Wet spots on the wall

 A few years ago we had all our walls replastered inside and out because the plaster was bad, and painted with non breathing latex wallpaint. The inside walls were done with a special breathing plaster (MuroSeco by Kerakoll). That worked very well. Still, we have some weird damp spots on the inside of the walls, below ground level. 

Like the stairs to the cellar:

And in the lavatory downstairs that is below ground level, too:

Those spots don't really change, and they don't disappear either. 

Inspected the lower side of the walls outside: especially where the toilet is located there is a jostle stone (click link), and there were seams between plaster of the wall and the pavement, and the jostle stone.  Gaps quite big enough to let rain water that comes down the walls enter between wall and pavement, down the wall!

Same for the wall outside the cellar stairs. Gaps up to 1 - 2 mm!

Engineer Jansen still has a full bag of 15 kg Sikalastic 127 that he used 6 bags of on the roof. He now has 14 kg left. 

A 2 cm band of waterproofing was applied along the bottom of all walls and onto the pavement and terrace:

Front of the house

Side, the cellar stairs are here

Arrow points at the jostle stone (link), with quite big gaps, the toilet is behind there!

Back and side

It will take time to know if this has fixed it. Years probably.

Covid + gripe + water leak

Tuesday November 21 we had an appointment for a vaccination for covid and flu at the Centro Salud. Leaving the gate we saw:

Yes, that is a wet spot. Two wet spots actually, each at a side of the road. 

Then we remembered, our Galasa water tube is crossing the road, but it has a tube around it, for protection. That seemed like a really Great Engineer Jansen Idea™ at the time.  But, it has caused trouble once before, when the water tube was accidentally dug up, causing the tube to be pulled from a connector under our then just that day finished terrace, causing a leak. Thing is, if you use a single unprotected tube the tube will break when dug up, but with protection it does not, and will tear somewhere else. Like, under a new concrete and tile terrace.

So, two leaks.  Noo, just one leak, but seeping from the two ends of an outer tube. 

The local water tech guy still had a digger standing here, that he had used a few weeks ago for work on the water line of our neighbours, so we contacted him. He intended to come that same day, but didn't. Mañana. Mañana arrived, but no plumber. Let's do some digging ourselves then.

This is one end:

Repaired that with two connectors and a bit of tubing:

It is exactly where our water tube crosses Endesa's electric line (pink). 

However, with the water on again, water spouted from the top tube, so there is more leakage, and we need to replace all of the length that is under the road. Not an easy task, as the soil there is compacted by passing cars and very very hard. 

Progress was slow. Wetting the soil and hacking at it, we were about ti give up, and try the fontatero gain. Messaged him,  but hours later the whatsapp remained unread. Lunch time..

More wetting and hacking, and all of our tube was open to the air, with both leaking ends exposed.

The arrow here points at the junction. This time Engineer Jansen™ and Engineer de Waal™ devised a triple water conduit. Outer tube 6 cm, middle tube ehh. 4? inner tube 2.5 cm. 

All done.

Then Engineer Jansen(™) thought to protect the water conduit by digging in a series of flat stones where car wheels go. So there. 20 cm above the tubes a protective layer of flat stones.

No water is not great!

And all this the day after the covid vaccination, which is especially sad for Engineer Jansen(™), who always suffers from a covid jab.  Next time he will tell all about the repeating feverish dreams he had experienced all that night, then having to co-dig a trench in concretish soil. 

Washing the walls

Two years after the Sahara mud rain ("barra") engineer Jansen is cleaning the walls.

Brush no. Soap no. Kärcher strong jet no. Wide: jet half and half. Terrace cleaner YES!

And yes, the Kärcher is hung up sort of half way the ladder.

The side wall was the dirtiest, the front wall is the highest, and the most difficult. It needs a contraption to reach the top of the wall.

Fantastic Contraption

(Not finished yet)

Tejado, roof FINISHED

 Milestone: after 1.5 years the roof is now finished. All rooftiles re-set where loose, stuck into place with special pur para tejas (pur for rooftiles), the gaps filled with lime mortar, and the sides and the lime mortar now covered with Sikalastic 127. This is the biggest physical job engineer Jansen ever did, and he’s not keen to repeat it.

To see all posts about the roof project: click here

Sewer cap

Plumbing is a skill that not everyone possesses, and certainly not the previous owners of this house.

Engineer Jansen noticed dripping in the garage. Dripping? It’s not raining, nor are there water tubes where it is dripping. A sewer pipe, yes. Which also should not be dripping. But it drips.

The sewer pipe there has a cap that you can unscrew in case there is a blockage. That was dripping. It should not be dripping. If it drips it means there is water behind the sewer cap. There should not be water behind the sewer cap. If there is water behind the cap it means there is a blockage further down the drain. Else there would be no water behind the cap, and it would not be dripping.

Simply unscrewing the cap seemed dangerous. As long as it drips there is water behind the cap, but unknown is how much. Also unknown is how clean. The cap did not budge. Not even with engineer Jansen’s biggest pliers. Off to the hardware store for even bigger pliers. And a backup sewer cap.

Even with the new pliers the cap did not budge. And it was still dripping.

First drain the drain, then. Drilled a hole in the cap. Yes, water. So the water level in the drain is above this. Not good.

Eventually the flow stopped. Still could not unscrew the cap. Stronger measures were taken, and after breaking off the edge of the cap it became clear that a MORON previous owner had used some glue. Fortunately not for the entire thread, but still sufficiently ansteystyle. (The cap has a rubber seal, you don’t need glue.)

Glue. You don't need glue, unless you want to infuriate engineer Jansen, which was successful.  
There is a rubber seal there.

Screwed on the new cap, flushed toilet. Still dripping. So, not fastened enough, and there indeed must be a blockage.

(New) cap.

And yes, the tube was a centimeter into the plaster on the wall. Removed some plaster.

Fortunately engineer Jansen possesses a 10 meter long Kärcher drain cleaning contraption. This was applied successfully. (Will not enter into details.)

Kärcher sewer cleaning hose. 

Yes, Tex, it has been where you think it has been.

Unscrewed the cap again, cleaned the thread, reinstalled the cap, firmer this time. No more dripping.

Another triumph for engineer Jansen, who is not fond of shitty problems like this, caused by sloppy work of a certain previous owner that never ceases to amaze him.

Estrella farewell

On October 15 2021 Estrella came to live with us, she left June 9 2023.  

Farewell dear Estrella! After seeing you 4 years alone in your cage, fantasizing we would just grab you, you came to us, and stayed almost two years. But all really good things come to an end.

She suffered from an insulinoma, a malignant growth in the pancreas, excreting excessive insulin, causing glucose in the blood to be extremely low. The moment that is noticeable it’s already too late. Prognosis is bleak. We had an appointment for a diagnostic utrasound the morning of June 9, but the evening of June 8 it was clear there was no future, and we had to (make) let you go.

We had noticed some signs early on. Sometimes she would stumble. Fall clumsily off the sofa when stepping off.  Strangely crossed her front legs sometimes when walking.  But, don't we all? Mentioned it to the vet last year, but it was not that severe, could be something neurological, and we decided we'd just keep an eye. 

About a 3/4 year ago she would be reluctant to walk on, especially when we reached the end of the walk, and were on the way back home. She would drag, and be unwilling to walk the same pace with us.  Blamed that on stubbornness. This dog had character, you know.

April this year the stumbling became worse, and early May she had what we thought was an epileptic seizure in the afternoon. Took her to the vet later that evening, as the seizures did not really pass. Sedation is the treatment for epileptic seizures. Normally a seizure should then pass, but it didn't. She needed supervision and controlled sedation during the night, which requires 24h monitoring. Nearest that was available was the Vet Hospital in Murcia. Off we went, with a moaning Estrella all the way. She did not enjoy all of this, and neither did we.  The vet had also heard a murmur in her heart. It could even be a heart attack!

They did a blood analysis. What stood out was very low glucose.  That can be the the after-effect, or the cause, of seizures, or a heart attack.  They would take care of her and let us know in the morning. We were home at 3:30 in the morning.

They called: she's up and about! They gave her glucose, and that improved her condition rapidly, no more sedation necessary.

We could collect her, which we did.

A dog can have epileptic seizures just once in it's life, to never have them again. So they wait to see if it ever happens again, and only then investigate, as the procedures are invasive. They want fluid from the spine, etc. Other causes were quickly mentioned, like low glucose can be a pancreas problem. A quick fix for low glucose is to put some honey on her gums, with your finger. That passes quickly into the blood.

Early May she stumbled and fell into the water bowl.  Hmm. And we saw more and worse stumbling.  A few weeks without major trouble, then end of May another seizure.  Honey on her gums did the trick. But... not good, this.  Meanwhile an enormously increased appetite! June 6 Coco needed vaccinations, and we took Estrella along for blood sampling.

June 8 the results were in: very probably an “insulinoma", a malignant growth in the pancreas, excreting excessive insulin, causing glucose in the blood to be extremely low. The moment that is noticeable it’s already too late. Prognosis is extremely bleak, even with treatment (an operation).

We had an appointment for an ultrasound for the morning of June 9, but by the evening of June 8 it was clear there was no future, she had more seizures that we could not stop. Not with honey, nor with valium. How to get her through the night? We really did not know. By midnight we called the vet's alarm number, she passed away at the vet's, June 9, 00:45.

Wrapped her in blankets and took her home for burial. We are so very sad.

We don't know her age, we think 8-9-10? Not young, but not old either. 4 years in that cage nearby, 1 and 3/4 years with us. Her attention seeking never ended, until now. Farewell dear Estrella, you were very welcome to stay with us for years and years more.

Our reasoning for letting her go was that if an insulinoma was indeed visible in the ultrasound it was probably too late to operate, and if not, what else? And if yes, when could an operation be arranged? The success of seeing an insulinoma on ultrasound is low, too, max 40%. Also, the first signs we saw a year ago, which is a long time for this disease, where metastatis is more common than not. A max survival time of two years post op is a bleak future. And how much of those two remaining years are with a good quality of life? As said, we did not see how we would get her through the night before the scan. Goodbye dear strange funny lovely Estrella.

Crying again.

But life goes on, there are now 6 left to care for.

May 6 2023

May 6 2023

April 30 2022

May 31 2022

May 31 2022

May 6 2023, see her left eye is half blue?

May 6 2023

July 2 2022

October 31 2021, climbing the fig

December 4 2021, escaping over the back gate

Rain, again

1. Rain, again. 

After an extremely dry winter and spring. Hm.

And they were right.

2. Roof

Despite all the work on the roof, we still have leaks. Well, that is no surprise really, the rain was extreme, and the roof is not yet finished. Only the ends of the roof tiles are now mortared, the sides still need their Lanko treatment.

Still, a little disappointing. Not much water, just a few drops, but irritating all the same, as the sound of a drop of water on a wooden floor is like a smack on the head, at night, when you are sleeping. And there were about 15 locations with a small leak.

3. Road

The canals work. But, with lots of water coming from the field at the back, the gravel fills especially the middle canal, and it ceases to function, and the water simply flows over.  

The big flow of water stems from the field behind us, right behind that white electricity pylon. It then flows onto our road, filling up the canal you can see below. After that the water simply flows over, damaging the road, again. The solution will be to block that flow of water. There already is a canal dug there, by us, but the water flows too quickly to be contained. It needs a row of those concrete blocks to contain it. We will order a pallet of those and lay them in a row, right next to our road.

So, here we go again: repairs. 

Luckily our neighbour makes roads, he made this one, and he came with a machine the afternoon of the day after. No need to add extra sand or gravel, there still was enough material. That machine is great! They use it in one direction to collect material, then reverse it to spread it. Clever.

The concrete of the canal was broken by the machine.  They said that is was because the machine is really heavy, but engineer Jansen thinks they simply hooked the concrete.  we re-inserted the bits, with some wire mesh in between, and a rather liquid mix of cement and sand to fill the gaps.

We put a reflector triangle at the entrance gate, to keep people out while the road was unusable. That did not stop the damn arrogant kutneighbours down the road. They arrived in their car, got out, put the triangle and block of stone to the side, went back in their car, continued, saw they could not continue, got out and walked. 

4. Water tunnel

Water in front of the garage, again. This time engineer Jansen noticed that there is a plastic tube in the wall that expels water from the tunnel. At midnight he thought of this, and got out of bed: the water is now caught in this contraption, the grey plastic pipes and white blocks, and directed to the irrigation channel, away from the garage:

This pipe in the wall was always there, but in the past expelled its water into the irrigation channel that we severed and redirected to build the ramp to access the garage.  Never noticed it before!

The ad hoc construction is now permanent:

The stones around the white plastic pipe were rather loose, took them out, re-inserted them with some sand:lime:cement:water 2:1:1:1 mixture. 

5. Septic overflow (no pictures)

Well, last time we had very substantial rain we noticed a slow rising of the water in the downstairs loo. We attributed that to the soil becoming saturated with water, and thus raising the water level in the main septic tank, resulting in that rising water level in the downstairs loo. 

But, engineer Jansen was never really satisfied with that reasoning, noticing that the water canal behind our house was full of water. The overflow of our septic system exits into that canal via a buried pipe. But, if the canal is full of water the situation might be reversed, and the overflow might become an inflow.

So, when we noticed the water level rising again, but now very quickly after the onset of the rain the theory of waterlogged soil was abandoned, and the overflow pipe became the suspect again. While rain was gushing we removed the septic's lid, and yes, there was the water flowing in.  Used a bit of sponge in a plastic bag to block it, as a temporary measure.

The previous time we prevented trouble using our Gardena pump to pump out water, and lower the water level. That did not work this time, as there was some dirt in the pump, and it refused to work. Used a siphon as an alternative. Still, a bit of smelly water ended up on our kitchen floor. The engineers had a busy evening. 

(In Waar is de kak? // Where is the poo? you can read more juicy story on the septic tank(s). ) 

6. Gravel

The gravel in the orchard was inundated too. We are extremely lucky and happy that the water flowing actually was clean, and left no muddy residue. So, no tiresome cleanup there! 

Time for Gravel 2

Part 1 of this saga was summer 2022, the second part of the orchard now has been done.  And with a thicker layer of gravel. You need a layer of about 5 cm, or walking over it will expose the underlying geotextile. For dogs running around you might need more. For a running around Tex there is not enough gravel in the world.

This will be it, we think. 

new stitch

Héél de boomgaard is nu bedekt met grind. 

Héél de boomgaard? 

Nee! Een onverzettelijk klein hoekje biedt koppig weerstand!

The whole orchard is now covered with gravel.

The whole orchard?

No! An unyielding little corner stubbornly resists!

Veni, vidi, vici!