I am too tired to get into a big long explanation…but the stairs are done! Almost. We have a few more coats of stain and we need to put in the plugs (black, to match the stringers)…then it’s done. I wanted to get pictures up for everyone to see..it really opens the house up. It just feels bigger now.
Popularity: 18% [?]
This morning, I am anticipating (along with every other surfer in Puerto Rico) a nice swell that is supposed to start filling in this Thursday or Friday. There haven’t been waves in sooooo long. Anywho, I decided to put the WaveWatch Surf Forecaster for Puerto Rico in the side bar of California to Puerto Rico so I won’t have to go far to check the swell…now you don’t have to either!
Popularity: 23% [?]
I am quite tired right now. It has been a stressful day thinking about Summer and her entire family in San Diego facing the most devastating fires California has ever seen.
Aside from being a stress ball worrying about my future in-laws, I planted trees, watered the dirt (peach fuzz lawn), made a run to Home Depot, worked on the computer for a couple hours, watched Tray and Mark build the stairs and cleaned the grout off of the kitchen tile two more times before applying a test coat of 511 Impregnator in the corner of the kitchen to make sure it wasn’t going to discolor the tile or make it into gold or something screwy like that.
I had to wait a few hours before I could check the test area of the tile, and by the time it was dry and the waiting period was over, it was dinner time. I only meant to be gone for an hour…but one thing led to another and I got home at 10:30pm. I just finished applying the 511 Impregnator to the entire kitchen and I am ready for bed (I had to apply the sealer tonight because the kitchen guys are going to be here early in the morning to continue the cabinet instalation).
Have a look at the “unfinished” version of the lower half of our stairs. These guys really did do a great job with the mathematics of this thing…they weren’t working with much space because of the way our front door is set up and the location of the hallway so to get the runs as long as they did without making the steps too steep took a lot of skill, planning and execution skills.
Good night everybody!
Popularity: 7% [?]
I have been religiously watering the seed on the front lawn two or three times a day since we planted the seed on October 18th. It has taken quite an effort to keep workers off of the dirt (soon to be lawn) and I make everyone walk the plank to get in and our of the house. It will be cool once the steps are done because we will be able to avoid the front lawn all together (enter/exit through downstairs) until it grows in nice and lush.
This morning, I grabbed my cup of coffee and headed outside to turn on the sprinklers and guess what I saw! Our dirt has green peach fuzz! Check it out:
Popularity: 12% [?]
When we first looked at this house, the listing describe peek ocean views…which Summer and I never saw. We were told if we cut down some of the mango trees in the back yard we would be able to see through the valley to the ocean…but we didn’t buy the place for the views and didn’t really care either way.
After working on the place for a few months, I realized that we probably didn’t buy an ocean view property in Rincon Puerto Rico…but we still bought a bad ass, 40% complete construction project on a bunch of land (almost 3 acres).
Tonight, I was chilling on the back porch and realized we really can see the ocean from the house. You have to be standing on the far right side of the back porch, but you can see a couple inches of the ocean…so i guess we can make it official.
We have an ocean view house in Rincon! Sweet!
Popularity: 13% [?]
Tray and Mark are working on the stairs today. We discussed hanging the doors, drywall and trim while they are waiting for the stain on the steps to dry. They are on it! They get here every morning at 8:00am and complete the day by cleaning up after themselves. This is not typical for Puerto Rico.
Jerry and I will be working on the Jungle all day today. We customized two Jungle Hooks to pull down the Pica Pica and hack at the root with machetes…these should work great. The first two broke, so with a few improvements (I engineered the improvements) they should get us to where we need to be.
Stress:
Please keep Robin (Summers mom) and Gary in your prayers (or whatever you do), they were evacuated from their house in Romona yesterday due to the Witch Fire that is burning in San Diego. Our thoughts and positive energy are with you guys…
Popularity: 11% [?]
Jerry and I are both working about 2 or 3 hours a day in the 90 degree sun on our property. The goal is to clear all of the Pica Pica before the season hits. Here are some pictures and a video to give you and idea what we are up against:
Choose your weapon!
Here is what I am up against…for 3 acres
These are the Pica Pica pods in October
Here is a look back at where we came from..and already cut
Popularity: 17% [?]
After quite a few tests of the grout in the kitchen, we went with an Antique White Non-Sanded Grout. Gino grouted all of the seams and little cracks yesterday…and this morning I am sponging the entire floor tile by tile. I am using two buckets of water and one sponge to clean the thin film of grout from the tile surface…one dirty water bucket that I use to dip the sponge into after wiping one tile and then the smaller bucket to dampen the sponge in clean water so I can get started on the next tile with some relatively clean water (I breaded chicken in a similar fashion when I was a line cook….clean hand…dirty hand).
Here are some pictures after one round of sponging. It will probably take three meticulous passes with the sponge to get the grout residue off of the marble before we are able to seal it with the 511 Impregnator. It took me about 40 minutes to go tile by tile…and my back is feeling real nice. It really makes me appreciate the hard work Gino has put in to get the floor completely flat and the butt joints to line up so well.
It’s hard to see the film from this angle, but it’s there
You can see the thin film from this angle
Popularity: 25% [?]
I am so stoked to have stairs leading from upstairs to downstairs! It really doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but it really is. Finishing the construction downstairs is about 1/16th the work as completing the work upstairs…polish the floors (done), plaster the walls (done), run electrical (done), hook up outlets and fans (50% done), install doors, runner boards on the floor and Seal and Paint the walls (we need to wait 30 days to seal the walls). As soon as the electric is done, we can move our living space from the construction zone upstairs to the 95% completed downstairs. This will clear out the space to work faster and get ready for the hardwood floor installation next month.
Tray and Mark started the stair construction on Thursday and are estimating they will be done on Wednesday. Can you imagine walking down steps to get downstairs/upstairs as opposed to the steep ladder (10 ft ceilings plus 3 feet of stringers…13ft down). The dogs will be able to roam the entire house freely…they’ll be able to go out back into the fenced in portion of the yard (i won’t have to worry about letting them out) and both of them will love sleeping on the cold concrete slab floor. There are a few benefits for Summer and I too…but this isn’t about us…it’s about the dogs!
The stringers are made out of Number One 3×6 treated lumber…they will be stained black to hide the green treated wood and to create a cool contrast with the Mahogany steps. The first two pictures are the stringers getting cut out and the last picture is of the giant milled Mahogany boards (in Summers office) waiting to be cut, routed and stained.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Yesterday I did a lot of yard work. I am not going to say that it is a disadvantage, but having all this property is going to be a lot of work. Aside from removing about another 75 square yards of Pica Pica, I planted Bermuda Grass seed in the flat area in front of the house. I also bought two bad ass sprinklers from Home Depot that cover the entire seeded area. According to the bag, the germination period for the grass seed is 2-4 weeks. One of my buddies that used the same seed had grass in less then two weeks and was mowing it by week four.
Come on Green!
Popularity: 13% [?]
