Until next year

About 2000 bricks are moved inside, a new door is installed and malla ciclon (cyclone fence) on the windows. That work was done in only two months because of a hold up getting Seguro and problems with a Presta Nombre from hell.

Lockdown my meters and a wall painting

CFE is installing Not Very Smart Meters and not always with the owners permission. The first complaint is that you can only pay at CFE offices. The second complaint is that you/we have to read it every month with a magic card and go pay at CFE. The third complaint is you can't pay for six months and go away. This is all about saving CFE money with no meter readers .... but at huge public expense.

I wasn't going to take a chance that some commission based installer make a few pesos off my meter when I wasn't looking.The locked door also keeps the bugs and rain out.

Linda painted her garden walls and I wanted to do something with the back wall of the palapa. We both painted my wall last winter when she was here. Problem was I didn't like it so painted over with white once again. I finally broke down yesterday and spent a few hours trying something new. Not finished so I can add and/or paint it white again. Interesting to work only with the primary colors and black

Front door and mosaic window

Finished the door frame over a week ago but finally got around to painting it and the front wall. Don't criticize the paint job as it's mostly sealer with some white paint added. 1st coat is 2/3's sealer and second coat is about 1/3 sealer. If you paint pure sealer (sellador) it is transparent ... so except for the slight gloss, you don't know where you've painted.

The grass is looking good if the dog doesn't tear it up. The other night she started pulling up a patch and besides a few swats I'll have to wait and see. I'd hate to have to fence it but she is a real digger when she wants a cool place to lie down or just has energy to burn.

Took a picture of the window and with the contrast of dark green and white wall ... the darker won.

Front now painted

Mosaic window

New front door frame

I was thinking of something like this months ago but how many extra little things can you add to a house. This got forgotten in a long list because things had to move along.

So now we're back to it because between my metal guy that made the door and the aluminum guy who made the screen door ... they could not figure out how to hang both with enough room for the screen to close. I just removed the screen door yesterday and we are building a frame around the door that will extend the opening 3 to 4 inches. This will give both doors room to work together and the screen door won't be flush with the house like it was.

The original idea of frames around doors and windows was that it's kind of old style and gives a bulky look to a house if the dimensions are right. We'll see what this looks like in a few days.

Sidewalk and Driveway

The new sidewalk and driveway are finished and they look good. That was the last of the major cement mixing so we are breaking up the very large pad that has formed over the years and will soon be back to dirt.

The glass guy was here yesterday installing all the panes and within a week he'll install mosquito screens on all the windows and make a front screen door.

Hector and Oscar started tiling one bathroom and it looks great. We somehow under estimated the number of wall tiles (azulejos) we need so I'll buy 4 more boxes in the next few days. They will also use some on the sides of the kitchen counter.

New door and window on the workshop

Just installed a new door and window on the workshop this last week. I wanted to check out this new guys work and wanted another secure storage area now that Ron is keeping his stuff here. Nice metal work and think I'll use him for the rest of the house.

First bedroom finished?

Well, not quite, but it now has a floor and a finish coast of mortar on the walls. The bodega was finished a couple weeks ago and is filling up with stuff already. They will do the outside finish work next week so I can put a door and window in for security.

The foto below is of the shower floor and the 'mold' they use to get the level and slope they want. After the mold sets up they just fill in the openings. The same method is used for every floor but usually in straight lines in a normal room.

The bottom foto is of the doorways now sized to the Home Depot doors I bought. They cut 5 centimeters off the top cement beam to give a little more room. My original builders put the beams at 2 meters when they should be 2 meters and 10 centimeters. A little more headroom and I won't have to cut as much off the doors.

The notching on the wall is for a future closet which was not in the original plan. Will be 2 meters high and have storage above and over the door. I don't feel so bad after a builder friend told me how common it is to forget closets when planning a house.