This weekend my parents came with us to help. They drove down to a hotel in Caspe on Thursday by themselves. We arrived late since we lost our car key that had our garage key attached to it. We trashed the whole apartment to find it, and even though we have almost nothing left there we still couldn’t find it. Eventually Tho went with Luna to the garaga, waiting in front of it and hoping someone would enter/exit so he could grab the car. We’re renting a garage a few streets down that’s part of an apartment complex, so he also rang the doors for all the neighbours hoping one of them had some keys. After about an hour of no luck someone came home that had a spare key upstairs. We hoped the keys would be in the car but alas, since we already lost so much time we decided to use our spare and head to Caspe.
When we arrived we saw two small puddles and some traces of mud in the house, so the solution with the roof tiles didn’t stop the rain from entering completely. So the next day we visited the hardware store (surprise!) and ordered a whole lot to start with plan B for this problem, a french drain. This is a big tube that has holes around it, dug in next to the foundation with draining gravel around it. The tube needs to be going down so the water, when there is too much, can run through the tube away from the foundation. The people at the store were extremely helpful once again and told us they would deliver it with the stuff we ordered last week.
We gave my parents the task to dig the ditch for the french drain. So we could finish our breakfast and check if they were doing it right. After the ditch was deep enough I placed the gravel and tube.
Tho and my dad started on the concrete footers. Tho had to lift the cement and sand up to where we are placing the solar panels, where he and my dad mixed it together by hand before dumping it in. Next time we’re doing concrete Tho said he’ll buy some tools for that.
My parents said we could take a shower in their hotel room, and after a hard day of digging and dust this was really appreciated. After that we had another dinner at Placa Espanya (I think all villages have a plaza called like this)
The rest of the weekend we cleaned up the garage and decorated it. Putting all the furniture together was a bit tougher than expected, since the screws were mixed up or lost. But we did it! It really is (for us at least) really liveable.
Tho continued with the structure of the solar panels, attaching it to the rebar we have sticking out of the concrete and after that digging another trench for the power cables. I did it before but it was too shallow, so Tho dag one 50cm deep with some concrete reinforcement on top. This was necessary so the solar cables don’t get damaged when cars drive over this piece.
When oiling the window frames I noticed a few drops here and there, but I thought I could easily remove those with soap later. Later is now and there is no way these dirty spots on the window are getting cleaned easily. So we bought some turpentine and started scrubbing.
After we’re all good and tired we went to what we thought was a vegetarian restaurant that had vegan options. But almost all of it was meat or fish based, after discussing a bunch of options they found a way to make some dishes vegan. We thought it would be basic but it was still really tasty.
My parents left Caspe on Sunday as well to visit a big city nearby, Zaragoza. They stayed here for a couple of nights before they went back to Barcelona. So we had the time on Sunday to visit our neighbours. It was great weather and in the morning we picked another bucket full of figs. Making marmalade is becoming easier and I really cannot wait until we have a big kitchen here.