10th June

Another gentle start getting ready for our eleven o clock appointment with Abdellah at the Monasor showroom. It surprised us with its size, the quality of the products they stocked and its overall professional air. This time the qoute was 99% correct and still significantly lower than Tristan’s guys. Lynne was so relieved! Especially when we realised that they had still left out the new pillar and Candido told Abdellah on the phone to throw it in free. We told him that we would make a decision and let him know before the end of the day.

Over a cuppa at Café Dany’s we decided to follow up on the other two builders and give them a last chance to quote. So we tried to contact them. The English builder Mick (Michael Smeeton) who was our architect Manolo’s recommendation had been ill and wasn’t ready and the other guy wasn’t answering his phone. We had also planned to drop Manolo’s project folder off at the Abogado’s office but over the cuppa had decided to hang on to it, just in case. We called in to tell them and Lynne asked about the situation vis-a-vis the errant German builder’s cement mixer taking up most of our garage. She tried to call him; his mobile was switched off and the landline to his home was disconnected. We were advised that we had made what could be construed to be a reasonable effort to contact him but they didn’t want to know what we did with it.

We had to call into Manolo’s office to collect the copies of the plans we had arranged to have made for whichever builder we engaged. On the way Lynne decided that she wanted Monasor, not just because their price didn’t break the bank (big a factor as that was) but also because she had confidence in them not to let us down. They are too big and have too big a reputation to risk it. So we called Abdellah and arranged to meet with him again at the showroom to sign a contract with them. Then we went to a café near Manolo’s office at the Esmerelda and I bought Lynne a small bottle of fizz to celebrate, persuading her to break her no drink at lunchtime rule for once. They gave us two oysters with it as tapas, and Lynne enjoyed them a lot. So fortified Lynne called Tristan to break the news and I texted the other two builders to say we had made our decision. Talk about taking it down to the wire! From Tris’s point of view it wasn’t all bad as it left us the funds to paint the house and he is doing that sort of work now so we told him we’d be after a quote next trip.

The afternoon was taken up with some packing up of the house before we went down to Monasor and did the paperwork. Lynne is so relieved that its over and we are confident about the work being completed. Abdellah reckoned that they would complete all the work in about six weeks, which means that we will need to travel out around the end of July to inspect and make the final payment. She also asked about the stone facing around the bottom of the house to protect the new rendering and Abdellah arranged to meet us at 9:30 the next morning to measure up before we had to set off for the airport.

From Monasor we went to Mejias III for a meal and a few drinks. Told El Hefe (the boss) that we were leaving and got a warm farewell again. Got home to find samples of stone under the gate with a card and a note from Abdellah confirming his appointment next morning. This increased confidence even more.