Pool House Expansion Project, Day 96-97 - 01-02/02/16

Bits and Pieces, Tiling, RO, Doors, Attic Access, Wiring, Latches, Painting, Threshold, Vent Cover

Day Ninety-Six and Ninety-Seven, 01-02 February, 2016

It's getting harder to keep track of things. Individual projects are getting smaller and of shorter duration, as might be expected, nearing the end of the construction. For example, just tracking how things are beginning to move through the house. The toilet has now advanced to the living room, where it was joined by the front door latch and deadbolt kit.

New Toilet and Front Door Lock Have Made It to Living Room

 Likewise, the bathroom vanity has made it into the living room, along with one of the nightstands that Dianna had tiled a few years ago.

Bathroom Vanity On the Move

Just behind the nightstand is the new front door. The hardware has yet to match-up with the door.

Front Door and Night Stand in Living Room

The headboard has made it into the dining room. I just located the plastic baggie containing the lag screws and washers we had originally used to secure it to the bed frame.

Headboard In the Dining Room

Small projects continued - the roll-up buttons need to be reversed so that UP is on top, instead of on the bottom. The case needs to be painted the same as the wall. That green does make it easy to find.

Roll-up Door Buttons Need Paint and Reversing

One of the louvers from the original pool house was re-installed in the bedroom. The filled concrete space under the louver, needs to be lowered just a smidge almost in the center to allow the louver to close completely.

Old Louver Needs Concrete Removed to Close Properly

Whenever Omar gets a chance, he works on the shower tile project. It seems he's always in demand and is frequently pulled off of this job.

Shower With Bling Tile

Here's a little better view of the band of bling in the shower.

More Bling in the Shower

I had just finished hooking up the reverse osmosis system. Colored tubing seeming to go everywhere. There are two tubes that go through the wall into the kitchen. One (clear or white color) goes to the fancy tap mounted on the sink in the kitchen. the black tube is connected via a collar to the kitchen sink waste line, where the waste material that didn't pass through the RO membrane gets sent.

This system is as good as any of the commercial water bottling plants, just smaller. It uses a five-stage filtration process, including two carbon filters, UV filter, the pass-through membrane, and a last carbon polishing filter, before it is sent to the kitchen tap for drinking.

We can finally get rid of the five-gallon bottles in the kitchen. We'll purchase filled bottles and put them downstairs in the Mennonite house as part of our emergency supplies.

RO Tubing As Hooked Up

The next time I came through, the front door is attached and has all it's components mounted and functioning. Looking good too.

We Have A Locking Front Door

The attic has presented a bit of a challenge. For one, getting into the attic requires somewhat of a flexible body (read 'younger') to climb up a tall step ladder, then transition over to the upper closet shelf and squirm through the opening and up into the attic itself.

It might be worthwhile to think about installing one of those folding attic stairway kits at some point in the future.

Attic Entry Getting Finished Nicely

Up in the attic itself, there were a few details that needed tending to. Such as too few junction boxes, covers for some junction boxes, and lack of wire nuts to join wire segments together.

Missing Wire Nuts and Covers

A Couple Instances of Messy Wiring

Some Caulking Gaps in end Panels

 All the attic issues were speedily corrected. I did note that the attic insulation really does work. It's hot up there, but the house itself stays nice and cool.

Overall, the Attic Was Very Neat and Professional

About the pocket door latch hardware. When the latch lever is turned, a deadbolt-looking affair comes out of the door into the jam, and a small, tooth is extended out the side, that engages the jamb plate, providing a locking function.

Also in the deadbolt piece, at the end, is a spring-actuated finger pull to pull the door out of its position in the storage part of the jamb.

Pocket Door Locking Latch

Omar has been able to make significant progress in the shower tiling. It's really looking Nice.

Shower Tiling Coming Along Too

Errol did a first-rate job of painting the roll-up door cover and tracks to match the walkway wall color. It won't stand out near as much as it did in the chocolate primer paint.

Roll-up Painted Nicely

We now have a nice threshold in place to mask the transition from the kitchen tile to the dining room. There ended up being a bit more than a quarter-of-an-inch difference between the two.

Threshold Between Kitchen and Dining Room

The utility, storage, laundry, freezer, pantry, etc., room now has an elephant trunk dryer vent tube in place.

Dryer Vent Tubing Ready

The RO system now has its tubing under control and appears much less complicated.

RO Tubing Corraled

The washer connection and drain is all finished and ready for use.

Washer Connection Done

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 88 and 89 - 22-23/01/16

Painting, Tiling, Repairs, etc.

Day Eighty-Eight and Eighty-Nine, 22-23 January, 2016

The past couple days have had a dearth of photos. That's because the guys are, for the most part, tiling the house. Every time I headed down to take some photos, visually, I could see substantial progress being made. But, when I looked through the viewfinder, not so much. So, generally, I didn't take a photo.

Till today. Tiling is still going on, but they've moved all the stuff out of the utility/pantry/laundry/storage room (whatever it's called) and are getting ready to paint it and do some other miner fixes in there.

For now the bathroom linen closet is in the office. We just don't have anywhere else to store this stuff till more tiling is done.

Bathroom Linen Closet in the Office

Across from it is the bed, box spring and mattress.

The Bed is Also in the Office

I didn't notice right away, but right behind the mattress is the bathroom vanity and medicine cabinet.

The Vanity is Hiding Behind the Bed Also in the Office

Also, Omar is in the office, along with the headboard for the bed, and the new, one-piece toilet (same as the one we installed upstairs in the Mennonite house. He's finishing the piping and stuff for the laundry hookup.

Omar is Working on the Washer Piping

In the utility (et al) room, just a refresher on some of what needs to be done. The filled spaces for the window (the big square on the wall), and the A/C (small square) need to be finished and painted. Well probably the whole wall needs painting.

Painting to be Done

Another view of the room, you can see the laundry hookup in the corner, still needs finishing as well as a couple small through-holes for water piping.

Utility Room Empty Once Again

There's been progress in the bathroom. It's pretty much painted. You can see below, the area where the backsplash will be tiled after the vanity and medicine cabinet are installed. Tiling needs to be completed here before that stuff can be moved in.

Bathroom Painted and Ready for Tile

Tiling in the bedroom is coming along. The Thinset is getting a bit thick toward the wall because of unevenness of the floor.

Bedroom Tiling Nearing Completion

Dining room tiling is coming along as well. Couple more rows and it'll be done.

Dining Room Tiling Almost Done

The kitchen storage has been reoriented somewhat.

Kitchen Storage

Here's the kitchen looking at the other direction.

More kitchen Storage

The laundry hook-up in the utility room is now done and ready for painting.

Laundry Fititngs Done

It's still a work in progress on the office side, but, not much more and it'll be done too.

Office Laundry Piping Being Finished

Masking tape is coming down all around the ceiling of the walkway and veranda.

Masking Tape Being Removed From Walkway Ceiling

Looking toward the veranda you can still see the masking tape.

More Masking Tape Being Removed

Finally, Dianna's shaving shelf is installed in the bath and is ready for tiling.

Shower Shaving Step

And the controls for the shower are being worked on. This presented a bit of a problem because the controls were seated a tad too deep in the wall, but that's being addressed.

Shower Fittings Being Worked On

The futon and baseboard trim and some other stuff is temporarily out on the pool deck. I asked the guys to remember before they leave for the day to put it inside, or if it starts to rain. You can't be too careful, you know.

Temporarily On the Deck

One more shot of the dining room which will probably be finished this afternoon.

Dining Room Tile Almost Done

A new development, Omar is laying out lines and a ledger board to start tiling the shower.

Omar Laying Out Ledger Board to Tile Shower

Last but not least, I just about five minutes ago, got a call from Peter's Glass Shop in Spanish Lookout, letting me know that they will be here Monday to install all the window louvers, sliding glass doors, and the roll-up door. Woo-hoo! Whole bunch more photos to take. I better make sure the camera is charged up and ready to go.

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.     

It Must Be Therapy

The past week or so, I've been spending just about five hours a day in the pool. Maybe not at once but several times in a day. There have been times though, where it was a solid four hours. Today, we were in it most of the afternoon, while it was raining. Quite nice.

Let's see, where are we? Well, the guesthouse is almost completely painted - inside and out; we have the bathroom vanity, sink, and faucet installed, along with the tile back-splash; the toilet is in, although, it's plagued right now by a small leak that I'm trying to track down and solve; We had a couple of guys come by to measure, etc., for a bid for the kitchen cabinets and doors; and, we're supposed to get our louvers, sliding glass doors, and roll-up door installed tomorrow. That's about it. I've been busy, busy, busy. It seems when construction is underway, I make at least three trips to town for supplies, parts, you name it.

Speaking of the toilet, we've replaced everything that came with it. The toilet seat cover had an unfortunate accident.

I Think It's Busted

We started with the seat. Dianna was actually responsible for this. As the installation was proceeding, she wanted to check to see how 'un-wobbly' the toilet was after fastening the flange bolts, so she sat on the lid. Instantly - boom! We weren't real happy with it in the first place, kinda cheesy.

So, yesterday, I purchased a new filler valve and float. This morning, I got a new seat along with a new overflow/drain valve and new brass tank-to-bowl bolts and rubber washers. I also got a new connector hose as with the new filler valve, it naturally takes a different sized hose than the old one.

Now, the toilet has completely new innards - and we haven't even used it yet. That's not true. I pee'd in it this afternoon, after caulking the gaskets to try to stem the leak. I flushed and bingo! It still leaks. Dangit!

Dianna Supervising, Mayo Installing the Toilet

As far as the painting, all that's left is the bottom of each window louver, as the way they do it, is to install the louvers, then plaster up the bottom to fill in any remaining gaps. That's the part that still needs painting. And the roof - it still needs priming and an application of snow coat, almost like the stuff we would put on RV roofs. It's a rubberized product (quite expensive here) that once applied will lower the inside temp a concrete-roofed house by about ten degrees.

We're also ready for the electrician to come back and complete the wiring, including installing another whole house surge suppressor and possibly moving the pool's waterfall and in-pool light switches to be more convenient - like inside the utility room of the guesthouse.

Walkies have been fun. I wore out all of my Crocs, so I resorted to trying to wear my Kean sandals, which look cool, but I didn't find them comfortable before. Well, if I just wore them a little at a time to break them in, that probably would have been fine. Instead, I wore them for our usual walk - almost 4 miles. Here's the result:

Finally Down to 4 Bandages

Ow, ow, ow! That wasn't the brightest thing to do. After I got back, it's been bandages and immediately switching over to my sandals, that I haven't worn in over two years. (I haven't work the Keans in at least that, either). Good thing, cause we haven't been able to get over to Chetumal to Sam's Club to buy new Crocs. If it wasn't for the sandals and the Keans, I'd be barefoot. The doggies just would not understand me begging off from walkies simply because I had no shoes. After all, they go bare-footed every day and they don't complain.

Paloma Getting New Paint

Speaking of walkies, each day, we walk past the local 'boatyard', actually just a part of Miami Beach, downtown. I had shown a picture of Paloma shortly after she arrived onto the hard. Now here she is sporting a very nice new paint job. I'm just waiting now for them to put her name back on her bows. She's a very pretty boat as is.

Below, is another view of her from the stern. A lot of care and skill has gone into this paint job.

Paloma's Behind

And, speaking of painting, I know Vivien has been champing at the bit for some shots of the painting in progress. Here's a few glimpses. The color scheme inside is white, a very light blue (some folks think it's gray) and navy blue (azul de marina).

Malo Rolling on the Light Blue

Final Outside Colors - Blue and Terra Cotta

And, a shot of the outside final colors, blue and terra cotta. Tomorrow, I'll be taking more photos as the louvers, etc., are installed. I'll be able to show more of the colors. I don't seem to have any shots of the navy blue. There will be.

A while back, we had an acquaintance through the blog, Larry come to town. He came over to visit for a spell and the next day, Twyla and I ran into him during our walk. He was kind enough to send me a shot he took of us by the Mirador Hotel

Walkies - Courtesy of Larry O'Grady

He took a lot of photos around the area, many while he was looking at property. Here's a link to his Picasa photo album: (http://picasaweb.google.com/pollymop). Enjoy.

Well, that's about it for this evening. This is unusual. I normally do this about three or four in the morning. What happened? I'll take a bunch more and get something posted - soon. I promise!