Casa con Luz

January 2009.

That is what all the locals say. "Ah. We've seen the house with lights over there" (down the end of the valley from the village). Yup. Its us. Lights blazing (if 4 watt LED lights can blaze!), music playing and wood burner belting out heat. We've settled in and are now quite happily ensconsed in El Cerrete. It was exciting and interesting to unpack our boxes that have been stored for four years and re-discover our possessions - some of which were immediately junked but, in the main, it was like a cheapskate's Christmas with no need to go and buy anything. Scrooge? Me?

With our bed downstairs where the dining table should be, temporary bookshelves made from concrete blocks and miscellaneous stuff piled in a corner, it isn't actually the finished article but, we've managed to entertain a few friends for lunch, albeit on a sheet of plywood on tressles, and we sit here in the winter months in a lot more comfort and warmth than the poor old village house.

You learn a lot by living in a house particularly one that is newly built (by some amateur!) For winter type things, we need to sort out how we are going to manage the heat flows through the house before next winter and, importantly, sort out the generation of electricity. The summer type things have yet to happen but water will be the main topic, I expect. Smaller problems like anti-fly measures and shading we should be able to sort out soon.

April 2009.

During January and February we worked on completing our bedroom and bathroom upstairs. It was quite strange at first not having to pack my bag for the day and drive over to the site but just to fall out of bed and get on with it. We also completed our spare room that will be a bedroom for guests which will otherwise be a comfy lazing around type room. I've built a mezzanine in it so that we have some extra storage type space. Access by ladder at the moment until I get around to making the space saver stairs (phase 2).  At the end of March we moved our bed upstairs and put our dining room table and chairs in the vacated space. Here is a photo of our bathroom sinks and Anne waiting for dinner.

Now for the outside area which, at the beginning of April, was nothing more than a typical building site with a new house sitting in the middle of it. For sure, we have to build some shade areas since we are quite exposed to the summer sun. We also need areas to plant up but do not want to encourage water retention behind the retaining walls. Because of this we decided to concrete around the house, build large planters with both an irrigation system and proper drainage and finally covering the concrete with terracotta tiles. All in all its about 100 sq. meters and that is a lot of concrete and a lot tiles! Here is a couple of shots showing the early work and a bit later, what the terrace should be used for!

June 2009.

Ikea has benefitted greatly from our patronage. We now have a couple sofas and, potential guests please note, new matresses to go on our new bedframe. We also picked up some value-for-money outdoor furniture and a chest of drawers. Remarkably, all the bits were present.

The summer heat is with us and we soon realise that the shade isn't quite working to protect us from the afternoon/early evening heat. Having said that, at lunchtime the temperature is just right making it very difficult to get going again! Our evening meals are taken as the sun slides down behind the mountains opposite and the sky is an ever-changing palette of pinks and reds signalling another great sunset. Its what we paid up for.

August 2009.

The summer burns on relentlessly. I would guess its as bad as the summer in 2005 with hardly any 'slightly' cooler days to speak of. And, for the first time, our river water supply completely dries up. No surprise considering the dry late spring. Big Time Gulp! The bore hole pumps dry as well! We swiftly move onto emergency measures, i.e. no running taps for hand washing, teeth cleaning and showering, only flushing loos when really necessary and no plant watering (they had already died anyway). My brother and his wife arrive for a holiday and join in the 'fun' of water rationing. I don't think any of us were smelling!

We collect our two little kittens just 8 weeks old, both little ginger fellas. We name them Reggie and Ronnie. They have to live outside (I am allergic to animals) but in the warmth of summer this doesn't seem to be a problem. Winter may be different.

Anne had a go at making her own sausages - no giggling at the back of the class. They were fantastic. Much, much better than shop bought efforts. Here is a Cumberland ready for two hungry peeps.

September 2009.

Although it hasn't rained, water starts to seep through in our little river. What a relief. We were just over half way down our storage tank and starting to get a bit jittery. Anyway, its good news to know that the river recovers by itself. Not sure I understand why though.  With careful management, the bore hole appears to have recovered as well but in the future we will have to guard against over-pumping.

With the water shortage and the heat, nothing much was undertaken during the summer months. Having a new covered terrace and a couple of sunloungers might also of had something to do with it.

November 2009.

Erm. Whats going on? No rain. Normally, October and November are the rainy months. This could be a problem.

Our new generator arrives - whoopee! Its a substantial beast more like a engine looking for a lorry body. It generates 8.7kw, water cooled diesel running at 1500rpm, electronic start and can be started remotely through the inverter. It really is the business.

Christmas 2009

We moved over here just over a year ago so have had time to find the problems during the changing seasons. Our main problems are rain - some annoying leaks and, sun - not enough shade to protect plants, otherwise, when its not raining and not sunny, we're fine!

The rain arrived, seriously arrived. So much so that we had to abandon a planned night in Malaga to see the lights and do a bit of present buying (that was my excuse anyway). At the year end, it was still raining. The cats didn't want to get their paws wet...

[next page]