Pool House Expansion Project, Day 103 - 09/02/16

Garlic Vine, sliding glass door, Mr. Matute and Stacy, Granite, Shower Shelf

Day One Hundred Three, 09 February, 2016

Tuesday morning, I was heading from the Mennonite house down to the pool house to see what was going one with the project, when I noticed the garlic vine was in bloom again. We have about 100-feet of garlic vine along our northern fence. It's gorgeous when the lilac-colored flowers show their stuff.

Garlic Vine Flowers 9 7.40

After getting side-tracked for a few minutes with the garlic vines, I made it into the pool house. There were a couple of things going on early in the morning. One, taking up a couple of tiles beside the sliding glass door in order to add Thinset under the door track to made it rigid.

We'd noticed that around the middle, where you're likely to step on the track, it had some sag when it was stepped on. We wanted to stop that, so the easiest way was to take up the two tiles and feed as much Thinset as we could under the track.

Prying a Couple of Tiles to Fill Under Track 9 - 7.44

Then Mr. Matute and Stacy showed up and began working on the counter once again. Here, he's using the rubber grit pads to polish the oval. In this stage, it's necessary to have running water to flush away the debris as well as to provide lubrication for the rubber pads.

Smoothing the Oval Cut 9 - 8.23

The oval is especially hard on the pads as pretty much just the outside edges of the pad get used polishing the granite, so pads tend to wear out sooner.

More Smoothing the Oval Cut 9 - 8.24

Back inside, the Thinset has been mixed up and is ready to trowel under the track. You can see the places where the tiles have been removed.

Thinset to Go Under Track 9 - 8.24

Outside, the back drain pipe elbow has been persistently leaking. This time, it was taken out and really glued up. Now, no more leaks.

Down Spout Really Glued Now 9 - 8.25

Caulking the basebaord and door trim is proceeding. There's times when it seems that it might not be necessary, but after it's done, it's apparent just how it spiffs up the woodwork.

Caulking Basboaards and Trim 9 - 8.26

This shot of Dianna appreciating the fact that the vanity pieces are finally in place was when I realized she may have a problem using the mirrors in the medicine cabinet doors. This was something she herself hadn't even thought about.

As a result, we've added to the to-do list, that the medicine cabinet needs to be lowered about five more inches.

Dianna Enjoying New Vanity 9 8.38

I mentioned the rubber polishing wheels that Mr. Matute was using to polish the granite. Here's one as an example. They come in many different grits, all color-coded.

Rubber Polishing Wheels 9 - 8.43

Mr. Matute brought a whole assortment of the discs with him. Normally, with flat polishing, he can get a disk to last for around ten to eleven pieces of granite. With rounded surfaces, he's lucky to get seven or eight. Since he has to order the disks from the states, that in itself becomes quite an expense.

Whole Assortment of Wheels 9 - 8.44

Here, Mr. Matute is rounding the bullnose a bit more. Working with granite, everything is done in small steps, especially with cut openings. You have to be careful not to overheat any one part of the stone as that could lead to its cracking.

Putting Bullnose On Granite Slab 9 - 8.46

A final step is washing away the dust debris.

Hosing Off the Debris 9 - 10.30

Here, they're laying out the centerpoint for the two faucet holes.

Figuring Centerpoint for Faucet 9 - 10.45

Checking to make sure the faucet actually empties into the basin is a good idea too.

Think It Will Go There 9 10.46

Once they're done cleaning the debris off the granite, it's time to move it into the house and place it on the vanity. Because of the large hole in it, the granite is now more fragile than ever, so extreme caare and caution is the word.

Bringing the Slab Inside 9 - 11.02

Heading through the house, going into the bedroom.

And Through the House 9 - 11.03

And now into the bathroom.

Into the Bathroom 9 - 11.03

They've set it on the leading edge of the counter.

Resting on Front Edge of Counter 9 - 11.03

  And will now gently slide it to the back.

Slide It Toward Back 9 - 11.04

And, ever so gently, begin lowering it down to the counter top, being careful to avoid light switches and outlet covers. We did trash one outlet cover in the process. Granite took it out very fast.

Lower It Down 9 - 11.04

Finally, it's resting flat on the counter.

And It's Down 9 - 11.06

But then, it needs to be raised back up for Mr. Matute to apply the very expensive epoxy.

Propped Up for Glue and Positioning 9 - 11.16

Here, Mr. Matute is mixing the epoxy.

Mixing Expensive Epoxy 9 - 2.00

As you can see, it's being troweled on. It does have a slower setting time so there is enough time to trowel it onto the surface.

more Trowel Work 9 - 2.02

And another type of epoxy is used to cement the sink rim to the granite. Here Mr. Matute is spreading that over the rim of the sink.

Spreading Glue on Sink Rim 9 - 2.08

As I mentioned before, work is continuing elsewhere, like in the office, grout is being applied to a couple of tiles near the laundry piping (hidden in the wall).

Grouting A Couple of Tiles in Office 9 - 2.03

Now, the template that Mr. Matute made outside is positioned and the holes for the faucet are drilled.

Drilling Faucet Holes 9 - 2.18

A common problem with working with drills, is the vibration tends to loosen bits as below.

Oops 9 - 2.20

And, there we are. It all fits.

The Faucet Fits 9 - 2.27

A final step is adding epoxy to the interface of the sink and the granite counter.

Adding Grey Epoxy to Rim 9 - 2.35

Then cleaning up, using both solvents and water, depending on what's being cleaned.

Cleaning Up 9 - 2.40

Continuing to show what else is going on at the same time, Omar has just finished grouting the shower shelf. it looks very nice.

Shower Shelf Done 9 2.41

And the shower controls, that were problematical from the get-go, are now under control and looking good.

Shower Faucets Almost Done 9 - 2.41

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project. 

Pool House Expansion Project, Day 102 - 08/02/16

Vanity Cabinet, Toilet, Shower Tiling and Grouting, Vanity Mirrors and Clips, Granite

Day One Hundred Two, 08 February, 2016

It's getting very near the end, as they say. Remaining tasks are small but numerous, and some, although small, are time-consuming.

The Vanity medicine cabinet was hung accurately and where Dianna wanted it. As I was jockeying around to take a picture of it, I got to thinking, that it might just be a bit too high for her to look in the mirrors. Uh-oh.

After conferring with her, she said she hadn't even thought about that, and that yes, it was going to have to be lowered about another five inches or so. What're ya gonna do? Everybody makes mistakes.

Medicine Cabinet Hung

The toilet is in and hooked up, both to the flange as well as to the water supply. Unfortunately, the water isn't turned on yet, as we're waiting for the water heater fitting to be finalized. Another small task.

Painting Baseboard Behind Toilet

Last I looked, there was one square of floor tile for the shower yet to be installed. It sure is looking good and so is the slope toward the drain.

Shower Floor Almost Done

One of the things that happened was, when the medicine cabinet was laid on its back on the bed, most of the somewhat flexible, grey plastic clips holding the mirrors in place broke. They probably would have worked ok in an upright setting, but we had temporarily laid it on its back on the bed. The weight of the mirrors and the backing plywood for them was just too much for the clips to handle.

One of the mirrors had fallen out to the back of the cabinet. Nothing broke, but I noticed it was down, figured out what hapened, and took the other three down and put them aside to be dealt with later.

Each mirror needs to be glued to it's backing plywood, and something other than those grey clips was needed to hold the mirrors in place.

It took stops at three or four hardware stores (as usual here) before I found what I was looking for. Clear plastic rigid clips. I'm going to put two on the bottom of each mirror and one on each side and top. That should work great.

New Vanity Mirror Clips

Here's a picture of the screen door hooks and eyes I mentioned earlier. Not fancy, but they'll do the job till the shiny brass latches I ordered from the States, come in.

Screen Door Hooks 3-Inches Long

Ok. Now for the educational bit. What we all working on this project knew about working with granite you could put in a thimble. A five-minute conversation with Mr. Ernesto Matute (627-7685) taught us so much.

I'm so glad we didn't try to tackle this part of the project on our own. For starters, how we were selecting the piece of granite. We were thinking we would go look for a piece that didn't have any blemishes on the face, and that was about it.

Mr. Matute told us we needed to look on all the edges for smooth cuts, and very carefully, front and back for possible cracks or anything that even looked like it might be a crack.

He also told us that at Lano's, his guys do all the moving of the pieces. Let them assume liability on their site.

And the actual transporting. It had to be on edge, with a couple of guys in the back of the bed to hold it steady. Our plan had been to see about buying a thin piece of foam rubber, and then laying whatever granite we selectd, on that foam.

This elicited almost a howl of laughter from Mr. Matute. He told us, it had to be on edge on the long side, with the bonded edge up, and that it had to be placed on a piece of lumber at least as long as the piece of granite.

Bathroom Vanity Granite Slab

Finally, the third slab of granite proved to be the one that fit the bill for us to bring home. How, you might ask, did we bring it back to Casa Winjama?

Well, Omar selected a piece of straight lumber that was a bit more than eight-feet long, so that the stone could ride on edge, resting on the lumber in the bed of my Sport Trac (with the tailgate down), and at least two people holding onto the slab for the journey. Once we got it home, we unloaded it as rested it on edge against a coconut tree, as you see above.

After that, Mr. Matute, ably assisted by his daughter, Stacy, got busy preparing to cut the granite. The task was compounded by the fact that the sink was an oval. Oval cuts are always tougher than straight cuts. Also, the oval of our sink, was just a hair out of true for an oval, which according to Mr. Matute, is not unusual. Each oval is slightly different than the next. Each is a challenge.

Matute Measuring Sink

In addition to the additional bracing that needed to be installed in the cabinet, we had to prepare a piece of half-inch furniture-grade plywood, to be a sub-layer for the granite.

Making Sure Plywood is Right Size

Here Mr. Matute, is cutting the plywood. This oval is slightly larger than the sink as the sink sits inside this oval, resting on two of the pieces of wood bracing that had been installed earlier. That way, the bracing actually supports the sink directly, as well as the granite.

Matute Cutting Sink Oval in Plywood

Under the vanity cabinet, we needed to have an electrical outlet for the Cat Genie litter box. The guys thought it would be easier to surface-mount an outlet, rather than cut a hole and fish the outlet itself throught the hole. Not a problem. That solution was fine for us. Why so many wires, you might ask? Well, again, I'll tell you. It's because a second outlet, above the vanity cabinet had been added and a wire was stubbed from this outlet to the new one. Two wires for each outlet and a twisted ground wire.

Outlet Wire for Cat Genie Under Vanity

Keeping in mind that there are several other tasks going on, here's a view of the grouting of the shower. It is really looking good.

Grout Underway in Shower

Mr. Matute is routing the bracing I mentioned, in preparation to setting the sink in the hole of the plywood. I asked Stacy if she was interested in running the business when her dad retired. She said emphatically, that yes, she was. Good for her.

Routing Sink Supports

Here's a shot under the counter of the cabinet, showing the piping run through the cabinet back as well as the sink itself.

Pipes Coming Through Vanity

As you can see, the sink fits snugly in the cut oval of the plywood.

Sink In Place With Plywood

As it turns out, the cardboard pattern of the oval, that Mr. Matute is cutting out here, really didn't fit the real oval we were dealing with.

Cutting Pattern From Sink Cardboard Box

They made another oval to fit the inner dimensions of the sink from heavy card stock.

Preparing Sink Inner Pattern

In order to cut the stone, Mr. Matute laid out center lines on the granite with a Sharpie, which erased off the polished surface with no problem.

Marking the Center Point

They then laid out the sink oval patterns for the cut.

Outlining the Pattern

They taped over the oval lines prepatory to cutting.

Checking the Layout

And then, using a small smooth diamond blade in his tool, Mr. Matute began the cutting process. This is a job that is best done outdoors, as it generates considerable dust.

Using Diamond Blade to Cut Sink Oval

This part of the process probably took slightly more than an hour for Mr. Matute to complete the cut. It's slow and steady work that results in a successful through cut.

Around And Around

Once he finished the cut, he laid the cut-out piece against the coconut tree and knocked off for the evening.

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.