Safe travels and hugs for your challenging visit.
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You didn’t. Saying “hi” to some people these days is an issue… sigh…
Got your back! 
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I’ve had 3 full dose shots and one booster.
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Sorry, been a very busy few months and it’s always been in the back of my mind to update this topic!
As I said before, no-one was travelling so ended up up on a 737-800 with around 35/40 passengers. Great. Slipped my mask down for long enough to consume two large gin and tonics, but to be honest, there was no-one else with four metres of me.
Daughter bang on time at Edinburgh and half an hour later I’m in Glasgow. Did I mention she’s a fast driver?
Fast forward to the next morning.
Head off to flat and meet engineer/architect to get the keys. He’s not my favourite oxygen thief right now so got the keys and told him to sod off. That was him getting off lightly.
Opened the front door and thought shit, this is not a three day job.
The kitchen is small, it’s essentially a large cupboard that I’d converted into a kitchen when I did the initial refurbishment around thirteen years ago. However, the state the contractors had left it in was shocking, 35amp cables surface mounted (against code), skirtings missing and exposed boiler pipes.
Then I mover on to the bathroom. Holy fuck. A loud and angry exchange on the phone with the recently departed engineer ensued, ending up with me promising to come round to his office later that day and hanging him by his Achilles while I beat him with a barbed wire club. Ok, I didn’t say that, but did tell him he was a complete arsehole and that he better make sure his PLI payments are up to date.
Kitchen:
I can’t find the other ones, but you’ll get the drift re quality of workmanship.
Now, the bathroom that allegedly just needed a shower and bath fitted (this is actually a day or so later, after I’d fitted a toilet).
The lazy feckers had disconnected the soil pipe and hadn’t installed a replacement connect for the toilet. The above is from just before I connected the the toilet to the large grey soil pipe.
Anyway, having just got there (on the Wednesday) I’m looking around and thinking no way will I get all this done in three days. I need some reinforcements here.
Luckily, my cousin had a couple of days off and my daughter was available for any running around needed.
First job is to head off and buy both a kitchen and a bathroom. We’ve got two cars, so should be an easy task. Nope. Spent two hours on the phone and could not source the kitchen units same day. Jeez, we’re talking a few cupboards and a couple of base units here, what’s going on?
Low stocks due to Covid was the constant answer. Ok, if I upped budget, no problem, but I didn’t want to do that. Next day delivery best option so kitchen ordered and delivery promised for Thursday morning.
So off we toddled to sort out appliances and the bathroom. Easy enough but by the time we’d got everything Wednesday was pretty much gone. Bath was an issue, but again, next day delivery promised.
Not much else to do other than go for a beer. Serious shock to the system time. I’m used to paying between €1.50 and €2.00 for a 400cl of Estrella, and when the barmaid said that’ll be £15 for three pints of Tennents lager I almost needed hospitalised! I’m glad I don’t live here anymore.
Thursday morning I’m there bright and early, which was fortunate as both the bath and kitchen were delivered at around 8:15. First job was to get toilet working and by around 11:00 it was job done. Now to start on the kitchen.
Sorted out the 35 amp cable and after checking with an electrician, decided to leave the other surface mounted stuff as is. It’ll be behind a fridge so no issues with our certificates.
By Thursday evening we were at:
My nephew popped over for a couple of hours after he’d finished work which was a great help as fitting high cabinets is an absolute bugger on your own, as I’ve had to several times before!
More beer called for and a nice meal out with my daughters.
A visit to my favourite Italian restaurant and a large plate of pappardelle with a slow cooked beef ragu, lashings of a very reasonably priced Sicilian Nero D’Avola and much to the embarrassment of both girls, me dishing out the gaudily wrapped Christmas presents they’d missed due to our youngest having had Covid over Christmas, and being unable to travel to Spain. All good fun and our waitress even wished them both merry Christmas.
Next job Day 2 mandatory Covid test. Negative and results registered with the government testing company. God knows how I managed it, I could hardly see through a combination of alcohol and tiredness. It’d been a long day, but good progress.
Friday. No way am I going to be able to fly home tomorrow, so first thing booked flight for the Tuesday and phoned OH to tell her.
Find out that rather than enjoying the high life while I’m gone she’s had nowt more than a few drinks in the plaza, with nobody to speak to other than D the waiter and A the owners wife. Every man and his dog self isolating due to positive tests or close contact with positives.
So what were you up to last night she says, “oh just a quiet night then bed” says I, not wanting to rub it in. I think she knew. I then dropped the “Oh, and can you pick me up at Sevilla on Tuesday, around 23:00?” 
Another good shift and by Friday evening the bathroom is beginning to look like a bathroom and this where we’re at with the kitchen:
Our managing agents guy popped over and did a bit in the bathroom, so it wasn’t all me. Bloody well felt like it though!
Dragged out to one of Glasgow’s original noodle bars tonight for a really good night, then enjoyed a quiet few beers on my own as both girls had early starts the following day. Bliss! Way too much socialising crammed into the past few days.
A quick lateral flow test (negative) then bed.
Decided to have an easy one on Saturday, so a half shift then spent the afternoon sorting out flooring guys and general admin for here. Gas engineer (who connected hob) then called and said regulations updated and that the sink being so close to hob is against code. Amicable disagreement for ten mins and he then conceded that it’s only an advisory, and not an infringement.
Truth be told, I knew that it wasn’t 100% to code, but in small kitchens like this it’s common practise and while frowned upon, it’s legal. Result is GSC (Gas Safety Certificate) issued with an advisory.
Sunday.
A day of picking off all the small shit, finishing off plumbing, connecting bathroom extractor, fitting shower screen, tiling kitchen, and so on and so on.
Youngest daughter said she was keen to learn to tile, so it became a bit of a team effort. She fixed the straightforward tiles, and I concentrated on making the cuts for sockets etc. She picked it up pretty quickly and ultimately I was struggling to keep up!
All in all a productive day.
Spoke to agents guy and discussed what I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish, and he’s promised to sort it all the following week. I can tell by his voice that he’s knackered as well, at the moment he’s trying to do the work of three men and is still suffering from his last bout of Covid.
Really feeling it now so it’s an early one for me, but did a lateral flow test and I’m still negative.
Last day, Monday.
Kitchen pretty much done apart from sorting out some squinty sockets and an issue with the cooker hood (extractor). Guys here to do flooring in bathroom and measure kitchen area for same.
Showed daughter how to grout and off she went.
So, by Monday evening, kitchen pretty much done, bathroom done.
I forgot to take a completely finished pic, in this one the sockets haven’t been fixed and the grout hasn’t been cleaned off. The missing skirtings and painting needing done was knocked off later that week.
I’m pleased with the bathroom. It’s very narrow and I had to source a spacesaver bath, it’s only 500mm at the tap end, which fitted perfectly to the boxed in downpipe thingy.
Treated my daughter, my cousin and my nephew to several beers that evening, which made a significant dent in my wallet. I don’t think we could afford to live in the UK anymore, compared to Spain everything is just so expensive. What I spent that evening would have paid for two meals out, including drinks, for me and OH, with enough left over for a kebab on the way home as we say in Scotland!
Sadly, I forgot to save the images from the schedule which are no longer online, but overall I’m pleased with the recovery job I did and it rented pretty quickly, at around 20% more than the norm for that area.
It’ll never be a pretty flat, but it’s a comfortable two bedroom place in a good location. The cupboard style kitchen isn’t ideal, but with the layout it was the only option when turning it from a one bedroom to a two bedroom property.
Tuesday. Shopping day 
Filled my bag up with Cumberland sausages, smoked back bacon and Scottish black pudding knowing that customs checks at Sevilla are minimal. Daughter dropped me at Edinburgh airport and off I headed.
I think i slept until around lunchtime on Wednesday…
I was speaking to one of the guys from our agents a few weeks ago and he’s still dining out on the story of the guy from Spain who didn’t want to wait six weeks to get a job done, who instead hopped on a plane with a bag of tools and sorted it in under a week. As he put it, “yeh really couldnae make it up”, or could you?
JF
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Great update, thanks! Place looks wonderful and it sounds like a fabulous trip. I always loved working with my Dad on projects, so glad that your daughters have that, too.
Never ever underestimate a Scotsman with a bag of tools. The Kiwi ex is one and aside from pinching a penny until it became a pound, he didn’t mess about when things needed fixing.
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Great yarn, effort and photos for proof!! Well done!
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I like that clever tub. Looks like you did an amazing amount in a short time.
Hey-did you get the new host referral fee from your daughter’s first booking? You deserve it.
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Didn’t I see this on HGTV?
As do I. Working with properties this old is always interesting, trying to maximise space but also keep it looking good is a challenge. Previously, I’d constructed a floor to ceiling stud wall at the end of a 700mm bath, which allowed for storage shelves to the left of the toilet. But it felt cramped and this was an opportunity to remedy that.
The space saver bath, with it’s specific shower screen and side panels wasn’t cheap, all in all around £450, against £230 for a standard 700mm wide bath including screen and side panels. I think the extra was worth it though, it works so much better.
This is the original, from around 2012:
This one of our LTR properties, although way back in 2014 it was our original Airbnb listing. In the days when Airbnb was a completely different beast 
Ours is a family business, and both girls are always ready to pitch in when required, which is even more important now that we’re a few thousand kilometres away. We’ve got a really good property management company, so there isn’t that much we’ve needed them to do over the years, but there have been occasions when I’ve had to get them into action!
My youngest and I work well together, on projects like this and in the kitchen! She was over a few weeks ago and my OH was grumbling about the fact we spent most of the time in the kitchen, but there was no complaints about our offerings!
JF
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