jules63

Hi I'm new to the forum as I am in the process of buying an old townhouse in Spain (yes I may be a fool to do so at this time......) but what I would like is a DIY book in english that would tell me all the obvious stuff that I know as a home owner in the Uk but don't in Spain e.g if i take electrical stuff from the UK do I have to use a plug adapter or can i just change the plug and if so how (see I told you I wanted the answer to very basic questions!).

I have looked on the internet for any such book and can't find anything - anyone any ideas?

crispy

Jules, welcome to BE I can't help you with the name of a book but I do know that you can bring your electrical stuff and just change the plugs, OH did this when we came here, I watch him as this is a blue job in our house

Mitzyboy

Welcome to the forum
I'm not aware of such a book, but feel free to ask away on the forum as everyone is very helpful here. Check the free beer sticky on here that is also helpful, but actually offers no free beer.
There are books to to with legalities and taxes such as David Searles You and the Law in Spain (Santana Books).

rugbymatt

Hi welcome to the mad house, you could try Santana Books, they have loads of books that may help.

YMF

Someone has posted an ebook about moving to spain on another forum, have a look at mycadiz.biz
They say they have made it available for comment, it is only available for download until today.
I had a quick look at it and it may be the sort of thing you are looking for.

Yvonne

Eve

Hi Jules,
Welcome to BE and glad you asked that question, my OH would be very interested, ta Rugby matt I have looked at the santana site and have seen a couple of books i would like, probably not the ones Oh would but ta for that anyway.
We have an old town house and are giving it lots of tlc but the spanish have a different way of doing things, anything electrical is a nightmare, they just seem to use whatever colour wiring they like, i expect they want it to look pretty!! Now anytime OH does any wiring he colour codes with tape all the wires especially the live ones that are not connected to anything, this seems to be a favourite of thiers!!
All our work has been by trial and error, although he has a brilliant list of builders materials tools etc, when he comes in I will pass it on to you, very useful, even when just going to the ferreteria to buy some nails and a hammer. He is a DIY addict so has enjoyed most of it but has become frustrated at silly things because he is unsure of how to do it. So if anyone out there does know of such a manual please post it on here, or of course if someone can write one very soon it would be extremely welcome!!!
Good luck,
Luv Eve

Mitzyboy

OOOeeeerrrr! I don't know what electrician you used, but the wiring we just had done was all properly colour coded to EU standard, placed neatly in plastic trunking

Rosemary

Read Eve's post again and you will find that she is referring to the OLD wiring not nice new stuff.

Rosemary

Rosemary

We know the feeling. We are doing our townhouse up gradually and it amazed my OH the number of different colour wires and the wires that led nowhere.

Rosemary

Hillybilly

The "Finca" book by Alec & Erna Fry, which is one of the Santana ones, is very useful, even for a townhouse dweller.

Fred James

Alec also started an excellent forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fincasinspain/ which you might find useful.

keithwalters

We did this too with a variety of small electrical items.

But do you know if this would work with an oven too? We still have one from the UK in storage and would like to put it in the new house when we get it.

I´m a bit thick (electrically speaking) and I know that ovens have those big fat cables, not like the skinny hairdryer type cables, so not sure if it will be compatible.

crispy

All sounds very technical to me Keith,

keithwalters

Yeah I know. And fathoming the cables is the easy part....after that you have to learn how to operate an oven! I´ll have to leave that part to the expert in the family.

crispy

Had this house for 6 months before I learnt how to operate the oven, my
son in law showed me I was well iimpressed, he said his mum had the same model and he had watched her do it. I'm not usually that thick but it had this clock with different signs on and it had to be turned to the hand.