Panic Stations!!!

We noticed the other day that the tool shed at the side of the house was coming away from the house, at the time we thought it was John mixing a bad batch of cement, but it appears it has not been tied into the house, so I had put it on my list to rectify.

However this morning my plans for the day changed totally… After my morning coffee, I had gone to the tool shed to get my gardening tools, ready to start today\’s landscaping project, when I noticed that one of the supporting timbers holding up the roof of the \’zona de ropa\’ at the side of the house was pulling away from the wall, this accounted for the problem with the tool shed, because as the roof moved it was taking that with it. PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was another John job, although officially he did this on the side, so I had no come back, it was his design, and he supervised the work, however he wasn\’t answering his mobile. Marcela jumped out of bed, and whilst she had her breakfast, I made a start, we decided that we had to strip all the tiles off the roof, the weight of these were causing the problem, this is the second time John\’s idea of using tiles has backfired.

We managed to get all the tiles off, I ended up doing something I vowed I would never do, and that was getting up on the roof, but there was no other option, and the rain started as we came to a finish, so I got a soaking.

We then worked out what materials we needed (more on that later!), Marcela changed, I just changed my wet top, and then hitched up the new trailer, and off we went, firstly calling on Don Umberto in Copacabana, so that he could fit the new electric sockets, he was more than happy, because Marcela had given his details to the Chery Consessionaire, and he already had another Tiggo to fit out with a tow bar. From there it was on to HomeCenter, where we bought 6\” rawl bolts to pull the roof support back in line, and sheets of Onduline to cover the roof, in place of the tiles.

Back home, we had lunch, then it was time for work, helped all the way back my able Assistant, without whom, the work would have taken twice as long. Firstly I drilled and fitted the rawl bolts, the wooden beam, isn\’t going anywhere now, I then cut some construction timber planks I had, to make battens to attach the Onduline to, I nailed these onto the roof, after which, it was time to fit the roofing sheets, how on earth fitters get their screws in straight lines I have no idea, mine certainly aren\’t, but they are doing the job, this was probably more to do with me moving around on the roof gingerly on hands and knees, and praying I wouldn\’t go through the 1/4\” planking, or slide off the edge.

The weather changed again, the clouds came in black, and the light was fading fast, I just had time to get the fourth sheet secured, before I realised my first mistake (No my second, the first was letting John do this job!) I hadn\’t bought enough roofing sheets, I am going to need another three, so I will have to go for them tomorrow, but I still have two more to be going on with, and the last ones are going to need cutting, I also need to buy some more 1/4\” sockets, because I have wrecked two attaching the roof fittings!

Panic over, the roof is now secure, as a result,  I now have about two hundred roof tiles going spare, if anybody needs them ha!ha!

Unfortunately I didn\’t get around to taking the promised photo of Marcela\’s hard work yesterday, maybe tomorrow.