Cave BBQ

No Spanish patio should be without a bbq! There are some wonderfull examples of bbq,s in local whitewashed villages, some are simple and others more complex ranging from built in shelves and storeage to almost becoming outdoor kitchens. Our bbq is used almost every day in the summer both for lunch and evening meals, even when we dont plan to cook we still light the bbq at night (it couples up as an outdoor fire) to add atmosphere to the patio. Being more rural we decided to go rustic (again!) and build our bbq with natural stone....

stage 1 -the base

There are no hard and fast rules...a bbq can be as versitile as you want it to be, we simply sketched out on paper some different designs of how we wanted it to look then set about gathering materials. The stone was free, picked up from the local farmers field - doing the farmer a favour in the process. Then we built the base out of brick, bridged the top with off cuts of leftover steel rsj,s (although bricktiles would do the job just as well) concreted over the top then built the bbq "internal frame" which would house the firebricks (42 cents each)

After the "frame" was constructed we basicly built a stone wall around it and effectivly "shrouded" the bbq with natural stone. Being absolutley honest I had not planned this project with any amount of precision at all, it was a build it and see how it goes job, as for the grill we had one given but for around 12 euros your local welder could knock one up that will last for years, alternativly builders iron strengthening rods can be cut to size and laid side by side to create a rolling grill - this will be a modification we will make next summer.

So there we go, its a simple but practical design and blends in with our cave and the campo. Total cost around 35 euros.

www.tapas-recipes-andalucia.blogspot.com

Next....... laying a patio

Cave Bedtime...

One of the most common questions people ask is "what is it like sleeping in a cave?" I remember on our first viewing trip in April 2004 we stayed 3 nights in a cave in Galera, at that point we were quite excited having never experienced any aspect of cave dwelling before. The first night we went to bed at around midnight, we awoke the following morning expecting it to be around 9am - the time was 10.50am.

A cave near us which was being rented at the time occasionaly had british people staying in it, we would be up and about working outside and it was quite amusing to see the odd bewildered Brit emerge from the cave looking at his watch and shaking his head.

Sleeping in a cave is different to say the least, you will get the best nights sleep you can remember and wake fully rested. Firstly there is no noise - absolutley none, the only thing you can hear is the silence. Secondly when you turn out the light its black, you cant even see your hand in front of your face. Thirdly and something I will try to explain (but really needs to be experienced to get the picture) is an unusual sense of security. Everyone feels secure in their homes but in a cave its different, maybe more secure? its peacefull, no fear of hearing the neighbours next door or them hearing you. With 2m thick walls and solid rock above you, you get a feeling of being in the safest place on earth and in turn sleep like a baby.

It is strange at first, especialy if you are used to an urban environment. In the campo you can go outside before retiring to bed and experience the same silence, on a clear night the sky is laden with stars and I would say confidently that if you look up at the sky for 10 minutes you are guaranteed to see at least one comet skimming its way across the atmosphere. In winter you sleep just as well if not better, your fire will create warmth and the orange flicker creates an atmosphere of relaxation - perfect for a good nights sleep.

Next up.... Building a stone BBQ

Cueva Christmas!

Feliz Navidad

y

Gracias

Big thanks to all my visitors over the past couple of months helping to get this weblog off the ground! Have a great festive season. CR.

Cave Life: Myth + Reality

Sometimes it amazes me what people think, a while ago I ran a poll asking "how many Fred Flinstone jokes have you heard in the past 6 months?" 32 people replied with an average answer of "2". Ok so we all hear it from time to time - to be expected I suppose. However, if you visit my site its likely that you have your own cave or plan on buying one.... Do people think you are mad???? The normal response is usualy a blank look or "oh yeah, think I saw them on the tv"

Some people though just have no clue at all, here is a quote I pulled off another forum:

aren´t humans supposed to evolve, not go back to the stone age just to save money. you have just paid ***,000 euros for a cave. think about it.. a cave. a big hole in a rock on a mountain. do you have a club and a pet tiger too? is your real name wilma? christ, i´m sure that everyone who moves to spain leaves their brains at the airport. would you ever consider living in a cave in the uk ? i doubt it very much.

Home sweet home...

and....bringing home the dinner

Unfortunatly I couldnt find any pics of our local sabre-tooth and Dino,s done a runner... The stereotypical image of a cave is obviously a damp hole in the ground etc but who on earth in their right mind would think that we live in those conditions? Are they mad? Tell the mis-informed that you have phone/electricity/TV/internet etc and your going to get a look like you have three heads. The spanish are also buying up caves and holding onto the ones they have as they have quickly realised the desirability of these unique dwellings.

The reality of cave life is very different (as we all know) I for one am happy living in a part of Spain where the Spanish come on holiday. Take a look at a superb example of a cave here: www.lapiedra.net nothing primative about that. Caves are ecologicly friendly, economical to run, safe and unique, the way of life (if you choose it) that goes with them is well suited to those in search of real Spain.

See more caves on these sites:
www.casasl.com
www.spanish-inland-properties.com
www.spanishpropertyrusticom.com


Ok, the local volcano has just errupted so I better get off and round up my herd of woolly mammoths.

Cave Doors...

Choosing a door for your cave...Which way to go? Old restored original cave doors command high prices but they are fantastic, with a refurbished lock and a key probably 8 inches in length the set up provides the ultimate rustic entrance. Out of our budget though! We settled for a custom made door with a hatch and window. Your carpenter will make you anything you like so it pays to be specific. Stable doors are common and practical too for interior design aswell as main doors.

Our old door - good stick wood!

Fitting is definatly a two man job if not three, the door will come "braced" in its frame and will be heavy! A good 4/5 coats of varnish will be required before fitting also. On the outside of the frame you will have metal spikes hammered in at angles - these need to be cemented/yeso,d into the wall where the edge of the frame will go. The job is tricky and it will all depend on your walls and measurments. We cemented the base of our frame into the ground for extra stability.

Fitting the door with some welcome help...! - BIG THANKS

and an interior shot of the door in place.

We paid 380 euros for this door and its been worth every cent, the lock alone would cost £70 in the UK. The build quality is excellent and with the thickest point being nearly 4" it is quite a substantial door indeed. The carpenter has also fitted some iron-work over the hatch and the exterior side is dotted with black studs to compliment the handles and hinges.

Next up... "what? you live in a cave?" Just for a laugh...! my perception of myth and reality.

Campo Life! Goats and Melons...

One thing you are likely to see in the campo is goats - and lots of them. During our first year working on the cave it was almost a daily occurance in late summer. You can buy goat on occasion from the butchers and it tastes very similar to lamb. You can hear the distant sound of bells assuring you that they are on their way and sure enough they turn up accompanied by the local shepard sometimes close, sometimes far.

Our 3 year old son helping the local "pastor" round up his herd!!

One particular day, however we found a lone baby goat seperated from the rest of its herd whilst we were out for a walk. Both our son and dog were very interested in this tiny creature, which must have only been a few months old, but for obvious different reasons! We decided the best thing to do, more for the goats sake than anything else, was to leave it and come home. The goat however had other ideas and duly followed us home much to our sons delight! It then took refuge under our car and it was all we could do just to keep the dog at a reasonable safe distance, never mind what to do with our guest. Luckily one of our neighbours was passing and on telling her the tale came up with a solution...

Just across the way from us was a farm and our neighbour knew the shepherd attatched to that farm quite well and thought perhaps our little friend was one of his herd. In the car I was reminded a little what having a hungry baby was all about as this little mite sucked on my finger for all it was worth! We arrived to be told that the goat did not belong to our particular shepherd but they knew whose it was and would take it in until its rightful owner happened along. To show us their thanks we were given a guided tour of their farmhouse which was very nice indeed. On leaving we were asked if we liked melons. What a strange question you may ask but it turns out that this farm also grows melons for export to the UK and we were presented with five melons between us just for our trouble of returning a straggler!!! The generosity of Spanish people will always surprise and delight us and this was no exception, needless to say we had a delicious breakfast of fresh melon for the next three days!! so, goats and melons: an unlikely combination? maybe but certainly a very satisfying one!!!!!

Cavehome Design Ideas...

One of the great things about cave design is that there are no limits, simple things like small dug out shelves like the one pictured below can create an homely feel, spruce up a plain wall and create individuality in every room.

Creating something attractive and functional in the kitchen...

Cant buy one of these in B&Q... Ok it cant be moved but a computer table is only limited by your imagination, this pic is half way through the job, stereos can also go into walls!

If you have the space, interior walls can also break up plain rooms, this is in our living room next to the doorway and comes in handy every day.

Wood (pine, olive, almond) can also look attractive when stained and varnished to "finish" any shelves or cubby holes, or can be fixed to walls to create a fake beam effect. I have used a couple of 9"x5" bricks with the corners cracked off as shelves, simply srewed onto the wall plastered with yeso then painted - simple rustic shelving.

The sky really is the limit!

Cave Life: Fiesta, Flamenco and Fun!!!

We were coming up to the anniversary of our first year in Andalucia and after all the hard work and stresses of the previous twelve months, we decided it was time to let our hair down and enjoy the other side of life in Andalucia: the all important Fiesta!!!

We had, over the previous year, missed out on our local ferias and fiestas, simply because we were too busy carrying out our renovations. However we wanted to make up for lost party time and perhaps more importantly, repay all the kindness shown to us by our neighbours in the area by having our very own Spanish night to celebrate our first year in Andalucia.

We wanted to host an evening of thanks and celebration purely for our immediate neighbours consisting of mainly Spanish and the odd French person in as true an Andalucian style as possible. I planned to cook tortilla de patatas which I can now make to perfection thanks to one of my English classes in the local village. I had gathered a few other local recipies also as a result of my teaching English to the owner of a local reataurant so I was quite confident about the food! The preparations began quite early with our neighbours bringing tables and chairs to compliment our setee which was now sitting on the patio! They also brought plenty of delicious local wine and other drinks to ensure the party did not run dry!

By midnight you could hardly move on our patio as to our delight almost all of the surrounding neighbours and many of their friends had arrived to show us their support, even our local plumber came with his wife and daughter! The food, I am happy to say was a huge hit and not one scrap was left, my tortilla was welcomed with a round of applause after being introduced as being "hecha por una inglesa!" This did not put anyone off and it lasted all of 5 minutes on the plate! However the most memorable point of the evening was not the food, nor indeed the drinks but what happened quite suddenly at around 1 am!

The entertainment consisted of a lot of singing of local Spanish songs but unbeknown to us we had a flamenco dancer amongst our guests. Accompanied to a rather fantastic Spanish CD, the entertainment really took off, with the patio flooded by light from outdoor candles and the flame from the BBQ we were witness to the most spectacular show of Spanish traditional dancing you could ever wish to see. The fact that everyone was relaxed and happy attending this party hosted by us English was simply great.

The night finished at about 4.30 am and true to their generous nature, our guests even stayed to help us clear up and this is where rioja combined with kindness can produce a hilarious moment. One of our neighbours was helping to move our setee back into the house, we did warn him not to lift holding the arms as they would fall apart being a sofa bed, but after the third time of managing to only lift the arm and leave the rest of the setee where it was, we were quite simply no more good and ended up just shoving it though the door to deal with in the morning!

After the huge success of that night we were subsequently invited to several more parties during the summer and we really felt as if we were beginning to live the dream. We have experienced our locals to be extremely generous and hospitable beyond any of our expectations. Can't wait untill New Year!!!!

Next up: Goats and Melons!!!

Cavehouse Electricity Supply (part 2)

This section deals a little bit with the paperwork involved in getting your electricity connected once all the donkey work of installation has been completed. The following information is based on our own experiences so may differ slightly from area to area.

The first port of call is generally your local town hall where you need to get a "certificado de la primera instalaccion." This is a document stating that this is the first time the property has an electricity supply. If necessary, you will also pay your "enganche de la luz" This is the (rather large) fee payable to the town hall allowing you to be connected. As mentioned earlier this may be different depending on where you live. Make sure you keep a copy of the bank receipt as proof of payment as you will need this later on.

You then need to go to your local Sevillanas office to make a contract before you can be supplied. Take with you the above documents, plus a copy of your passport or NI number and your bank details. You also need the "certificado de instalaccion electrica de baja tension" which your electricion will give you once he has completed the installation and it has been approved.

When you make your contract, you will be asked what supply you want. We have 3.3 which is the minimum and for us is perfectly fine. We do not have an electric cooker or kettle, nor do we have any electric heaters so if you use a lot of electrical appliances you may wish to ask for the maximum which I believe is 5.5, you can also get 4.4.

Once the contract is signed, an appointment will be made for an engineer to come out and connect you, this is usually done within two or three days. Be aware that Sevillanas take out all the charges relevant to your new supply quite quickly after the contract is signed, they won't necessarily wait until your first bill comes in.

As you can see from the picture below getting electricity installed is not so much as a luxury but a necessity!

Below is an early photo of our central room in the cave, This room now boasts lights, television, DVD and 5.1 Dolby digital sound system.

If you wish to increase your supply to 5.5 from anything lower then the process is pretty straightforward. Take a copy of your origional contract or bill to the Sevillanas office and ask for an increased supply. The assistant will then make the changes and a new contract will be made. The increase in supply comes into effect almost straight away.

However, if you wish to increase your supply even more up to say 7 or 8, then unfortunately it is a much more complicated process.........

Another very early shot of the main bedroom, now with wall lights in each corner, sockets and two - way switches

Cavehouse Electricity Supply

Getting electricity from scratch takes a long time!

In our case from start to finish the whole process took 21 weeks. Our generator was our source of power for 5 months and our fridge ran off gas in the caravan. When we bought our TV we used to watch dvd,s and play our music system all running from the generator - those were the days! Now we have all kitchen appliances, tv, hifi, computer etc - lifes luxuries that can be taken so easily for granted.

Inside the cave the easy part as mentioned before is channeling the walls, and pulling your wires etc. The bit outside however is more complicated. In our case we had electric at 50 metres which was sourced via a manhole in the track in front of the cave. The big grey box that sits on your outside wall will be connected with heavy cable that runs to your nearest supply point. To do this we had to chisel a hole in our breeze block frontage, chock it in the hole then yeso rapido the box in level, afterwards we rendered over the yeso to create a box that fitted flush into the wall.

Then it was JCB time again, he dug a 4ft deep trench along our garden and "doglegged" up the track to the manhole. You will need permission to dig up a road - our town hall only stipulated that the road was left as near as possible to its original condition, no fees to pay. The electrician will then lay 5" waste pipe along the trench and feed your cables through it - 2" armoured conduit wont be accepted by Sevillanas plus its more expensive anyway dont let anyone tell you any different. Before the pipe is laid a good covering of sand is required at the bottom of the trench - this helps stop acidic earth from attacking the plastic pipe (depending on your area) once the pipe is laid again a good covering of sand on top.

Armoured conduit can then be lead to your indoor fusebox and your electrician will connect this for you, this will require more channeling and can be awkward because the pipe is not very flexible and will probably have to go around a corner in your doorway or window to the fusebox.

While doing this job it is a good idea to make your channel slighty wider to accomodate another not very flexible cable - your earth cable, this will be connected to an "earthing rod" about 2ft in length and has to be hammered into the ground next to your front door. These earth rods are avaiable from local ferreterias. Once the electrician has sorted out your indoor fusebox and put in all the breakers etc the rest is then down to Sevillanas. They will come along and connect you both at the source and at the meter (grey box) and thats it.

It will vary greatly depending on if your connected to a source underground or to a pylon - for the latter I do not know the procedure but imagine it being similar with extra cost (you may have to pay for the pylon) Our rough cost for everything was just over 2000 euros and that included inside the cave too.

One other thing to bear in mind but will certainly not apply to everyone is that we had to pay 785 euros to our local town hall. Why? the reason is that our town hall paid Sevillanas a few years ago to bring electricity to our hamlet due to demand, the 785 euros is their way of re-couping the money. This is out of the norm but may well apply to other areas too so to its best to ask and avoid any nasty surprises. Needless to say it put a big dent in our wallet that day!!

Your electrician has to registered, they will send a plan to Sevillanas detailing your indoor electrical layout and aquire the nearest connection source. Sevillanas will not connect you until your electrician has 100% finished his work. This is where you can save money. Electricians charge up to 26 euros for connecting each socket or light - if its a double socket then its double the money, now if you have 20+sockets in your cave never mind switches your going to pay out a lot of euros. In our case we simply said we wanted electric in living room and kitchen, the rest we did ourselves at a later date and saved ourselves around 260 euros. This is the same principle if at some later date you fancied an extra light somewhere, you wouldnt go through the whole process again and wait five months etc etc. Bathrooms and kitchens need to be on a separate circuit so this is best left up to the sparky. My advice is do it right, do it safe but dont pay more than you have to.

Next: how to organise the whole thing, paperwork and upgrades

Cavehouse Internet

The wonders of modern technology eh? Well yes I am currently listening to BBC Radio 1 as I write this post - hard to believe for some I know.

This post is about how we got the internet and how to do it especialy if your from or moving to this area. Any comments are more than welcome detailing alternative providers/reliability in service etc. Heres how we did it..

Our PC was brought to us by a very good freind (you know who you are!) after a year of "snail mail" so with equipment ready we began our internet search "IBERBANDA" is now our provider. The cost is 39 euros per month for broadband plus the tax so budget for around 45 all in. The service is overall very reliable. Our gps system depends on the connection to the dish on top of Sagra mountain so if we are experiencing bad weather the connection can be a bit hit and miss. Internet (particularly broadband) does seem to be the exception to the rule as far as "Spain is cheaper" is concerened.

Your first port of call will be the cyber cafe in Huescar or similar depending on your local town. You will then fill in a form with bank details etc and you can expect an engineer within 14 days (14 spanish days that is) They will then either mount a 14"x14" square receiver on the highest point above your cave or erect a post (30 euros extra) so that the receiver can bounce or "see" the signal source (in our case Sagra mountain) You will have to make provision for the ariel which is very similar to a tv ariel, in our case our cable came through the ceiling of our rear most bedroom, the engineer did leave leave a little disgrunted when we said we would fit/lead the cable cable ourselves - he said he hadnt done "all of his job". Leading the cable from the ceiling to the actual computer was simple, we did it ourselves only because we still had decorative issues in that room. One good point the engineer made was though was to put the internet cable through conduit like electrical wires due to yeso (plaster) slightly acidic - this we did at no extra hassle and to be safe in the long run. So connect up and wahey! online!!??? NOPE.

Older computers will need an adapter for broadband, this adapter which fits very easily into your pc (only a screwdriver needed) can be purchased for 7 euros. My tip would be to ask for one anyway on a sale or return basis just in case.

Conclusion: Our PC brought from the Uk works very very well with our internet provider, however I have heard different opinions - it depends on your area. The only problems we have have is with heavy weather which I think you have to accomodate given the technology only available to you. Contacting the company can test your patience unless you speak good Spanish, only one helpline operator speaks English and they never seem to be on their shift when you ring! (apparently) We havnt had any need to ring the helpline and have had our system now for 6 months.

Iberbanda can be contacted on: 911021000 or fax 911021444

Next up.... How to get electricity from scratch inc upgrading + installation tips + plus save 300 euros in the process