News update

STOP PRESS: BOOK CORRECTIONS

Firstly, a couple of corrections to the book which you may care to note.

As many readers have pointed out, the roof tiles are known as rasillones, and not raciones. My only excuse for this blunder is that the name was given to me by my builder's merchant by wprd of mouth, and - in the Andalusian dialect - thw two sound identical. So please don't try building with large portions of tapas, even if they taste similar.

Secondly, the book says that many minor repairs can be carried out under a simple permit obtained from the town hall, without need for plans or other details. This was indeed true, and still is in many areas. However, it is becoming increasingly necessary to supply a full technical architect's project and plans for anything other than the most minor of repairs, including a straightforward replacement of an existing roof. The book's advice to tell the town hall about your intentions still applies, but they are increasingly likely to ask for an architect's plans. This will of course add to your building costs, on average between €900 and €2,500. Don't be afraid to ask more than one architect for a quote, or to haggle over fees if necessary, as they do vary and they can be flexible over the cost.

Finally, please see the new picture gallery by following the link at the foot of this page; I'll be adding more soon as we've made much more progress recently. And may I add how active the Yahoo newsgroup on fincas has become, with over 300 members - click on the "Join our email list" button on the left to try this free group for yourself.

So what’s been happening at Corazones since the book went to press?

Despite the short lapse of time since the book was published, we’ve made considerable further progress. Whereas much of the basic work has already been done, it badly needed those finishing touches which make it a nicer place in which to live, and that is where our latest work has been concentrated.

The kitchen

The kitchen has now been finished. It may look as though it's finished in the book, but it now has a tall food storage cupboard, which replaces the temporary plastic storage boxes. This was made out of floorboard timber, as was the door using the clamping arrangement described in the book. A timber moulding forms the finishing cornice around the top, and - though I say it myself - it looks a treat. The tiled floor has been sealed and polished, the Butler sink installed in the granite worktop, and the oven and hob are up and running.

The indoor shower
The main priority during our latest work session (I won't call it a holiday!) remained the shower room. For the first year all we had was a bucket and watering-can rose suspended above our heads in the yard outside, and for the second year we have also managed outdoors with a hosepipe and spray head connected directly to our gas water heater. It worked well, but at times it was a little too basic, and the view of the sea (on a clear day) only slightly offset the discomfort. The morning air temperature alone wasn’t the problem - it was fun to be surrounded by a huge cloud of steam from our hot water when the air temperature was only 6 or 7 degrees - but this became distinctly uncomfortable when a gale was blowing. At times the shower barely worked, as the water was blown away into the distance before it reached our bodies. So something just had to be done.

The answer was to divide a small shower room off the room which used to be the mule stable. It already contains the loo. Eventually we will probably build a separate new bathroom in what used to be the pigshed, when this shower room can become an en-suite when we use the adjacent two rooms as a guest suite. Now that the job is finished, I'll be assembling a set of pictures showing exactly how it was done, and these will be added soon. Basically the construction method was:

1. Build a suitably sized room using large bricks, of the same width as the shower tray (plus render and tiles).
2. Cut channels in one wall for pipework, fit electrical conduit, then batten and render the walls.
3. Fit the shower tray and plumb in its waste.
4. Plumb in a washbasin. This was an interesting project, as there was insufficient room for a pedestal basin, vanity unit or even a wall-mounted cloakroom basin. So we chiselled half-way into the 80cm thick wall, formed a mould and set a locally made ceramic bowl into place - not one of the purpose-made washbasins which were too wide, but one we converted ourselves by cutting a hole in a smaller fruit bowl!
5. Attach waste and water supplies.
6. Fit shower controls and hose, and then tile.
7. Fit electrics.
8. Attach door and decorate.

The sitting room
Now our next step was to decorate the sitting room. This is the oldest part of the finca, shown in the book with its original delivery chute for the grapes (still there!). It was great fun to do up because it has such character. However, there is a problem with the huge open fire. Basically, it doesn’t work. It gives out vast amounts of smoke, especially when there’s a gale blowing outside, and no heat.

Having asked expert advice from various quarters, we decided to redesign the whole thing,  with a smaller, lower fireplace. Then we installed a Norwegian wood-burning stove with glass doors. We worked out relative costs per equivalent kilowatt hour of heat, and it was about a third less than using electricity. What's more, we can convert any collected deadwood into useful heat!

The patio
Most recently, we've finished the patio. Originally little more than a pebble-strewn patch of weeds, it was concreted (allowing a 1-in-60 slope towards the centre and exit to enable the rainwater to drain readily), and then the same terracotta tiles were laid as we had used in the kitchen. I have now also rendered and painted the very rough brick wall around it, which was full of holes. Finally, a rustic pergola of pressure-treated trunks, now nicely stained, was added to provide summer shade and - to some extent - winter shelter.

The goatshed (February 2004-May 2006

This is a relatively unused part of the finca, although the door from our dining room opens directly into it. We have used it mainly as a wood store until now, and- as it is situated higher up the slope - its roof protects the side of the finca from damp.

However, its roof has never been repaired, and was quite leaky. This has prevented us from using this space for anything more useful, such as additional living accommodation. We also wanted to re-roof the adjacent pig-shed which has been virtually roofless since we bought the place. So, in February, we sought the advice of the town hall, the local ayuntamiento, and showed them photos of the area. Fine, they said, just apply for a permit. So we did. After frequent reminders, we were told that this could be collected on a certain date in April. On that day, it so happened that our builders could spare the time to remove the old roof, leaving us exposed to the elements at a very stormy time of year. While they did so, we visited the ayuntamiento to collect our permit - and were told that, under new regulations, we had to submit a full architect's plan and project.

The first architect we spoke to quoted a price of 9% of the building cost, which was fine by us as it was a simple, inexpensive repair. He happily accepted our deposit, then turned up with a contract to sign which quoted a final fee of over €5,700! Eventually, by mid-June (after four wasted months in which we ended up in a worse state than before) we contacted another architect who not only quoted €1000 and kept to this price, but visited us immediately and came up with a draft plan the very next day. We also included a conversion of the adjacent pig building, to make the project worth the trouble and expense.

Eventually the plans were finished, five thick project folders containing elaborate plans of a place that looked nothing like what we had in mind - complete with modern pantiled roof and uPVC plastic windows! When we mentioned this to the architect, he just shrugged his shoulders and said "why be concerned? I'm the only one who will inspect it - and I won't." So these plans were accepted, passed and work started (well built, but along traditional lines in keeping with the character of the place). Now it's in the finishing stages of plumbing the en-suite bathroom and tiling the floors, and I'll mention more about this soon.

Working with Lime
As fincas are invariably rendered in lime, I realised that it was important to lean all I could about this unique product and its applications. So I enrolled for a one-day practical course on the subject for builders and contractors, run by SPAB (The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), the leading authority on the subject in the UK. I found this absolutely fascinating, and it made me realise how important it is to use lime whenever possible in the repair of old buildings of this type. I picked up a great many tips which I’ve never seen in print, and learned a great deal on the preparation of lime putty - a very important aspect, as it seems very difficult to obtain ready-made lime putty in Spain. One alternative is to buy sachets of the cheap "cal en plastificada para pintura" (or words to that effect) which is intended for painting, and then adding sand which is really bone-dry to stiffen it up and produce a lime mortar.I have used this very successfully on a damp wall where it complete cured the problem.

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