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Guest Bath and Laundry
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Walls, Lights and Fan
7 December
The original room, removing kithen sink
Suddenly Rámon was at the door, ready to work. Wow, we didn't expect him to be finished with his other job for
another week or two, but the other job took a holiday break and gave Rámon the month off. Good news for
the RanaQuemadas, now we can have him, fulltime.
Filling holes above new kitchen passthrough
Just like the roof contractors, the bid came in, we accepted, and Rámon went right to work the next morning.
Surprise, surprise, that meant plenty of catch-up played the night before. Stan installed conduit for the exhaust fan, the
lights and the wall switches, then he closed up the raceways with concrete. While he was at it, he laid bricks in the
window that we'd punched out last week.
Stan's nightshift, conduit and brickwork
Rámon also
brought an assistant along, his son Eduardo, a unique 15-year-old who's either a really cool kid or on his best behavior for the
güeros. It didn't take the two of them very long to erect the wall joists. Then it was Stan's turn, again. Once they left
that evening, Stan installed more conduit and worked some more on his brick-laying.
Stan in the laundry room, Rámon in the
bathroom, and Eduardo at the bathroom
door
11 December
Hanging Durock
Hanging Durock on the shower side
Durock cut around
door and window openings and
on the lowered ceiling in the bath
Eduardo was a no-show, today. Rámon had to get Stan's help to hold up the Durock, hefty concrete board for the
wet side of the bathroom. Unlike our other contractors, Rámon has more high-tech equipment and made short
work of hanging the sheets on the inside of the bath and the ceiling. He
used a laser level for lining up his walls and joist, and he uses a power gun to shoot nails into the concrete walls.
He pasted the Durock up on the wall and then ripped out the door and window openings with a saw. Noisy and dusty work.
Stan sat nearby in the mayhem in case help was needed, but the cats and I shut ourselves in the back room and laid low. Rámon
wasn't the only one making a mess. It was snowing in the kitchen!
14 December
Taping and Plastering Durock and Sheetrock
Taping the Durock seams
Applying the first
thin coat of plaster over the Durock
The sheetrock was taped like normal, then squeegied with the white goop, but the Durock was taped with a woven mesh and
squeegied with a cement mixture, and then the whole face of the Durock was plastered with a thin stucco-like mix. One
coat left to dry for a few days and then another coat. We'll be tiling over the top of that ... tile work comes later, after we take a
break from having contractors in our hair every waking hour.
The windows are shaping up nicely - they'll be filled in when we find an artisan who can paste both glass block and tile at the
same time. Glass blocks will add esthetically pleasing shapes in both showers and between the dining room and master
bedroom/dressing room.
30 August
Icecube Paint
Painting the dining area
Fan in dining area
Laundry room
Kitchen, guest bath ceiling, laundry and playroom were painted a lighter shade of gray...with a tinge of blue. Painting finally started this week.
Ceiling fans, scored at a discount from a defunct restaurant, are making a huge difference in summer comfort. Stan installed two, one in the play room and one in the bedroom. We're still hunting for the light kits.
The ceiling will be covered with either sheetrock or PVC like the kitchen, adding an insulating space and hiding conduit.
A bathroom vanity is on order from Madetro, of kitchen cabinet fame. We're still enamored with the PVC cabinets. We're still thinking about doors....
2 October
The Bathroom Vanity
A week or so it took to get the Madetro guys to take us seriously. Finally, they came to measure for the vanity, went off and constructed it, and brought it back for a fit-check the following week.
Vanity fit check - too deep
Mi culpa, it was too deep and the doors wouldn't open completely, all because I forgot to take into account the water faucet for the toilet and the depth of the tile that will be installed on the floor. So back they came, removed it, hauled it back to the shop and now we're waiting for the finished product.
Vanity removed
We're also waiting for a quote on doors. They weren't sure about the hardware we wanted for bi-fold doors, and they weren't sure if they had the technology to make them the way we want - the bathroom door folding in instead of out. I see many compromises in the future. We might even end up with full-size doors opening outward.
Moral of story, do what any good logistics planner would do, source materials first. You'd think we'd never done any logistics planning in our lives....
13 October
The Bathroom Vanity, Part II
Communicating in another language, on the phone, about technicalities is a crap shoot, at best. Sometime this past week, the carpenter called to say that he'd be over with the revised vanity. Then he called back and said, no, it'd be better if he waited until the doors were delivered and he'd bring the vanity and install the doors all at once. Um, we think that was the plan.
Installing the vanity
Saturday evening, around 5ish (three hours post-normal Saturday working hours), up drives the carpenter in the delivery truck with the resized cabinet and three of the four doors.
In an hour they had the base chopped off and reinstalled, the vanity screwed and caulked to the wall, and a hole cut for the sink.
Still-life with vanity, sink and a few doors
18 October
The Bathroom and Laundryroom Doors
Doors are giving us fits. Or rather, choosing the material for the doors is giving us fits. And deciding on a style.
Finished doorways
Durock on the vanity top
The bath and laundry were designed for bi-folds. The only bi-folds found were made of pine - the Home Depot, pre-fab variety that are made to be painted. With termites already digging away at the dartboard, that option didn't seem like such a great idea.
Back to Madetro to see if they could make us bi-folds. Well, they could, but not really. They can make regular doors out of PVC. Okay, how much? Phew! Alot. And they're not exactly classy. They look amazingly like plastic doors, but we ordered two, anyway.
In order to save a little money on door construction, we had to pay extra on doorway construction. Hm. A skinnier door takes less laminate with less waste, so Ramon came back to finish the doorframes, and we had him skinny up the doorways, as well. Spend to save.
While he was mucking around in the bathroom, we had him install the durock on the vanity top, too, so it's ready for the tile setter.
1 November, 2008
Guest Bath Support Beam
Breaking out crumbly concrete
The problem area
Tying in new rebar
Building a frame for the concrete pour
The finding contractor game was made easy, thanks to my friend, Kathy, from Spanish-class. Stan called a guy recommended by one of the tile stores, but he was busy working on a job in Colima. At the same time, Kathy told us about Luis, who has done work at her house. Luis returned Stan's call right away, and then stopped by to make the estimate the next day.
Luis tap-tap-tapped on the wall and said that he couldn't give a complete estimate until he broke into the wall and assessed the condition of the support beam. Wow! Some contractors would simply tile over a hollow sound. We liked the responsiveness and the professionalism - we hired him.
The very next morning, one of Luis' albanil assistants moved in with chisel and hammer. He totally cleaned out the support beam. On the lefthand side, where the wall had tapped out hollow sounding, the old concrete just crumbled away and exposed the rebar, which was pretty rusty.
After creating a helluva racket, a pile of rubble, and the insidious concrete dust that filtered all over the house and settle everywhere, the beam's rebar was exposed and ready for replacement. Old rebar was chopped out, leaving tails, and new rebar tied in.
Having had some experience with mud-slinging, Stan was real curious how the albanils were going to re-concrete the beam. Simple. They dipped cut-off plastic coke bottles into the concrete (mixed in the street, shoveled into buckets) and poured it, cup by cup, behind the form they'd built.
Meanwhile, I was out scouting tile. Luis is going to buy the tile with his contractor's discount, so I visited a couple of tile stores around town and confirmed types of tiles.
Tile examples
7 November, 2008
Pulling the Forms, Support Beam
Support beam form (wood plank) wired in place
Support beam, form removed
Support beam, finished and ready for tile
13 November, 2008
Windows, Surround and Tiles
Gale waiting for workers
Not as simple as one would think, buying tiles and glass blocks. Some are available, some are not, and some must be ordered. Then the tile-layer was taken ill. His replacement wasn't readily available, either.
Little by little, supplies began to arrive, trickling in by the bag and box. Some of us got tired of waiting and had to open a few boxes and lay the tiles, just to see how the patterns melded. The blues of cabinet, tile, border tile, and sink are all shaded a little differently, but enough of the same hue to blend nicely.
Bucky laying out the countertop
The building block process for the shower also entailed sinking anchors in the floor and wall to provide vertical stability.
The tilesetter brought along his laser level and has been very exacting in his layout, even though some of his tools are makeshift, like the support frame for the glass blocks.
Quality Control inspector
checking the lines of the shower surround
Glass block window going in
22 November, 2008
Functional, but not Move-in Ready
Almost all the tile was installed last week, the mirrors were ordered and the door and cabinet makers were lined up to install next week. All depend on each other, can't do finishing on the tiles without the doors, can't install the doors without knowing how the tiles will fit....
  
Shower floor non-skid and drain installed
 
Building the shower curb using broken tiles as a mold for the concrete
Curbed
 
Grouted walls waiting for mirrors
The finishing details are a little bit rough. They call it rustico. More detailed pix when the doors and mirrors are installed.
...and where there's no tile, there's paint
8 December, 2008
Installing the Mirrors
The big mirror, 1 of 3
It was no wonder we waited so long for the mirror delivery. Two broke. They drilled holes for the light, and when transporting them to our place after drilling, the weakened area with the holes cracked.
But finally the crew managed to deliver the three mirrors in one piece. They installed them and a square of tile around the light switch. Originally, they had gooped the light switch in with caulking and it looked even worse than rustico.
15 December, 2008
Painting the Great Hall
The idea was to make the great hall presentable. Slap on a little paint and all would be shiny and bright. Until Stan started prepping the ceiling.... He started chipping out a few of the weak spots in the concrete, and the ceiling started falling out in big, ugly chunks. The roof and ceiling are still in bad shape from years of leaks up there.
The rebar underneath was rusted. We consulted brother Mark, the concrete engineering expert. He gave advice Stan didn't want to hear, that is, to repair properly, the concrete had to be dug out all the way around the rebar, and in bad spots, the rebar replaced, like the repair the boys effected in the bathroom (above).
Stan was looking for a presentable hallway and a quick fix, not hours and hours of concrete and rebar work. Soooo, he slapped on patches and painted.
Chipped out concrete, and repair
At the paint store, the numbers and names didn't match the color swatches we'd picked. The first coat was lemon, very lemon. But the concrete sucked that coat in, and it turned out to be a good primer coat, so we had a second chance to choose the color. And lighten the ceiling.
Lemon to butter transformation
The butter in the great hall shines like the sun, all day all night. Because there's no natural light from front to back, it really brightens up the joint.
18 January, 2009
What a Difference a Door Makes
Omar the door man made our laundry and bathroom doors on-the-spot. They're totally PVC, casing and all, with a colored veneer. He also installed the vanity cupboard doors and drawers while he was at it.
Laundry and bathroom doors, Omar and driver
I'm getting used to all the shades of blue. At least the guest bath is functional, and guest-friendly. Also MJ-friendly. Stan insists on using the ole camp bathroom, but I'm enjoying the stainless steel and porcelain ... and having two functioning bathrooms, again!
This coming week starts the final round for the bathroom. The tile-guy will finish up the trim. Then he'll start on the kitchen wall tile.
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