Thank you Dan...

I wanted to especially thank Dan at the end of his two week stay for the help that he has given us. He has pushed us to get things done and probably done more in these two weeks than we could have done in a month. I will admit that it has been hard to have something for him to do… mainly because we are not that well organised although I have most things that we need to do in my head, they don’t all ways come out in the correct order

One of the main things he has helped us with is repairing the terrace walls that have fallen. In April Sheila and Carlos helped clean up the last fall and then we put in the concrete base for the wall, but that was the last that we worked on it. now in the two weeks that wall is almost finished. It would have been completed but we ran out of rocks.

How the wall looked when Dan Arrived
What it looks like now

Dan also helped us with the other wall that I have been working on for most of the last two years. (I seem to ignore these walls in favour of the house or patio). It only needed the top finishing with concrete but we never seemed to get around to it. Well thanks for the help with that as well Dan. All that needs now is to be toped of with a concrete cap and it is finally finished (will it be another year before that is done?)

Other wall with top reinforced with concrete. 

And from below.

Drains a GoGo.

Now it is final the time to get the drains to where they need to go, into the bathroom, though it may be sometime before the bathroom is done. Once the connection is there that is one more thing off my todo list.

Its not a hard job just run the three drain pipes across the entrance way and then through half a meter of wall (that Dan was so good to have tunnelled out). You are probably thinking why three pipes, most drains only have one. Well we are looking at water recycling so any waste water from the shower, sink or bath needs to be kept separate from the waste from the loo. The other drain is for rain water and any ground water that gets under the floor in the bathroom.

Instructing Dan on how to do drains (The blind leading the blind)

Finally a connection to the bathroom From the top;
Main drain to the loo, next gray water drain
and finally rain and ground water drain

And here are the drains in the Bathroom to be.

Final bits of the bathroom roof

A year ago we had the roof put on the old water tank so as to use it as the bathroom. To finish the outside off, the roof needs a parapet, some drainage pipes and the walls will then need rendering. I wanted to do this as last year the bathroom walls leaked where the rendering had cracked due to the building work.

The first job is to create the parapet walls. The one by the front door is only 1 block high but the one on the side of the house by the gate is 3 blocks high and has a curved corner by the gate. This wall also curves down the the current low parapet on the old roof.

As well as put the blocks on, drain pipes have to be added so the the water gets off the roof. These had to be cut into the edge of the concrete roof to provide the correct angel.

Blocks laid out for low parapet wall with pipe for drain
after it was cut in to roof concrete.

Blocks in place.

And from the other side

Work on the outside parapet wall.

Work ended for the day, time to clean up.

In goes a beam....

I have been a bit worried about the old kitchen chimney since we removed the fire hood, so we have a nice little concrete beam to put in to support the roof and chimney. We cast the beam a month ago so that it would have time to obtain it’s strength. and now with Dan here we can try and get it in place.

So with a hammer and chisel I started to cut the holes in the wall to take the beam, as the roof slopes one was much larger then the other. But very shortly (and with Dan helping from the outside) we had two very nice holes.

First hole on the inside

And on the outside

 

And the smaller one on the other side of the room

Now with the holes in place we had to get the beam in the holes…. The first idea I had was to bring the beam in through the kitchen door and up and into the holes. but as the beam was up on the car park, the through suddenly hit me .. Why lug it all the way down and then strain lifting it up. it was much simpler to just put it through the first hole from the out side. Which is what we did. I will not say it was a simple job but with the three of us it was not long before it was in place .

Look a beam….

I had planed to put a bed of mortar on the top of the beam before jacking it up as the ceiling was not even. But this did not work to well as the mortar hardened to quickly so we have to remove it and jack it up again. Before mortaring the beam in at the ends and leaving it to set for several days.

The beam in and waiting for the mortar to set.

The magical tunneling seal...

Dan Has arrived for a two week visit, but he says that he is not here for a rest, but to work... GREAT! So we have put him to work tunnelling into the old water tank that will be the bathroom. its over half a meter thick at the base and part rock and concrete.

A happy drilling sealy

So of Sealy went with the new heavy drill and half an hour later the drill started to spark and quit... So he was left with hammer and chisel

Now just left with a hammer and chisel

And it was not that long and he was through.....

We have break through

A hole in the wall .

OK we now have the hole so we have to put the drains in... Oh and we need to get the drill repaired or swapped for a new one...

Is it a pig pen or an observatory

After about 2 years work has finally started on what is going to be the observatory. The location as to where we were going to put it has hopped around that garden quite a bit, but finally it has settled down to what was once the pig pen....
The good thing about this location is that at least parts of the 4 walls are standing, which will reduce the amount of construction required and as it is an existing building we are just repairing we wont have any issues with planning permissions.
The down side is that some of the walls we knocked through as some point in the past so needed to be patched.

Starting to put the boards in

One layer of concrete later

A happy Theresa

That layer done

Time to move things up

The wall remade back to the point it was in 1950 when it was built (we know it was 1950 it is written on the top of the wall at the front)

Patching up walls

One small job that was needed was to patch the wall in the kitchen where we removed the old fire place hood.. This needed doing as we will be putting a beam in to hold the chimney up.

Now I don't know if this beam is needed but we have noticed some cracks on the roof that seem to lead from the base of the chimney. so as I don't want it coming crashing down on my head one day when I am cooking we decided to put a bean in to support it... we even decided to cast the beam ourselves...

I just realised that we never took any photos of the casting of the beam ... oops

Patching wall

A new home for the weather station

The old location for the weather station temperature and humidity sensor used to be the front of the house. The only down side of this location was that at certain times of the year It would get direct sunlight which would upset the readings and not give a true reflection of the current ambient conditions. So once the sensor had come back from repair (having given up after 2 years the replacement only last 3 months so we sent it back under warranty) we decided to construct an new home to protect it from the sun. But it still needs airflow in order to get a correct reading. So what we needed was a Stevenson Screen.

So here it is. In fact it is made from the plastic bases that sit under plant pots. Construction details can be found here

Finaly the battery house has a roof

About a year ago we started to build the housing for the solar power electronics and batteries, See the post Work in Progress. But after the electronics housing was done, we just never got around to working on the battery housing. Well we have finally put the roof on the battery housing...

First I wanted to improve the access to the kitchen roof, by cutting the parapet wall to create a step on to the roof. you can see the new access below, the funny block on the roof to the right of the opening is the cover for what I assume was supposed to be a chimney but as this is now above the entrance to the kitchen we will probably not use it as that ... but it will be useful to get the water piping on to the roof for the solar hot water heater.

New battery house and access to kitchen roof

Now we have the structures for the solar power electronics and batteries all I need to do is put the tiles on the top and render the outsides, add the doors and wire it all up... Lets hope that it will not be another year before the next bit gets done.

Solar power housings.

A visit from the family

All the work this year has been done, manly, so that the outside is safe for the arrival of one 14 month old. My grandson Theo. Well he arrived last week accompanied by his mum Sarah and Rachel and her boyfriend Brett. It was a bit of squash getting four extra bodies in the house but we made it and being able to all eat outside was a god send.

In the week that they were with us we spent every day out, as Sarah and Rachel had lived here for a few years when they were young, they wanted to see places that they remebered from before.

One of the trips was a visit to the Roque del Munchacos and observatories

The obligatory stop for photos

Sarah and Theo at the top of the mountain

Rachel up the mountain

Thanks to our friend Sheila and her husband we all had a tour of the Galileo telescope (Italian) and the Magic (Gama Ray telescope).

Everone in the car park for the Italian telescope.

One of the two Magic telescopes, guess who is visible reflected in the box

Yes thats us!

It was great to see the girls again and meet Brett for the first time. But for me it was very good to see my grandson. I last saw him when he was only one month old, He has grown a lot. I think that is one of the few drawbacks of living in here. you just don't see your family that much.

They seemed to enjoy there time here, but now they are gone we plain to have a few quite days before getting on with more work on the house.

And now water in the kitchin!

The final plumbing job under the kitchen floor is to lay the water pipes, cold feed from outside and a hot feed, wow hot and cold water in the kitchen.......!!!!

The original cold pipe arrives in the kitchen where the old sink was... half way up the wall and just ends in a tap. So we needed to remove the old tap and then connect the new piping, run it down the wall and across the floor to where the new sink will be. We are thinking to add a water filter under the sink so the feed to the bathroom and hot water heater does not connect directly to the cold feed.

Hot And Cold piping

Once all the piping was laid then had to insulate the hot water pipe . This is due to concrete sucking the heat out of the pipes. Well I have found this since we messed around with the hot feed to the current shower. I used squirty foam to insulate the pipes... as it is slightly simpler than the type that comes preformed.

Added insulation for the hot line - I love squirty foam.

And once the foam was set it was time to poor the final layer of concrete so that we have a new floor.... It does not need to be that great as it will be tiled in the end.

And now we have a floor again.....

The last bit of work is to connect the hot heater to the new cold feed. The pipes go up the wall, heading for the roof and the location of the future solar hot water heater, so it was just a mater of a longer connecting pipe and it was all done.

Hot water heater before new cold connection

And after

Look A Patio

Finally after a week of intensive concrete pouring we have a patio. The concrete was poured in sections about a meter wide. Prior to each section being poured a small strip was laid to provide the level. Each pour took about 5 loads of the cement mixer. Some of the pieces had extra complications like a drain channel to take the water from the front steps down and out through the rain water drain.
But finally after a week of hard work and the purchase of a gazebo we now have some where nice outside to sit.

The patio takes shape.

Now mostly of the preparation work is it is time to surface the patio (outside Kitchen / barbecue area) The original surface had a large slope and although it was smooth was not that good when you wanted to sit at a table. So we decided to make a flat area ... The only problem was that the underlying ground was mostly solid rock.. So we desired that instead of trying to dig it all out we would just rise the level. To get it right it had to be in two steps... so that the patio would not be above the kitchen floor!!!!

There are a few more drains to go in though, the Rain water needs to be taken from the roof and from where it runs down the back steps. and the sink in the outside kitchen needs to be connected. So these pipes were put in first before the top step is added.
Once the drains are all done its the lower level was filled with rubble (most of this came from demolition in the kitchen). it was the plan to lay the lower level in three sections, rather than using shuttering to get the levels I decided to us a method that I had seen the local builders use. A line is strung to give the level and then a "wall" of concrete is laid to this level as below.

Once the level has set then the first part of the patio was laid... Only one small problem was that the concrete was not fine enough so that the surface was not that good. This was solved in later poring by adding a few shovels of sand. The quality of the surface is not too much of a problem as we intend to tile the area sometime.... (when we have the money).

Look a Flower Bed

As I explained in a earlier post behind one part of the wall we were going to put a small flower bed in. Well here it is. Having taken some good earth from a pile we had down the garden and mixing it liberally with some manure we have a very nice light soil to plant things in. The first thing to go in was a flower that had to be moved from the garden outside the kitchen window which is being removed. Then the other two things to go in were some herbs; thyme and rosemary. The flower bed also has scattered around some bits of broken flower pot which as well a looking pretty also try and stop Tabby from digging up the plants and using the place as a loo.