Weeks 28 and 29 - 30 October to 12 November 2017 - roof, stone walls, plumbing, floors

We had a bit of rain over the weekend, just enough to clean the trees of dust and lighten up the air. We focus on finishing the external rendering, chasing in remaining electric ducts, building the stone walls and getting the floor ready for the next layer of concrete. All slow work without much exciting stuff to show for it.

Finished with first layer of external rendering, porch and column.

Mohamed working on the stone wall on Tuesday. Some light boxes chased in.

... and two days later (Thursday pm). It's painstaking work.

...and Saturday end of week 28. Now need scaffolding.

6 November. It'll be interesting to see Mohamed build the stone wall over the door.

8 November. Extending wall almost at full height.

9 November: reach full height of wall extension, and start on column to support the pergola beams.

We cut in a box for the gas bottle, outside the kitchen.

Overflow from the cistern. Just in case it rains a lot...

Rainwater from roofs will come in from the left (pipes not yet laid), will flow to cistern through the two pipes on the right. The pipe going off to the top will be set in lower than the cistern inlet pipes, and will have a cover. When the roofs are clean, cover is on, water flows to cistern. When water is dirty (first rain after dry spell, and roof is dirty), take the cover off and dirty water flows away to the ground.After a while and water flows cleanly, put top back on, et voila.

A lot of the scaffolding removed, looks much nicer.

Living room with laser placed floor heightbmarkers, ready for subfloor.

Lights boxes fitted to stairway to heaven.

Digression to sunset Wednesday evening, taken from the roof.
Sun set just after 6pm. We'll be working in the dark soon...

Floors already for cement, to level of dark markers.
Underfloor heating pipes go above this, some time in the future (mañana)...

... and floor cement going on ...

... and on...

...and on. This is one of the guest bedrooms.
I found out today that is just the first 'rough' layer;
Another thin layer goes on top of this, precisely levelled with the laser.
Insulated water pipe grid goes on top of that to receive the underfloor heating.

Another digression, last night's sunset with all seven of the Denia mountains showing on the horizon.
You may have to zoom in.

Stripping sabina of its bark, to use as lintels for the windows in the stone wall.

Starting the floors on the upper level. Front entrance here,

Patio,

Study.

Big delivery today, this is for the ceilings in the living room.
Beams have been taped up, scaffolding is in, start tomorrow (9th November)

and here they go.

End of Thursday 9th.

Lay the base of the patio, with drain dug (running left to right).
There will be low stone wall around it.
Fat ducts are for comms (left) and mains power in (right).
Small ducts are for power to low wall lights.

Lay concrete floor base in utility, loo and front hall...

... and study.

I prepped another few sabinas (Phoenician Juniper) for lintels.

Another stunning sunset, Thursday evening. Mainland Spain just visible in the distance.

End of the week. The living room ceiling is rendered.

... as is the guest bathroom ceiling.

Rasillas are finally delivered.

The rasillas are thicker and bigger, and better, than the original ones we considered.

Final task of Saturday: marking up for the rasillas,
which we'll start laying on Monday.

Good two weeks altogether. There wasn't much to see in the first part, just lots of small patches and fixes. But by the end of the second week there is a lot of visible progress. The stone wall has grown a lot, the main ceiling has been rendered, rasillas are here and ready to be laid, after which we can finish the parapets. Floors are down, ready for the underfloor heating pipes. The underfloor heating system has been ordered, all bathroom sanitary ware as well, and all floor, terrace and pool tiles are about to be ordered.  

I is a happy boy!