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24 November, 2016

Midweek Workday

This is Wednesday, 23 November, 2016, with more work on the project.

Carlos and Jorge Sharpening Chainsaw
Carlos, our caretaker, pointed out to me a few days ago, that one of our trees near the front of the place, was dead as a doornail and probably posed a hazard.

This morning Carlos, along with his son Jorge, cut it down. Only the upper portion of the tree was rotten. The rest of the tree was very dense, and very hard wood, which caused Carlos to have to sharpen his chainsaw a couple of times.

Glass Blocks In Place
Glass blocks were actually never part of the grand design, but here they are. Well, the explanation is easy. We ended up with a one-foot wide hole between the waterfall area and the column because of design changes involving the waterfall.

What do you do with it? It seemed like too small an area to make a screen frame for. But, then what? Mario suggested maybe trying glass blocks. We jumped on board the idea. So, here it is,

Rene Chipping High Spots
We're almost ready to Diamond Brite the pool. Besides taking care of some old crack patches, there are several bumpy areas that need to be smoothed down so that when the new Diamond Brite coating is put down, that it's really smooth.

Small, heavy hatchets seem ideal for this task. That's what Rene is using in the photo.


The Caps Are Getting Painted
Mario's painter does an excellent job. Fast and methodical, I've never seen a drip or a 'painting outside the lines' error. The painting just looks excellent.






Bani Sanding Wood Filler
The blue screws used to secure the screen frames to the columns, beam, and deck were all counter-sunk. After they were done, each screw was then covered with wood filler and sanded smooth






Theo Cleaning Up Concrete on Blocks
The glass blocks are all installed and cemented into place. Theo is cleaning excess concrete off the face of the blocks. The next step in the process is to apply the terracotta texture to the concrete so that it all matches.





Floor Drain Full Run
Just so you can see the whole run of the deck drain. The drain was made from PVC square-shaped electrical conduit. The conduit cap was then routed by hand using a jig and careful measuring to get the evenly spaced openings.

This is close to forty-feet long. The exit for the drain is at the far end and is tied into the overflow drain for the pool. It's turned out just superb. I couldn't be happier with the result.







Glass Blocks Other Side
Just a view of the other side of the glass blocks. With the blue banding on each block, when viewing them in place, you get a hint of blue in each block.






Ramp Columns Done
The east ramp columns are ready for the railings to be installed. I think it's going to look seriously cool when it's done.







Endher Finishing Wood Frame
Endher is touching up each wood filler covered screw with stain and varnish so they match the rest of the frame.







Detail of Water Line
I asked the painter to paint each of the exposed PVC pipes, which he did. We wanted the deck drain left white as we thought that, although paint would give the PVC more UV resistance, that it just wouldn't hold up well, and would probably show chips and peels soon enough.





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