It seems so long since we started along this road but now after 15 months, drum roll..... we have water in the pool ! After a bit of fuss trying to get the PH down from 8.4 to 7.4 we seem to have a refreshing swimming pool.
Over the last week or so our already shoddy work ethic has taken a bit of a beating. As the mercury climbs our enthusiasm for getting jobs done falls usually straight in to the pool. This will however have to change as there are still lots to do and we have a dead line for most of it.
The lovely wife's, lovely mother is coming to stay in September on a one way ticket. By then she won't have been to see the lovely wife for two years as she's been under the weather and is now up to travelling and wants to see for her self where we have landed.
now I don't mind her at all, she's no bother un like some who need every thing laid on she's a perfect house guest always wanting to muck in much to the annoyance of the lovely wife, two women in a kitchen and all that, especially when the latter has no idea where things go and the former is still not sure her self.
We currently have two primary jobs on the go, the completion of the fly free area and the granite work tops for the kitchen, of course there's the usual list of, could we? We need to? And my current favourite "that dog stinks again ".
Yes our precious DeeDee has taken to wandering off every chance she gets to the local farm to cool off in his pool, the slurry pool! Now she hates water so on the plus side she won't go in our pool but it make bath time a whole lot harder.
I've tried the pool shower but the wind blows the water about and it's a fixed head so that's no help. The hose is effective but as the lovely wife will have no part of it I have to tie her to the quad and she hates it, the dog that is not the lovely wife.
So it's in the family bathroom shower and a soapy shampoo, the problem is afterwards if you bundle her outside she's in the flower beds for a roll leave her in and she shakes all over.
Maybe she'll associate a bath with the muck and keep out to avoid a bath, yeh, as you know there's a reason we call her DD (daft dog)
The fly free is our main project at the moment is about 65m2 we have had the builders build a low perimeter wall around the existing power pole frame. The BBQ we put in last summer and extended the chimney so it will be above the netting, this week I finally plucked up the courage to have a go at Mojacar blanco-ing the chimney. Well it's a good job we wanted rustic to match the rest of the surrounding walls as my talents must lie elsewhere. Now it's on and dried without falling off it looks just fine and with a lick of paint and a Smokey BBq then you'll never tell.
next is the netting for the top, the previous owners have had a few go's at putting shading up all to no avail as they neglected to use any cover lathes just 1000's of staples so it always came off. Consequently the poles were littered with rusty old staples and it took ages to get them out, as once it got past 11am and the sun came around the workshop roof our work ethic dwindled and the pool was a calling.
Around the walls to infill between the poles I am making frames with window fly screening in to sit on top of the walls, a pair of doors and we're ready for a party! Or the mother in law who loves to sit and read.
the granite for the kitchen is a bit more straight forward as we're not fitting it, I just need to remove the sinks , hob etc and the temporary MDF tops and as the guy wants bracing across the front edge of the cabinets a bit more wood work.
now were surrounded by quarries so I expected that the granite might be a good price, but the whole kitchen over 6m2 was only double what we paid in the UK for 1m2 in the bathroom.
I was so stunned we went back down to the quarry with a printed list in Spanish of yes - no questions just to confirm that it was all inclusive, rolled edges , curved corners and six cut outs , delivered and fitted and it was.
When we went back he had sorted out the sheets of stone ready to be cut and they look great, they'll be so much better than MDF as it doesn't half show the marks LOL.
Once their in then there's just the splash back to tile and a bit of painting and the windows to refurbish and the kitchen will be done, we still wont have a dinning table as I have yet to find any suitable reclaimed oak but that will be hitting the job list soon enough I'm sure.
now in the back ground whilst we are having all this fun at home there's still the issue with the house tax cock up that seems to still be rumbling along as they seem unable to un plait fog down in Almeria even though is obvious we've paid and they all agree in our local town hall making them understand that they have merged 2 account details seems impossible.
secondly we are trying to take up the offer of joining the health system under the new law, as you are aware we're under the state retirement age but privately retired so we are, or were not entitled to health cover either from the NHS or from Spain BUT the law has changed and for 66€ each a month we can have full health cover including GP's a bargain compared to private insurance.
however the papers its worse than the fuss we had getting our NIE and residence, we have now had to send our marriage cert back to the UK to have it stamped to say its genuine, you never know they might say its a fake ;-)
But with the stakes so high in the long term we will not be deterred, its just that in their alternate universe you would assume that so many people being involved with administration that they would at least get it right.
Moan over time for a swim, after all this is meant to be therapeutic, UN load, de stress share some reality of Spain 2015, but, spell check? Grammar check, it's like being back at work and oooh perish the thought LOL
Where's that towel.