The chit-chat area

The easy solution for the oven shelves is to buy an adjustable one. You can get them on ebay and bring it out with you. Only thing is, someone will have to put the internal measurements of the oven, width and depth, on this site, as there are different sized adjustable shelves and you don't want to buy one where the maximum width is shorter than your oven. They work really well and are reasonably priced.

Westport

I have recently replaced the oven and hob, if anyone is considering this please note the following 4 important points.

1) The existing Teka oven is connected to the hob so you will need to replace the hob also, no choice here. Replacing the oven is ok as they are all std sizes with a block connecter for the electrics. 

2) The std size of all European style hobs is 590mm wide and 520mm deep e.g. Bosch, siemens, Philips etc.... Teka is different being 600mm x 520mm, if you opt for a 590mm wide hob. This means that the cut-out in the worktop will be too big to get a proper key for the silicone sealant on the sides; you may even see a gap through the worktop if you are unlucky.  You maybe lucky in that the worker may have been very accurate in doing the cut-out when installing the original hob. Mine wasn’t the case and I had to stick with Teka for the hob option, for hobs Teka is OK, I went for a 3 ring induction model and it performs very well.   

3) If you choose an Induction hob make sure that your existing pots and pans work with it, they need to have an iron content in the base for them to work. In my case they didn’t and I had to buy 120 euro new set from Ikea, all pots and pans from Ikea are induction compatible. One way to check is to see that a magnet sticks to them, if it doesn’t they won’t work.... I have Saskia to thank for helping me to get the hob working, all booklets were in Spanish, it took me 30 mins to actually turn the hob on using the touch screen type controls and when I did finally get it switched on the pots wouldn’t get hot........  I find induction great, hob surface stay cool and it’s easy to clean. faster and just as adjustable as gas, also 30-40% more power efficient than a standard ceramic hob, but does pull more power when used at max setting, I am now 100% converted to Induction and will never go back to ceramic or gas !! :-)

4) Your existing Teka oven/hob power consumption on full power maybe approx 2kw for the oven and 4kw for the "ceramic" hob. You have to make sure that you look at the specs of anything that you are buying. The oven & hob that I purchased is 2.5KW for the oven and 6.5kw for the induction hob. This means that if you have everything on (at full power) at the same time, there is a chance that your electrics will pop at the circuit breaker. I have worked out in my 2 bed apt that I can pull about 9kw before the electric pops so you have to be careful what you use at the same time, in my case the big users of power I find are the following. Oven 2.5kw, hob 6.5kw, aircon 2.5 kw, fast boil kettle 3kw, washer 2kw, tumble drier 3kw. I know some people at DJ have had their rating increased from the electric company which means that you can use more appliances at the same time.

I hope that this info helps, PM me if you need to know any further details

 Regards Andy

 Yip, if you ever had induction there is no turning back although we had to when we emigrated. We used it in the Netherlands for many years and suddenly were back in the stone age with our old fashioned hot and slow ceramic plate. We found it too expensive to immediately replace it as a few years ago induction plates were extremely expensive in Spain.

Nowadays prices are down to a more reasonable level, but we´ll wait for Andy´s longer term experiences with the Teka.

Regarding electrics. yes we upgraded our connection. Officially you can´t exceed your official certificate but that is as far as I know never used to the max in the Don Juan apartments. I managed to exceed my certificat while still having Endesa´s seal of approval :) 

Be aware you are not allowed to do it yourself or through your local handyman and it makes no sense to do so as you won´t get the needed contract so they won´t deliver the extra capacity. It would just be a waste of money.

Max. 

I understand that the post boxes may have been installed at DJ1.....? If this is the case, is there any chance that someone could take a few pics and up load them to the site as I am sure that everyone will be interested to see what they look like......

Thanks Andy 

 They are partially installed and no work has been done the last week. It will look differently when finished that´s why I was waiting with a photograph until they were completely done. 

Afaik the postboxes would be ´registered´ at the postal office this week so that they can send out an inspector to give the clearance for delivery. 

(not that I expect the holiday temps to even bother to find DJ so don´t count on delivery before the second half op September)

As far as I know Irene, the unit housing the electricity circuit breakers in our apartments in Don Juan already includes the necessary ICP. 

 I assume Irene wants to upgrade hers? If that´s the case I will be able to tell you how, but first confirm if that´s the case.

 Or she got the dreaded letter http://www.endesadistribucion.com/es/subdominios/endesadistribucion/ without initiating it. Afaik nobody in Don Juan is without main circuit breaker so in that case it would be an administrative error. 

I didn´t get the letter nor did I find it at any of the apartments we inspect biweekly.

Max.

Hi

Does anybody know the opening hours for the Teka sparepart shop Danisa in Malaga?

Regards Grethe

Grethe

I believe the business hours are Monday to Friday from 0900 to 1330 hours and then from 1500 to 1700 (or 1800) hours.

I went there last Saturday (as I had to go the airport) and found the shop closed.

Jenx

 Hi 

Well we are just back from the Teka shop (+ Plaza Major shopping).  I was afraid that the shop was closed because of August holiday - but that was not the case. (thank you Jenx)

As far as we understood the opening hours were Mon- Friday from 10-15. We parked underground at the Mercadona Supermarket. You get a ticket - and when you shop in the Supermarket - you show the ticket and get a receipt with an barcode you need to scan when you drive out from the Parking. The parking was free. We have never parked this way before and had troubles getting out from the parking. But now it is pool time 

Grethe

Latest news on the Carvajal Paseo

Hi Denise thanks for the up date great news for carvajal Irene

 You overlooked the last sentence of denisapartment (hi there :)) ´if ever .....´

Ona Esperanza has been ridiculing Zapatero for the last six years and got him so mad with her huge billboards insuting him that he is said to have sworn she would be the last in line to ever get money out of that fund. 

This is her so maniest political statement. She is a hotshot in the right wing party in an overwhelming leftist region and with a leftist prime minister. She is a great mayor is she would only serve her city, but unfortunately her ambitions are much higher. So she can´t get anything done from the Andalucian government nor from the central government. If only she would use some diplomacy but nope. Is not her style. She just called the police when the minority in Fuengirola town hall government opposed her and had them escorted out of the meeting! Live on television for extra effect. 

Register at the town hall for the election register and vote against her if you ever want a upgraded boulevard. It would be so beautiful if it became similar to the other 755. Five miles of wide pedestrian areas, underground parking etc instead of our current not too bad stretch.

Max.

Hi max i did miss that if ever Irene

This is an old subject but has anyone successfully cancelled their life Insurance that’s linked to the developers mortgage? It appears that the premiums are not fixed i.e. level term assurance. my premiums based on cover 0f 60,000 euros rose from 259 euro to 309 euro in 2008 then to 369 euro in 2009, if the premiums keep increasing at this rate the cost will be in the 1000s at some stage during the 15 year term of the mortgage.  

For those people that completed in Sept 2007 (like me) the new insurance payments are due next month but Caixa Galicia cannot confirm the increase until they have charged it to the account......

any comments/suggestions

Regards Andy    

Hi Andy,

As no one better qualified has responded this is my view. If you don't want to continue with the Life Assurance stop the payments. They may get upset but if you have alternative cover why pay a ridiculous rate?

My only similar experience relates to car insurance. Year 1 was arranged through the car dealer with Axa. I got a beter price from Linea Directa for year 2 so phoned to try and cancel the original policy. They were unable to deal with a non Spanish speaker so I just stopped the DD. I got my lawyer to phone Axa to explain. They got upset but there is not a lot they can do about it.

MORTGAGES GOING UP IN SPAIN

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Spanish homeowners will face higher mortgage repayments after the benchmark rate for loans last month posted its first annual gain since October 2008.

The benchmark rate for most of the country’s home loans, 12-month Euribor, rose to 1.42 percent in August from 1.33 percent a year earlier, the Bank of Spain said today on its website. That will further stretch the finances of Anabel Ruiz, who already spends two-thirds of her 1,000 euro ($1,271) monthly salary on making payments on a 30-year mortgage that runs until 2036.

“It’s going to make a desperate situation even more critical,” said Ruiz, 43, who works in an accounts department. “It could mean I lose my apartment and we all end up living under a bridge.”

Because almost nine out of every 10 new Spanish mortgages are floating rate, increases in Euribor may start to squeeze demand in an economy struggling to emerge from the deepest recession in 60 years. Higher mortgage payments as loans start to reset come as Spanish households adjust to an increase in sales taxes and a jobless rate above 20 percent.

“It’s another headwind for Spain among many,” said Kenneth Wattret, chief euro-area economist at BNP Paribas. “The turning point for interest rates can present a problem.”

Repossession petitions handled by the Spanish courts jumped to 27,621 in the first quarter, from 23,433 a year earlier and 5,688 in the same period of 2007, according to data from the General Council of the Judicial Power.

Rate Increases

Repayments on a mortgage of 171,000 euros, the average size of a home loan in Madrid according to the government’s statistics institute, would rise by 7 euros a month as a result in the increase in Euribor, assuming a 20-year repayment term and a spread for the loan of 50 basis points over Euribor.

Euribor may rise to 2 percent over the course of next year, said David Cano, a partner at Analistas Financieros Internacionales, a Madrid-based economic consultancy firm in a phone interview. At 2 percent, mortgage repayments would increase by about 50 euros a month, according to a simulation calculator on the website of the Spanish mortgage association.

“In macro-economic terms the impact probably is not going to be significant,” said Cano. “The risk is that it has a psychological effect.”

After reaching a record high of 5.39 percent in July 2008, the Euribor rate plunged to 1.22 percent in March this year.

Westport