Getting Ready to Move In

Here we are after construction and we still haven't moved in. We do have a good reason. We haven't yet sealed the grout.

I've managed to find a one-quart container of grout sealer in Corozal. Denis was kind enough to provide me most of a container he had bought to do their backsplash. Lano's says they will be getting a shipment of a couple of cases this Friday. I'm going to try to score four or five containers. Too bad you can't buy it by the gallon. We'd be in fat city if that were the case.

The other issue with that is that no one in town is carrying foam paint brushes. Sara and Jeff will be returning Thursday from Florida. They've got two bundles of foam brushes for us. Once we get everything in hand, we'll be ready to go.

In the meantime, we don't really want to move anything in that we'll just have to move again while we seal the grout. So, we haven't done much in that regard. Not to say that nothing has been going on. It has.

For one, I re-upholstered the bottom of the corner piece of our sectional. It took me a couple of tries. Dianna reminded me that I should do it the way you would stretch canvas on a frame for a painting. Ok. Only I had never done that. But, following that idea, I did it and the results came out much better than I could otherwise have hoped for. My new electric staple gun works just fine. Especially once I found out how to load the staples in it and quit trying to use the quarter-inch staples for upholstery. Half-inch staples definitely work better.

Reupholstered Sectional Corner Bottom 23 9.41

Dianna spent part of the morning removing old knobs off the tower shelf and drawers that we went ahead and moved down to the bathroom in the new place. That was done with Denis' assistance. He helped me carry the unit down to the new place. After a bit of cleaning, Dianna's been fitting nice glass knobs in place.

Adding New Glass Knobs to Tower 23 9.54

I also took advantage of another new tool that showed up thanks to Easy Shipping to Belize, LLC, my new Porter-Cable hammer drill. It works like a charm. We've got towel bars, towel rings, a toilet paper holder and hooks up and in place all over the bathroom.

Hooks and Towel Bars and TP Holder 23 9.55

Across from the tower, is another towel bar and hook.

More Hooks and Towel Bars 23 9.55

And a towel bar and towel ring beside the vanity.

Towel Bars and Towel Rings 23 9.55

I scored a nice looking rubber welcome mat at Lano's Supply the other day. It's being put to good use. All except for the dogs and cats don't appreciate what it should be used for.

Our New Welcome Mat 23 9.57

Everything getting new and pretty, inspired me to clean up my workshop. Here you can see the result. First time in months that I've been able to see the work surface of the counter.

Dave's Workshop Neat and Clean 23 10.30

I spent some time after the construction was officially over, to create a DVD of the 1,200 or so photos I took during the construction. I was going to play it for Dianna. Well, as so often happens down here, the damned player rebelled and would have no part of playing. Oh sure, it spun the DVD that we had left inside it, but the transport drive to open and close the door was completely inoperative.

I took the player to my alternate workshop, my office desk, and proceeded to dismantle the thing to see if I might be able to fix it. Better that than shelling out mo' money to Courts for a new player. It took a short time, and I found the problem. I had gone on the Intertubes first with a description of my problem and the answers that came back gave me a good idea of what the problem most likely would be.

Sure enough, it was a broken drive belt. A little one-and-a-quarter inch diameter square-shaped drive belt. According to the 'experts' on the 'tubes, I could substitute a rubber o-ring and that would work just fine. I found one the right diameter but too thick for the space available in the player.

So, I looked on the Intertubes further, to see if I could find a supplier. It actually took me a couple of days, but I found a very helpful site in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Ken's Electronics (http://www.kenselectronics.com). I originally ordered a replacement belt online from their shop. But I did this at 2:30 AM, so naturally, I screwed it up. I had to call them (using Skype, of course) around 9:00 AM, and talked to Ken himself. He was very pleasant and helpful.

It was a tad expensive (a smidge less than $14.00 US including shipping) for a tiny piece of rubber, but still in all, much cheaper than buying a new DVD player. Now all I have to do is actually get the thing and get it installed.

Broken Square Drive Belt for DVD Player 23 7.09

Then, I'll be able to ply the construction DVD for Dianna and we can finally finish watching that spy flick we couldn't stay awake for. Whatever it was.

I thought it would be good to begin moving what we could that won't impact the grout sealing activities. So, that pretty much limits things to the pantry/utility room beside the kitchen. In that regard, the first thing that came to mind was the need to move the freezer down to the new house. It's going to live in the pantry/utility room.

Denis, helped me again. He and I carried it (empty, of course) from the downstairs of the Mennonite house, down to the pool deck, where we let it sit for a few minutes in direct sunlight with the door open. It needed defrosting big time.

We figured out how to operate the drain, and I poured a couple of pans of water over the inner walls, and gave it a good wipe-down. After that, we moved it into the pantry, plugged it in, and reloaded all the contents that we had stored in a couple of coolers and bins. It's happy as a clam now. And will be much easier for us to use. No more traipsing up and down stairs to fetch a pound of 'grind meat' or  'beef meat' as they call it here.

Chest Freezer in it's New Home 23 7.12

A note, though. As you can see with the open door, I'm using one plastic bin to corral the meat in the freezer. I was using two, but it shattered when I took it out of the freezer. This remaining one is right behind the first as well. I've got to find a bin that will do the job without becoming brittle and breaking on the job. Some sort of metal bin or something. Back to the Intertubes.

Chest Freezer Innards 23 7.13

I had mentioned my neat and tidy workshop. Past history again. This morning I went over to David and Elizabeth's place to pick up my parts for a solar-powered pool heater.

Solar Heater Boxes in Workshop

With boxes all over, the workshop once again looks suspiciously like it did before I cleaned it up. Well, at least I got a picture when it was all neat and tidy. It'll only get worse for a bit. The box to the right is chock full of small bits and pieces. The big one to the left is a solar panel - about two or three times the size I thought it would be, and the middle box, is a unassembled framework to hold the solar panel.