LA CASA
ADDRESS
Carre Ruidera, 7
L’Alfàs Del Pi
03580 (Alicante)
Spain/España
DIRECTIONS
The house is in the Carbonera area of L’Alfàs Del Pi which is a 5 minute drive/20 minute walk from the town itself, and a 45 minute drive from Alicante Airport. And if you type ‘Calle Ruidera 7 + Alfas’ in Google Maps or Apple Maps it comes up.
There are no longer toll charges on the AP-7 motorway so you can now use that for free, or stick the N-332 which is a bit more interesting and easier to stop off for supermarkets and shops on the way.
CONTACTS & NEIGHBOURS
Lovely friendly people live here! It’s pretty quiet and residential and everyone is more than happy to help.
The primary points of contact are Marisol & Antonio who looked after my Mum and Dad in their later years and are firm family friends. They live in La Nucia which is only a couple of miles away and their contact numbers are (mobile/WhatsApp):
Marisol +34 629 111 220
Antonio +34 622 349 071
The next best contact would be our next door neighbours at #8 Remon & Helena (Dutch and Irish respectively) and Remon’s number is +34 607 227 522.
CALLE RUIDERA
There are 8 houses in Calle Ruidera and ours is the bottom left one.
#1 Elderly German lady called Inge
#2 Spanish man called Jesus :-)
#3 Someone new I think!
#4 Spanish family who use house as holiday home
#5 Dutch lady called Mila who comes regularly for holidays
#6 Paco our oldest longstanding neighbour - the Constant Gardener
#7 Us
#8 Remon & Helena
THE HOUSE
The house was built in 1979, my parents bought it in 1988, and it is of significantly better quality than many 21st Century new builds. It is very secure because every window has built in ‘recas’ (bars) and we have been lucky enough never to have had any security issues in all that time.
The house consists of two parts: the main building with a large living and dining room (including a grand piano) plus 2 x double bedrooms, a bathroom and a new kitchen. And sharing a sun room, the annex is a fully self contained apartment with its own living room, double bedroom and bathroom.
However, as with any older house, there are certain aspects to take into consideration. Mainly that, a/ the drains feed into an underground organic septic tank, and, b/ that the total electricity power available at one time is 9.3Kw.
Neither will usually cause a problem if you, a/ don’t put anything apart from toilet paper down the toilet, and, b/ don’t run multiple high power consumption applications at the same time. However, a waste blockage can usually be plunged through, and the power fuse box is in the hall and the trip switches can be simply flicked back up.
in extreme circumstances the power may need to be reset at the mains box which is just outside the main double gates of the house
ENTRY & KEYS
The padlock on the front gates has a 4-digit code (contact me for that!)
The 2 x keys on the Black key ring are for the front of the house:
one for the porch gate
one for the front door.
The 3 x keys on the Red key ring are for the back of the house:
one for the back door
one for the gate which divides main house from sun room/annex
and one for the annex itself.
Like many older houses, these doors may need to be pulled in or pushed out slightly to get the keys to turn smoothly!
PARKING
The house has a driveway with a carport for you to park your car under (a must in the summer) and there is space on the driveway for up to 3 more cars. However the car port is not particularly high as it was built for 1970’s cars not SUV’s, so be careful when opening your boot!
HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING
Spanish houses are not built for the winter! However there is a plethora of heating options so you will not be cold. And indeed many of these double up as air conditioning units in the summer so you do not need to be too hot either unless you want to be!
LIVING ROOM
Option 1: The heating/air conditioning unit
Use remote Up and Down keys to set to desired temperature and press Power button to activate unit. To change unit function from ‘heating’ to ‘air conditioning’ slide down front hatch of remote control and use blue ‘Mode’ button to toggle between ‘hot’ and cold’ settings.
OPTION 2: The Vigo Electric Heaters (x2)
Hold down Power button to switch on unit. Then press and hold down the + or - button to select desired temperature.
OPTION 3: The Pellet Fire !!
The exclamation marks are there for a reason.
This is a wonderful device, but not without its quirks.
Kitchen
The main fusebox is just behind the front door, which also includes a dedicated fuse for the swimming pool pump which should be left on at all times (as the pump has its own timer). The total power supply for the house and annex combined is 9.2kW so you may still get some tripping! Saying that, until I had the house rewired recently, we only had 3.5kW which is basically an electric kettle + one other thing!!
There is a 3-ring electric convection hob (the convection pots and pans are underneath the hob) and each ring uses around 3.5kW at full power, i.e. all three on full power at the same time will trip its fuse switch. However, you’ll soon get used to the balancing act, which to be fair would only really happen with an intense cooking session using rings, oven, and microwave at the same time!
The water heater takes a few hours to heat up so you may want to leave it on permanently during your stay for convenience. It uses a bit more electricity that way obviously, but I like to know I always have hot water, especially as that heater also serves the bathroom (possibly not so relevant in the height of the summer).
The instruction manuals for the hob, the oven, the microwave, and the dishwasher should be in the draw below the worktop.
Living Room
The living room has a powerful air conditioning/heating unit (1,75Kw) and its own dedicated remote control. It should already be preset to ‘air conditioning’, but in the winter it can be set to ‘heating’.
The two windows behind the grand piano CANNOT be opened because they are faulty (they are on the post-Covid repair list!). Technically not true: they can be opened, but with the one on the left you would probably end up holding the window in your hands!
The living room has a very effective overhead fan and its remote control is (should be) in a holder mounted on the wall near the fan itself. You also need to have the switch on next to the remote holder.
Two of the three windows have metal roller blinds, but care should be taken when pulling them up as if you pull them right to the top sometimes they stick. Therefore best to leave a couple of inches of blind showing at the top of the window. Lowering these blinds in the summer also helps keep the room cooler.
There are two Vigo 2.5kW electric heaters in the living room and these really are effective for gradually heating up the room. Not as immediate an impact as the air conditioning/heating unit or the pellet fire, but do the trick slowly but surely, and can be set to a desired temperature so they’ll switch themselves off when that temperature is reached - very clever!
Pellet Fire
All the rage in Spain (forgive the pun). Very cozy in the winter and economical to run, The mechanism feeds pellets into the fire one at a time, which allows you to keep a regulated temperature as well as offering endless hours of fun watching each pellet explode and burn, one at a time…
TV
The LCD TV is tuned to Spanish Freeview, and if you are clever with remote controls you will be able to find the button that allow you to switch a ‘foreign language’ film dubbed into Spanish back to its original language.
The TV also has 2 x HDMI inputs for laptops/iPads etc.
Beneath the TV there is a DVD player, and next to the TV there is a HiFi system with CD player, radio, and cassette player (remember them?).
Dining Area
This is part of the large open plan living room, but with a dividing wall running halfway up the room, it gives it a dining room feel of its own.
This is the classical side of the room featuring a large and beautiful ‘libreria’ (which we bought in 1972 in Barcelona) which two walls, and a dining table that seats 8 people below a Castillian-style chandelier.
(There is an assortment of cables and plugs in the second large draw down in the ‘libreria’ plus some other useful utensils in some of the smaller draws such as lightbulbs, plug-in mosquito machines, etc.)
Piano
You are of course welcome to play the Bechstein Baby Grand, but would you please partially drop the roller blinds on the windows next to the piano during the afternoons to protect it from the sun?
Thank you!
Bathroom
The shower is very good, but expect to wait at least a couple of minutes for the hot water to come through all the way from the water heater in the kitchen. There is easily enough hot water in the tank to fill a bath, and plenty for several consecutive showers (there isn’t an electric shaver socket in the bathroom, or anywhere in the house for that matter).
In typical Spanish fashion for houses of its era, the sewage goes into an organic sceptic tank. This is highly ‘right on’ nowadays even if this was not the purpose when constructed! And although flushing works well there is always the possibility of blockage with excessive toilet paper and other items.
There is an 800w towel rail heater in the bathroom which also heats up the bathroom quite nicely in the winter.
Bedrooms
Both bedrooms have air conditioning/heating units and are the same make and model, so either remote control will work on either unit (these units and remotes are different to the one in the living room). Again they should be preset to air conditioning but can be changed to heating when required.
Both bedrooms have metal roller blinds (same suggestion as the living room blinds) but also have inbuilt mosquito screens meaning the windows can be left open throughout the night if desired. Again, dropping the blinds during the day is the best way to try and keep the rooms cool during the summer.
There is plenty of wardrobe and draw space in both bedrooms, and all our stuff is out the way in the top units above the wardrobes.
There is an 800W towel rail heater behind the door in the master bedroom which plugs in by the side of the bed. Great for drying smaller things on a wet winter’s day, but unlike the bathroom towel rail, not really powerful enough to create much residual heat in the larger sized bedroom.
Sun Room
There is a large gate which separates the house from the annex, with a sun room shared between both properties, so to speak. It also has a very effective overhead fan and a recliner armchair. The gate is lockable and again I’d recommend keeping it locked when you are out, and when you go to bed at night.
Through the door at the other end of the sun room is the only door into the 1-bedroom self contained annex, meaning the sun room is effectively shared by both areas of the house.
Outside
The pool has its own underground ‘operation cellar’ with a dedicated fuse box and timer for the pump. There shouldn’t be any reason to go down there as Marcel the Dutch pool guy keeps everything in order as well as coming round to maintain the pool once a week in the summer and once a fortnight in the winter.
There is an industrial size whirly to hang out your clothes and the hole to put it in is in front of the old (and long time non-functional) outside shower. There is also a ‘fold out’ clothes horse for smaller stuff.