Yesterday, I helped Jerry and Edgar with the rock wall for a couple hours in the morning and then went off on my own to start my own little project; building a polished cement top for my desk. It is half experiment (to see if we will like the look for the kitchen) and half necessity. I am using the new desk Summer got for her office, but there is only room for one.
It took me much longer than I expected to build the ‘form’ (3 hours) and it was exhausting work. All of our ‘good’ tools were out front with Jerry so I was using all of our half broken secondary equipment which became very aggravating at times…but I was determined to set up the concrete by myself. Summer and I are at a stage in construction where we can’t afford to spend money on non-necessity things. She suggested we do more ourselves to save money, which is a hard task since the majority of what we need to finish up is all detail work (tile, kitchen cabinets, doors etc), but this was something I was perfectly capable of doing so I tackled the counter top experiment solo.
After building the form with a bunch of busted ass tools, I finally poured the concrete under the back porch at around 1:30pm and the thunder, lightning and rain was just starting…it lasted until 5:00pm. The rain really slows things down…
Back to the ‘no sheep, just sleep’ thing. Basically, I worked on labor intensive house stuff all day and when I wasn’t working on the house….I was online with my slow ‘wireless modem’ trying to get some work done. I had to skip our Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Night Poker Game last night because I was waiting for the concrete to set and we didn’t finish ‘burning’ its surface smooth until around 7:45. I told Jerry not to bring anyone to help him today that I would be his cement mixer / rock breaker and said good night to him. I let the dogs out for a few minutes…locked the front door and went to my room to read and let my back chill out. The next thing I knew it was 5:57am…my radio and reading light were both still on. No sheep to count, just deep deep sleep.
Mark and I went to K-Mart yesterday looking for a DSL modem for the house amongst other things and we saw this hammer in the ‘clearance’ boxes that lined the back of the store by the tool section.
It really describes this country quite well. Work hard, drink beer, and don’t forget to drink more beer.
Without dwelling on this, our kitchen cabinets were supposed to be installed this week. Our mahogany french doors were supposed to be built and installed 2 weeks ago. The cabinet guy we are using is a very talented woodworker and is in high demand in Rincon. Unfortunately, he is not a good communicator. He never started our cabinets or door…he said he needed a deposit in order to do that. Of course he does, but he didn’t except my offer of a deposit 2 months ago saying “not to worry about it.” I am going to blame this miscommunication on my ignorance…I should have pushed the issue.
Although I was upset because it puts us behind on our work schedule, I sucked it up, created a time that he could agree on, put it in writing and gave him a deposit last week. Yesterday, he called me and asked me to stop by his shop to answer some questions. We had to figure out where to put drawers, cabinets, what type of shelves, lazy susans, spice racks, recessed shelves and detail work. It was actually a lot of fun because he had the “L’s” built that are going to be at the far end of the kitchen so I could actually visualize where everything would be. I stood in his shop as if I was in my kitchen at the stove and strategically place the spice racks, drawers and trash can cabinet in proportion to where the fridge, dishwasher and stove would be. It was cool and I got into a zone and made all of the decisions he needed made in order to keep moving forward with our mahogany kitchen cabinets. We’ll see if my decisions were good ones once we get them installed and I start cooking.
Check out some pictures of the start of our cabinets…
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This is the Grand Plan…I bet it makes sense to Louis
The frame of the cabinets that will be on the left side of the kitchen
I took this pre-sunset picture leaving Louis’s shop
The progress on the steps have been slow due to rain and the tediousness of the task. The square pillars at the top and bottom of the stairs (Escalon) need to framed off square to keep the guys on track while building up the wall and to make sure that both sides are identical. Yesterday, I left for work and when I came home the frame was built, but it was built out of mahogany scrap that I had been saving for little things like small trim work, picture frames etc. That stuff is expensive…we have spent nearly $2500 on mahogany for the trim around 9 windows…not exactly the wood I would prefer the guys using to frame off a rock wall and stairs. Oh well, the lesson learned is to stay around and make sure things get done right with the right material.
There has been progress on the blue rock steps up to our front door. Looks like they are almost complete!
Progress has been a bit slow on the planters and steps because it has been raining for a good part of the day almost everyday. Rain + working with wet cement is no bueno, so every time it starts pouring, Jerry and Tito have to pull a tarp over whatever they are working on and wait it out (or go home for the day, if it rains for a while).
We started building our Rock Wall Planter a few days ago. Although it is going to look really cool, it will also server its purpose as a retaining wall in case we have any water issues (draining down the hill). We poured a concrete foundation and built up the walls 3/4 of the way with concrete blog. Then we went to the quarry (cadena) and got a dump truck full of blue stone. Unfortunately, most of that stone is too big to use on the all and it isn’t breaking up well with the sledge hammer like we had hoped…so we have gone back to the cadena two days in a row now to hand pick flat and squared off stones (for the corners of the walls and for the steps).
It has been raining a lot since we started working on the wall; every time it rains we have to cover up whatever we are working on and wait out the rain. Today, Jerry and Tito are starting to build the steps. This is the stressful part…steps are very important when it comes to entering and exiting your house.
Check out some pictures of the front yard with the rocks, partially built wall and our visit to the quarry.
Look how small Jerry is compared to everything else
I was wandering around the newly flat front yard, watering the coconut palms and it hit me…The way the yard has been terraced (on a slant) is PERFECT for a water feature. Pour a bit of cement down the slant, stick some rocks in it (we have plenty of rocks) and hook up some sort of water pump. I’ve never made a water feature before, but this could totally happen fairly easily I think…
The only problem is that monkey is stuck under the stairs in the 2nd picture…
I’ve been doing some research and it looks like we already have the hardest part done, which is building the slope (almost everything I’ve read said that the most expensive and labor intensive part is hauling in the dirt and rocks to make the slope. Well, we have PLENTY of dirt and rocks and well as a burm/slope). Here is a good picture tutorial for building the waterfall:
It looks like the most expensive part (since we have the dirt and rocks) will be the pump. But I think that we could make our front yard into a cascada (waterfall) for about $1000, which is well worth it since it will add 10 times the value (at least) to the house.
Here is a walk through of the progress on the guest bedroom and loft:
Trey, the guy that did our drywall, suggested the loft idea and I LOVE the loft! It opens up a lot of room since the guest bedroom isn’t very big. Stefan hooked up the room for me and put the bed in the loft and even put down some temporary carpet (we are doing hardwood in the entire upstairs, but that’s a couple of months off). The loft is also equipped with dual fans and lights. We are eventually going to build a cool ladder (perhaps with any left over mahogany) for the loft/guest bedroom. The house is coming along!
Gino and Kevin have been working on the mahogany window panes and here is the finished product in the guest bedroom:
They look really good! I was a little hesitant about using mahogany after seeing how expensive it is (we spent $1000 for a fairly small pile of wood), but I’m glad we did now. The mahogany looks awesome now that it’s stained and finished. All of the upstairs window panes in the house will have the mahogany finish. Que bueno!
Back to the ‘no sheep, just sleep’ thing. Basically, I worked on labor intensive house stuff all day and when I wasn’t working on the house….I was online with my slow ‘wireless modem’ trying to get some work done. I had to skip our Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Night Poker Game last night because I was waiting for the concrete to set and we didn’t finish ‘burning’ its surface smooth until around 7:45. I told Jerry not to bring anyone to help him today that I would be his cement mixer / rock breaker and said good night to him. I let the dogs out for a few minutes…locked the front door and went to my room to read and let my back chill out. The next thing I knew it was 5:57am…my radio and reading light were both still on. No sheep to count, just deep deep sleep.
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The progress on the steps have been slow due to rain and the tediousness of the task. The square pillars at the top and bottom of the stairs (Escalon) need to framed off square to keep the guys on track while building up the wall and to make sure that both sides are identical. Yesterday, I left for work and when I came home the frame was built, but it was built out of mahogany scrap that I had been saving for little things like small trim work, picture frames etc. That stuff is expensive…we have spent nearly $2500 on mahogany for the trim around 9 windows…not exactly the wood I would prefer the guys using to frame off a rock wall and stairs. Oh well, the lesson learned is to stay around and make sure things get done right with the right material.
