Between the walls

Not the way it's normally done but we have to live with it. The first year my Canadian neighbor behind me just built a foundation and headed north for another summer. I was ready to build but didn't want to undermine his foundation and wasn't quite sure where he would put his wall. My solution was to give him 10-12 inches without considering what we would do with that space. 

We did fill when he built his 2 meter wall but for the last two years the cement covered fill was ramped toward a vacant lot next t me. Dumping water on a neighbor is a real NO-NO around here but probably anywhere. That lot owner is not a real pleasant person so best to not attract her attention.

So this year Jimmy (Canadian neighbor) wants to add a meter to his wall and where it will finally end up. I insisted it was time to fill that space and aim what little water there is in my direction and not at the neighbor. Gladly Jimmy had lots of escombro (building construction leftovers) in his yard and some sand to top it off. I bought 2 bags of cement and we went to work putting about 3 inches of cement over the top. Also had to brick in the opening to my neighbor yard and Jimmy did a reasonable job on that.

We have the slope about right but have not fine tuned how my garage roof will handle it. I'm thinking a tube  with holes that distributes the water .... we'll see.

First pour in the direction of my garage

Small pour on the dead end side

Newly bricked up and finished old drainage end

Crazy lot lines

Ranch house in Utah

My sister and brother in law are building a house in Huntsville Utah. I'm sure it's to be close to her daughter and the 2 little girls. The two properties are actually adjoining and they said they plane to use both for farming. That will be interesting.

Anyway these pictures are from a site designed for builders to post the progress when an owner can't be there to check called Buildertrend. My sister is in Seattle and the builder uploads from his Smart Phone. Very cool idea ... and so is the weather there. She said they got the roof on just in time for a White Christmas. 

Gorgeous scenery but frickin cold

Beat the snow

Nice view

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

The fallen sink mystery .... etc

I awoke this morning to find the outside sink had fallen off the wall. I first thought of a person in the middle of the night but you don't accomplish anything by standing on the sink. I also wondered why I didn't hear it as it's not far from my bedroom door that has a screen in it. All I can think of is my cat or it fell off of it's own weight. Simple white sinks are not expensive and only part of the drain pipe broke.

Bought a new sink for $240 pesos (basic white) but think I'll change everything including the handles/faucet., drain, wall fastener and larger screws to hold it on the wall.

Oops !!

The other is my tinaco is suddenly overflowing.  I climb up and find the float overextended in the up position and the tank full.  I lower the water level  and I can not over extend the float manually. We have moderate street pressure today so I'm eliminating possibilities.

The mystery float

My unnecessary "don't drop them in the tinaco trick"

Hugo came over while I made the school run and figured out the water was not coming from from above at the float valve shut off but from the bottom of the tank. I knew with this strange system that could happen but it never has in 3 years. My plumber thought with the good street pressure we have much of the time, why not have street pressure in the house rather than just gravity from tinaco.  So he installs these check valves that will change with pressure levels. Problem is the valves get stuck and this one usually gets stuck where tinaco pressure is not enough to open it so I bang on it to get water again.This time it got stuck in the opposite direction so that street water was enters the bottom of the tank.

Check valve - valvula check

Obviously something has to be done someday but I'm afraid it's gonna take pipe cutting, rearranging and even turning the tinaco to give more room for adjustments now and in the future.   In the meantime a couple whacks with a hammer or large wrench fixes the valve.

Black mold on walls

I finally decided to deal with what I'm convinced is at least partly mold.   My idea is that the dust from the top of the wall washes down in the rain and sticks to porous paint.   The constant summer time moisture then turns it to mold.

All flat paint may not be as porous as the next but I've used a number of brands and qualities of paint and most of them watered to some degree or another.  The inside of this one meter wall on the roof is stained the same way all around which makes me think I used the same paint. None of the house outside walls have this stain .... so maybe paint quality.

My treatment, which I think it needed, was to scrub twice with a brush, spray pure cloro the next day and then paint it with undiluted exterior semi-gloss.   The new paint is actually shiny so I assume less will stick to it or absorb into it.  The catch is I'm finding out what a real good paint job costs because this paint is expensive. Still much of the house that never gets wet so I don't have to paint it all at once.

After scrubbing and cloro on one section

No treatment

Whole wall section painted on top and sides