Skip to main content

Builder rejection

Image
By Helen Lee Gray

In this instalment I am going to try to attempt to prove that finding a builder here in Central Portugal is much like dating.   Now it might be like this the world over, I don’t know, I have never had need of a builder in the UK or Jersey.   It might just be a very sad reflection on my dating history (likely) or it just might be the next 10 points are the truest thing you’ve ever read.


1)       There are a lot of ‘fish in the sea’.   Just like the dating pool there are a lot of builders out there.  But finding the one you want is hard.  I’ve heard my friends make their recommendations ‘not him, he is pissed by noon’, ‘he’s good but never returns your calls’, ‘don’t trust him’. 

2)       You need to deal with rejection.   You invite the builder to take a look at the project, you speak you best Portuguese, tell a few jokes, look interested in what he has to say, smile, nod, ask questions, he says he’ll call you, he doesn’t. You wait by the phone, you check your emails, you ask mutual friends to remind him to call you…… 

3)      You sometimes get stood up.   Because they don’t show up when they say they will.  Grrrrrrrr.

4)      He’s only after your money.  This might be an expat thing, but some local builders have a price for you and a price for local people!  Not cool. 

5)      They tell you things so you’ll like them.   ‘I’ll call you’ is the biggest lie.  If you can’t phone me Monday don’t tell me you’re going to phone me Monday.  Just tell me you are not interested!  

6)      The one you want is unavailable.

7)      There is always someone new around the corner.   And so the game continues, you invite them round, tell them what you want, speak your best Portuguese, listen, show interest and low and behold they tell you they can ‘see you next week’!

8)      He’s fine but his work mates are rubbish.    

9)      Sometimes you wonder if it might just be easier to do it yourself (‘oh matron’).

10)   Hope.  What keeps us dating?  The hope that somewhere out there the perfect man is for you.  What keeps you believing you’ll find a builder?  The hope that somewhere out there someone will mend my bloody wall!  

Comments

  1. To Mané CarreiraNovember 2, 2013 at 4:53 AM

    Welcome to Portugal:
    You should try also: electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters, auto mechanics ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Helen Lee GrayDecember 17, 2013 at 3:47 AM

    In the end, we got the one we wanted!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building our Barrel Vault Wood Fired Oven

By
This is a short description of my barrel vault build that I have done here in Central Portugal. The final internal size is a 1m squared floor with a arch height of 50cm. I hope you enjoy and get some ideas from it. I wish to thank ukwoodfiredovenforum  for their advice and support. • 1: First I dug out a hole in the flower bed, on top of the stone wall, where the oven was to be built • 2: Set up a form to pour in the concrete base • 3: Pour the concrete base, which was about 5-6 inches deep • 4: On top of the base I cast 4-5 inches of LECA (light weight expanded clay balls) mixed with cement to hold it's form • 5: Then I cast a 2-3 inch heat retaining base, to add to the thermal mass, using calcium aluminate cement with large grain sand, as a flat base for the hearth bricks to sit on • 6-8: I then dry laid the hearth bricks on a dry bed of fine sand and clay mixture, with th...
1 comment
Read more

oh what a lovely bougainvillea

By Helen Lee Gray
It was something I wanted to grow, a plant which would cover the wall, give shade, give colour and really stamp the fact we lived abroad.   Bougainvillea. We have the other Mediterranean type of plants growing; we have olives in abundance, we have the grapes thriving, we have the figs establishing, but alas no bougainvillea.    I looked up how to grow it and it says:   Bougainvillea thrives in full sun.   “At least 5 hours a day of direct sunlight is the minimal light required for good bloom. More hours of direct sun are better. Less than 5 hours and the plant may not bloom very well.”   5 hours of sun ‘check’, good light ‘check’, south facing ‘check’….but alas the Med we are not!   This little peak of Central Portugal has cold air in winter (snow even), a vigorous breeze at dusk and is prone to a late frost.   Our courtyard is just too exposed to the elements, there is no little ‘nook’ for a bougainvillea, there is no wall for it to climb...
2 comments
Read more

Chestnuts and Saints

By Helen Lee Gray
St. Martinho or St. Martin of Tours, became the first non-  martyr  saint to receive official church worship and became one of the most popular saints in medieval Europe. (Source wikipedia). His feast day is 11 November, deep into autumn and the chestnut season. In Portugal, as it's chestnut season 'Magustos'are celebrated in St. Martinho's name. A magusto is a group  of friends and/or family who get together and bake and eat chestnuts.  We have our village magusto at the weekend.  Meanwhile at home I've been celebrating the chestnut instead of the saint.  This 'celebration' involves collecting the chestnut harvest, splitting, cooking and shelling hundreds of these shiny brown chestnuts. Well, there's not much else to do on a wet Monday in these hills. Now I've got a bowl full of chestnuts I'm looking for recipes.  Here's what I've tried so far: Chestnut cake.  Made by using blitzed chestnuts instead of regular flo...
1 comment
Read more