Pool House Expansion Project, Day 92-93 - 27-28/01/16

Plumbing, Ceiling Fans, Doggie Doors, Grouting, Drain Field, Roll-up

Day Ninety-Two and Ninety-Three, 27 - 28 January, 2016

Wednesday morning, I decided to get right to it and hook up the whole house filter (the little blue tank in the photo below) and the salt-free water softener (the big blue tank).

Stage One of Connected Piping to Filter

Of course, I periodically had to go on walk-about to see how other work and installations were coming along, like the office ceiling fan below. I love the antique look.

the Office Ceiling Fan

Mitch, the carpenter, had taken the rather plain Mennonite screen doors and did an outstanding job of modifying them to make the openings for our doggie doors. We still have the doggie doors installed upstairs in the Mennonite house.

Since we're still living there, it's a bit of a juggling act to determine just when we should move things like that down to the new house. It's partly a question of dealing with bugs, oh, and convenience, of course. Who wants to constantly be getting up to let three dogs and three cats (since they use the doggie doors as well) in or out virtually 24/7?

Doggie Door Opening in Screen Door

Here's Mr. Cobb, the electrician, assembling our new double-bladed fans. I saw these on the Lowe's website (where we bought all our fans). I've never seen anything like this double-bladed job. As soon as I saw it, I thought it would be cool to have. Each unit has smaller blades, about a foot long, I think, but the overall effect is like you have a ceiling fan with a seventy-five inch diameter, which would make for a huge fan.

Complicated Assembly

Of course, the grout work is progressing along. It really brings the tile to life and gives it a much more finished look.

Grout Being Applied

Here you can see it's been done down the entire length of the east walkway. It still needs final sponging.

Grout Going Whole Length

While all that is going on, Mitch, the carpenter is busy installing door jambs all around. Here, he and his assistant are installing the closet jambs.

Mitch the Carpenter and helper Mounting Closet Door Frame

Some of the hardest work currently, is digging the trenches for the septic drain-field. Marl is not the easiest stuff to dig through. It's basically the consistency of decaying concrete.

Digging Trenches for Septic Drain Field

Some time on Wednesday, the installers from Capital Factory showed up with the roll-up door. This was a nice surprise, as I wasn't expecting them till next week.

Rollup Door Minus Frame

Here's a nice example of the walkway tile after the grout has been applied and cleaned up. We opted to go with a 1/8th-inch grout line, and to use un-sanded grout. This give a much finer line, but also makes the tile look more unified. We love the way it's turning out.

Walkway Tiles With Chocolate Unsanded Grout

The guys from Capital Factory right away were stymied as far as being able to install the roll-up door. They said where we had the electrical wire coming out of the wall was in the wrong place. It would interfere with the roll-up frame. So, they left and were planning to return tomorrow morning, after we re-routed the wire, to complete their installation.

Wires For Roll-up Need to be Re-positioned

Sometime later in the afternoon, they returned. Seems in their zeal to install the door early, they grabbed the frame for another job up in Consejo. It was the wrong size for our job. That's why the roll-up was sitting on the floor in the photo above with no frame nearby. So, it's really a good thing that our wiring was in the wrong place.

In the photo below, you can see how I split the original incoming water line, so that now the incoming water is routed to the right-hand through-wall into the utility room and connects with the filter and softener. After leaving the softener, the water then comes back out via the left-hand through-wall, and then connects back with the piping going into the house.

I did this, because on the original construction, when the water pipe entered the house, it was routed under the concrete floor. Not knowing exactly where it went, meant either tearing up some of the floor to find it, or to simple route it like I did.

Outside Piping For House Water

You can see how the piping is run. It comes in via the left through-wall, diagonally up to the whole house filter, which also has a by-pass, so that water will still be able to flow when the filter is being changed. From there it runs up to the water softener, and then a run back to the right-hand through-wall. Simple, eh?

Piping For Whole house Filter and Softener

Here's how the connection with the water softener looks. Unfortunately, when I fired up the system (turned the water back on) there's a few leaks. And I had been so careful to glue things well and to ensure that leakage wouldn't happen. What are you gonna do?

Part of the issue seems to be a common problem here, in that PVC piping may be coming from one vendors, and the fittings from others. So, every now and then you find fittings that seem a tad loose when you glue and press them together. I had several fittings that seemed to be that way. I'll have to trouble-shoot it and see if I can get the leaks under control.

Piping For Softener

Something on fire? No, it's just Omar using his grinder to cut a notch in order to re-route the wiring for the roll-up door.

Dust Cloud From Omar Cutting Notch For Rollup

Another shot of the grouting. It seems that no matter which way you turn right now, somebody is grouting tile. It's getting hard to find a clear path anywhere.

Grouting East Walkway

Here's a glimpse of the re-routed wire for the roll-up, complete with an added junction box. Now we're ready.

Junction Box For Rollup

Mr. Cobb is busy assembling, wiring, and hanging the ceiling fans. We have three double-bladed fans - one in the living room, one in the bedroom, and one on the veranda for those days when there is simply no breeze at all. BTW, all the fans are indoor/outdoor rated.

Mr. Cobb Wiring Up Living Room Fan

Here it is in action. It stays stationary, but the twin blades make it seem like it wants to take off. It does move a significant amount of air, which down here, will be a Godsend.

Ready For Takeoff

Each of the blade assemblies is moveable. That is, each can be tilted some, to be aimed a bit other than just straight down.

Living Room Fan minus Cover

Now the Capital crew is back and jumped right in to installing the frame.

Snapping Chalk Line For Rollup Frame

They quickly drilled holes and mounted the heavy steel frame.

Rollup Frame Mounted

Almost immediately after that, the motor was fitted.

Mounting Rollup Motor

Since there were only the two of them, working with the roll-up was very awkward, due to its weight, they separated the roll-up into two parts, similar to the way you would separate a bicycle chain. Here, they're fitting half of the roll-up to the frame axle.

Working With Half of the Roll

They work the roll-up up and over the back side of the axle.

Ready to Fasten Roll to Axle

And, then fasten it to the axle with screws. Then they attach the other half of the roll-up and begin final adjustments so the thing works smoothly.

Fastening Roll t-Axle

After a couple of minutes, it does work smooth. They then attach the side tracks or guides that keep the roll-up close to the wall.

It's Working

From the inside of the living room, there's what it looks like unrolled.

From the Dining Room

The works of the assembly are now hidden behind a metal box-like cover, which they're installing now.

Mounting the Cover

There. It's all done. Of course now, Mr. Cobb has to re-route the control box to the inside of the living room, and the whole assembly will be painted to match the light tan of the walkway.

Installation All Done

While all that was going on, grouting continued unabated. Here Errol is using my ShopVac to prepare the dining room for its share of the grouting.

Vacuuming the Dining Room

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 76-78 - 08--12/01/16

Lots of stuff going one, screens, texturing, plastering, furniture deliveries, etc.

Days Seventy Six Through Seventy-Eight , 08-12 January, 2016

I took this next group of photos on Saturday. The guys had left for the weekend, after a mix up on two buckets of drywall compound that didn't get unloaded which left them with nothing to work with.

As Omar's cellphone was kaput, after Carl left with the buckets in the back of his pickup, the guys asked me to call him, which I did twice but couldn't connect with him.

Not only mechanical communications problems, but someone forgot to let me know that Mitch might be coming by with the pantry and bathroom cabinets.

Anyway, about 5:15 PM, or so, Mitch arrives. Since we had nowhere to put the cabinets, I had him stash them in the office. Luckily, the scaffolding was positioned such that he was able to position them out of the way. It was also a good thing that he had an assistant with him to help unload.

So, here they are. Both have adjustable shelves, hidden hinges, and lattice doors, to help with air circulation.

New Kitchen Pantry 10 - 8.18

They were secure against any sort of weather intrusion, so after unloading them Mitch departed, and Dianna and I went back to our supper.

New Bathroom Linen Closet 10 - 8.18

Here's a couple of shots of the interior of the panty.

Inside Upper Pantry 10 - 8.19

Inside Lower Pantry 10 - 8.19

And the same for the linen closet.

Inside Upper Linen Closet 10 - 8.20

Inside Lower Linen Closet 10 - 8.20

Here, Dianna is providing scale for the pantry. It's quite a large piece of furniture.

Dianna Providing Scale For Pantry 10 - 8.20

This is the opening to the dining room. Last we saw it, there was an electrical wire dangling across the opening. That has since been redone, with the wire run buried under the concrete and the vertical edges of the opening finished off as well.

Wire Buried and Tile All Gone 10 - 8.22

A distance shot to give you an idea of how it looks in the overall picture.

Dining Room Doorway Plastered 10 - 8.22

Errol is almost done with the ceiling texturing in the veranda and walkway. It really looks nice.

Walkway and Veranda Ceiling Texture 10 - 8.23

The down-side of all this is where do you store everything that is already in the pool house? Dianna sees the task looming.

Dianna Contemplating What's Ahead 10 - 8.25

Stuff is literally getting piled everywhere. And not just here. In the bathroom as well. Shelving and burglar bars for the windows. Lamps and other stuff is occupying the shower, so space is really at a premium.

Kitchen Store Room 10 - 8.25

Now, here's something you generally don't see every day. This was taken by a semi-autonomous quad-copter drone just this morning by a recently retired videographer from Illinois. Michael Thompson, of TnT Video Services (501-666-4607), was kind enough to provide this photo and a few short videos of the immediate area.It's a 12M-pixel photo and shows incredible detail. Michael is visiting Belize as a guest of Carl, our contractor. Quite a cool shot.

Casa Winjama From 400' 11 - ?

You can also reach Michael by email at thompsonnthompsonvideo@gmail.com, or visit their website at http://www.tntvideoservices.com.

Here you can see some of the screens actually getting their screens. This is a trial fitting, complete with the center brace - we call those cup-holders.

Trial Fitting Shade Screen 12 - 7.08

This is the place where the screen fabric, actually shade cloth, the same stuff as we use for the swimming pool awning, gets attached to the wood frame.

Stretching the Shade Cloth Over the Frame 12 - 7.09

Kind of a surreal shot of Errol rolling the ceiling texture. It's hard to see what you're looking at. There is a doorway there with a ladder and distant exterior wall. Perspective seems strange.

Errol Finishing Ceiling 2nd Coat 12 - 7.10

While all this was going on, I repositioned the clothesline under the palapa. Denis was kind enough to come over and help with this. It's one of those jobs where you really do need several hands while trying to tension the lines and at the same time, to tighten up the fittings.

New Clothesline More Tightening Needed 12 - 7.14

Here you can see what the screens look like from the outside. I think it will give a nice finished look when it's all done.

From the Outside 12 - 9.21

Here's a shot of the dining room opening with the plastering wood removed. The opening edges have all been nicely smoothed.

Dining Room Opening 12 - 9.22

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.