambled on it's way to do what it was designed for, now provides toast in half the time..

Casa Luisa finished