Two Weeks Work

Well after two weeks solid work this is what we have ended up with, and it is nothing short of a miracle, that this amount of work has been done.

We still have a lot of work to do in the main cave, but it was impossible to do whilst our team of builders were living and working there. We are going to concentrate of the re wiring and finishing inside the cave, and also getting the new kitchen up and running.

The cave lounge has to be left for a while so that the structural work can be completed, and the yeso has a chance to dry out.

This is more or less the completed picture so far, there is an awful lot more work to do, but we have the kitchen to a stage where we can finish it.

This is an inside view of the additional bedrooms, we are having one very large bedroom and a smaller guest room, with a corridor leading to the cave bathroom and cave lounge. I am not sure that the pictures really give a clear idea of size, but trust me the whole structure is massive.

This is the kitchen roof going on and I am pleased with the tiles we picked. We did not want something that stuck out like a sore thumb, we wanted the new builds to be as unobtrusive as possible. I think that once we have the chino on the whole building which will be white at the top and beige to the base, then it will all blend very nicely with the surrounding properties and the mountain side.

This is my team of builders who are clearly very please with what they achieved in two weeks. I think they have every right to be smiling as they have done a first rate job. Well done lads !

This is him indoors with the Team Leader Mike. Him indoors usually stands upright but I think that this is the best he could manage after a week labouring for the lads. Although that said he may chose to adopt this position to fall in with the stereotypical image that some people have of cave dwellers…….Ug!

This is ‘Mike and the Mechanics’ on their way home to Murcia, having a well deserved beer on the way.

They have just told us that because they did not manage to get the tiles on the apartment they are coming back in two weeks to help us finish the project. What stars !!!!

Next post is Him Indoors and his last night singing at Franky’s. He has sung there for the last 5 years so this is a bit of an occasion, a little sad as it is the end of an era, but time stands still for no man. We have had some very happy times at Franky’s and he has, over the years become a good friend. Some of the photos on the next post may appear out of focus, this will probably be due to operator error.

The Builders Leave

Ok this is the traumatic part, today our building team leave as they are required on another job, we knew this and they knew this when they started, but all the same it is a shame that they could not be with us to complete. However we are truly grateful to them not only for the very hard work they have put in, but also for their kindness, their ability to retain a sense of humour even when they are exhausted, for putting in more hours than was asked or expected, and lastly for being such a great bunch of lads, who we hold in very high regard.

Today and Thursday this great bunch of lads got up much earlier than normal, (the fact that I cooked them an Indian meal the night before may have some bearing on this) and they had the cement mixer going before I had even had chance to focus. They were determined to try and get certain jobs finished before they left…..Bless!

I believe today they managed to complete all the doors and windows and window ledges and also put the tiles on the kitchen roof. I have not been able to be there today, but I have had a call to say they have worked very hard and completed more than we expected.

On Wednesday or was it Tuesday god knows I cannot remember, we had another Yeso fest. Now unless you have done this you will have no idea what it is all about, but I reckon given the right conditions it would be more of a crowd puller than mud wrestling.

We had two caves rooms that were in a totally natural state, and contrary to some very misguided opinions this is not a dank, dark slimy place with snot hanging from the ceiling……yes you know who you are !!!!

The idea is that you seal the rock with a fairly liquid solution of yeso and then build upon this in layers of thicker yeso. This should form a nice solid crust which if you like takes on the contours of the rock, but in a softer way. One of the rooms has quite a high ceiling and trying to get the yeso up there was hilarious to say the least. Of the three of us only one was tall enough or strong enough to launch the yeso to that height. Now if you consider the technique involved you will understand why, a great deal of yeso actually missed the walls and ceilings and hit us instead.

The technique is a kind of flicking motion with the yeso and it seems the closer you stand the more you wear, however I did later find that I could flick yeso standing very close but using little force, and did not wear that much. I think this is all about finding a happy medium.

We initially started without goggles and head gear, now I am sure I said on this blog that they were a must…..what was I thinking. Having got a dollop in each eye at the same time, goggles were sought and then towels for our hair. We still managed to cover ourselves and each other; end game the room was pretty much covered. We had to leave it at that as the floor had now become like a skating rink and we were walking out of there in shoes that felt like stilts.

I would like to say a very special thank you CR and Mrs CR, you are stars, there are not many people who I know who would have given up their time and energy to work so hard for mates, and get so filthy, and still have a giggle along the way. Your help was very much appreciated, (as was the beer) and I hope you had as much fun as I did :-)

Well not much more to say until I get the new photos which I will post next

Building Starts

Right I know this dog really has not got anything to with my blog, building work or renovating a cave, but he was a constant visitor, whilst we were working. He is a timid little chap but as cute as a box of monkeys and not backwards in coming forwards when it came to begging for food. I am sure he has a wonderful home somewhere with one of our neighbours but I was quite taken with him. I have been warned by 'him indoors' that I may not have another dog and more especially I may not have him. I will not sulk, I will just pout for a while.

I was not on site during the initial building phase as I was needed back at home for various reasons, one being work, but we have a very good pictorial account of how work progressed.

Tiles are a big consideration both inside and outside, and I have spent much of this weekend looking at tiles for the various new rooms and some of the existing rooms. The tile in the photograph, I picked out about a month ago for the outside area/terrace, they are non slip and I felt looked quite rustic but very decorative, and in keeping with the natural colours of the surrounding mountain.

Inside tiles had to be picked for the new kitchen and bedrooms and also for the main bathroom. We decided to keep the colours pretty neutral, but trying to keep a warm feeling as there is a lot of white in the cave and house. The kitchen tiles are a warm orange/terracotta with a black/brown fleck in them. The bedroom tiles are slightly lighter and a little more plain, the colour on the tiles is variegated. We picked some mosaic type tiles for the top half of the main bathroom in a warm beige, and for the lower half some small brick type tiles with 6 different coloured bricks to each tile from a pale blonde to a deep terracotta. The second bathroom is truly cave with very rustic walls so I think I am going to take some advice on tiling this room, from someone who knows better.

Window ledges were not something we actually thought about, not sure why, but one of our friends who has been instrumental with the building work, asked what we were doing and suggested marble. I quickly rejected that suggestion as 1) Marble would be very expensive. 2) It did not think that it was in keeping with the cave house. We have opted for a creamy/yellow tile for both the window ledges and also the door steps. This should blend nicely with the very pale beige/cream roof tiles which I feel will blend perfectly with the mountainside above.

We have now found and bought two very plain doors for the kitchen and also for the doorway that will lead from the other restored caves onto the terrace. They needed to be plain and cheap and we have decided that we will daffy them up and stain them so that they blend with the rest of the existing property. Windows had to be wooden and as both the front door and the bar window have internal shutters, we decided that they looked nice and bought the windows to match, again trying to keep everything as much like the existing property as possible.

Footings dug the lads started to put the steel in place and awaited the cement lorry. Work proceeded at some pace, and on the second day, the first line of blocks, were in place. A lot of investigative work needed to be done and one of the most important was to work out the existing water pipe layout, and sewerage. It is a well known fact that certain waste does not run uphill, and to make the mistake in thinking that it does, can be costly and with very unpleasant consequences. Bearing that in mind the drop for the new bathroom was more than crucial. Him indoors and myself, spent a lot of time trying to work out how we were going to achieve this given the current layout, and the best we could come up was putting the toilet on a pedestal and just climbing up to it. Nope that was never going to work……. We are very lucky that our friend worked all of this out for us and plumbing is clearly one of his fortes.

Considering this was the second day the lads were evidently working very hard, but as the footings were still quite weak, there were only so many blocks that could be laid in that day.

The next consideration was moving the water meter as its current location directly where we are building the new kitchen, neither ideal nor I believe allowed. I understand they have to be on an outside wall. Again this was a job for ‘super plumber mate’, this was a task that he found simple, it had baffled the hell out of us. The meter was re-sited on the outside wall of the kitchen.

The next day more blocks were laid and considerations were made for the windows and doors. By the end of day three the vigas were in place for the doors and the windows, and all the plumbing work was in place as was the electric cabling for the kitchen and the bedrooms. Pretty amazing work considering the time scale.

All the doorways were being built from the new bedrooms into the cave rooms. Due to the location of the cave bathroom, we had to make sure that we could have access from both bedrooms and from the cave lounge. I have not quite got my head round curtains instead of doors, and did not much fancy sitting on the throne with just a curtain wafting between me and my privacy. It was decided that a small corridor would have to be built with doors leading from the main bedroom.

The cave lounge has a very high ceiling and the front part of this had to be supported, so this weekend the block work will be constructed internally in readiness for a viga to make sure the weakest part is supported. Also this week some very good friends, and experts in this field are coming to help us and show us how to actually use the yeso correctly. I am sure I will be completely useless as my last attempt with yeso was hardly a success, I just hope they do not laugh at me too much.

The pictures above show all of the new plumbing work that was done for the new cave bathroom. There is still some considerable work to be done on this room, but we are taking the bath from the original bathroom and putting it in the cave bathroom where we will install the shower above it. We acquired a lovely hand basin with vanity unit from my brother in law free of charge, which is the best ever price, and I managed to source a toilet from our local Rastro for €15 so I was well chuffed with that. The toilet is now sitting out in my courtyard ready for transportation, having been cleaned within an inch of its life.

Many other smaller jobs have also been completed and this next week the rush is on to get the floors in, and roof on both the kitchen and the bedrooms. We think that we will be able to complete the external rooms before the end of the week. Well truth be known, we have to as our builders will be gone by the weekend, as they are required on another job! We think that we will be able to finish this once it has got to this stage. It was the main building work that we really needed the help and expertise with.

Next entry will detail the final building work externally, and probably what chaos we numpteys, manage to cause with the rest of the work once the professionals have left us to it!!!!!!!

Work On The Cave House Begins

It feels like and eternity since we got the keys for the cave house, and at one point we thought that work was never going to start. We had planned everything to the enth degree but with hindsight, nothing ever goes entirely to plan so many of the plans we had to start with had to be modified or scrapped completely.

The first work that needed to be done was upgrading the electrics, they were in a very sorry state and certainly would not be adequate for normal family use. An electrician was employed and he fitted a fuse box and meter. If he ever comes back we would like to pay him !!!! The next very important job was to replace the ageing gas boiler which had been situated in the entrance hall and without any ventilation. Not only illegal, but also very dangerous. We fitted a large electric boiler and whilst a little pricey to run, there would always be a guarantee of hot water.

We spent a week sorting out the internal electrics, fitting new sockets and light switches, and then digging out various little alcoves that had remained hidden. This was quite a task as in some of the rooms our large wheelbarrow would not go through the door, so a great deal of it had to be loaded into the large black builder’s buckets and carried to the wheelbarrow. I have to confess that week I was entirely convinced that I was going to die of backache and I spent the following week shuffling around like a hobbit.

One fun job, oh boy was it fun, was applying Yeso to one of the cupboards/alcoves we had exposed. Now a very good friend and avid reader of this blog, provided details on his own blog about yeso and how to mix it. This has more or less become a bible, as without it I would have had many bucket shaped doorstops. The only thing that was omitted from these wonderful instructions, was an idiots guide as to how to apply it. Now whilst this might seem obvious to a casual reader, those who have done any cave renovation will know that there is a technique involved, and clearly I had not found it.

I was told, but by whom, god knows, that the flicking technique was the best for the type of work that I was going to be doing, one would have thought that ‘flicking’ could only mean one thing. How wrong can you be!

I did manage to get the yeso onto the very rough walls but found that this had to be done very, very quickly or the yeso would start to stiffen, which more than once caused me to panic and dive in with my hands to try and cram as much of this yeso into the nooks as I could before it became unworkable.

I can offer some handy tips on the application of yeso but as yet, not the technique, I await expert instruction this week.

My top tips for applying yeso are as follows:

Body armour has to be the ultimate in protection, but failing that extreme then a good boiler suit or some nasty clothes that you would not even want to be buried in would suffice.

Goggles, and absolute must, I can tell you from experience when you flick the yeso it tends to flick back and is not too fussy about which orifice it lands in. Eyes seem to be a favourite target and let me tell you that is about as nasty as being poked in the eye with a sharp stick. Mouth seems another desired target and whist this does not actually hurt, this yeso is never going to be edible. Nose, another target which does actually cause pain, not at the time but later, like when it has set. I found myself in the bath that evening, and having submerged myself under the water to try and remove the yeso from my hair (more on that in a minute). I held my nose as I was coming back out of the water only to find that I had in fact yeso’d the inside of my nose. Stunning trick but not wholly recommended unless you are very weird and like to see what the inside of your nose looks like……..yew !

Face mask for all of the above reasons.

Head covering. If you are a bloke I would suggest a head shave, this had to be a lot easier than trying to cover it. Women if you can hack it do the same, if not make sure there is not a strand of hair showing, if there is the yeso will find it. No brush on this planet with remove it, just patience and a strong pair of nails, or in extreme case a hairdresser.

Footwear, whilst not actually critical to the application of yeso, if you do happen to stand in the wet stuff like I did, it is very important that you can remove it quickly and that the treads in the footwear are not too deep. Ignoring all of the above will result in the purchase of new footwear.

I know it sounds as though I am a little obsessed with yeso , but one has to try and work with it to understand that it is rather like some alien being which has a mind of it’s own and there is no predictable outcome. Let me just finish with the yeso thing by saying I now have a very healthy respect for it, however it continues to abuse me and treat me like a bitch. I have started therapy and refuse to let the yeso demonise me.

The next big task involved bringing in the big boys, the demolition of the animal pens and the garden. My only one regret was that I was not able to save the almond and the olive tree, but the digger driver said that at this time of the year it would have been impossible. Digger driver turned up early on the Monday morning and after a short conversation began work. In five hours both the garden and the animal sheds were gone and the front of the unreformed caves had been made straight, in readiness for the building work. Now the digger driver was to return the next day with his bobcat to start digging a tunnel from our soon to be pantry and off this tunnel he was going to dig another two rooms.

Now remember when I said that we had planned all of this to the enth degree, but sometimes things had to be changed or modified or tossed onto the scrap heap of ideas? Well this was one such situation. The digger driver did not appear the next day so we plodded on with the re wiring of the cave and other such things. Toward the end of that day we asked our very good friend and Spanish speaker if she would give him a ring and find out what was happening. It turned out that he had broken his bobcat and would not be able to do anything until the following week. This was not good news as we had the builders arriving the following Monday and the footings still had to be dug or they could not even start work. Bearing in mind that I had a team of 3 workers who had been spirited away from the Murcia region and were being paid by the day irrespective of whether they worked or not. Head scratchy time. In the end the digger driver did turn up Monday afternoon and dug the footings, he also dug up a waste pipe from the existing kitchen, despite being shown where it was. I guess this has to be one of the hazards.

So we were ready to start the building work….whoo hoo!

The above picture has nothing at all to do with any of the building work this was just me posing for the camera and trying to make it look like I was doing something constructive. The big giveaway is the plug for this wonderous power tool being in my pocket

Next up, what the builders did.

Telefonica The Final Frontier

Sorry about the delay in between the posts but life has been a bit hectic

Just as I was starting to get into full venom with regard to Telefonica, they go and pull the rug out from under me. I hope that they realise I am now having to seriously reconsider my position, and the remarks that I have made about them. Whilst they have all been a true account of their dealings with me in the past, I have to say my more recent dealings with them have been more on the astonishing side.

I did finally purchase a cave house in Andalucia and the process was pretty painless although a little more drawn out than I had hoped, but that was more on my side than theirs. I decided to investigate the possibility of getting the phone line reconnected and in turn investigate the possibility of ADSL. I did think my chances were slim, a case of Bob Hope to No Hope. My first call to them went very well and they were more than accommodating but having dealt with them in the past I knew fine well not to trust what they were saying to me, or at least not take it on face value. I had asked if we could have the line reconnected to which they said “Yes no problem”, I did the usual, checking postal address etc but they insisted that this would not be a problem. I then enquired if it would be possible to have one of my lines transferred rather than a new installation and also asked what difference there would be in cost. Again they told me that this would not be a problem and when would I like it done. I told them that we had not actually signed for the house but would let them know as soon as possible.

As you can see I am on a roll here and thought in for a penny what harm will it do to order ADSL? With new found confidence I went for it and asked them if I could have ADSL, there was a moment’s pause and I got a strong YES. Well this answer required a seat and a sturdy one at that. I was not going to be lulled into a false sense of security here and asked them to check and double check, which in all fairness they did and said that there would be no problem at all and it would take between 10 and 20 days.

Previous experience has taught me not to trust a word that they say over the phone, and it is my firm belief that you will normally only get the truth from one of their representatives if you have them grasped delicately by the throat, whilst wearing a menacing look. This representative was not deterred by the constant questions and by now maniacal laughter that was starting to get the better of me. She continued to tell me the cost of the installation and asked if I wanted a router etc, and continued to tell me about free calls from landline to landline in Spain. This was all too much for me and I abruptly ended the call and poured a stiff drink.

Now this is where you all think that this little telefonica dream is going to go pear shaped…………….you guessed it…………………….totally wrong!!!!!!!

I signed for the house a month or so later but in the meanwhile I had constant calls from a lovely telefonica engineer, yes I know I said “lovely” and “telefonica” all in the same sentence, just bear with me. Now this lovely telefonica engineer wanted very badly to install my phone in the new house and no matter how many times I told him he just did not seem to comprehend that I really could not do that until I actually owned the house which would require me signing at the notary. This carried on for some weeks, and was very entertaining. Just in case you think that this is the new and improved telefonica they did at one point revert to form.

One day I was sitting there doing my usual work on the computer and then suddenly the line dropped, I did my usual swore at the phone and then at the computer and dialled the connection again. I then realised that this day was not going to be a good one, no dial tone. I then tried the other line which is our normal phone line the same, no dial tone. Eventually having driven to get a signal on our mobile we managed to contact telefonica who gleefully told us that they had done as we had instructed and transferred the line to our new house. I tried to explain that we did not have the phone installed yet at the new house so how could that be? Yep the phone went down. I spent another hour or so trying to get back to them and this time they told me they had transferred it in readiness for our move. No amount of explaining to them that this was my internet data line that they had transferred, which I still really needed, seemed to make any impression. They finally accepted that maybe they had acted a little prematurely and said that they would have it reconnected. Naturally I asked when would that be, to which they replied 5 working days. I took that one on the chin and asked why the other line had also gone down. Phone went down again.

I decided that I would phone them the next day as I had a telefonica headache developing and I did not want it to get any worse. Next day I phoned again with renewed strength and confidence God knows why! They now told me that both lines had been disconnected as I had not paid my last bill. Ok what last bill?? Now you have to understand that telefonica billing system works purely on telepathy, they intend to send you a bill and you use your telepathic skills to sense when that might be and also the amount. Pretty neat stuff, even more so if it worked. I have just got to accept that I have not sufficiently honed my telepathic skills as there is no way in hell I saw that one coming. When all details of the telepathic bill were given to us we raced to the bank and paid it, problem sorted…………..nope. Five working days if that is ok with you Mrs Johnny brit customer. Eventually one of the lines came back and we decided rather than confuse them or ourselves further we would just leave it at that. Then strangely when we had just come to terms with the fact that we had actually lost one of our lines the dead phone rang. There was a look that went around the room which clearly said “what the hell is that noise coming from that dead phone”, yep it was ringing, and eventually someone came out of their stupid head trance and answered it. There was another brit on the other end of the line asking for someone that we did not know and had never heard of!! We finally sussed that telefonica had indeed allocated us another line but failed to tell us about it, we phoned one of our mobile numbers to find out what the number was and noted it. Now at this juncture I should tell you that I have since had a bill which was for both of the old numbers the disconnected number showed no charge at all and the data line for the internet showed only the tarifa planna that we have for the internet and the line rental nothing more. I am just hoping that the poor soul whose number we clearly have does not incur the costs associated with the calls we have made on that phone.

Ok back to the real story although the digression was quite amusing. In the midst of all this telephone confusion I still have the engineer phoning me now on a daily basis, we are now on first name terms and getting to the point where his family are going to ask us over for dinner. Back to the notary in Baza where we have gone to sign for the house, well that all went well and we were greeted at the new house by some good friends we have made there sporting bottles of champagne. Ten minutes after we arrived Jose the telefonica engineer arrived to say we were all gob smacked was an understatement. He took about 20 mins to install the phone. The Adsl router arrived about a week ago and I will know in the morning if the ADSL is finally activated. Now that is somewhat of a result, and we are still reeling from the shock.

My next post will be about the new cave house, the joys of yeso, water pipes and how sewerage does not go uphill !