Benji and the Romanian labourers had always easy-going about payment. Once or twice we didn’t get to the bank on a Friday to pay them and they were happy to be paid on the Saturday instead. British workers would demand to be paid on the dot or they might not be able to eat that night (or go and down a skinful of beer).
One thing British builders did have over the Spanish though was that they were trained to tidy up after themselves. But, as we were always paying by the day, it often meant they would stop work at 3 o’ clock, pack their tools away in their car, and sweep up for ages – so, I’d rather the Spanish way, thanks; working right up till home time, and I'll sweep up myself.
The British also expected endless cups of tea or maybe beer in the afternoons. In keeping with their tendency to shrink the working day, when Denise and Patrick worked for us they assumed they would finish half an hour earlier on Fridays, because this is what they had done in ‘Ingulund’. I’d never heard that one before and the Spanish didn’t do it. The latter worked steady, regular 8-5 days, with a half hour ‘breakfast’ break around 10am, and an hour for lunch. They didn’t expect so much as a glass of water from us, being entirely self-sufficient, with their bottle of water, boccadillos and maybe a tin of sardinas.
More important than nationality in finding a suitable worker though was compatibility. You had to be able to get on with your builder or life became unbearable. I was glad, for example that we hadn't employed someone whom everyone said was an excellent builder. A Spanish woman we knew employed this man, known as 'el Pincho,' (or 'little piece' as in a little piece of tortilla), but he refused to let her make any comments or suggestions about the work. Even though it was her house and she was paying, he wouldn't countenance being told by a woman or maybe even a man if he wasn't a builder, what he should be doing (I diagnose small man syndrome). It got so that she dreaded seeing the Pincho, and had to stay out of the house as much as she could.
'I feel I'm going loco,' she said to me one day. 'I've had to get tablets from the doctor, because that man has made me feel so nerviosa.'
Benji was completely different, so despite cock-ups (which I shall describe later and which cost us thousands of euros) we got on great and we took the rough with the smooth. He worked hard every day, he put in the hours, he tried his best and he talked to us in a pleasant way. I missed him when the job was over.
Also, he wasn't a penny-pincher like the British, who liked to charge expenses on top of their daily rate. So we had to pay for the petrol to run Denise's generator, whereas Benji absorbed it as part of his costs. Benji also had all his own tools and even scaffolding. Even our cleaner, who doubled up as a painter and decorator, brought her own scaffolding to paint the exterior of our house. The Spanish were ‘can do’ to the British ‘can’t.’
However, later on, when we employed the ‘master builder’ of the village - a man spoken about in hushed tones - and he was installing our glass bricks, I was surprised that he left no gaps between them as Steve had once told me that this was a common mistake. As we'd been assured this man was the best in the area I assumed he knew something I didn’t (I also didn't want to query his methods as he was held in such high regard and he had a very surly demeanour). Thanks to his expertise we later had to fix the problem of water seeping through the blocks and into the house.
(I said to Adrian that I might mention this glass bricks story and he said it would be too boring to put in a book… Well, maybe, but it might save one of my dear readers from allowing their builder to make the same mistake and they might also have the courage to stand up to said builder and challenge his ‘superior’ knowledge on other matters, too, having read how I didn't dare. So there.)
To see the end result of all the work on the casa, take a look at the house now:
http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p86636
And also another of our completed projects:
http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p475271