Week 16

The team is preparing to stucco the outside of the house. Cesar and his group have installed chicken-wire on the outside walls in preparation for the brown coat, the base layer of stucco. 

TRIVIA: Chicken wire in Spanish is "alambre de pollo" which literally means chicken wire. Go figure.

The new electrical box is installed and running. We are no longer running off of the old power grid.

The bathroom shower door has been reinstalled and is ready to go.

Any additional rubble from construction is being piled up behind the kitchen and bathroom doors in preparation for the formation of the new deck. This is an ingenious way to kill two birds with one stone, get rid of junk while building a foundation for our new exterior deck.

Cesar and his team are prepping the interior walls for stucco as well. They are patching the seams of the drywall. This is a lot of work!

In order to prepare for the new interior finish, Roger spent the last few days scoring the existing walls and ceiling with a grinder. This will provide a tacky surface for the new stucco to stick to.

The bathroom pocket door has been installed. Now we have a better understanding of how large the opening will be. We love the way the bathroom is coming together.

Every corner in the house will be "bull-nosed". This takes some time. Cesar and his team are installing a piece of tape with a metal curve in it. The tape comes in long strips and is cut to the correct length, then "stuck" to the corner with putty. The finished product will look wonderful.

On the home front, Jack got into another fight. This time his back paw ended up getting bitten. He was hobbling around on a swollen paw for a couple of days so we decided to take him to the vet. The doctor shaved his paw and cleaned up the wounds. After a couple of drowsy days on pain meds, Jack is back to his normal self, hanging out on the patio and eating lots of food. It is tough being an outdoor cat but he wouldn't want it any other way. No worries, the fur will grow back :)

Week 15

It has been very hot and humid recently. It makes for some great sunsets but camping in the backyard is pretty sweaty. Fortunately our camper has fans so we're able to cool off in the afternoon and evening.

Right now Cesar and his team are finishing up the drywall. They put the coving in the kitchen. They also added drywall for the fireplace. We can now see what the new shape will look like. We are excited to put firewood in the holder nd enjoy a fire on a nice winter evening.

The bathroom has been prepared for the installation of the shower. They used some type of black thick substance to coat the base of the shower. They also removed the exterior shower doors. We asked them to push the shower doors about 1 inch out from the current location in order to allow them to open completely once the stucco has been replaced. So for now, the shower doors are sitting in the bedroom.

The built-in cabinet in the kitchen has been framed and drywalled too. It's amazing how much more you can see of the space when the drywall is up.

Gerardo added the wiring for the outdoor Wi-Fi antenna that we will have in the backyard. 

Jack was in a cat fight and injured his back paw. His foot was swollen and hard to walk on so we took him to the vet. The vet took care of everything but drugged him up. Jack is spending a lazy warm Sunday afternoon passed out on the camper floor.

Onward and upward!

Week 14

The school year is in full swing and we can tell by where our focus is. I saved the week 12 post but forgot to publish it. We didn't even create a week 13 post. I took a couple photos of the fireplace but other than that we have been busy getting ready for students.

I have decided that unless I dedicate some time each Saturday to document the construction, time will quickly pass by and we will lose the opportunity to record this experience.

Earlier in the week Cesar and his team installed the insulation in the walls and ceiling. After that, the drywall was delivered. Drywall sheeting quickly appeared in the bedroom and the kitchen. The ceilings were done as well as the walls. The drywall helps to define the shape of the room and it actually makes the space feel larger. 

They are also working on the coving in the kitchen. If you look closely, you can see the score marks on the back of the drywall. They use the score marks to help bend the drywall and create the final smooth shape that will match the living room. 

We are excited about next week because we believe all of the drywall should be in and we can better visualize the overall space.

Week 13

We fell a little behind in our journal because we have returned to work. That means more time is spent at school and less on the home. Progress is still moving forward. One of the most recent additions is the construction to the fireplace. More about the project in our next post.

Week 12

As we mentioned in the prior post, the back doors are in and we are excited about them! We spend saturday chilling in the backyard with the doors open looking at the plants in our backyard.

Gerardo has almost finished all of the electrical work. The city will come out to inspect it next week. On Friday we met with Gerardo and Mario to discuss the sound system. We are installing speakers in the ceilings in every room and that means there is a lot of speaker wire being pulled throughout the house. All of the speaker wire will return to a/v center, which will be on the bottom shelf of the built-in cabinet. The photo below shows some of the black speaker wire hanging near the AV cabinet. There is a white box in the cabinet where all speaker wire will terminate, along with coax cable, RCA cables, HDMI cables, and any other AV related stuff.

I have been researching the proper location for ceiling speakers. In order to get the correct Dolby Digital Surround Sound effect, the speakers have to be a specific distance from the walls and from where our heads will be once we are sitting in the couch. In the photo below you can see Mario measuring the location of our heads within the room. Everything should sound pretty good when it is finished.

Cesar and his team have begun to install the supports for the coving in the kitchen. We can't wait to see what it looks like.

The Jeep finally passed smog and is back home from the mechanic. The Jeep has been gone since June 1st so it's nice to have it back. It's also nice to be able to drive when I want to. Riding the bike was nice but it gets a little old after a while. I decided to wax the jeep today and we took it for a drive down to Cabrillo National Monument. It cost $5 to get in or $15 for a year pass. It's a no brainer, we bought the pass, and spent some time gazing at the views and watching the sailboats enter and exit the bay.

It's a beautiful day in San Diego and we're glad that we live here!

Week 11.1

The back doors are in and we decided its time to show them off. The system can open up as a single door for simple in and out access or they can be folded completely open to create the indoor/outdoor experience. Very exciting!

Week 11

Week 11 and the heating system has been installed. The ducting is in the ceiling and vents have been placed in every room. From the bathroom you can see the ducting above and the room vent on the right side of the photo.

The central return is placed in the ceiling of the main hallway. You can also see one of the ceiling light fixtures and a blue box where the wifi antenna will be located.

The finished plumbing for the bathroom is in. Nailed to the wall is the drawing we made of the counter top and the related dimensions.

The plumbing for the kitchen island is complete as well. This week they pressure tested both the incoming and outgoing water plumbing and no leaks were found. Next week someone from the city is coming in to test the plumbing. Once it passes inspection, its time for drywall.

In preparation for drywall Cesar and his team are starting to create the wooden forms needed to construct the coving in the kitchen/dining room area. The curved blocks below will be used to create a smooth shape.

The excess rubble from the construction has been stacked up next to the back door. Once the city signs off on the plumbing, the sewer pipe will be buried and the forms for the back patio can be put in. I am thinking they will buy pre-mixed concrete since there is a lot of space to cover.

The rubble from construction has been removed which means for the first time this summer we can see part of our back patio. Our construction team set up a shady lunch area with some of our patio chairs.

Michelle and I attended the Quincinera of one of my former students. The mass was held in a church in Linda Vista and the reception was at the Hyatt. The event was very fancy and Larissa looked great in her dress. Michelle and I really enjoyed the event.

We are officially going back to work next week. Last night I woke up around 3:00 AM and was able to see the Orion constellation in the eastern sky. These two facts prove that summer is ending and we are transitioning to the fall. We enjoyed our time off and now we are getting ready to return to work. 

NOTE to anyone thinking about doing a remodel, make sure you have A LOT of time off in order to take care of tasks such as:

• Meeting with architects and designers
• Picking out floor and ceiling tile
• Purchasing major appliances
• Reviewing work and discussing changes/modifications
• Shopping for various items like faucet handles and shower heads
• Designing and reviewing cabinets
• blah blah blah

Basically the house remodel has been a full time job and we are not even swinging the hammer. What a crazy experience!