The end of a hard but good year

Well we almost finished the room for the end of the year. all the painting is done, and the lighting is up but we just did not get the floor finished. it needs one last coat of varnish. But it is a very good job, just look at the before and after pic:
Not bad..
This time last year we were in London watching the fireworks from the back door of the Streatham flat and wondering were we would be in a year. Well here we are living in a house in La Palma, I don't thing we ever believed that we could do it. OK, the place is bit of a dump but it is improving and by the end of this year we may even have an inside bathroom and a kitchen that is not from the middle ages. But this is our place and in a strange way it is home. My only hope is that we can make a go of things here. This new year will tell. May it be a good one for us here and for you all out there.

A Happy New Year
to all you out there in the world.

T'was the night before the night before Christmas

And we are in bed listening to the radio, having spent the day working on the house, we got the ceiling painted and all the wood work tapaporoed (that's the first coat of varnish), and all the work on that walls is done... Tomorrow is the day to clean the house (Doing all the sanding of walls creates a lot of very fine dust that is covering everything in the house) and cook a cake... Then it is time for a day off, no work on the house for us, on Christmas day, we will be spending most of the day with our friend Sheila and her family. The plan for the day is to wake up (well we have to do that) and have Breakfast in bed (Normal Christmas breakfast of Bacon sandwiches), then its present time... After that it's get up and go have lunch on the beach (I hope that its not raining), Why - Becuse we can. And finally arrive at Sheilas for the rest of the day and a Very nice Christmas dinner.
So all I have to say now is to wish:

A Very Merry Christmas to all you out there

Well Plastered

Something finished at last .. All the plaster (Render) is done on the ceiling. Looks good!Now all we have to do is clean the rafters, paint the ceiling, finish patching the walls, clean all the wood work, varnish it, paint the walls, and do the floor. And we want to get that done before Christmas!!!! It may get done this year though.

Geeko Rescue Service

Hi All. Well the the room is progressing very well, we are hopefully that it will be mostly done for Christmas but it may not be quite finished until the new year. We have got the first coat of plaster (render) on the ceiling and in doing that I have so far had to rescue 3 Geekos, one from under the wood before putting the render on, I just don't like the idea of entombing them under the render.
Geekos are quite little lizards that walk across your ceiling and scare the living daylights out of you with there laughing (their calls sound just like someone violently laughing).

Power to the people

Well things move on and finaly after 6 or so months we have finaly added the second panel to the solar array. And in doing so messed up the state of charge of the controlar so ended up not having any solar power for two days.

The Rain Has arived

Last week the first rain of winter arrived here in La Palma, not to heavy, only about an inch a day or so but it does mean that the place has started to sprout, ( this should have happened about a month ago but at least it is here now). The funny thing is that it is December and the place is starting to look very green like spring. The seasons are slightly messed up here..... The other thing is that it is Cold (OK only around 17 Deg C), time to get the jumpers out...
On the House front things are moving along, the walls are mostly done in the front room and so is most of the wood stripped, now it is time for the ceiling .... We hope to have the room done for Christmas.
The garden is going OK, We have Collies, Cabbage, Potatoes, carrots etc all growing well. Repairs to the retaining walls of the terraces are OK.. but on hold until we have a few dry days to poor some concrete.
I have also been working to get the second solar power panel up, This requires the construction of two junction boxes with copper bus bars and cables to connect these to the panels, should have these all done by the end of the week.
Thinking back on what we have done on the house and have still to do I have realised that it may almost have been quicker to start from scratch and build a new house . When we finished we will have replaced or put in all the services for the place and that is something I have never done before - not from scratch (OK I did rewire a house in the UK completely for a friend once)...
I do wonder if we will get this place done.... or when we do how long it will take ... But we do do a good job...