One day closer!

Out early again this morning, had to call and buy more fittings, and whilst there, found some more roller blinds.

Then on to work! the first thing was to connect up the fittings for the oven and hob, which will run on propane cylinders, I don\’t know what the problem was, but my gas blow-lamp kept flaming out, the nozzle was clear, it had only been used once before, so I hope it isn\’t a duff! eventually all the joints were soldered, I just need to test them and I\’ll do that with washing up liquid, once I have a cylinder connected.

Work on the workshop is progressing, albeit slowly, through no fault of Johns, they have reached roof level, and before building up the apex, they needed to install concrete vigas, however you can\’t buy them ready made here, so they spent all morning and half the afternoon making up a forma, and the metalwork, then pouring the hand mixed concrete. One day maybe Colombia will enter the modern world.

Whilst this was going on, I was trying to prepare the cable, to run the electric 25m from the house to the workshop, not an easy task, when yet again you have three separate cables, with no outer covering, I had bought some UV resistant tubing, similar to transparent hose pipe, but try as I may, I couldn\’t thread the cable through, even using a fish tape, so I gave up, and now I am using black electricians tape, it is going to take ages, I am doing a bit between each job.

I then went upstairs, the intention was to fit the en-suite shower room door, but I got sidetracked. A workman John had employed, had made a good job of the tiling, but then John had him preserve the wooden roof ceilings, and then varnish/stain them, unfortunately he had not cleaned up after himself as he went along, and every floor upstairs is covered in varnish spots, only removable with thinners, and the smell of Colombian thinners, is repulsive. I spent an hour and a half, only managing to clean the vestier floor, I still have the lounge, office and our bedroom to do, I haven\’t even looked out on the balcony floor yet, that runs round two sides of the house!

I was then going to pack up, but John asked for my help, they were going to erect the telegraph pole to support, the mains cable which is sagging dangerously across the garden. I drilled through the top of the pole, then bolted a \’U\’ bracket, again adapted, this is to support the cable, we then placed said pole in the hole, Henri had prepared, and whilst I held on they filled it with concrete, and rubble. I then nailed supports to hold it in place until the concrete had gone off.

The idea is that this will then support, the mains cable, the main telephone cable, and our new cable to the workshop, so never being one to hold back, I asked John how the hell he thought we would get the cables into the bracket, \”Up the ladder with a broom, and lift them in, using the broom head\”, \”All yours\” was my reply, there was no way on earth you would get me up there.

Afterwards, we sat down for a natter, and we were comparing prices and salaries, between here and the UK / Spain, John as the Boss, only takes home £350pw, you can understand, why families stick together, and tend to just build onto their current family home, there are more incomes coming into a house, and life is affordable, if not comfortable.

I then left them to it, but had to call and buy some more thinners on the way home, this time I remembered to get my authorisation, before going to the Till, however I was that tired, I forgot about it, until the cashier called another woman to go and get the authorisation for me, out it came from my pocket and there were smiles all around, plus one red faced Gringo!!!!!

After doing that, I have got to call again in the morning, I forgot to buy the mirror units for the shower rooms!