Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum

Calis Beach Forum => CBF Member Blogs => Topic started by: JohnF on August 30, 2017, 10:34:17 AM

Title: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on August 30, 2017, 10:34:17 AM
After many months of discussion (and research) between ourselves, with input from friends and family, it was decided that we were going to buy something in Spain that was pretty much moveable into straight away.

Several reasons for that decision, the main being that its just simply easier!  Lesser reasons such as all the hassle involved doing a refurb, my dodgy athritic hip and the fact we've refurbed so many Victorian and Georgian properties over the years that its really not fun anymore.

So, off to Jerez and within three days at the beginning of July we sorted out our bank account, our NIE number, a nice rental flat and put a deposit down on a 400m2 traditional Jerezana neighbourhood house.  In need of some work.  Well, being truthful, in need of a lot of work.

But you know, when you look at property sometimes a place has that 'feel'.  You know its a good fit for you, despite the fact its structurally and cosmetically on its knees.  We've been here before many times and always trusted our gut  when it comes to property - so far instinct (coupled with common sense) hasn't let us down.

I think most folks knew that buying a property requiring minimal work just isn't us - and the reaction from our girls when they seen the pics was positive.

So... fast forward a few weeks and we're now resident in Jerez.

Drove from Dundee over four days via London, Poitiers and Burgos.  Two thousand miles or so and our battered old CMax didnt miss a beat. 

London was great as we managed to catch up with frinds we hadn't seen for months, Poitiers was a bit of a dump (at least the area we stayed in) but Burgos was a pleasant surprise.  Beuatiful city with friendly locals and the food and drink was excellent.  Prices similar to Jerez, e.g. €1 or so for a beer, €2/2.5 for a generously sized tapa.

The French and Spanish motorways are a dream to drive on - rarely busy and once into Spain, the services have cheap diesel, good coffee and the quality of food puts the UK services to shame. Paid a total of about €120 in tolls, well worth it for the rapid progress you can make as opposed to the free roads which are pretty congested.

Got the air con re-gassed before we left and that turned out to be an extremely sensible decision.  The temperatures in central Spain during our run were crazy, high thirties/low forties all the way. 

Luckily it was a dry heat, unlike the sweaty humid heat of Istanbul in summer so aclimatising came fairly easily. 

Home for now is a 77m2 two bed rental apartment, with two good sized bathrooms and three terraces.  Unforunately the three terraces are all internal so the view is reminiscent of nineteen seventies Moscow.  Its not a biggie though, we'll be getting the keys for our house in a week or so and wont have too much time to laze about a terrace.

I've said it before, but dealing with officialdom in Spain is so similar to Turkey it's uncanny.  We were all geared up for a specific date to get the keys and then sorry, the Notar is on holiday it'll have to be week after.

Bugger.

Burası España!

More when I can.

JF



Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: marina on August 30, 2017, 11:04:21 AM
Good luck with your venture John. We still love Spain, especially the older traditional areas, of which there are still many about.
Look forward to your next instalment   :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mary62 on August 30, 2017, 11:22:52 AM
Wow John. I can almost picture your place. Good luck to you and yours. You will keep posting on CBF ...won't you?
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mercury on August 30, 2017, 12:39:22 PM
Good luck in Spain.. Be happy but don't forget us on here.. Especially us sitting in the rain most days... Xx
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on August 30, 2017, 13:08:17 PM
Sounds like its all coming together nicely..cant wait for pics.



Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Colwyn on August 30, 2017, 14:17:27 PM
All the best in Spain. With the £ being so weedy and the € being so muscular hope you've got a good stake - I'm sure you have.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Laura B on August 30, 2017, 15:24:16 PM
It's great to read what you're up to.  Do keep us informed and enjoy your days.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Stuart T on August 30, 2017, 15:26:33 PM
Fascinating John - please keep us informed.

Best wishes for a bright future.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on August 31, 2017, 09:49:15 AM
Thanks folks.

Yeah I'll still be around, can't manage to break the Turkish connection as still doing consultancy work in Istanbul.  How long for I don't know as they can't seem to grasp the "semi retirement" concept   :)  My biggest gripe there is the price of flights from Malaga to Istanbul, no cheap deals (even with THY) unless you book three and a half years in advance.

The weak pound has cost us a few bob, but we knew that from the outset (immediately post brexit vote) and planned accordingly.  The best currency transfer agent we've found, for converting larger sums, is currenciesdirect.com - very efficient and always a few points above everyone else.  But that was just for our individual situation, they may not be the best for TRY conversion and transfer.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: kayakebab on August 31, 2017, 12:34:37 PM
Good luck with it all. Look forward to following progress.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on September 01, 2017, 19:23:43 PM
A back to the future post...

Organising an international move can be easy and straightforward or it can be a an absolute bloody nightmare, especially when  its effectively staged between a small rental apartment and your actual property which unfortunately isnt ready to move into.  Storage is the only option, but then comes the question, what do you store and what do you take with you?

We did consider doing a Bernie, as in turning up at Glasgow airport with four hundred and thirty seven pieces of excess baggage, but ruled that out pretty quick! 

Option two was to fill up the car with what we need initially, drive over and I'd drive it back in September (got a project in Glasgow to finish off) and sell it.  Everything else goes into storage, ready to be shipped over when the house is habitable.

Problem.  As Spanish residents we cannot (officially) insure our car with a UK based insurer. Ok, you can change the address to a friend or relative, but thats not an ideal situation and in the event of a claim could prove problematic (e.g. policy voided)

The solution was a lot easier than I thought.  Arranged a fully comp policy through a Gibralta company who were happy to insure a UK reg vehicle at a Spanish address, and at €300 or so for a year, including full international breakdown cover, didn't break the bank either.  I've now got an actual Green Card for use in mainland Europe and the UK, havent seen one of those for years! 

Also means that effectively we've got transport for the next six months as, here's another Turkish similarity coming up, the price of secondhand cars in Spain is crazy.  Folks want stupid money for cars with hundreds of thousands of kilometres on the clock and more dents than you can count.  We're not even sure we'll even bother with a car once installed in Casa JF, so we're reluctant to buy either new or secondhand until we know exactly what our needs will be.

A few drawbacks to driving a RHD car in a country where everything is geared up to LHD.  You need five foot long arms at car parks and toll booths if you're driving on your own.  Its a pretty undignified scramble across the passenger seat, and if you've made an arse of it and not got close enough to the machine/booth then its out the car, pay/insert ticket, jump back in, scramble across seats again or take the direct route round the front of the car while the queue behind you gets even more impatient with all your fannying around.

The really tricky one is getting into our garage. We have a car lift to negotiate and the control buttons inside the lift are positioned for LHD - if you dont want to do the passenger seat scramble the only way is to punch the button as you pass it, while still moving.  I tried stopping to do it and the doors started to close with the car half in and half out! Ok, they stopped before doing any damage but I had visions of dents on the car or a damaged lift door - landlord would be well chuffed with that one...

We got some really interesting news about our house today, but thats for later.

More witterings when I can.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mercury on September 01, 2017, 20:03:06 PM
ooohhh... was waiting to read about the house... I never thought about the difficulties of RHD or LHD when it comes to barriers and toll roads.. Thankfully and hopefully I will never have to worry again... Not going to Turkey saves us  a fortune in car hire and petrol costs.. We can't manage without a car there but it is so easy to get about everywhere else...
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on September 08, 2017, 11:03:03 AM
Arriving in Spain in the middle of August is a little bit like turning up to a party two hours early - nobody's about but they will be later.

Almost everyone we know in this area headed off to cooler climes at the beginning of August for a month, and watching the thermometer climb into the high thirties by lunchtime, then nudging into the low forties by mid afternoon who can blame them.  Its been an exceptionally hot summer in the south of Spain this year and until you acclimatise, its pretty uncomfortable.  Our apartment is a new build so has the ducted style of air con, aesthetically pleasing but nowhere near as efficient of controllable as nice big Samsung 24,000btu sitting on the wall.  Used it for a couple of days at the beginning, but fortunately we've been back and forth enough times that we got used to the heat fairly quickly. 

The 15th August is a public holiday - they seem to have a lot of them in Spain.  Any holy day in the Catholic calender seems to warrant the downing of tools and partying.  Our estate agent informed us the day before we arrived that they were on holiday that day but the owner of the flat would meet us there at 6:00pm.

She seemed a bit odd and talked at us in such rapid Spanish we hadn't a clue what she was saying.  Couple of signatures on the rental agreement and off she toddled.  Ten minutes later off we toddled in search of food and alcohol.  Got back a few hours later and went to take a shower - waited for the water to heat up...  and waited... and waited.  Ok, there's obviously some switch needing switched or tap needing turned.  Five minutes later we were cursing our new landlady - the water heater runs off bottled gas and both fecking bottles were empty.  Cow.

Its an easy fix, but not at 11pm on the evening of a public holiday when you'd both had a drink so couldn't just jump in the car and get one from a 24hr petrol station.  Welcome to Spain, the land of cold showers. 

Day one as a Jerezano.  Quickest shower ever and a trip to the local garage, €21.75 for a 12.5kg tub of butano.  It got us discussing how so few places have solar here, madness when you consider the climate - we already knew the answer though, taxation is the issue.  More about this later.

Next stop the bank. Our Spanish is OK, but not yet good enough for dealing with the level of complexity involved getting our cards and asking the questions that need to be asked.  Result - our account manager used to work for Barclays in London.  After a shaky start we got on well with him and he went above and beyond to sort a few things out. 

On to the Orange shop.  No point in putting fibre into a rental apartment so the Orange 4G is our best option.  After a marathon Google translate session with a very pleasant young lady we exit 40mins later with a couple of new SIM's and an Orange MIFI router.  Not cheap and a limit of 50Gb a month, so we'll need to be careful with streaming.  Mobile contracts fairly expensive compared to the UK, not sure about compared to Turkey as Ive had a contract phone there.

There's not a great deal we can do now until we complete the purchase of the house, so we decide to go into holiday mode for a couple weeks! 

After a week or so our lawyer gets in touch to say sorry, the notar is on holiday so we cant complete on the 31st August, earliest date is the following Wednesday. This was a real bummer as we'd been looking forward to getting started on the house.  Getting a bit bored with holiday mode now.

Until now we'd been under the impression that our house had been constructed sometime during the middle of last century, 1940/1950's or thereabouts.  There are some very old buildings in our street, but we were under the impression that our end was far more recent (no idea where this came from!).  While arranging building insurance to kick in on the 6th I was asked if I had an exact construction date - 1940's I said but I will try and confirm the exact date.  No point asking lawyer as he's on holiday in Canada, no point in asking estate agents are they're simply clueless about everything, so on to the internet to do my first bit of research wholly in Spanish.

First thing I found was an old estate agents ad from last year which stated that the property had been constructed in 1850.  It must be an error I thought, so next step is to find some old maps and see what I can get from them.  Net result is that it looks like our property was built sometime around 1829, with the possibility it could be as early as 1775.  Wow!

Fortunately, the insurance company are ok with this and actually made some amendments to the policy to give us a higher level of cover while carrying out the refurbishment... or is now a restoration?  Bottom line was €276 for building cover and they removed any clauses about reduced cover due to unoccupancy.  Thanks guys.

Still bored though, so we decided to start sourcing materials.  One of the major jobs is replacing the horrible green tiles that surround the central patio.  They'd have to be replaced anyway as the render behind them is bossed due to damp (house been unoccupied for eight years).

We've used a lot of Spanish tiles on projects over the years, but they were always expensive - this'll be interesting to see what sort of price good quality tiles are when buying direct from the source.  Armed with our sat nav and a list of tile companies we headed out to the industrial estates.  We had a rough idea of what we were looking for, either a Moorish influenced tile or a Sevillana style.  This is what we came up with;

(https://thumb.ibb.co/jh4GPF/IMG_20170829_132612.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jh4GPF)

(https://thumb.ibb.co/gPjpda/IMG_20170829_133058.jpg) (https://ibb.co/gPjpda)

These are the real deal - hand finished and with a beautiful texture.  Truth be told, we doubted if we could afford to run these all the way round the patio, but I asked the bloke for a price anyway.  Couldn't belive it...  €24.75 per linear metre       :)  what a result!  Ok, it means somewhere in the region of €1,500 worth of tiles, plus the labour to fit them, but it does mean we can have something that closely resembles what would have been there in the first place.

More later...

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on September 08, 2017, 13:00:54 PM
Yuk..pick the top one please else I might have to withdraw my self made invitation..The other one looks like christmas trees..tut. Im intrigued about the age of the building..what materials will you use to renovate..How old are the green tiles you are removing?
Anyway I didnt know I was visiting an archealogical site, I,ll bring me hiking boots, paintbrush and a trowel.. ;D ;D :-*
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on September 08, 2017, 13:10:26 PM
Thought I best get in quick whilst we are still at the planning stage..thought something along the lines of this for my balcony  : :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mercury on September 08, 2017, 16:29:12 PM
Brilliant blog... Nigel and Ian from The Kismet are setting up in Spain as we speak... They are doing a huge renovation project but we're lucky to find English builders.. Their blog is on Facebook... Episode one just completed.. I will point them in this direction to see if there are any similarities.. Carry on John you will get there in the end.. It can't be worse than starting off in Turkey.. Can it?
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on September 08, 2017, 18:20:37 PM
Yuk..pick the top one please else I might have to withdraw my self made invitation..The other one looks like christmas trees..tut. Im intrigued about the age of the building..what materials will you use to renovate..How old are the green tiles you are removing?

The Christmas trees are Moorish and the other Sevillana style - you see both everwhere down here.  We've got a few different styles in different arts of the building, I'll try and put up some images of them for any tile fetishists who happen to be about.

No idea how old the green ones are, they are quite pretty but not our taste - plus they clash with with all the others throughout the building.

The age of the building is interesting, and when i get enough time I intend to research it further.  I do know now it was owned by one family for well over one hundred years as we've met with them and got on really well.  Common bitching point being the uselessness of estate agents!  A major plus is they've endorsed us within the street and pointed us in the direction of several helpful neighbours.  That is worth more than money can buy in this neck of the woods.

Brilliant blog... Nigel and Ian from The Kismet are setting up in Spain as we speak... They are doing a huge renovation project but we're lucky to find English builders.. Their blog is on Facebook... Episode one just completed.. I will point them in this direction to see if there are any similarities.. Carry on John you will get there in the end.. It can't be worse than starting off in Turkey.. Can it?

Ach it's not really a blog Anne, just a way for me to jot down some bits and bobs before I forget them and save me having keep folks updated by PM or email  :)

There aren't many British builders down here, and to honest I'm not sure I'd use one if there was.  With a building of this age you want local knowledge in respect of building techniques and the best materials to use when making repairs.  We've got three potential candidates but need to do a fair bit of exploratory work ourselves to find out the extent of repairs needed.

I'd say there are lots of similarities to doing the same in Turkey - the petty officialdom, the level of invasion into everyday lives by the government, the high and far reaching taxation...  our phrase of resignation whan confronted with this kinda stuff is no burasi Espagnol!  I even managed to confuse my Spanish teacher with that one  :)

Ian & Nigel are in a village I believe, that itself brings a whole load of issues we dont have here - it does however have advantages over us doing the same in a city, albeit a small one.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on September 08, 2017, 20:31:53 PM
Looking forward to the next instalment John.
I'm with Bernie though, they do look like Christmas trees but my bet is they will look fabulous when on the wall
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on September 08, 2017, 21:56:56 PM
I did google some tiles from that era. Found some lovely old ones with yellow in. Cant find the pic now. So what about the building materials? Are you going to replicate the original materials or are you going to use more modern methods. Im glad the estate agent is earning his fee, its good to have some local connections. Please moving away from the Christmas tree wrapping paper, now ive said it, that's all you will ever see it as  ;D ;D
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on September 10, 2017, 09:32:20 AM
They look like Christmas trees to me as well, but they do look fabulous in the properties I've seen with them.

No idea Bernie, we'll be guided by our builder on best choice materials for each part of the house.  As it stands, in the older section it's mostly just a case of removing render and replacing with suitable 'antihumedad' materials.  In the sections which have refurbished in later years it's modern materials all the way.  At the end of the day we don't want it to turn into a bigger money pit than it is just now, we need to achieve a balance between sympathetic restoration and the practical (and budgetary) aspects of bringing the house back to life, so to speak.

JF

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: incir on September 14, 2017, 10:52:38 AM
Such a lovely read, thank you.  Exciting times for you & the house looks amazing.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on October 04, 2017, 20:39:27 PM
Well, what a busy few weeks this has been, I'm about four weeks behind here. Still coming up with so many parallels to Turkey, especially where bureaucracy  in concerned.

House buying day arrives and after a couple of hours in the notars office we emerged with the keys to our house.  A little bit of hanging around waiting for contracts to be amended a couple of times but largely we just chatted away to the two sisters who were selling the house on behalf of their elderly mother.  Got on well with them and agreed to give them access during the following week to finish clearing the property out.  We were just grateful that they were doing such a good job of it - there are a lot of rooms and every single one was full of junk and other crap.

R and D (our lawyer and his wife) had to scoot back to Cadiz straight away so off we toddled, keys in hand to see what we'd actually bought!

It doesnt matter how many times you view a property, you never take it all in.  In our case what we hadn't realised was the sheer scale of the place - it's fecking enourmous! 

Our bedroom is seven metres long by almost four metres wide.  The upstairs kitchen (excluding the pantry) is over five metres by four metres, very unusual in an old Jerezano house.  Several other bedrooms are five or six metres long by four metres wide.  Thank god they all have tiles, carpeting that lot would be a financial nightmare    :)  The roof terrace is thirteen metres by four, perfect for a kosk, a fidge and party!

Slightly stunned by what weve bought we headed off for lunch and returned about fiveish with pads, tape and laser measures.  Spent a few hours getting some basic dimensions and deciding what walls we were going to knock down.  All fun stuff.

Left about nine o'clock and headed off for a bite to eat and a well earned beer.  One thing led to another and, at one in the morning, we found ourselves drinking extremely large gins in a small place round the corner from our flat. 

Fast forward to eleven o'clock the next morning, my OH says "have you seen the bag with the house keys and tape measure etc?".  Errr... no, was my reply.  Can you believe it, we'd only had the keys for less than twelve hours and managed to lose them, probably due to several large Larios gins    :)  A quick confab and we worked out that we'd definitely had it at the gin place, but the only issue there is that it doesn't open until seven o'clock in the evening.  What a pair...

I popped round to see if someone was in, a cleaner or such like but no luck - however, looking through the window I could see our bag sitting on a table just inside the front door.

Huge sighs of relief all round and then at seven the walk of shame to retrieve our stuff...

We laugh about it now but it wasn't terribly funny at the time. 

Now the hard work begins.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Rana on October 04, 2017, 21:11:19 PM
Sounds fantastic John, i imagined every room. Now the fun begins! Exciting times ahead. Good Luck   :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Bluwise on October 04, 2017, 21:43:50 PM
Really enjoying reading your updates - hoping for some more photos too please!
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on October 05, 2017, 06:46:05 AM
What ya knocking down walls for?  Made me chuckle about the keys. Is there a bar near the new place too, could be a long project  ;D
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on October 05, 2017, 12:15:47 PM
Ok, a few images.

Turns out that the tiled image of a virgin we have at the top of the stairs is a pretty important person about these parts.

(https://thumb.ibb.co/n6315b/tiled_virgin.jpg) (https://ibb.co/n6315b)

Couple of weeks ago we were sitting have a bite to eat and a drink in the cafe at the end of our road and I noticed the Policia removing cars parked on the main drag.  I then noticed signs on all the lamp posts saying no parking from 2pm until midnight, no explanation, just no parking.  A quick word with Pedro the waiter and it turned out that there was a parade scheduled for 6pm, in honour of the Virgin de la Merced and sure enough, just after 6pm it started.

Lots of bands, folks dressed up in their Sunday best and more dignitaries that you could wave a religious relic at.

(https://thumb.ibb.co/jzkT1G/virgin.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jzkT1G)

We took a couple of videos but they're a bit shaky so here's the one from last year courtesy of YT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a969yEEL_AY

It looks like there is a religious procession of some description every few weeks, which given the number of churches around here isn't surprising.  It all culminates in Santa Semana (holy week) when there are large processions virtually 24/7 throughout the town.  It's all pretty spectacular, lots of bands, lots of people, lots of noise and the town is completely full - accommodation all sold out and restaurants absolutely heaving. Our oldest daughter is coming out that week, I'm not sure she realises what she's letting herself in for!

from our perspective, its our target date for having the ground floor finished and rentable as apart from the Moto GP, that is the prime week for rented accommodation.

Going back to the Christmas tree tiles (just for you B), this is one of the courtyards within the Iglesia de San Miguel and I think they look pretty good:

(https://thumb.ibb.co/dNRzrG/moorish.jpg) (https://ibb.co/dNRzrG)

These are some other tiles we have, hand finished and in the region of one hundred years old, they line our entry vestibule and hall way into the central patio:

(https://thumb.ibb.co/mVniJw/vestibule_tiles.jpg) (https://ibb.co/mVniJw)

Unfortunately they are in pretty poor condition overall, this is one of the better bits.  We'll salvage what we can as we may be able to use them somewhere else but I doubt we'll recover that much.  Such a shame as they are beautiful - the image doesn't really do them justice.

Its a common theme throughout the building in respect of recycling materials etc, most are in such bad condition we've no option other than to renew as opposed to repair.  Its a pity, but we need to apply the common sense rule quite rigidly else we'd end up with a constantly increasing budget.

More later...

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mary62 on October 05, 2017, 13:19:00 PM
Thanks for the update John....or should I say Juan.
Keep them coming.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: jondo on October 05, 2017, 14:09:03 PM
A great post to read and to follow....
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on October 05, 2017, 14:13:16 PM
Well the  Iglesia de San Miguel can keep his christmas trees, and I agree whole heartedly with the other ones they are beautiful. I do hope that you manage to salvage loads of them. The one at the top of your stairs is very lovely too. Dont they have reclaim sites there or is it just going to be more and more expensive.

Good to know the tourist thing is constant if its your intention to rent out a room or two. Good Luck, steer clear of Christmas Trees, however much of a bargain they are! BT
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on October 05, 2017, 15:51:42 PM
Not reclaim places as there is in the UK, the Spaniards don't have the same feelings about that kinda stuff. We'd love to have those ones throughout but so far haven't been able to match them, at an affordable price that is.

We've a famous old tabanco 30m from our front door, and another about 100m away that has been a favourite of ours since the first time we visited Jerez. Both are cheap as you can get and have live music several nights a week.  So no shortage of watering holes nearby.  They also serve another purpose as the water is still disconnected at our place...

JF

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on October 23, 2017, 00:43:15 AM
Now we actually have our house, the process of finding a suitable builder begins.

Doing any form of building work in Spain requires a licence from the local council - even putting a lick of paint on your front door technically requires permission from the council!  All a bit bureaucratic but a hoop that must be jumped through.  Its a bit of an earner for the council as well, a minor work licence is between two and five percent of the budget for the work, and you have to present the budget plus plans of what you intend to do at the time of the application.  There is also a major work licence which is extremely complicated to obtain and requires a massive amount of paperwork, the cost of this licence is variable depending on which side of the bed the planning officer got out of...

There are ways to avoid this, but all it takes is one neighbour to complain about noise or dust etc and you end up with a rather large fine. 

What we are hoping is that builder will take care of the licence application as our Spanish is nowhere good enough to deal with the level of detail required and our knowledge of the application procedure is only what we've gleaned from the council web site.

So, we start asking friends for recommendations - reminds us of doing the exact same process in Istanbul!

One of our ex students lives locally and she gave us one, a language school where OH may do some teaching gave us one and a friend came up with another.  We then found a Spanish web site similar to the UK site Rated People and posted details on there.

This resulted in us having a three day period where we would be meeting four builders and one architect.  The only one who spoke English was the architect and after a ten minute chat it became obvious that he was way above what we needed, really nice guy but he was more used to large projects and projects with budgets way in excess of ours.

The first builder turned up, a youngish guy with piercings and tattoos, not your typical Spanish building company owner but he had the common sense to bring along his quantity surveyor who had worked in the UK and spoke excellent English.  He was also the only one who arrived in his working gear, straight from another job.  We walked round the house and he took notes as he went and didn't appear fazed by either the amount of work required or the current state of the place.  We got a good vibe from them and he agreed to get a quote out in a few days.

Second builder appears, together with his architect, his architects assistant and some other random geezer who's job title I didn't catch.  Thirty seconds into the meeting the architect starts telling what we need.  Wrong move big fella.  According to him we need a major work licence and we need this that and the other - we let him go on for about three or four minutes before I said "stop".  We pointed out to him that we knew exactly what we wanted, we knew exactly what was required from the council and bade them all farewell, politely of course!  In and out in less than seven minutes.

Next up was a builder who came highly recommended and having seen his work I knew he was capable of doing a good job.  Another walk round the house talking about what we wanted and how we wanted certain things done.  Out came his laser measuring gizmo and off he went to measure up.  He was thorough and spent twenty to thirty minutes going back over the house, taking notes and measuring everything that didn't have a pulse.  Two weeks he said for a quote.  Hmmm said we, maybe sooner?  Maybe says he.

When the fourth one appeared he too brought a chum, plus his son who had very basic English.  Right from the outset I didn't like him and knew there was no chance of us working together, but had to play out the charade of going round discussing the project.  When his son let slip that he didn't like working on older houses and tended to do more work than was often necessary it kinda sealed his fate. Muppet.

Now comes the waiting.  A bit like going for a job interview and waiting for the yes/no letter to come through. 

First quote to arrive is builder one.  It's a good bit less than we were expecting so after a marathon Google Translate session we worked out that he'd left a fair bit of stuff out and hadn't quoted for materials for a number of areas.  We were a bit disappointed as we'd hoped he'd be in with a shout.

Second quote arrives, from builder four - the guy who doesn't like working on old houses, and it's five times the amount of builder one. No way. Didn't even reply.

Builder three then asks if he can have another look at the house.  We're thinking we want your quote and at this rate it'll be Christmas before we see it.  So, out he comes again, this time with three workmen type chums and spend an hour going over everything.  I was so bored I almost left them to it and went for a beer!

Finally, after a full week he delivers his quote - seventy five pages long and with extremely professional plans.  I only looked at two pages, the first and the last.

So, who got the job, builder one with the piercings or builder three with the professional looking quote?

I'll tell you next time.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on October 23, 2017, 11:09:28 AM
Decision time  :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on October 23, 2017, 11:47:58 AM
Aye.

Spain is no different to Turkey when it comes to foreigners, builders and prices.  Our experiences (and other peoples) in Turkey have been invaluable here - instead of "yabanci prices" its "guiri precio" and the same rules apply.  If they're foreign then they are stupid and have lots of money.

Ok, we are foreign but when it comes to property we are far from stupid and certainly don't have lots of money.  Unfortunately we haven't been able to pull the same stunt we often used in Turkey, when you let the other person assume you don't speak any Turkish. Amazing what they say when they think you don't understand!

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on October 23, 2017, 14:00:18 PM
So...
What's happening with the tiles? Maybe they know where to get some more..
How long before work starts after the quotes..Do they tell you :-)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on October 23, 2017, 18:56:15 PM
In Cadiz province the local council have ten working days to object to your works licence application - if they don't say anything then on the eleventh working day you start work.

Tiles...  more about them later.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mercury on October 23, 2017, 19:33:22 PM
Oooh you tease. Don't be a stranger.

.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on November 07, 2017, 20:27:47 PM
Decision time indeed.

Out of all the builders, only one came across as someone we could work with, and it certainly wasn't Mr Professional - besides, his quote came to more than we'd actually paid for the house! 

When we started doing the sums, even though builder one had left a lot out of his quote it gave us a good starting point and after a couple of further site meetings we ended up with a reasonable quote for the work required.  No tiles, windows or doors included, but he's happy to use suppliers we've identified for all of these items.

The big bonus is that his QS, who speaks excellent English, will help us make the application to the council for a works licence. 

There are two types, a major works licence and a minor works licence - we're hoping to get away with a minor licence as a high propertion of the work we're carrying out can be classified as repairs.  The issue that we have however is that the sheer scale of the work may sway the council towards making us apply for a major licence, which a) is more expensive and b) requires an absolute mound of supporting plans and documentation.  We really do not want to go down that road...

Luckily, D the QS has a friend in the planning department and after speaking to him, we come up with a strategy that'll get us the required licence without any issues and without breaking the law!

Application goes in and the council now have ten working days to either refuse it or ask for supplementary information.

They do neither.  On the seventh working day after our application the builder get a telephone call, the council want a site visit the following day.  Oh sh1t.

Unlike when the planning department descend on you in the UK, this turned out to be so informal it was bizarre.  Little chap from council turns up in his bright red, open necked, checked shirt with a smile on his face from the start.  Lets have a look he says and pokes his head into the apartments on the ground floor, for all of about thirty seconds. 

Transpired that all he was interested in was if there were areas of the house that could be of architectural significence, on the basis its pretty old.  In his opinion there weren't so off he popped with a cheery "adios", and said your licence will be ready Friday or Monday.  Result!

I can honestly say that I'm "tiled" out now.  Been to so many tile shops they are all starting to morph into one large multi coloured, geometrically shaped mess.  I think its time to give them a break for a bit.

Here's some of the contenders for various parts of the house:

(http://thumb.ibb.co/kobhxb/IMG_20171028_115959.jpg) (http://ibb.co/kobhxb)

(http://thumb.ibb.co/hKz2xb/IMG_20171028_123958.jpg) (http://ibb.co/hKz2xb)

(http://thumb.ibb.co/dQ2SVw/IMG_20171028_130635.jpg) (http://ibb.co/dQ2SVw)

(http://thumb.ibb.co/bOuD3G/IMG_20171028_115235.jpg) (http://ibb.co/bOuD3G)


Monday comes and sure enough, the builder is there at nine on the dot with a couple of workers.  Neither of them had been here and when they realised exactly how much material they were going to be removing over the next week or so you could see their faces drop!  Apparantly in houses this age tiles are removed manually, as opposed to half a shift with an SDS drill, crack on lads...  oh, and did anyone mention safety glasses? 

Before:

(http://thumb.ibb.co/hjC0iG/441_354250_11.jpg) (http://ibb.co/hjC0iG)

(http://thumb.ibb.co/bGRqHb/IMG_20171029_164534.jpg) (http://ibb.co/bGRqHb)

(http://thumb.ibb.co/ckDgOG/IMG_20171029_164602.jpg) (http://ibb.co/ckDgOG)

Today:

(http://thumb.ibb.co/bW1qHb/IMG_20171107_124544.jpg) (http://ibb.co/bW1qHb)

(http://thumb.ibb.co/nDTbqw/IMG_20171107_124550.jpg) (http://ibb.co/nDTbqw)

(http://thumb.ibb.co/buz5iG/IMG_20171107_124610.jpg) (http://ibb.co/buz5iG)

Tomorrow, sort out final plans for plumbing, electrics and air con.  Happy days.

JF








Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on November 07, 2017, 20:41:40 PM
yes,yes, yes and yes, Good work JF. Approval granted on all tile choices, and not a christmas tree in site. Glad its going ok and the red tape part is over.

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on November 07, 2017, 20:42:50 PM
Good start John. The last pic of new tiles would be my choice  :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on November 08, 2017, 17:48:23 PM
So happy you approve  :)

Aye, it is a good start Anne, electrician started mapping out all the new cabling today with his wee can of spray paint and plumber now knows where all the new piping has to go.

Trying to make the whole place as energy efficient as possible so using lots of LED lighting.  At last count we need over one hundred light fittings - and that doesn't include all the exterior lighting round patios and stairs!

The electricity has been shut off for years, but we appear to have a supply to one of the ground floor rooms.  No-one knows where it's coming from, even the electricity company say there shouldn't be live cables as they turned it off years ago.  All seems a bit dodgy but at least the guys have got power for their tools.

Off to look at heaters tomorrow. Oh the joys.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on December 17, 2017, 10:38:52 AM
I had intended to update this topic a bit more regularly than I have.  Unfortunately a combination of having to deal with a messy separation from my esteemed employers in Istanbul (again!), visits from family & friends and the amount of time needed to manage a project of this scale have all bitten into my time.

We're still roughly on schedule to finish the majority of the project by 15th February, at a recent site meeting with the builder and architect they informed us that they'll be putting more guys on the job from the start of the new year. 

So far, our choice of builder has been a good one.  We've got a good relationship with him and he understands the term "budgetary restraints" when we have to deal with all the hidden gems that have been uncovered as the job progresses.

(http://preview.ibb.co/jieSS6/patio.jpg) (http://ibb.co/bOqZ76)

The amount of material that has been removed from the property over the past few weeks is incredible.  Every kitchen (five of them) and every bathroom (four) was tiled from floor to ceiling and they have all been stripped back - add in the amount of old mortar, plaster and general crap a project like this generates and you're looking a lot of skips.

Hang on though...  our street is too narrow for a skip and there's nowhere suitable within wheel barrowing distance to put one.  We had the exact same issue with our house in the Paspatur, everything was carried up to the site by hand using the little alleyway close to Pasa Kebab, and all the waste carried down by the same route.

So, rubble tubs it is.  Every couple of days the guys load up a van at the front door with rubble tubs and all the other waste. 

(http://preview.ibb.co/i2HE76/tubs.jpg) (http://ibb.co/ddDnS6)

One little hidden gem we found was a rotten wooden beam - massive thing about eighteen inches by a foot which runs the length of one upstairs room.  Only solution is to replace it with a steel beam and we're currently waiting on a price for that.  Not even thinking about it just now!

After posting this I realised that you can't actually see the beam in that pic, it's on the other side of the wall  :)

(http://preview.ibb.co/dOyyZm/ceiling.jpg) (http://ibb.co/f3GVfR)

On a more positive note, we now almost have a legal electricity supply!  Not cheap as so far its been just under €1,000 to get the new boxes installed and all the associated cabling work, internal and external.  Not sure how much the electricity company will lump on to that as they are a total nightmare to deal with. 

(http://preview.ibb.co/cDk1n6/nichos.jpg) (http://ibb.co/fn4GLR)

More when I get some time.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Colwyn on December 17, 2017, 11:06:45 AM
We're still roughly on schedule to finish the majority of the project by 15th February
A highly propitious day. Outstandingly the best day of the year!
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Bluwise on December 17, 2017, 11:29:30 AM
Yeeesh, all that mess gives me palpitations.  I would be hopeless with a re-build.
Enjoying the updates though, thanks.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on December 17, 2017, 14:28:01 PM
We're still roughly on schedule to finish the majority of the project by 15th February
A highly propitious day. Outstandingly the best day of the year!

I guessing that you're referring to Duke Philip the Stout forming the Council of Flanders on 15th February 1386, although the younger amongst us may feel that the founding of the Labour party on that day in 1906 holds more relevance to most on here.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: marina on December 17, 2017, 17:03:47 PM
Yeeesh, all that mess gives me palpitations.  I would be hopeless with a re-build.
Enjoying the updates though, thanks.

You and me both bluwise! It was bad enough when we had a new bathroom fitted beginning of this year!  : :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mercury on December 17, 2017, 17:06:53 PM
Yeah... I.have been waiting for your update.. (I have a boring life)...Seems that the electric people are a Nightmare all over Spain...Nigel and Ian are having the same problems in Orihuela... If you manage to finish all this by February a small miracle will have been performed... Have a great Xmas and I m wishing you positive vibes for The New Year..
Sorry about your employer problems... Best Wishes John...xxxx
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Colwyn on December 17, 2017, 17:52:34 PM
I guessing
You forgot 1971 when, on Feb 15, our currency "went decimal" - and without that you'd be constantly referring to your abacus.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on December 17, 2017, 18:38:07 PM
It will be worth it in the end John.  Good luck with meeting the deadline
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: busybee on December 18, 2017, 05:02:38 AM
Now thats what I call a project, would love all that mess and mayhem(as long as I didnt have to live in it  !!!) a little bit jealous... The finished result will be worth everyday of all the hard work and stress.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on January 22, 2018, 19:14:14 PM
I can't believe its been five weeks since I updated this topic, time just seems to slip by just now.

Further investigation in the area of our rotting roof beam revealed that there were actually two that needed replaced.  Ouch.

We were thinking that this one may be a biggy and affect the overall budget quite seriously.  In addition to the steel work we needed four new supporting pillars constructed as the walls the beams rested on were in pretty poor condition.  I don't get some folks, this was all caused by a leaky roof over several years and it would have been so obvious as when it rains here, it really rains!

Email came in and to be honest, I didn't want to open it - we were heading out to meet some friends and I thought it may put a damper on the evening.  Curiousity got the better of me and what a result, €2,495 to install three metal beams, one of them fairly complex as it has to also support the roof joists and construct all necessary supporting pillars.  I drank way too much oloroso that evening

 (https://thumb.ibb.co/n9z2Bw/IMG_20180115_172606.jpg) (https://ibb.co/n9z2Bw)  (https://thumb.ibb.co/h57YJb/IMG_20180115_172617.jpg) (https://ibb.co/h57YJb)  (https://thumb.ibb.co/jFS0yb/IMG_20180110_172356.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jFS0yb)
     

Two other major issues we've had to deal with is windows and doors - we have twenty five windows and about twenty doors.  Our original plan was to renovate and repair where we could and replace those that were beyond repair, a concept our builder understood and was happy to go along with.  Unfortunately as work progressed it became apparent that this simply wasn't a practical approach; the windows were all a bit of a mix with some aluminium framed, some metal framed and a few with wooden frames, all in varying states of disrepair.

Decision time.  Lets go for it we decided, replace the lot (well, almost all) and just be done with it.

So... our builders regular window guy comes out - little weedy guy with a face like a rat and a lot of attitude because we couldn't keep up with his rapid fire Spanish.  We took an instant dislike to him but thought we could ignore our feelings if he came up with a decent price.

Two weeks later we still haven't got our quote, despite nagging our builder several times.  Don't worry he says, we've plenty of time.

Another week goes past and we told our builder that if the window guy didn't come up with the quote soon we'd be going elsewhere.  Surprise, surprise, quote arrives in my email two hours later.

Including VAT, this joker wanted €13,500 for twenty windows.  NFC says us (think about it ).

A few searches on google and we worked out that there were four or five window manufacturers in one particular industrial estate, so off we toddled that afternoon completely forgetting that the following day was a public holiday.  They were all closed bar one.  We decided to give it a go and once we'd found the office the folks there couldn't have been nicer or more helpful.  After twenty minutes, with a combination of our rotten Spanish assisted by Google Translate, we provided them with a specification list of what we wanted.  They made a few (excellent) suggestions in respect of the windows we weren't going to replace so we decided go for the lot, all twenty five of them.  It was left that they'd give us a quote based on our measurements and, if we were happy with the price, they'd come out to the house and take accurate measurements.

One day later, email arrives with a very professional quote considerably less than rat faces price. We arranged to meet the owner of the company at the house in a couple of days.

Once again, the advice given was excellent - rat face had included persianas (built in shutters) on several windows that weren't actually deep enough to have them.  More money saved.

Two days later and after a little bit of to'ing and fro'ing we ended up with a final price of just over €9,000 for all our windows and a new set of patio doors which will all be fitted sometime during the last week in January.  Happy days.

The same day rat face was out, we had a carpenter out to quote for new doors, repair of doors and to assess our front door to see whether it could be repaired or would it need renewed.

We couldn't believe it, same sh1t as rat face - nearly three weeks for a quote and when it arrived it was for nearly €8,000!  Again, NFC.

He wanted almost €400 each to replace ten internal doors and €1,800 to just repair the front door.  Then there was over €2,000 in time to repair the other internal doors.  In my opinion the guy either didn't really want the work or he thought we were rich - or maybe he was simply stupid.

The following day we headed off the equivalent of B&Q with our builder and picked up a dozen solid pine doors for around €140 each including frames.  A new carpenter sourced and he will fit them for €50 a time.  He's old school and took the time to assess the front door properly - beyond practical repair (which we pretty much knew anyway) therefore new door required.  Its a big chunk of door, 1.5m wide and 2.3m high, and we knew we could buy a factory made set of double doors for €2,000ish.  New carpenters price for a hand made set of hardwood doors, including new frame €2,400.  Again, Happy days.

(https://image.ibb.co/m78OJb/imagen_puerta.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)

We're looking at something similar to this one he made recently.

Overall we're pretty pleased with the progress of the project - we get on well with our builder and the guys he has working on site are a good bunch.  Not a word of English between them but we still had a cracking time when we all went out for a celebratory meal over the festive period.  Do have to say that Google Translate is a godsend!

Here's a few before and after pics of the roof which the guys have almost finished:

(https://thumb.ibb.co/iSksBw/IMG_20170707_111241.jpg) (https://ibb.co/iSksBw) (https://thumb.ibb.co/ip6cdb/IMG_20180121_182808.jpg) (https://ibb.co/ip6cdb)
(https://thumb.ibb.co/fyiCBw/IMG_20180115_172231.jpg) (https://ibb.co/fyiCBw) (https://thumb.ibb.co/bROerw/IMG_20180121_182824.jpg) (https://ibb.co/bROerw)

More later.

JF

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Stuart T on January 22, 2018, 19:35:08 PM
Thanks for the update. Fascinating stuff.

All the best and please keep us informed.

Sounds like you've had a couple of good results there.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on January 22, 2018, 20:11:05 PM
I quite liked it when you were doing stuff up, now its lots of replacement. It looks and sounds like its coming along nicely. I do hope my wing is sympathetically restored..spanish BQ indeed tut. what are you doing with all these frames and tiles you are removing? Is there a spanish equivalent of a reclamation yard?? 
Looking forward to more timely updates.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Bluwise on January 22, 2018, 20:26:23 PM
Love reading these updates - thanks.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on January 22, 2018, 20:32:34 PM
No choice Bernie, so much is beyond practical repair.  It's like I said earlier in the topic, we need to strike a balance between restoration and replacement.  As regards the structural work, it's essential - no choice as to remove the timber beams would mean disassembling half of the top floor!

The windows are all recent, 1960's onward so we've no issues about replacing them and the doors we're replacing are of a similar vintage. The older doors are generally in far better condition so will be refurbished.

The green tiles again were from the sixties or seventies and were cemented on so very few came off intact.  The front hall tiles which are a lot older will utilised elsewhere.

JF

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: TOSH TOSH on January 22, 2018, 21:36:51 PM
Really enjoy reading about your new project, all very interesting , and nice to see the before and after pics..
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on January 22, 2018, 22:41:11 PM
Seems to be going at a cracking pace now John.  I am eagerly awaiting the 'all done'photos
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on January 23, 2018, 18:44:19 PM
You and me both Anne  :)

My gut feeling is that we're going to overrun, not by long but I'm just back and while the guys are making steady progress it's an external influence that's likely to be a problem.

The electricity company, Endesa, are a nightmare to deal with.  Everyone hates them - not just for their extortionate prices but for the slow and convoluted process to get anything done with them.  They have three separate accounts recorded for our property and they will not allow us to simply have one.  This means three meters, three bills and three sets of standing charges.  Our builder, our architect and ourselves have been trying now for nearly six weeks just to get one supply activated and its like trying to explain astro-physics to a five year old...

Chances are we'll get not a lot of change out of €2,500 just to get an electricity supply :(  robbin' b'stards.

JF

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on January 23, 2018, 20:36:32 PM
Was your place apartments then at some point? That's a fair few quid in meters. Isn't there anywhere to go to find out how they or when they fitted three.. Gawd it adds up these extras.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on January 23, 2018, 23:12:14 PM
Yeah, it's an old neighborhood house (casa de vecinos) where you had several different apartments all located round the central patio.  That said, way back in the day (1780 - 1800) it was actually two separate houses - sort of one third/two thirds.  At some point I'll investigate it further, actually getting in is more important right now!

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on February 09, 2018, 10:21:56 AM
Well, that's a definite now - no way we'll move in on the 15th.

I think both ourselves and our builder underestimated the scale of this project, especially in respect of both the internal electric work and the external element that is Endesa, the electricity supply company.  After three and a half weeks of fannying around they turned round and said we have to make the connection to the main supply and then they'll come and inspect it. This could take up a fortnight.

It seems we're not alone in having issues with Endesa, more than one person has described them as las sanguijuelas (leeches) and anyone who has had to deal with them for a project such as ours simply shake their heads and say una pesadilla (a nightmare). 

Going back a few years, in Turkey when you needed something done very often a small "present for your children" would smooth out a lot of bureaucratic wrinkles and get your job done with the minimum of fuss.  What I find curious is that Spain has this reputation where many low level officials are corrupt and happy to trouser some euros in a similar fashion to the Turkey I remember from years ago, but here its not the case.  At times I get angry at delays, but my anger is actually about the fact that we've got no-one to bribe!  Funny old world  :)

Anyway, it looks like we should get in to the upstairs in about three weeks time, as long as we have electricity.  The guys have been cracking on and all the plumbing is in place, all the conduits for the electrics and all the pre-frames for the windows and doors.  The windows and doors will be the last things installed.

This is the kitchen, now on the final run in. In Spain kitchens are generally tiled from floor to ceiling but as ours is five meters long by almost four meters wide we decided against doing that. The workmen found that decision a bit odd, but our rationale is that a) we prefer it that way and b) it saves us well over €2,000 in tiles and labour!

(https://thumb.ibb.co/cokugH/IMG_20170711_134749.jpg) (https://ibb.co/cokugH) (https://thumb.ibb.co/e7PWTx/IMG_20170711_134803.jpg) (https://ibb.co/e7PWTx)

(https://thumb.ibb.co/iUaGdx/IMG_20180207_184239.jpg) (https://ibb.co/iUaGdx) (https://thumb.ibb.co/d9zsJx/IMG_20180207_184345.jpg) (https://ibb.co/d9zsJx)

(https://thumb.ibb.co/esj9yx/IMG_20180208_175941.jpg) (https://ibb.co/esj9yx) (https://thumb.ibb.co/ceASkc/IMG_20180208_180000.jpg) (https://ibb.co/ceASkc)

Externally, things are pretty much on schedule.  Almost all of the old flaky render has been removed, repairs made where necessary and fresh render applied and painted. 

(https://thumb.ibb.co/jNK1vc/IMG_20170711_135125.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jNK1vc) (https://thumb.ibb.co/dEGgvc/IMG_20180207_185101.jpg) (https://ibb.co/dEGgvc)

One problem we have is finding replacement borders for the along the top of the wall tiles, a lot of them were already damaged and well beyond repair - and a good few were damaged as a result of having to carry out repairs to the walls behind.  I don't blame the guys, I know how difficult it is removing old tiles while trying to keep them intact.  Our Virgen de la Merced has suffered the loss of her outer frame, although our builder reckons he has something similar (from a similar vintage) that he'll use to replace it.  Some soot mixed with water will calm down the glaringly white grout I reckon.

(https://thumb.ibb.co/kThDac/IMG_20170711_135428.jpg) (https://ibb.co/kThDac) (https://thumb.ibb.co/fh1T8x/IMG_20180207_WA0010.jpg) (https://ibb.co/fh1T8x)

More later

JF

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: sadler on February 09, 2018, 11:12:55 AM
Promises to be stunning. Worth all the frustration, once it is nearing completion. Keep your chins up!    :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on February 09, 2018, 15:58:37 PM
It will all be worth it in the end John.  This time next year you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on February 09, 2018, 18:37:05 PM
Thanks both of you  :)

I don't really get angry as in rage, but do find it a bit annoying that I can't just slip someone a few euros and a problem disappears...

We know all the hassle etc will be worth it in the end, and we can see everything coming together, bit by bit.  They have an expression here "poco poco", which loosely translates as small steps (or even bit by bit) and its become our mantra!  I dropped off a dozen boxes of tiles this afternoon and the kitchen is now finished, apart from the window, and ready for the units to be fitted.  That's one of my jobs - unfortunately all my tools are in a storage unit somewhere south of Dartford and wont get here until the 26th of this month so its off to the local equivalent of B&Q to buy a drill next week  :)

I'm muy tranquillo just now but that may change if we don't have a proper electricity supply by the end of next week!!!

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on February 11, 2018, 08:36:09 AM
A small update  :)

We are now connected to the main electricity supply.  The down side is that my earlier estimate of €2,500 is likely to be on the low side - I don't think we'll have much change out of €3,000, just to get connected :(

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on February 11, 2018, 09:11:12 AM
Shut the...front door 3,000, what a pee take. You Need To Make some Friends In either higher or lower places my friend. BT
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on February 11, 2018, 09:29:15 AM
Even the friends in extremely low places are regularly stiffed by Endesa, either financially or by their constantly changing demands.

Anyway, you don't have to worry, your suite with the sea view and infinity pool is coming along nicely.  Just waiting on the 65" telly and sauna to be delivered.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on February 25, 2018, 21:03:30 PM
Well, 15th came and went.  :(

Absolutely no chance of moving in, still waaay too much to be done.

Had a meeting with D, our architect, whos English is excellent.  We came to the conclusion that a) yes, everyone had underestimated the sheer scale of the project, b) changing tack midway (from concentrating on the rentals to our apartment upstairs) had been a mistake, we should have concentrated on upstairs from day one and c) we are actually fairly relaxed about it, as in we're not jumping up and down and spraying blame in all directions.

I think the fact that we are c) has helped.  Our architect and builder have come up with a plan to get us in by 2nd March  - they could have simply said "tough", it'll be done when its done.

We aren't actually that far away, most rooms upstairs are finished and all we're waiting for is the sockets and switches to go in and the tiling to be finished in the bathrooms.  The kitchen is done, the living room is done and all the plumbing is in place for both bathrooms.  All we need is a day or so from the sparky and the effin windows to go in!

Soooo, fast forward to yesterday  :)

(https://thumb.ibb.co/dEGgvc/IMG_20180207_185101.jpg) (https://ibb.co/dEGgvc)

Check out all the plant pots on the right, there are roughly thirty or so of them - nothing in them bar weeds that could inspire a John Wyndham novel.

OH started chucking them in the bin 50m or so down the street, and all of a sudden we had a visit!

(https://preview.ibb.co/nBAhfx/Jerez_TV_Coche_Policia_Nacional_e1397986561439.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hRf4tH)

Spanish neighbours are just as bad as Turkish neighbours  >:(

Someone called the Police because they decided we were chucking building materials in the communal bin, plus you're not allowed (in Andalucia anyway) to do building work on a Saturday or Sunday.

The two cops were good - pointed out it was macetas (plant pots) and earth and they both said crack on.

We dealt with the whole incident in Spanish, until they were leaving and they both turned round, and in perfect English, said have a good day and don't worry about anyone phoning us again.  Lucky there hadn't been any snippy wee comments in English between us!

Anyway, onwards and upwards...

JF


Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on February 25, 2018, 21:54:35 PM
So, a week from now you'll be unpacking  :)  Good luck with that one.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on February 25, 2018, 22:44:21 PM
Well good to know what your neighbours are like.. Glad you have a date in the not too distant future, be  keeping my fingers crossed that you get in...err I know there have been various out of pocket/budget expenses but I can't help noticing that my wing has turned into a suite. I'm hoping this is some sort of clerical error..tut.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 08, 2018, 10:17:54 AM
...and the 2nd came and went!

It wasn't really an issue as a couple of external factors came into play. 

First problem was that the house (along with three others adjacent) got broken into and while we only lost a couple of ceiling fans and some taps, the builder lost a number of tools.  According to a neighbour, the Policia suspect a group from outside the area and are confident they will arrest them shortly.

Initially we were only aware of our property being broken into, but once we found out that it was several, in a twisted way it was reassuring - we weren't being targeted as the guiris (foreigners) and the reaction from everyone in the street was shock and horror.  It's a quiet street and a lot of folks have lived there for a long time.  We also found out that someone had called the Policia on the Saturday because they actually thought we were stealing from the property.  They'd only seen my OH going back and forward and didn't recognise her.

We had a meeting with our builder and architect last night in the local tabanco and met a couple of our neighbours and, on the face of it, they came over as a decent bunch who are happy to see an old building brought back to life.  It would seem that a few beers are expected to be consumed the day we move in.  I like that idea.  Never used so much Spanish in one sitting either, the only person with any English is D the architect. 

The UK might have snow but we've had storms and rain that no-one in the area has ever seen in March before.  Lots of issues with flooding locally and in our case, plaster & render not drying, varnish not drying and during one of the storms we suffered damage to the roof which meant the front part of the building got flooded.  It was impossible for the guys to do anything for a couple of days due to the high winds so we just had to delay the finishing work until the roof got fixed.

As a result of all this we put back the removal company to the 12th March, just to give us a bit of breathing space.

There have been a few stressful days this week but now fairly relaxed about it all.  All the windows are now in on the facade and when I left there this morning, the rest (for the upstairs) had all been delivered and the window fitters were just getting started.

Our termo (water heater) is now fitted and the electrician will be finishing things off tomorrow, and totally illegally, coming in on Saturday if need be.

We plan to move in next Tuesday or Wednesday come what may.  Well, we have to - the lease is up on our rental place so nowhere else to go!

Nice new windows to the front with brown frames:

(https://thumb.ibb.co/nqu8L7/IMG_20180227_163524.jpg) (https://ibb.co/nqu8L7) (https://thumb.ibb.co/b64VYS/IMG_20180227_163710.jpg) (https://ibb.co/b64VYS)


Internal windows waiting to be fitted:

(https://thumb.ibb.co/mYLjSn/IMG_20180308_094839.jpg) (https://ibb.co/mYLjSn) (https://thumb.ibb.co/dYr2DS/IMG_20180308_094857.jpg) (https://ibb.co/dYr2DS)


What they are replacing!

(https://thumb.ibb.co/kSyFYS/IMG_20180308_094846.jpg) (https://ibb.co/kSyFYS)


Some bathrooms after tiling:

(https://thumb.ibb.co/edAyL7/IMG_20180227_163921.jpg) (https://ibb.co/edAyL7) (https://thumb.ibb.co/drMkYS/IMG_20180305_WA0010.jpg) (https://ibb.co/drMkYS) (https://thumb.ibb.co/jPFq07/IMG_20180305_WA0012.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jPFq07)

More later...

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: mercury on March 08, 2018, 18:02:22 PM
Reminds me of Living in Fethiye.. It was always someone from out if the area when the break ins started.. You seem pretty laid back about the whole experience on the whole??
Enjoying all the updates.  How lucky are you to get the worst weather in years.. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.. It so they say.
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 08, 2018, 18:41:38 PM
Ach, what's the point in getting too wound up about it.  Here it's los gitanos (the gypsies) who usually get the blame - truth be told he may have simply meant a gang from another area of Jerez, by that time I'd been speaking mostly in Spanish for nearly an hour and a half and had several beers which can both help and hinder my Spanish!

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on March 08, 2018, 19:24:35 PM
It happens everywhere.  Rotten luck John, but on a brighter note those bathrooms are looking good,
Roll on next week eh?
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 08, 2018, 19:51:56 PM
To be honest Anne, the pics, actually all of them, don't do the standard of workmanship justice.  The guys are a cracking bunch, even though their accents are soooo Jerezano I can hardly understand several of them, and they really take a pride in their work.

One example from the other day - we've got railings going round all the upstairs terraces. After getting rid of the old brick built pillars there were gaps of 10"-12" between the railings and the new steel pillars.  One of the guys, who I thought was a tiler, welded everything up in an hour or two.  I know where extra material was welded in, but I'm buggered if I can see the joins.  Multi skilled workforce...  :) 

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 15, 2018, 18:56:08 PM
In.

 :)

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: sadler on March 15, 2018, 19:18:22 PM
Yippee! When’s the party? ;D
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on March 15, 2018, 20:01:52 PM
Brilliant John.  Glad to hear your sorted at last.
When's the hoose warming?
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 17, 2018, 16:22:24 PM
Thank you ladies.  It'll be a bit before we're ready for entertaining methinks.

Our furniture and boxes arrived from the U.K. on Monday and with the help of the builders everything was moved in an hour or so.  Biggest issue is that our street is too narrow to have the van outside the house so we bagged the closest parking space, about 40m away, on the Saturday and just left out car there until the movers van arrived.

We'd decided to "move in" on the Wednesday but an issue with the front door to our apartment upstairs (couldn't get in!) meant we put it off to Thursday.  All quite funny now, but reminiscent of the issue with the keys on the day we bought the house, without any alcohol being involved.  More on that later  :)

Now, if someone tries to kick this door in then they'll end up at Urgencias...

(https://thumb.ibb.co/n2AsvH/IMG_20180315_101438.jpg) (https://ibb.co/n2AsvH)

Thirty days to make, hardwood with a full multi point locking system and approximately three inches thick.  We're very pleased with our carpenters work.

There's a lot of finishing work still to be done externally upstairs, but we've hardly had a dry day for weeks.  Constant wind and rain which locals have said they've never seen before - costing bars and restaurants a lot of money as they're simply not geared up for this type of weather over a protracted period of time.  We've got painting and rendering needing done but the guys simply can't do it in this weather.

Just bought a bag of logs so will give our open fire a go tonight as its cold, wet and windy down here, not the night to go wandering further than the fridge for more ice and tonic  :)

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Daffodil2017 on March 17, 2018, 17:50:49 PM
Congratulations on moving to your new home! I hope  that your chimneys work well and your fires are warm.  :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: sadler on March 17, 2018, 18:07:46 PM
Love the doors. Just need a draw bridge and mote to finish the look.   :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on March 17, 2018, 18:46:58 PM
Sounds like Scotland John  :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: nichola on March 17, 2018, 18:49:59 PM
Just catching up with your progress John, love all the photos.

Is that an internal courtyard you have - looks amazing   :)
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 20, 2018, 10:12:18 AM
Yes it is.  It's a "casa de vecinos", which loosely translates to neighbourhood house - several apartments all located round a central patio with a communal entrance to the street.

Quite common in this part of Spain and the patio is a bit of a sun trap during summer months for those who wish to grill themselves  :)  but with temps regularly hitting the low 40's during the summer you wont find me there.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 30, 2018, 12:29:24 PM
Soooo... it's Semana Santa in Jerez and like many other towns and cities in Spain it's a big deal.  In fact, preperations for nexts years events will start shortly after this one finishes.

Our first interaction with the celebrations was last Sunday.  The OH went to put a load of cardboard in the street bin and almost stepped in a carrier bag filled with some brown stuff.  b*****ds, she thought - someone's left a bag of dog **** on our door step.  Couldn't have been more wrong, it was a tray of chocolate brownie type dessert and smelt wonderful.  No idea how long it'd been there for so we were a bit dubious about eating it.  We've no idea who left it, spoke to a couple of neighbours and so far no-one's admitted it!
They're a good bunch about here.  So far, in addition to the choco we've been given a solid brass pomo (door knob) for our new front door and a massive palabra (hanging light) for our patio - and all we've given them is grief with our builders being in for four months!

Monday was the start of the processions.  You can tell when one is in the vicinity by the drum, boom...  boom...  boom, boom, boom. Not dissimilar to the drummer on an ancient slave galley   :)

In this case however it is to keep the chappies carrying the religious floats in time with each other.  These things weigh tons, literally - and the larger ones can have 70 - 100 blokes underneath it carrying it on their shoulders.

As a spectacle, it's fantastic for tourists. As a resident in the city centre it's a pain in the arse!  But then again, we knew that before we decided to live in a historic area in the centre of the city.  Roads are closed off, no parking is allowed for hours in advance and thousands of people come to Jerez just to see the processions.  We're not too bad in respect of parking as we now have a space in a private garage 100m or so away from our front door, €80 a month for the privilage though :( It's the road closures and the sheer number of people that bug us (and many locals) - having to drive an extra 1.5k just to get home, from any direction and restaurants all full to bursting point.  No reservations accepted in most places this week so eating out can be a bit hit and miss.

Some of the native Jerezanos feel that over the past few years the importance of Semana Santa has been ramped up for the tourist market and that the disruption to their day to day routine isn't worth it.  I don't know enough to either agree or disagree with them.

We'd hoped to have one apartment up and running for this week to take advantage of the tourists, but by the end of February we knew that was never going to happen. 

Our oldest daughter is out just now and she was desperate to see some processions - to be honest, there are so many religious processions throughtout the year that even Semana Santa isn't enough to make us want to stand for hours to get a good viewing spot. But, as you do, we duly went out on Wednesday night to catch one of the evening processions.  They go on until two or three in the morning!

(https://thumb.ibb.co/hS7AkS/IMG_20180328_002345.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hS7AkS)

Withing 50m of our house we have, over the week, eight or nine processions passing by - our local square is a good place to watch them as it's early on the route therefore a bit quieter - there are also two bars which take care of liquid refreshments and snacks.  Again, driven by our daughter who wanted to see one up close we duly toddled round to the plaza on Wednesday at approximately 7pm.

The chaps with the pointy heads are called penitentes and in some cities they walk barefoot.  With all the dog sh!t in some areas about here I can get it why they don't!

(https://thumb.ibb.co/mQmQKn/IMG_20180328_194437.jpg) (https://ibb.co/mQmQKn) (https://thumb.ibb.co/n3awQS/IMG_20180328_194449.jpg) (https://ibb.co/n3awQS) (https://thumb.ibb.co/hq9ZC7/IMG_20180328_200938.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hq9ZC7)
(https://thumb.ibb.co/cdeZC7/IMG_20180328_201211.jpg) (https://ibb.co/cdeZC7) (https://thumb.ibb.co/myvKen/IMG_20180328_201554.jpg) (https://ibb.co/myvKen) (https://thumb.ibb.co/kNeO5S/IMG_20180328_201624.jpg) (https://ibb.co/kNeO5S)
(https://thumb.ibb.co/j0xbQS/IMG_20180328_201629.jpg) (https://ibb.co/j0xbQS)(https://thumb.ibb.co/mAe1s7/IMG_20180328_201811.jpg) (https://ibb.co/mAe1s7) (https://thumb.ibb.co/bym35S/IMG_20180328_202045.jpg) (https://ibb.co/bym35S)
(https://thumb.ibb.co/hs1gs7/IMG_20180328_202145.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hs1gs7) (https://thumb.ibb.co/bYQPC7/IMG_20180328_202237.jpg) (https://ibb.co/bYQPC7)

We only watched about half of the procession (I thought) which got to the plaza at about quarter to eight, and it took over an hour to pass us.  That was enough for me thank you very much!

The three of us headed off to a restaurant slightly out of town and had a very nice meal.  It was elevenish by the time we wandered home and folks were just starting to disperse in the plaza. 

Four or five tonight, some going on until 2am, and all within 500m of the house so I'm sure we'll bump into one at some point.  The joys   :)

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Stuart T on March 30, 2018, 12:34:00 PM
Thanks John.

Fascinating and interesting posts.

Great photo's.

It's another world out there.....
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 30, 2018, 15:42:19 PM
Thanks.

For anyone that's interested, here's this particular procession later in the evening approaching Plaza Arenal, the main square.  About two minutes in you can see some of the guys who'd been carrying a float (they have several shift changes) with their neck and shoulder supports, sort of old fashioned lavvy seat shaped  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Koda7xhfA
JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Christie on March 30, 2018, 16:57:38 PM
We saw a similar procession on Wednesday in fuengirola, do you know the meaning of the pointy hats ?
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on March 30, 2018, 17:08:34 PM
do you know the meaning of the pointy hats ?

Yes, it's to fit their pointy heads   :)

They're actually called capirotes, here's a Wiki article that gives a pretty succinct explanation of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capirote (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capirote)

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: sadler on March 30, 2018, 19:03:17 PM
Brilliant, all we have here is a guy carnival which is a bit of a damp squid.  :-\
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: sadler on March 30, 2018, 19:12:03 PM
Sorry, squib, not squid!
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on May 05, 2018, 11:41:22 AM
It's May and the rain has finally stopped - the sun is shining, the beer is cold and we indulged ourselves with a shiney new BBQ.  A quick trip to the market later we have the makings of a couple of salads and a kilo or so of secreto de iberica, a Spanish cut of pork from behind the shoulder blade close to the loin.  In the UK, this stuff sells for £30-40 per kilo, I paid €7.  You can also buy secreto de cerdo which is from everyday white duroc pigs for €4-5 per kilo.

(https://thumb.ibb.co/nqiy4S/bbq.jpg) (https://ibb.co/nqiy4S) (https://thumb.ibb.co/n0kpB7/Secreto_Iberico.jpg) (https://ibb.co/n0kpB7) (https://thumb.ibb.co/dy5pB7/ip_07.jpg) (https://ibb.co/dy5pB7)

Secreto is special due to the marbling of fat throughout the cut, similar to the much hyped and over priced Wagyu beef.  All it needs is a very hot griddle or BBQ and cooked for a couple of minutes (until the outside is crispy) each side.  The inside will remain moist and be cooked "medium", which is something a lot of folks in UK would be wary about - a lot of Spanish pork is served pink, as opposed to the UK way of cooking it "well done".

Anyway, lots been happening on the house front - but to be frank I'm a bit "housed" out just now so will do an update in a bit.

May brings us two major events locally, the Feria de Caballo and the Moto GP at the Circuito de Jerez.  For some strange reason the local council decided that the first day of the Feria (today) would happen over the Moto GP weekend.  Madness.  Accomodation wise the town is virtually sold out - we had hoped to up and running for this weekend, but realised a good few weeks ago that it would have been pushing it and would have put us under a lot of pressure to get things done right.  We've probably lost about €3,000 in revenue, but given the stresses of the past few months we're OKish with it all.

The Moto GP attracts bikers from all over Europe and, unfortunately, a small proportion of them think they are Mike Hailwood or Giancarlo Agostini and treat our nice wide boulevards like a race track. This month we have traded the booming of Semana Santa drums for the high pitched whine of numerous two stroke rice rockets until the wee small hours.  That said, the vast majority of folks who are in town for the MotoGP are just here to have a good time, drink some sherry, eat some tapa and watch the races.  As I've moaned before  :) the joys of living in the historic centre.

(https://thumb.ibb.co/myzo4S/moto.jpg) (https://ibb.co/myzo4S)

Pic from: http://www.circuitodejerez.com

The first week in May is the traditional date for the Feria in Jerez which is held in a large park (50,000m2) 5-10mins walk from our house.  Originally a simple livestock market, dating from 1294, its one of the major events in this province.

As it's Jerez, the main focus is horses, flamenco and sherry.  Throughout the week there are various equine competitions, show jumping, dressage, carrriage parades and most importantly to some, auctions.  There are over two hundred casetas (stalls) withing the main park area and a similar amount round the periphery.  Food, drink, sweets, horsey stuff, toys, local produce and probably a few kitchens sinks as well.  Adjacent to the Feria ground there is an enormous funfair, when I passed by the other day they were getting set up and I reckon its on a similar scale to the one at the Oktoberfest.

There are also music concerts and bull fights scheduled for this week - Thursday evening will be a first for us, we've got tickets for one of the major bull fights.  I may, or may not, comment on it later.

(https://thumb.ibb.co/nPaQJn/fer3.jpg) (https://ibb.co/nPaQJn) (https://thumb.ibb.co/gCgbPS/fer2.jpg) (https://ibb.co/gCgbPS)

One of the main differences between the Sevilla feria and Jerez's is that the food and drink casetas in Sevilla are mainly private, you need a ticket - in Jerez, it's all public.  All you need to do is get yourself there (and back....!). Easy for us  :)

(https://thumb.ibb.co/cjwnW7/fer1.jpg) (https://ibb.co/cjwnW7)

The central avenues within the Feria ground are covered in lights, I think it's 10pm tonight is the switch on time.  Well, I hope it is as that's when we're planning to go!  Once the lights are on, the casetas stay open as long as they have customers.  Personally, I think this is a dangerous policy  ;)

None of these pics are mine, they're all from the public domain unless credited otherwise.

JF

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: Anne on May 05, 2018, 18:04:51 PM
Sounds like your all settled and right at home now John
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on May 05, 2018, 19:16:42 PM
I think we're getting there Anne, it's been a bit of a roller-coaster but the end station is now in sight.

Got the last few bits and bobs done upstairs last week so other than waiting for some kitchen end panels to arrive and a couple of small plaster repairs, we're done with builders up here.

Celebratory BBQ scheduled for next weekend  :)

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on June 22, 2018, 12:02:17 PM
Apart from some electrical work in one apartment we will be waving good bye to our builders this afternoon.

On Tuesday our architect will be picking up our Certificado de Primero Ocupado (habitation certificate) which means we are legal. Totally.

Don't have any water downstairs, as we need the above to get a second water meter, but the bureaucratic dominoes are all now falling.

Only five months late, the GDP of a small country over budget but hey...  the sun is shining, the beer is good and cheap and we have a free concert in our local plaza this evening.

We're heading off for a week so will post some before and after pics when we get back.

JF
Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: BernieTeyze on June 22, 2018, 12:37:50 PM
Just catching up on all this JF, Glad to hear that the certificate is finally being sought and the builders are leaving. You have been very lucky with them,they have done a splendid job from what we have seen so far. So what is going to happen when this new water meter gets fitted?
You never did mention the bull fight,did you go? Im so pleased that you're happy with the finished result,enjoy your week away x

Title: Re: But Daaaad, you said you weren't going to buy another "project"!
Post by: JohnF on June 22, 2018, 13:11:37 PM
It means we have two separate water supplies to the building, one of them a larger size pipe.  There isn't the water pressure to have three households (so to speak) all using the one domestic supply.

Yeah... the bull fight.  I think I'll keep my opinion on that one to myself just now.

JF