Ben the Bricky and giant beams arrive!

Ben started with the internal wall, poor bugger had a bad cold and the weather was not as nice as it should be, I can't believe its Christmas Day tomorrow. I need to go shopping as I have no presents for the boys! Carrafour here we come.

I made him eat stew!

Looking good Ben!

Larder, Wardrobe and bathroom all taking shape in brick.

Rich and Simon had a small road trip to collect the large timber beams for the roof supports. We have been put in contact with a great wood merchants by Jose, the problem is that it's a 2 hour drive away. However, the low prices really really, make it worth while driving that far. They arrived back in the dark and we called on some "Oranges", Miles and Ollie to come and help unload in the dark. Poor Ollie trapped his finger, hope it does not stop him from climbing!

Careful Ollie!

Next day was Christmas Day and we had arranged a rest day. The plan was to play on the crag above the house, do some new routing and play on the mountain board. Change of plan as it decided to piss it down and spoil our fun. Good job we had Mums house to go and hide in. Christmas dinner of roast veg, ready cooked chickens, Aunt Bessies and loads of chocolates helped to make it feel a little better and was very chilled. Ben slept through his meal poor thing!

We wanted to go back to work on Boxing day but ........ the rain makes the road impossible to drive up and down and its blowing a gale, great to dry everything out but Ben can't do any brick work and Simon can't work with the frame. Also the caravan leaks right over our pillows, the ground around the caravans is a mud bath, the dogs have no where to go, the horses are miserable. You can imagine my mood is improving daily!

Thursday and the sun is out again and the wind has dropped, time to start again. Rich helps Simon to frame out the top support, this is the frame that will take all the large beams. The Nissan is used to takes a few of the giant beams up at a time so all looking better.

Rich will head down on Friday to collect the rest of them, but we need to do some work on the large trailer first, Rich is worried about the bolts holding the tow bar in place. Lets hope the shops are open today!

Rich and Simon showing how strong the frame is!

I get a email later that afternoon from the wood place to say they are only open in the morning but Rich can't find the bolts he needs so is not that happy to head back down. All the main shops that we can think to try for the bolts are bloody closed! We had pinched bolts from the old caravans, horse box etc and it would be pushing it to head down again. Sometimes this country really can make life a challenge. We decide to head down on Monday. Later that afternoon I remember a great shop in Altea for builders bits, Rich heads over on his motorbike and is a happy bunny when he finds what he needs. He heads back over and starts to repair the trailer, would you believe though he bought the wrong size! Stay calm Sam he can head on over again in the morning, only that will be Saturday and who knows if it is open on a Saturday morning! Yes it is and finally we have a safe trailer to use for the rest of the roof.

THEN, we receive an email from Isabelle at the wood yard saying they are now closed for the holidays and they will reopen on the 7th! I really don't believe this.

I translate the email from Spanish into English and thank goodness she said that someone would be in the office on the Monday morning and if we want to, we can come down and collect. Sort of a good thing as Simon leaves on Sunday and he is really the only one that can fit the roof as he has redesigned how the beams will sit on the frame.

Top frame complete.

The top frame is now complete, Ben has gone back to the UK to spend New Year in Manchester and time for the windows to go in. We had a stroke of luck with our windows thanks to facebook.

We have a page over here called "sell your stuff Spain". You would never, ever believe the stuff that people try to sell, but you can find some bargains. In May I spotted a girl advertising a selection of 7 windows that had been taken from a house that was demolished as the owner didn't like the way it faced! The house cost her a cool 1 million euros!

The girl was asking around 300 euros each window and some are massive and all hard wood and double glazed. I got in touch and I knew that it was a bargain but as the house was so far in the future I said we could not afford that much. I decided to keep my eye on the advert and I did see them coming down in the price a few times. I still didn't think it was time to make an offer.

A few months passed and then one day I happened to see that she said "anyone make me an offer around 500€ and they can come and take the lot". I jumped on the pc and said "we can come and get them today". When we arrived I was so shocked at the quality and size. 2 are also stained glass arched top windows. When she asked for 400 I was even more happy. I do know that these are the best bargain for the house.

Bedroom window in place, not a bad view!

Afternoon sun through the stained glass!

Monday and time to head down and collect the rest of the beams! Why is nothing in my life bloody simple! Rich says "can you call em before I leave to make sure they are open". Good idea only my ipad has died that has the number on it, laptop screen has buggered and the battery power has died as not enough sun for the solar panels! AND we can't start the generator as we put all the fuel in the car last night and forgot to buy more! ;0) happiness happiness!!!!!

Rich says he will set off anyway and I say I will call them when the power comes back on. I can't head to The Orange House as Jose is on his way!

I finally get the number and call Yecla wood yard. Paco says "hola" and I try in my crap, stupid Spanish to explain that my husband in on route and please can he let him in. He says "well I am only here for a short while as I have to go to the bank and if the wood is not ready that he can't take it. SHIT! I call Rich to see how long he will be, but he loves to play his music loud and does not answer. Things just get better and better. At last Rich calls me back, I call Paco and tell him Rich is 30 mins away and please don't leave.  Wood collected and Rich on route back, bloody hell please can things start to go a little better.

Simon is making great progress and we have all the windows in place. Rich takes over the brick wall and Orange House starting to get quieter, all is looking better.

It can't last can it?

Little Pippa found a nice spot to hide! 

Simon arrived and so did the stress!

As we knew Simon was due any day, Rich was under pressure to finish the block work wall to get us out of the ground and to give us a base to place the strawbales. After his masterclass from Clive he was on a roll and he worked his arse off to get it all finished. He layed 2 blocks side by side, all the way around with a 10cm gap in the middle, he then filled that gap and each block. So much for my eco build with no cement.

In the original plans the internal walls had been timber and stud work. However, Irene and Jose decided that a better option would be for a red brick internal wall, stronger for the support of the beams and able to hold more heat in the winter when we want the house to stay toasty!. That was fine but I asked the question "what does this wall sit on?" To which Irene replied "on your cement floor of course".

It was late at night, I was tired, Simon was on his way and for the first time on the build I broke down and sobbed! I really did not want more cement. I did not want to have to wait for the floor to be completed before we could start the internal wall and then wait to be able to put the beams on it!

I spoke to Rich and must have sounded like a spoilt brat as I said, stamping my feet, "I AM NOT HAVING MORE BLOODY CEMENT!"

I stopped crying and sat and sent an email to Irene explaining that I really did not want to hold up the timber frame and did not want a cement floor. I went to bed a tad worried.

In the morning an email was waiting, bless her it said "yeh no worries Sam, I understand, but you need to build another block work wall through the centre of the house, one line this time, to support the brick wall". One happy Sam, although poor Rich then had to build another block work wall.

Simon left Bristol with my horse box in tow, full of car parts and xmas shopping from Tesco. He arrived safe and sound and the day after I pushed him in the van with me and headed off down to Murcia to collect the first load of timber. 108 3 metres lengths of 40x90cm. Heavy duty stuff!

We knew that another visit was needed in a few days but at least Simon could get started. We had a few telephone conversations with Irene to sort out the dimensions for the frame and started to get the wood up the hill for the cutting to commence. Rich moaned as I then sent him down a few days later to collect the rest of the wood and the membrane that we needed.

The red brick wall was just too much for Rich to tackle, so bless him, Phil came to our rescue at 8.30am on Sunday morning before Christmas to start the wall. Shame that the day before Rich had a senior moment and didn't get enough bricks (of course it was my fault though!) Half a day gone and half a wall had flown up. Here they are having a very British tea break....

Tea Break!

In the same photo are the timber frames laying down all cut to size. Things starting to feel real. So far I am not enjoying the build, too much stress getting the building materials to site, Rich working way to hard moving the materials to site. His back is killing him and he insists on lifting stuff around. Must be a man thing!

I guess that building a house at the busiest time of year for The Orange House, and with 2 new rescue horses and dogs I could not have made it harder for us if I tried! All we need now is for it to rain and blow a gale!

Ben my youngest son arrived on Sunday evening and we told him that he could have a small lie and then we needed him to finish the internal walls. He is at Plymouth College doing bricklaying. Poor bugger moaned and me for the tools he was expected to use, the mix of cement, the unlevel level and on and on! He is a tad slower than Phil but I am really happy that I will be able to say that my boy helped to build our house. Thanks Ben Ben. 

Out of the ground and new caravan!

We had some bad weather last week and I am very happy to report that Rich and the Oranges managed to get this finished just in time, and I mean the day it rained. The girls now have a nice shelter to stand underneath. Which of course they don't do naturally, they prefer to stand and get wet!

Paloma walking out as no food! 

We had some great rainbows all over the place, can you spot the double one?

Double rainbow from Orange House 

With the blue lines all drawn on the ground it was time to start laying some concrete (I know, I hate it but nearly done with it!) blocks to start the walls. The strawbales will sit "end up" on top of this wall.

Now Rich has laid these blocks before but never with such importance! I don't know how it happened but friends Kate and Clive (who was a builder) asked if they could visit and take a look. We really could not have planned it any better as it turned into a Master Class for Rich.

First problem was we didn't have a spirit level that was bloody level and we have 3! A mad dash to Orange House to borrow Kev our joiners one, which was working thank goodness.

Then the boys soon realised how wonky the cement foundation are. One corner up, the other down and up and down like a mini rollercoaster. So glad we found all this out before we then started! Clive you are a star!

Hmm is it straight?

You can see on this photo the cement under the far corner and how much more is under this side! All makes it more interesting, and what is amazing is that Rich will be able to say he has built his own house with his own fair hands!

During Jose's last visit we had a meeting about the timber we are going to use. We agreed on the uprights for the frame (9cm x 4.5cm) and called the contact down in Yecla, Murcia. A long way to travel to collect it but a great price, so has to be done.

Irene had specified new modern larger beams to hold up the roof, but I had other ideas!

The house we lived in up in Sella mountains has had a new roof and the old beams taken out. Tony wanted to cut em up for fire wood, bless him I said no! We brought one down to the site and Jose had a look and said he would speak to Irene, he did think she would say no as they can't be guaranteed! I had fingers and toes crossed while he called her and she said yes! as long as they are all inspected and look and feel OK. That has saved us a small fortune and to be honest what I really wanted to give the house a more ethnic and natural feel. Also it will be lovely to have some of our other house down here with us.

My lovely wood!

Another great piece of luck this week, is thanks again to Kate and Clive. We went to visit them last week and I spotted an old caravan over the hill from their house in a neighbours garden. Kate said she would give him a call and see what he wanted to do with it. He said come and get it, no money, yippee! It had no door by the way and only one wheel!

We pinched a wheel from one of the other vans on the land and Kev made us a new door from an old door from The Orange House. you know me I never waste anything!

Rich and Ollie spent a few hours changing wheels and then she was ready to drive up onto the land. Now I have no idea what Rich was thinking as the ground was still wet from the rain, but he thought he would tow all the way up and around the first bend! erm that didn't quite go the plan and the new van got well and truly stuck!

Caravan tug of war!

After a few hours of tug of war with the 2 cars, we ditched the Nissan, I attached the caravan to the Rav and pulled her around. This bit we really should have filmed as the she did turn, but then the slack let her roll very fast back down the hill. With the rope stretch she bounced around a bit but thank goodness the rope held and she didn't end up back down on the road!

Eventually she was put into place and given a quick make over with fabric and a staple gun anda few rugs, we now have a very cool little bedroom. This means that the motorhome can come back to The Orange House for if we need to make a quick getaway!

Rich and Sean are on the land as I type and I am hoping that the main base walls will be in by the end of today.

We broke Craig, but all holes filled!

Poor "oranges" they worked their arse's off filling all the holes on one final push and one long day! They finished in the dark, Craig said the next day that we had broken him.

How many "oranges" none working though as should be wearing high vis vests and helmets!

Here is Rich playing with his vibrator...

Plastic chair in place already to take in the view!

We now have a flat space again and Irene and Jose came yesterday to draw nice little blue lines. The thin blue line is a marker for the inside wall of cement that we have to now make as a base wall for the straw bales to sit on. We will be collecting wooden shuttering this week as the cement will be mixed again next Tuesday.

I think you can now make out the layout of the rooms. This closest corner is the kitchen with the curved wall of the dining room, then open plan to the lounge. The small room in the far outer corner is the bedroom. Behind that the bathroom, with a walk in closet. Off the kitchen we will have a larder. With a wooden porch out the front and small internal courtyard at the back I really think this little house will keep me busy and happy for a few years to come.

Simon the joiner and good mate is leaving the UK on the 15th December so less than 3 weeks and the timber frame will be started. He is bring over all his tools which will save us alot of money and behind him will be our horse trailer.

Metal in the holes!

Holes all dug and now time to make the metal boxes that are designed to hold the cement together.

Long lengths collected by Rich in the big trailer and then walked up the hill by Oranges, Craig and I decided we would use the Nissan for our lengths cause we can.

Happy "oranges" although its like a change gang!

I had 2 meetings this week with Jose the architect, he is such a great guy he puts me on a high each visit. He came over to The Orange House as we needed the internet to translate and look at pictures of materials needed.

I had a print out of our plans and the materials list from Irene architect, we had started to price equipment needed, timber etc. The cost of some plastic membrane was around £650 for the roof, within a few mins he had scribbled through my list and plans and said "nope we ain't using that, nay forget that" I sat with a massive grin on my face and saw the costs of the materials drop by 50%, happy day!

The second meeting was with Javier who will be our building materials guy, no speaking English so with my crap Spanish I think I will be getting the cement and some water on Monday around 11am.

Below is the cement mixer arriving on site, thanks to the lovely Phil again for the "rent" of this machine. I have no idea how many loads this will take to fill the holes but it will be alot...........

I know I sound horrible shouting at poor Rich, like a bloody fish wife!

Some big holes in the ground!

Phil came back and dug out between the white lines, more earth moved onto the front so we have a slightly bigger piece of hillside to perch on!

Here is a photo of Mummy Orange standing in the kitchen, she was not too happy balancing on an old pallet to get across the gap! Bless her ;0)

"please don't make me walk the plank!"

Holes in the gound, how exciting!

Rich bought half of the metal this week and has started to make some boxes to place into the holes, I will be contacting various people tomorrow to try and pin people down with prices for various materials.

We do have a bit of a deadline now as our Joiner leaves Bristol to drive over with my horse box on the 9th December. I didn't want a timescale to work to but it as made Rich happy that things are starting to move along.

Things get started!!! scary!!!!

I know this update is well over due, so sorry guys, I have been trying to spend less time at my PC and more time on the land, which is what I have been doing!

We had moved up to Sella in January if you remember,waiting for planning permission to be approved and also that we had a house with 4 walls and a roof. Rich headed back to the UK for work during July and I drove over to meet him and spend some time with the family.

Great views but too far from the real world for me!

Whilst driving to Orkney so Rich could guide on "The Old Man" we called in at Lancaster and bought a 21ft caravan, as you do! This would kill 2 birds with one stone as we needed to bring back bits and pieces from the house in Devon that we sold last year and we needed a new home down on the land.

Leaving Lancaster with the "lounge"

Once at The Orange House we emptied out all the crap we had towed for miles and started to rip the caravans guts out. It had a large bedroom at the back which I knew would make a great little kitchen and the main part we ripped out the bathroom to allow space for us to chill out and watch our massive TV.

It is still not finished inside but it does look alot better and is a great place to hide from the world!

I wrote this blog entry from there as you can see from the pc on the seat and the pussy cat Thomas sleeping at the side of me.

Before we had left for the UK Phil our lovely builder said he knew of a little caravan that we could maybe use on the land, he warned me it was little and I said that would be great and we would collect when we came back from the UK.

I called him one afternoon and said I could pop over with Jenny and collect the van if that was ok, he took a second to say, “we really need Rich with us” to which I replied “ I am sure I am more than capable of hitching up a caravan” sexist bugger! He laughed and said “ I forgot to tell you its laying on its side!” I laughed back, forgave him and said "OK we will wait for Rich to come with us".

Only I could go to collect a caravan that has been laying on its side in the mountains for over a year!

Off we set in the Nissan to collect it, I wish we had a photo of the poor thing on its side, and when Phil said little, he meant LITTLE, this thing is tiny but it was love at first sight.

With Jen and me on one side, Phil and Rich on the other and one little gentle push, over she went back to the same spot she had stood on over 12 months before.

We pumped up the tyres and drove back and forward a few times to unlock the handbrake and off we went back over the mountain tracks. I reckon she is vintage 70's and I will keep her forever, at the moment she is now making us a perfect dressing room. When all this is finished I will restore her back to her true self and use her in the garden as a guest room. My good friend Kim already spent the night in her and I am sure slept peacefully.

We had a moving out date from Sella, September 1st. I did sort of enjoy living up there but I have not driven up since. The last few drives up drove me crazy and I knew that living only 8 minutes door to door from The Orange House would be amazing ( and it is, now we are back in full season again!).

We worried, well Rich worried about driving the caravans into place, I had more faith, but don’t I always? The baby van went it first, easily pushed into her space, however, she does weigh nothing. Next big van, we had help from family and friends but really she was easy too. Backed in with a great view from my lounge window, Puig and the girls.

"well that was easy"

Then the camper-van, the last piece in our jigsaw, our bedroom and bathroom. She too was easy to reverse in and all sorted, 3 vans under our magic tree and the girls on the terrace just below.

Rich happy under the magic tree as we call it!

Polly watching!

Maybe I should have cut his ropes?

Water will be our main problem living up here, we have none! We do have a little well on the bottom terrace so Rich decided one day to take a look, nothing to see really apart from a large hole in the ground, but he had fun exploring.


Jose and Irene our architects came to draw out white lines in cement dust on the 8th October. This is starting to feel more real, the only downside is we discover that when we dug out a space last year we didn’t dig out enough. The machine and Phil would have to return.

more land needed

Phil and digger return and we have a bigger and better space with more soil dumped at the front to make us feel slightly better about sliding down the hillside.

Jose returned again to mark out the lines again and guess what that is our house!

My home, gulp!

The next instalment will be, how the hell do we get tonnes and tonnes of cement up this hillside with no water and tight bends! Watch this space...

.

Plans approved no stopping us now!

So much has happened since I last blogged where do I start?

The summer was hot but we loved living on the land with our great big tent lounge, we had sky TV and our 42" TV. Sleeping in the van at night with the van windows wide open kept us cool, when all around people moaned about the heat! All our friends thought us mad (whats new?) and would beep horns as they went past the road at the bottom!

My magic tree as I called it!

Who else would have sky and a 42" telly in a tent?

In September my good friend Cathy booked an amazing villa in Altea and invited us to go and stay with her. Real bedroom with en-suite bathroom, swimming pool etc do you think we hesitated at all!

The Orange House then become empty as it was the start of the new season so we took a room whilst we worked on getting it ready.

A few weeks into September and we had a frantic phone call from Danny a friend who passed the land on his way home to say " your bloody tents blowing around, come quick!" SHIT!

It was a complete mess, the weight of the rain had ripped every seem apart, we think the sun must have destroyed the stitching. Poor tent :0(

While the tent was still up one hot August day I decided to search on line for a beach front flat (like you do!). It took me to a website with a little picture of a house which we knew! We could not believe that it was prime climbing land in Sella. Tony Pearson a good friend was over at the time and we all decided to try and buy it. That would give us a home of sorts until we could get this one built!

At the same time I started to search for an architect and during a google session I found this great Spanish website - http://www.casasdepaja.org/

I sent them a message asking if they could recommend anyone that could liase with the Townhall and get my plans passed. I had an email within a few days from a lovely young girl called Irene from a little further south and we started to chat about my plans. This is a house that she has designed and had built -

This house is also built with Straw Bales! 

January 2013 and we get the keys for the old farmhouse in Sella and move in there. Really, really busy season at The Orange House so nothing happens on the land, in fact we don't even visit. We pass it each day  however and both say "god I can't wait till we live up there". Driving up to the other house which takes 45 mins each trip is a pain in the arse.

I downloaded a free piece of software for my ipad and started to have a think about what we wanted to build, (did you all notice the royal "we" been used, poor Rich). We had however spent some of last year in a bungalow near the village and both loved living on one level, so that was an easy decision. NO STAIRS! 

We had cleared a small plot to place the tent on so that really helped to decide the size of the house. As we had dug away from the terrace above I had the idea to build the house towards the front which would allow me to have a very private courtyard garden at the back of the house. This is something I have always wanted and in my head I can already see that finished with massive green plants, running water etc a real moroccan feel.

I can see this in my head already only slighty smaller of course! lol

I sent my designs to Irene and left it to her to get it to a state that the School Of Arquitects in Alicante would approve and then allow her to send into the townhall. At the end of May as she promised and with plans signed off in Alicante we had a quick 15 minute visit to the townhall in Orcheta and that was it! We have been told the plans are approved and they have sent us a letter with the tax we have to pay and thats it! YIPPEE!!!!!

Here are the plans which show the layout, the corner will be 3 long thin windows, ceiling to seat height. The view will be Puig Campana! The actual doors will be double both at the front and into the courtyard. In the future this bedroom will go and we will have a larger lounge and we will build a bedroom and massive en-suite one level down, but thats a long way off!

We will have a walk in wardrobe which I have always wanted and a larder! how exciting! 

Now we are on the look out for bales as we have been told this is the time to buy them. We visited the land today to take a look at where we will store them when they arrive.

This is all getting very real now and can't wait to get started, just need to get the summer out of the way and then no stopping us.........