There’s good news, and there’s bad news

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Paul

‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been three weeks since my last confession.’

A lot can happen in three weeks, unless you’re waiting for planning permission from the Xunta de Galicia.

But that’s where the good news comes in. We’ve had notice from our architect, the one who can’t be named, that the Xunta have finally sent through their approval of our application to convert the barn into a dwelling, ‘obras mayores’, just fourteen months after we initially submitted it!

What’s more, the Xunta has not placed a single constraint or condition on the approval and it has been accepted in full. This despite lower than permitted roof heights, a lack of solar panels and the limited amount of windows, the architect argued our case and the Xunta are happy.

With the Xunta happy, we’re very happy, and the architect is ecstatically happy, but also a little shocked at the lack of clarifications and conditions.

The next stage is for the drawing up of detailed plans, final approval by the local council (a formality we believe), appointment of a contractor and placing an order for the windows and doors with our preferred carpenter. There is also a little legal transaction which needs to take place, adding the barn to the deeds as a dwelling rather than a barn so that the council can levy the right taxes. The only two certain things in Spanish life are taxes and death! (paraphrased from Daniel Defoe, in The Political History of the Devil, 1726).

But where there is good, there is inevitably bad!

The bad news came in the form of another letter from ‘Ministerio del Interior’, which after initially freaking out thinking was another speeding fine, turned out to be a second notification about the first fine (from two months ago). Reading the paperwork it appeared to us that the second letter was due to the fine being unpaid and that I was now on a ‘blacklist’. Our solicitor is now investigating, but she thinks that our payment has gone through fine, but that I am now on a register of offenders held on a public website. Terrific.

I took a look at the ‘speeding sinners’ website, while half hiding behind the settee out of fright, and there I am Paul xxxx – Huddersfield, GB - €400! The only solace is that there are other offenders on there who got fined a lot more than me for transgressing at the same camera, one guy got hit for €1,500. So now I don’t feel quite so bad.

We’re back out to Galicia very soon, I’ve just booked the flights and the hire car. We’ll meet the architect, builder, carpenters and our friends. Hopefully there will be plenty more blogs over the coming weeks as the project awakes from its’ enforced winter/spring slumbers.

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We had a season in the sun

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Paul

I decided to steal, and paraphrase, some lyrics from Terry Jacks ‘Seasons in the Sun’ to bring you some sad, if not wholly unsurprising news.

‘Goodbye to you, my trusted friend.
We’ve known each other since we’re nine or ten.
Together we climbed hills and trees.
Learned of love and ABC’s,
skinned our hearts and skinned our knees.

We had joy, we had fun, we had a season in the sun.
But the hills that we climbed
were just seasons out of time.

With the flowers ev’rywhere.
I wish that we could both be there.
We had joy, we had fun, we had a season in the sun.’

That’s right, we’ve sold the Land Rover, I’ve parted with my travelling companion, I’ve terminated our relationship (volatile as it was).

Now with a new loving owner

Despite behaving brilliantly in last weeks mini ice-age, the time had come for us to remove the unused agricultural vehicle from the road outside our house, and find the blue goddess a new home where she could be loved and cherished.

Our neighbours are delighted.

After several weeks of advertising in Auto Trader, and gradually reducing my expectations on asking price, a nice couple from Doncaster came to see her on Easter Sunday and liked her so much that they drove off in her.

She is retiring to a life of dog walking, and if they are to be believed she’ll get a bit of a sprucing up with a pair of new doors, and her paintwork being revitalised. I did make a profit over what I paid back in September, but that’s only after ignoring the small fortune I sank into her to get her there and then keep her running and get me back from Galicia in January.

I am sad to see her go, as Mr Jacks almost says, ‘We had joy, we had fun, we had a season in the sun.

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Nicked; A cautionary tale

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Paul

I’m not feeling particularly proud of myself, in fact I am more than a little bit embarrassed.

Mondays’ post brought an official letter from Spain.

Not the nice kind of letter granting our Obras Mayores planning permission for the barn, but the nasty kind from the ‘Centro de Tratamiento de Denuncias Automatizadas’ of the ‘Ministerio del Interior’. Denuncias isn’t a nice word, and I knew that it wasn’t going to be good news before I opened it for it had a red sticker on the outside, and red stickers are very rarely an indicator of good news.

Not my finest hour

Inside was a single piece of A4 paper, printed on both sides, with a photograph of a car, lots of writing in Spanish, and a figure in a box of €400.00. My heart sank. How had I managed to speed in the Land Rover? Surely they should be sending me an achievement certificate rather than a fine.

Then I looked at the paperwork in more detail.

The photograph was of a Volkswagen Polo, the date was in early December 2011, the location was just outside Santiago de Compostela, and the offence was for driving at 85 kph in a 50 kph zone.

My mind filled with questions; It’s not for me! That wasn’t me! How on earth am I going to sort this out?

Then reality dawned. When Mother came to visit in December I hired a car because the Landy was being a bit ‘fragile’. We went to Santiago de Compostela for a quick visit and a bit of lunch, and I recognised the registration number on the photograph. It was me after all!

Twenty years after my one-and-only previous speeding conviction (for averaging 95 mph on the motorway in a BMW 320i whilst being followed for 8 miles by a marked police car) I’d got a second, and this one was going to cost me €400.00 (reduced to €200.00 if paid within 20 days of receipt).

It looks like a fair cop, although I can’t remember driving through any fifty zones at eighty-five, and I nearly always observe the Spanish speed limits, much to the chagrin of locals following me through villages. But they’d send me the camera calibration certificate, and with me being the only one insured on the hire car it’s a ‘slam dunk’ for the authorities. It was a momentary lapse of concentration, probably talking to Mother.

I did some initial research and found out that failure to pay could result in me being arrested the next time I entered my adopted homeland. I hastily paid the fine at the reduced rate and then with further investigations found out that the four points I collected for the offence will be registered against my Spanish Identity Number (NIE). I’ve now eight left now before I get a Spanish driving ban.

All very embarrassing.

Now I dread the daily post landing on my doorstep, just in case I committed any more offences over there.

 

 

Posted in Local Life | Tagged | 5 Comments

Windows; it’s not clear

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Paul

I’ve only ever bought windows for a house once before.

Back in ’98 when we bought our current house in Huddersfield, my memory is that it was a fairly simple process. We invited two reputable local companies around to give estimates, chose between white or brown PVC, then offered to pay 1/3rd of the price that they originally quoted. On that occasion the windows were manufactured and installed in pretty quick time, and we’ve not looked back since.

I thought it would be the same in Spain, but it appears that I was very wrong.

The last time we were in Galicia we took our specification to three window companies to get quotes for the windows (5) and doors (2) for the barn and were fairly explicit in our brief. They need to look traditional be; made from hard-wearing, low-maintenance iroco; be double glazed; secure with wrought iron fixtures; and, all with internally opening shutters. I’d measured everything up, taken photos of the openings, and thought I’d considered all that I would need to, but included my e-mail address just in case.

My mailbox has been filling up with questions ever since, most of which we are struggling to even understand.

It seems that traditional windows in Galicia are constructed of several panes of glass with wooden batons in between, however, this is very expensive and the recommendation seems to be to have a single pane of glass with batons fixed to the outside to simulate traditional windows.

There is also a big debate about how the windows should be secured, and this will vary depending on whether we want inward or outward opening windows. Although all the ones we’ve seen open inwards.

One of the openings is quite wide, almost two metres, and here we’ve specified a door to one side and windows to the other (as above, drawn with my rudimentary door design skills). This appears to have caused carpenter meltdown and seems to be something which none of the three have ever done before.

Another long night at the keyboard stretches out in-front of us as I try and explain what I mean in long-winded English and Amanda tries to translate it into carpenters Spanish, as we increasingly realise that we need to be out there to explain things properly.

Wish us luck.

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A room with a (new) view

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Paul

Good news from Galicia. We’ve made a bit more progress on the barn, and we’re not even there to crack the whip.

On our last visit the architect told us that there was no problem in commissioning the replacement balcony under the planning permissions we already had. ‘Replacement balcony’ in that it would be a whole new balcony in place of the three rotten beams that had previously supported such a structure the last time that the upper floor of the balcony was inhabited, over 100 years ago.

This was a great relief to our carpenter José who, months ago, had prepared and installed the supporting beams, and was driving around with the chestnut planks, spindles, newels and handrails in the back of his van. Under the impression that we needed our ‘major works’ license we’d been stalling, and he’d been seriously out of pocket having bought and prepared all the timber without any cash up-front.

We met up with José at his shop in Meira, Carpintería Koté, to discuss getting a quotation for windows and doors, and you could see the look of relief on his face as we told him to go ahead and install the balcony, take and send some photos of it finished, and then send us his bill.

Here is what José sent over the weekend, and mighty pleased we are from the look of the photos. New, yet traditional. Small in keeping with the proportions of the barn, yet big enough to sit out on and drink a bottle of wine on a summers evening. He’s done a great job.

Almost a month after our return we’ve also started receiving quotes for other works, including; the completion of the barn, the conversion of bread oven house, and for the windows and doors. All we need now is that major works license (eleven months and counting since the application).

We’ve even been looking for wood burners for the barn and incredibly both agreed that we liked the same one that we saw in a showroom in Denby Dale, before we turned over the price tag and found it was the most expensive in the shop.

‘Champagne tastes on a beer budget’, I think that sums us up nicely.

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