Making a list, checking it twice

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Paul

There is a lot to remember for next Tuesday, the day I set off for Portsmouth via the wood burner shop south of Birmingham, for my ultimate destination in Galicia. The only way I have any chance of remembering is to make a list, and keep adding to it.

The good news, and a massive personal relief, is that I have finished rebuilding the wall at home in Huddersfield. This was the catalyst for me attending a brick laying course, and the chance to practice ahead of many more square metres of walling which will need to be created at the house in Liñeiras. Although it was the first one I have ever done, I feel that I have put my newly acquired skills  to good use, and hopefully it will still be standing when I get back from Spain for Christmas.

Demolishing the old wall

The new one ready for rendering

It still needs rendering, but not having been on a rendering course I’d better leave that for the experts. All in all I am very happy with it and it saved me a fair chunk of money.

The more I work outside, the more I enjoy it, and the more I realise that it is far healthier than sitting behind a computer, despite the odd callous and stiff back in a morning.

In Spain, of course, I won’t be using the block-work you can see here, unless it gets hidden by natural stone facing. Everything will be local stone or slate.

In some way I hope that they have to excavate a lot of rock to make the channel and pit for the septic tank (although this will be more costly) as this will give me lots of ready stone for landscaping, without the need to take it from other existing walls around the site. It seems crazy to be shipping in new stone when there is such an abundance just lying around, or just under the surface.

So just over three days now until my departure so back to making and checking those lists.

 

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There is always one nicer

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Paul

There is just over three weeks until I head back to Galicia for ‘Barn: PhaseII’ which should hopefully see it close to completion early in the New Year. All that should remain is some carpentry, decoration, and the fitting of a kitchen.

As I am going to flit between Spain and England this time, there has been a lot to think about in the last week; booking ferries, booking flights, booking train tickets, and ordering the centrepiece of the barn lounge, the wood burning stove.

We’d done some looking around a couple of months ago and found the fire that we really liked, made a mental note, and tried to decide when we’d need to order it in time for us to get it and me take it down for installation once the house is watertight. After lots of agonising we decided that Scandanavian was best, and settled on a beautiful Contura.

So when we went to order it a couple of weekends ago, and to confirm that we (read Amanda) was still happy with it, and we had a stroke of luck. The price had been reduced by £200, a saving not to be sniffed at, which put a little smile on my otherwise grumpy face.

Inside I was made up.

Then we (read Amanda) saw a new stove, one which hadn’t been there two months earlier, and promptly fell in love with that one. The bad news was that it was £200 more expensive that the original Contura had been in the first place! My £200 saving was wiped out and we were looking at finding another £200.

Scan (our model is the 58-3) have outlets in Galicia (in A Coruna, Santiago and Pontevedra) so I contacted them by e-mail to see if it was cheaper in Euros and whether I could save the effort of having to take it all the way there with me. All three quoted me the same list price (where is that entrepreneurial spirit amongst the Spanish stove sellers), which when converted to sterling was quite a bit more expensive than here.

I then did an internet trawl and much to my relief and that of my wallet, I eventually managed to find it with a reputable dealer selling for £200 less than it is available near home (and now the same price as the original Contura).

It is now ordered, paid for, and will be collected on my way through Solihull as I head for the ferry at Portsmouth on the 23rd October. Once the doors and windows are in the barn, at least we’ll have the means to be warm.

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A little piece of England, in Galicia

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Paul

A new countdown has begun.

Our builder has given us a start date for the works which will hopefully seen the barn finished early in 2013, and which will finally give us a base in which to stay while we get on with the works on the rest of the site.

It will be ‘all hands on deck’ from the 25th October, strangely a Thursday, as Facundos team descent on 13 Liñeiras to undertake the multitude of tasks which include; screeding and laying floors, building the porch, installing the electrics and water/waste, putting in a septic tank, plastering walls and fitting all the windows and doors.

Once they have finished all that should remain will be; fitting a kitchen, some carpentry and decoration. Whilst we have a start date, we don’t have a finish date, but with builders that I trust (and the final payment withheld until completion) then I am not overly concerned.

There are now loads of things that I have to sort out at home before driving down there at the end of October. One of these is the collecting of a stained glass window  which we have commissioned from a stained glass artist called David Griffin who is based in Bakewell.

We went to see Dave a couple of months ago to talk through what we are looking for, and to see some examples of his work. He’s sent us through the artwork of the design that he is now working on, and we can’t wait to see it in the flesh.

Once complete, the window will be installed in the very small traditional barn window just underneath the balcony on the south facing downstairs wall (see below).

The window will be within the bedroom and should cast a beautiful moving multicoloured light around the room as the sun rises over the horizon in the early morning, and travels round the entire room, before dipping away in the evening.

Dave hasn’t got much space to work with, as the window is just 24 x 45cm, so there is little room for a complex design. We both think that this scene could either be in the hills around Huddersfield, or the steep sides valleys of Galicia. It is just what we said in the brief.

Once Dave has completed the window I will collect it from Derbyshire, secure it in bubble wrap, and hope that I can get it to Galicia in one piece.

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A great sense of achievement

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Paul

I’ve got a stiff back, dry hands, bruised thumbs and aching arms, but I really feel as though I have achieved something.

After twenty years of sitting at a desk, tapping on a keyboard, and making phone calls I decided it was time to get myself a decent and honest trade. I needed to learn a skill, one which would be of use to me in my future life in Galicia, one which I could use to barter with others and remove the need for some cash transactions, and one which would be rewarding. I needed to use my hands and be creative.

As we start to prepare our Yorkshire house for sale (at some point in the future yet undetermined) I called on a tradesman mate to quote me to re-render a twelve metre long wall which runs next to the house, and holds back the several hundred tons of soil which separate us from the next door neighbours.

Within an hour of starting work he called me to tell me it wasn’t that straightforward. The existing wall was actually eighty year old poured concrete and the soil behind it had rotted it, turning it to dust. The whole thing would have to come down and be re-built. He quoted me a ‘mates rate’ of £1,400 plus materials. ‘Blimey, that’s the price of a nice wood burner’ I thought to myself. ‘I’ll think about it’, I told him.

In the depths of my mind a plan started to form. What if I was to learn bricklaying? It’s a decent honest trade, I can use it in Galicia, and I can rebuild the wall myself, saving the price of a nice wood burner.

After a quick look around the internet I settled on The DIY School in Stockport and booked a four day course for the princely sum of £299.00 (including VAT and summer discount).

A colleague told me it would be, ‘‎Two days tea drinking, a day fag rolling, half a day hod carrying, and half a day paper reading. Doddle.’.

But it wasn’t, it was hard but rewarding work.

Yesterday was my last day and I have to say it was brilliant. I never knew that there was so much to bricklaying, so many ‘bonding’ patterns, so much complex planning to ensure everything is tied in properly, getting the correct mortar consistency, and how to constantly measure to ensure straightness in all dimensions.

Over the four days we learnt about tools, techniques, skills and checking. Lots and lots of checking. I built three small walls (see below) and now feel fully equipped to tackle my little project at home.

First Attempt

Wall Two

The Pinnacle – so far

I have now got a number of friends and relatives offering me their gardens, falling down walls, and porches to practice on. But more importantly I am starting to think about the many options that I have for landscaping, steps, barbecues and raised beds at the property in Galicia.

Pass me that mug of tea, woodbine, and copy of ‘The Sun’!

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Modern Day Robin Hood

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Paul

The first news is that there is no news. We are waiting for a start date from the builder to complete the works on the barn, while Amanda decides on kitchens, appliances and decor. Once we have a date then I can start making plans to spend some time out there, supervising works, shifting some of the weight I’ve put back on since returning home in December, and generally having a good time.

While we wait to get out of the doldrums we are keeping up to date with all things Spain, which are almost inevitably always related to either ‘the crisis’, the weather, or both in the same story.

Today my attention was drawn to a great story about the mayor of a small village about 110km north of Malaga named Marinaleda. It appears that he’s becoming something of a local, if not national, folk hero after staging a number of robberies of local supermarket and giving the ‘fruits’, literally, of his labours to those suffering financial hardship.

(C) Google Maps

Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, mayor over a population of 2,645, has told the media that the food stolen was distributed amongst the families in his area hardest hit by the Spanish economic crisis.

Seven people have been arrested for taking part in two raids which saw them fleeing supermarkets with trolleys piled high with food, and without handing over a single euro in payment. Mr Sanchez, immune from prosecution as an elected member of Andalucia’s regional parliament, stood outside and ‘supervised’.

Media coverage has made Gordillo, mayor of Marinaleda for 30 years, a national celebrity and he aims to capitalise on a wave of support by marching across the region to highlight issues of unemployment and urge his mayor colleagues in other towns to default on loan payments, stop lay-offs, cease evictions and refuse to accept budget cuts.

I can’t imagine the same thing happening here in the UK. Boris Johnson wheeling a stolen supermarket trolley out of his local Waitrose and distributing it to the homeless under the Kings Cross arches. Somehow I don’t think so.

 

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