The End of 2005

As the end of 2005 approaches, I think we can look back and say 'Wow! That was a year to remember'. Bearing in mind that the original intention was to take on house that may have needed a bit of tidying up, we decided to get a complete ruin instead, then we moved to getting a place built for us, to getting a partial build done to actually building ourselves. Additionally, apart from buying the finca, getting the permissions sorted out and commencing the build, we have also bought two other properties (future rental and needing refurbishment), moved into one of them, formed a company and we did, as some may know, both have surgery. So, at the end of 2005 we feel that we have made a good start to our new life here in Spain although we don't appear to have much at the moment apart from a load of building plans.

Talking strictly finca now, the retaining wall at the bottom of the ramp was the first of the more serious jobs to be started. I can assure anyone who is not familiar with building (including us!) it takes an awful lot of sand, gravel, cement and water to fill a trench. Along with the fact that it is an uphill task - physically and a bit mentally! - then it feels like a good aerobics session after mixing and barrowing a couple of cubic meters of concrete.

The pictures show a Christmas shot with the shuttering still in and then a week or so later with the wall starting to go up with me leaning against it to prove it stands up.

No comments from the brickies amongst you about the quality of the blockwork - its meant to lean back!

The real work goes almost unseen as the cavities in the blocks have to be filled with concrete and the large space behind the wall has to be back-filled (with gravel, rubble and rocks). We're not too worried by the scruffy appearance of the wall since its going to be faced off with rocks - my excuse for the shabby work.

The other biggy for us was the completion of the steel reinforcement cages for the footing of the rear wall of the house. The architect wanted to take a peek before we filled it with concrete and was basically satisfied with our steelwork (or was he just dashing off to another meeting?). I feel that he rather over-specified the amount of steel since the underlying ground is extemely hard rock - ain't going to go anywhere!  Anyway, we went ahead with the cement pour but, unfortunately, started too late in the day. We ended up checking the levels by torchlight. Lesson: get out of bed earlier!

So 2005 ended with a bit of a splutter with Christmas, visitors and bad weather stopping us from making more progress. We'll just have to sit around, relax and enjoy a festive glass or two then.

In the meantime, Happy New Year or Feliz Ano Nuevo and we are most certainly looking forward to an interesting year ahead.

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