After a few days enquiring at various agents & online, we found a house to rent for the rest of 2018. Eva at Ideal Property in Alhaurin el Grande did very well & we viewed three properties in the same week.
The first, although close into Coin, wasn't fully furnished & didn't have much outside space.
The second, right on top of a hill, had more than enough land & 360 panoramic views, but was so far up an unmade lane, it would take ten minute to reach the main road & likely trash the car - unless we bought a 4-wheel-drive....
The third house was out of town & rural, but not far off the main road & looked as perfect as we'd find with lovely views. We even had a friendly landlady who even spoke a little English.
So we committed to rent for seven months, as six months from June would be December & we didn't fancy trying to find a place so close to Christmas
I needed to ensure we'd have an internet connection to our new home as soon as we moved in so I could work without interuption. Eva had recommended a couple of companies with English speaking representatives. One didn't answer the phone & the other did, but then wouldn't proceed because we didn't have a Spanish bank account. We knew we needed an account, just hadn't got around to it & this was the push we required.
So off to the bank we went.
After a short wait in Sabadell Solbank, we'd opened a non-resident current account with the lovely Susana which was nice & straight-forward!
I called Conred back who said an engineer would be in touch to survey the property. He was, the day after, & went straight to the address.
Only to report back with this Whatsapp photo to show that these trees would block the signal from the mast.
As the other providers would 'apparently' be receiving their signal from the same direction, I resorted to 4G & we took a trip to the Movistar shop to find out more.
We had to go back the following day to collect our activated phone & data sims, then later on, the Movistar engineer called to install the modem. However, he didn't speak English & our Spanish was nearly non-existent so we waited until the following day when we were signing the rental contract & asked Eva to assist. We signed the tenancy agreement in person with the landlady the day before our rental was oficially to begin & received the keys with approval to install wifi.
Eva helped us to call the engineer & organise for us to meet him a couple of hours later at the local service station & we led him to the house. Only to find we didn't have keys to either sets of the large new metal gates across both drives leading down either side of the property...
This Dominion engineer was the first Spanish service provider with an impatient & downright aggressive attitude that we'd encountered. All others throughout our journey & experiences in Spain had been consistently friendly & accommodating, but this guy, who didn't speak English, wasn't at all happy.
It was Friday afternoon & perhaps he'd had a trying week....
Eva to the rescue once again. Firstly to speak to the engineer & explain the situation, that it wasn't our fault & we weren't actually as incompetent as appeared, then to direct us down a narrow overgrown path between fences, past the water storage tank & up to the house with the grumbling engineer in tow.
The 4G modem/router was setup & we unloaded a few of our belongings, but as the trek down the long grassy path was awkward, couldn't empty the car as planned. However, we'd agreed to return a couple of hours later to meet Belen, our landlady, who promised to bring the correct gate keys 
All good.
Later we unloaded more belongings & although informed we could stay in the house that night, we'd planned to packup & clean our Air B&B home the following morning then move in on the official rental date.
I was once again impressed with our productivity due to the efficient Spanish telecoms providers:
- Monday - call Conred & request installation
- Tuesday - engineer site visit to notify us they couldn't assist
- Wednesday - sign-up with Movistar
- Thursday - return to Movistar shop for activated mobile & data sims
- Friday - engineer visit to install modem.
In the UK, I once signed a lease on a house at the end of July & (apparently due to the London Olympics that summer) Openreach couldn't connect my phone & internet (a wire from the pole directly opposite the terraced house without a front garden) until the beginning of November...
However, this particular story isn't over just yet!