April 2011 - the bathroom edition

Returned again April 27th (Jim only this time) with the goal of participating in the Alazan Homeowners meeting.  Rented a Dihatsu Terrios; a little 4 door 4x4 you'll see in the photos included in this blog series, although not this particular posting. 

 

Aside from the meeting, we found some window film online that we thought would look great in Bath#2 which suffers from lack of privacy.  This first photo shows some of the progress.  The film is wickedly easy to apply; and looks great.  The significant features of this photo however are that the toilet is installed and vanity cabinet in place, with counter top on and tiled.  

The other sort of fun feature of this trip was OBTAINING teak ripped to the dimensions needed to build this corner cabinet.  Of great note was finding "Edgar".  When we met and began exchanging numbers he told me his friends call him "Kio" and that he would like it if I did too.  So from then on Kio was his name.  He is an interesting man.  Very handsome, great shape but with one leg.  He lost his other in a motorcycle crash four years ago.  But his attitude on it is amazing.  Positive guy; keeps on keepin on.  A good new friend that hopefully will be a topic of future blogs.  

Also set in place the towel bars, corner shower shelf and shower trim.  Significant about this final photo though is that you can see the opening that the Teak shelf closes up.  That will give plumbing access too.  

So Jim departed this trip with bathroom #2 functioning, with just a few more details, and of course towels, to finish it all off.

More in a week or so on the April trip....

Jim (and Dick)

At last! Post for February 2011

After a way too long hiatus we finally returned to our little casa in February 2011.  The thirteen months prior were our little midlife medical nightmare, but all is well now.

We found the San Jose airport remodel, which always greeted us with new temporary passageways; finally finished with a beautiful and well organized immigration and customs area.  Impressive, easy.  

Jim's goals for the trip was to improve the Alazan Internet; get bedroom #2 and bath #2 finished, do the final touches to finish the laundry; and get bedroom #3 and bath #3 ready for stucco and tile.  Rather ambitious goals; complete with Jim's nearly famous spreadsheet breaking down the hours...  sigh....  

So he needed a lesson, that it is not the completing, but the doing...  

We got to our little casa in our t iiiiii n eeeee little Suzuki Jimmy.  Quite a study in small 4x4 vehicles.  Our luggage barely fit.  But we got there nonetheless.  It was good to be back.  Weather was lovely; AC was broken.  Then we checked out the tile work and stucco that was done since our January 2010 trip; only to find that level covered with white dusty mold/mildew.  So Jim's goals had to start revising right away.

  But with both our hard work, we did accomplish quite a bit; albeit less than the list.  We spent a full day cleaning up mold with bleach water.  And setting in place dehumidifiers to dry things out.  Jim built a wall hung bath vanity cabinet; Dick stained it with the little remaining stain we had left from a prior trip.  And we found with bleaching we needed more stain.  Unfortunately, the ferriteria was out of that stain; and didn't even know what a toggle bolt was.  So that put both of those in a wait state.  But we did get the rooms painted, set the laundry sink, and painted that room; and that vanity cabinet is built.  Good progress anyway!

The furniture cleaned up well, and will just need a light staining to finish the job.  We'll also do something Jose, our furniture builder didn't do, and apply polyurethane to finish the furniture.









When we left we had put the ceiling structure (wood 2x2's in a cross pattern to add space below the steel construction.  Jim had installed a camera system with three of the potential for 8 cameras working.  The network was improved with a great signal inside the house.

We were frequently visited by our neighborhood monkeys (we are, afterall, in the jungle).  We managed to get this photo of one that was particularly curious about "those other monkeys" on the upper veranda.

So all in all, a very successful trip with the lesson to put the detail goals aside, and just enjoy the time; making whatever progress can happen.

Jim and Dick
aka
Ricardo y Jeeeeem