Competa news blog

So, we had a kitchen, a bathroom of sorts, a lounge, a bedroom with a leaky roof....Plenty of storage in the kitchen, a fridge and oven which worked on bottled gas and taps which worked.  Bliss!  With winter approaching, I decided it was probably best to tackle the roof next.  What I thought was a minor leak turned out to be a major problem with rotten beams in the bedroom and part of the lounge... no point in trying to patch it up.  Good thing I was still on a Middle Eastern salary!  So.... off with the roof, timbers and all.  The best ones were saved,  de woodwormed and reused.  Great.  I decided to have a porch put on the front as well with the door facing west so when you opened the door, you didn't get a blast of air - hot or cold!  The porch meant more room to sit in front of the fire as well.... Seemed like a good addition!

I must admit, the builder was very professional.  Everything was fastidiously covered up with plastic sheeting to keep it clean.  Off came the roof, dust, wattling and all.  Tiles were kept where possible.... quite a lot of them. Then came the good stuff - thankfully no rain and the builders worked every day to get it finished.  Just as well really as even to this day over 25 years I remember that they had just finished when there was a mega storm and part of the track went flying down the hill - cutting me off at the finca.  The neighbours rallied round to fix the track so I could drive out.  The roof certainly got a good water proof testing that night and for 3 nights afterwards!

Then came the boring stuff of cleaning everything up, although the builders had done their best, and admiring the new arrangements.  A nice archway instead of the odd shaped thing which had developed when I took a sledge hammer to the "wall" between the kitchen and the lounge and tried to patch it up...., a solid roof and everything tidy.... except I didn't like the concrete floor.  Everything else looked nice and there was this crappy floor.... well, it would just have to come up.

Having acquired my little piece of paradise in the mountains, I started to think about what to do next.  It was tempting to just potter around and do nothing but look after the olive and fig trees on the property and make it look pretty outside.   More practical, though, I had to at least make the place more habitable!  I had sort of fixed the water but there was the matter of the sewage so I found a man who was good at digging pits...and had a good reputation for installing septic tanks.  It meant a long run of pipe down the mountain from the "bathroom" but it worked.  The pit was dug and designed to be bacterial - ie no bleaches etc. down the loo or sinks (once they were installed!).  It was a great job - I only had to have it emptied once in the 16 years I had the house and that was only because it was fully tenanted for a year.

Anyway, the toilet, wash basin and kitchen sink were installed as well as improvements to the shower.  Although we now had hot running water (and didn't have to boil the kettle) the shower needed "attention".  My solution was to rip it out and start again - a tactic I used often as the years went by!  Bliss - we could go to the toilet without the hassle of having to empty the chemical loo - neither myself nor my then partner liked that very much.  And then there was the time it leaked in the car.... yeuch!

After that first most enjoyable holiday in Competa, I was hooked and returned time and time again for over 25 years.  I eventually found the house of my dreams outside Competa in Cuesta Benamayor - a mile or two down a dirt track.  It was a very small property with no running water or electricity - such luxuries had not reached the valley then!  Water was delivered by tanker to a water deposito under the terrace which held about 20000 litres.  The deposit was also fed by rainwater from the roof and guttering.  The way of getting water into the house originally was via a hand pump in the bathroom.  There were four rooms in total, including a bathroom of sorts and the toilet was a chemical version which had to be emptied at regular intervals - a messy job!

We installed a smaller water tank on the hill to get water pressure to the new hot water tank - a Junkers - and to get water to the taps.  We also installed a new kitchen, shower and wash basin.  Water was pumped up to the small tank from the deposito by means of a cable connected to the car battery and left to run until it started overflowing!  Primitive, but it worked.  Later we installed a float switch inside the tank and a single solar panel to run a 12v pump.  It was heaven - we had running water!

Mains electricity was not to come until much later....

My father had never been out of the UK before and he had a great time chatting with the locals (or trying to!) andeven chatting up the Wing Commander's wife.... I had to put a stop to that.  He was always wanting to call in "just for a quick drink".  The little white houses nestling on the hills were an endless source of fascination and we would spend hours just sitting on the terrace looking over the mountains.  It was heaven.  We quickly found the local wine - 5 pesetas per litre - I'll never forget that as I couldn't believe it!  We managed to quaff copious amounts of the sweet smooth wine - and always paid the price the next day!  In years to come we were to enjoy the Noche del Vino during August - now one of the most famous wine festivals in Spain. 

We went to Nerja - a big mistake as my father "found" Guinness - his particular poison.  The Fontainbleu Hostel in Nerja is long gone, but the memories aren't.  I don't think it was ever the same again and I had to book my father into a room as he refused point blank to go back to Competa - I had promised to meet a friend, so I went and left him enjoying the local hostelry and being looked after by the very friendly English barman. 

The next day I had planned to look at some properties with one of the estate agents but I had first to rescue my father from the clutches of Nerja.  I found him struggling along the road with his head in his hands - determined to walk back to Competa.  I did manage to see some properties, but nothing took my fancy.  It was to be so over the next TWO YEARS until I found the place of my dreams.