The local painter was true to his word and turned up in July - well on the 28th anyway - and with 12 hours warning ("OK to start tomorrow?"). Started with one little guy (Paco), but augmented with Sergio and José the next day.
We had received two options for the cost - a lump sum or per diem, so I opted for the day-rate as I know that things will change (= G will ask for changes) and for some stupid reason I always feel embarrassed to ask for changes to any agreement. Anyway, we went with 120€/day plus materials (but even the 120 per day was an instant 6% increase on the 14€hour originally quoted -still there have been a few crises since we originally spoke).
Hats off to these guys - they were all hard-workers, clean and committed. The boss actually seemed to be more of a fetcher, carrier and organiser, although the guys reckoned he was working on a different job as well.
As predicted, the scope expanded and we had them painting cellar and dining-room walls, plus all the top patio, as well as expanding the number of "rejas" once they proved themselves fast at them too.
I had expected the arbor woodwork to take a couple of days for a couple of guys, but that went past in a blur of ladders and pots with just Paco for the day.
The downside for me is the sheer stress of having to be available all the time - from opening the gates at 0730, right through to waving-off at 1615. AND that was just with them working outside. I hate having people actually IN the house, but painting rejas requires one working outside and one working in - so checking on activities became more important.
Yesterday I paid the final bill and G and I spent the morning jet-washing the patios and moving flower pots back to their original homes - also trying to find a new covering for the pool-room door which is basically just a reja-on-hinges.
Bottom line, the place looks the dogs and she-who-must-be-obeyed is happy (and the total cost including cement work was about two-thirds of what I had originally anticipated).
On another front, we haven´t managed a bite in the Niño for a couple of weeks as it has proved impossible to get a parking spot of a table. We went on a Sunday after not being able to get Friday or Saturday, but that was a disaster as the only table available was outside next to the door - which is smokers corner. We decided to give it a miss until August (and peak tourist) ends. Talking of tourists, I was gobsmacked to learn that the council have earmarked 6 million euros (yes, 6,000,000€) to promote tourism by staging a music festival for each of the next 5 years. Apparently they are required by law to only spend this sort of money if they can prove a benefit of at least 50% of expenditure, but they sacked the audtors and paid 600k upfront to the promoter anyway.
Stuff you.
As one (opposition) councillor put it "normally the promoters pay the owners of the land , not the other way around". So 3 days with up to 150,000 people expected to be staying or "glamping" on the old hipdromo site, with a charge of €150 / head - even if you live here and are sponsoring it! You couldn´t make it up. The same councillors who approved it are apparently the only ones in Spain who haven´t ratified a budget for this 2022 year yet, but somehow are trying to find ways of getting rid of money by the barrow-load.
So, and due to the number of tourists, you can´t park, can´t get into restaurants, but the council is still p----ing money up on spurious vanity projects to "get more tourists".
Maybe time to sell our shiny place and go somewhere quieter?
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