Finished Finally!

Yes, it’s taken more than four months but our balcony is finally finished, I can hardly believe it.

We had a call from the Carpenter, to say he had finished the doors, so we contacted Pacho, who repaired our roof, and he said he would do the installation, so we put the two in touch, to arrange a suitable date for the work.

Two weeks ago Pacho turned up, we had moved furniture, erected plastic screening to reduce dust, and I readied a number of tools and materials ready for the work to begin.

True to his word, Pacho arrived, and got stuck in, removing the old window, and cutting the walls to open up for the double doors.

Then the Carpenter arrived with his helper, and installed the doors, which we had made in Oak to match the other interior doors by the same Carpenter

Inward opening doors, so they don’t get smashed in the strong gales up here

Security bars on the windows, bolted on from the inside, to slow down any forced access

Pacho came back the following day to finish the cosmetic stuff, and then we tidied up, and I removed the MDF panels I had used to protect my decking.

After which, it was my turn to get to work again, using a two part mix varnish with extra protection.

Finally it was time to raid the Patio, and furnish the deck!

Now we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour!

Thanks for bearing with me throughout the months of stress, now we will deal with the cause of it. I believe that person thinks we have let the theft go, and we wont do anything about it, he’s about to find out that he picked the wrong stooges! Unfortunately it seems that everyone knew about his problems except us, when I was talking to the Carpenter, he said it wasn’t a surprise as that person was on the booze and spending money on horses (buying not betting).

We are on our second Washing machine this year, I may have mentioned this previously, one of the failings of advancing age, memory loss! We were having problems with the old washining machine we bought in January, the make is Mabe, it wasn’t cleaning the clothes, leaving dirty streaks, the Engineer came out under the warranty, and said the machines were not made for use in the countryside, or at least if you want to wash clothes you have worked the land in, or want to wash the dogs covers, do not use these machines, I really do wonder where they get these ideas from.

Unfortunately its not the first time we had been told something similar, in fact a previous Engineer, who came out to the previous machine which was a Haceb, said that if we wanted a good machine, we needed to buy one from the U.S.

The Mabe Engineer, gave me a lesson on how to dismantle the top loader and remove the barrel, to clean the dust and mucky water from underneath, which meant buying a special spanner, which I did, online. However I wasn’t expecting the same problem within a month. I have therefore made an investment, and bought a front loader, LG from the U.S. which has a drainage vent to remove the offending muck, and hopefully will last years… If it doesn’t we’ll be washing our clothes in the stream down below, because I can’t afford another!

The Living arrangements, with the Mother-in-law living with us, are working out fine, at the moment we have my Father-in-law staying as well. He had to come down from Caucasia for a cataract operation, in Medellin, he had the tests Thursday, he’s having the surgery Monday, and a check up Wednesday, then a few days and he will be off on his merry way, things are a bit strained with him here, but that’s between him and me, we used to be close, but his habits annoyed me, and now I put up with him for Marcela’s sake.

Weather wise, I’m not going to tempt fate by saying summer has arrived, but we have had a few pleasant days, and long may they continue. Today, I’ve been able to cut the grass, for the second time in a week, everything is growing so fast, with all the rain we have had, and now the heat, but I’m not complaining, I’m really not!

I think that about brings me back up to date, and ready to face the next phase of our beloved President’s dreams.