Spain House Build - Building Started

radderfire said:
In the example pic above, how do you know when the pool needs a clean, because the tile design looks like it has dirt patches. Just saying.
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Half the benefit. My wife can't complain it looks dirty :D

Generally it's just regular maintenance. We bought a robot for our current rental and i do a proper clean every week regardless of how it "looks", so shouldn't be much different.
 
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Nice little bonus. Although further confirms the strangeness of the Spanish system. When going through the notary and mortgage process we had to pay some property taxes for the build. Something like 0.15% of the project and then some additional costs for registering the property and notary costs.

We never quite understood them all, but i got an invoice from the bank and advised the funds would be taken out within a few days. No request to pay, just telling us it'll be debited from the account "within a few days". Didn't even give a specific date!

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Yesterday i received a refund of €780. Absolutely no warning or explanation for what it was for. Just a note on the bank which mentioned "Obra Nuevo" which made me assume it relates to the house build. From asking a few people, it seems they just make an estimate of figures when doing the work and get you to pay, then work it out properly at some point and just refund the remainder.
 
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This slopey wonky brick shenanigans really hurts my head hahah, yep why not just level the land to start with :/

Also for the kitchen island, we looked into this loads at the new builds and they always plonked a hob or sink in it I'd avoid that if you can and just have a nice big functional island

That bluey silver tile looks awesome for the pool :)
 
Martynt74 said:
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I'm not sure I understand how they have done this. Was the concrete poured foundation itself not level? How did they do a concrete pour that didn't self level to that extent?

Then if that's the case they proceeded to lay the first couple rows of blocks on a slope as well, rather than leveling up the first course?
 
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danlightbulb said:
I'm not sure I understand how they have done this. Was the concrete poured foundation itself not level? How did they do a concrete pour that didn't self level to that extent?

Then if that's the case they proceeded to lay the first couple rows of blocks on a slope as well, rather than leveling up the first course?
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They probably took the Auf Weidersehn Pet in Spain series as a training film :)
 
danlightbulb said:
I'm not sure I understand how they have done this. Was the concrete poured foundation itself not level? How did they do a concrete pour that didn't self level to that extent?

Then if that's the case they proceeded to lay the first couple rows of blocks on a slope as well, rather than leveling up the first course?
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My take is the ground is sloping so the concrete foundation is sloping, they could have stepped it or cut deeper into the raised part of the slope to get the foundation level. Its not like its a lot of work with a digger, quicker than that blockwork anyway!

Those pool tiles do look a lot nicer than mosaics and less grout to go mucky.
 
200sols said:
take is the ground is sloping so the concrete foundation is sloping, they could have stepped it or cut deeper into the raised part of the slope to get the foundation level. Its not like its a lot of work with a digger, quicker than that blockwork anyway!
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Yeah has to be that, but sloppy concrete self levels doesn't it. Would have taken some effort to get concrete to form a slope in a trench?
 
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Hagar said:
It would still have a slump of 100 to 150mm. Looks like they are using a poker to move it along the trench rather than compacting against the earth face but then what do I know.
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Try it over a footprint like that trench. It's not just going to flow and settle level. Anyway self leveling concrete is one of those fallacies of the building world.
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
This slopey wonky brick shenanigans really hurts my head hahah, yep why not just level the land to start with :/

Also for the kitchen island, we looked into this loads at the new builds and they always plonked a hob or sink in it I'd avoid that if you can and just have a nice big functional island

That bluey silver tile looks awesome for the pool :)
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Yeah, we were always trying to avoid having anything on the island. Worst case scenario we considered the hob but we'd never want the sink on there. Think we've now had a slight change where the cupboard on the left where the coffee machine will go is being moved to another wall. As such it creates another ~100cm of worktop space which helps even more.

200sols said:
Those pool tiles do look a lot nicer than mosaics and less grout to go mucky.
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Cheers, yeah the tiles will hopefully fair much better. The ones where we are now have filthy grout and no amount of scrubbing seems to clean it. Hopefully with these style tiles and maybe a light grey grout it'll disguise it nicely.
 
Not quite build related because we have no update there (beyond the developed assuring me it would be done by November and apologising for abusing our patience!)

I'm meeting a local with a tractor at the land tomorrow evening to discuss turning over some of the earth ready for irrigation/planting. However in anticipation i took my new recipricating saw and tidied up a few olive trees. It's a Einhell TP AP 18/28 and it's considerably better than my old Lidl one i used to have. I was debating the Dewalt version but settled on this. Still brushless and i used the savings to buy another 2 4ah batteries.

Trees looking much better
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Had the meeting this morning with the developer and his new project manager. It was quite nice for the PM to be more knowledgeable around the whole process. The developer is always very optimistic and is such a nice guy he wants everyone to be happy and to have what they want but it was always clear he wasn't involved in the detail and lacked some organisational control.

The PM was ready with a Gantt chart and admitted that November was very unrealistic given current progress. He'd prefer to plan for the worst case (now March 2026) and deliver quicker than to suggest November/December only for it to fail. He felt very re-assuring and organised which gives some hope and had a complete plan with timescales and stages where we needed to have meetings for future decisions and regular updates. He's pretty much taking over the management of the project and will be my "goto" for any decisions.

They've also given me an electrical plan with the current socket/lighting locations and also a plan showing the layout externally of the pool/patio. Something i've also been asking for for a while as i think we'd need to extend this. They're also going to arrange a 3D render of the outside as it's currently specced. I mentioned my concerns about things not being flat so hopefully they'll have that for me in the near future.
 
I guess its crunch time, a PM with a Gantt chart should allow you better visibility to keep the developer on his toes..
 
Yeah, as annoying as it was from a delay standpoint it felt like we're now in better hands and i have a lot more confidence in the whole project now. It's always been lack of communication which has been a source of frustration so as long as that improves then it is what it is.

Confirmed with the new landlords (unsure if i mentioned in here or not, our current landlords have sold the house so we have to leave) that it's absolutely fine for us to stay until March and even beyond if needed. Had loads of offers to help with moving too so we're getting a decent support network around us now too.
 
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