(Domingo 21 -
Sabado 27 Abril) Sunday we had
planned to go to the Cosco area with Ania and Frank to check out
their two cabins there. Ania was not feeling well, so we stayed
home. Dan started wiring up the various switches, outlets and light
fixtures in the new bathroom.
Monday our crew was
late arriving, and didn't get here until just before 9am. Seems that
foreman Luís did not get home from his trip to Oaxaca until 4am and
needed some sleep before coming to work. We left shortly after they
arrived and started stripping paint from the exterior walls. We
ended up being gone almost the whole day, which began with a bank
stop and a little shopping and then to Carmen's last teeth adjustment
with Dr Soley. When finished, he talked to us about books we read.
Seems that he would like to borrow some from us so that he can keep
up with his english. Dan gave him a web site where he can get free
books on line to read on his computer.
Next we went to
IMSS for a doctors appointment to get Carmen's prescriptions updated
for another month. We got there two hours early for the early
afternoon appointment, thinking that we would be taken in order of
arrival. Well, probably we were, but there were already a lot of
people there ahead of us. When the end of the morning clinic
arrived, we had still not been taken. We were then taken over to
a
different consultorium, where the doctor there wrote out the
prescriptions for us. Three hours total! If it weren't for the fact
that the prescriptions save us probably $100 a month or more, we
would just buy them at the pharmacy, where we would not need
prescriptions in this country. While sitting waiting, Dan was
reading a book in english. An elderly man well older than us,
stopped and proceeded to chatter away to us in english! He opined
about the situation with Korea and in the middle east. Later this
day, in Fortín, Carmen was walking to our car by herself, leaving Dan
in a paint store to buy sandpaper, when a fellow asked her in english
how she was doing today. Never know who will be brave or sure of
themselves enough to come up and speak english!
Tuesday the crew
finished up painting in hallway, cut some electric conduit into the
walls up to a new junction box that was embedded in the wall behind
the water pump, under the hot water heater, and then also finished
wiring in the lights in the bathroom. Later during the night, a
front blew thru with very high winds that blew out one of the sheets
of plywood that blocked off the window openings in the small bedroom.
We were fearful of our new roof above the mirador, but checking it
the next morning showed no damage, so the polycarbonate sheets have
passed a significant endurance test.
Wednesday Ania and
Frank were here for lunch. The crew finished touching up and
texturing the south (former outside) wall in the new bathroom, as
getting it dead smooth like the new walls seemed a long tedious task
that we could avoid with a “rustic” finish there. Then the crew
moved upstairs, and started on filling and scraping the walls in the
master bedroom, with plans to be done on friday.
Thursday Dan and
Luís walked around the house deciding what other supplies we need
yet. Mauricio finished the barrandilla (railing) along the terraza above the
bathroom. Dan wired up the water pump, and now the alcove housing
the water heater can also serve as a broom closet, instead of
stashing that stuff in the crack next to the refrigerator. We drove
into Fortín to buy more supplies and there was a crowd of people in
the park. Several buses parked nearby. Students were on a stage
from different schools playing instruments. We really enjoyed the
marimba band that played as we were leaving the Comex paint store. A
few couples were dancing and all the people in the park seemed to be
unable to not keep time with the music. No way one can hold still
with this rhythmic music playing!
When we got back
home, our carpenter was there, and he proceeded to mount the two
small windows in the small bedroom. While the guys worked on
finishing the walls in the master bedroom, Dan and Meltitón conferred
on how best to take four inches off the steel door from Home Depot,
so it would fit in the existing laundry room frame. We ended up
cutting both faces of the door with the circular saw fitted with a
metal-cutting abrasive disk (using a straight-edge jig held in place
with clamps), then hack-sawing the two door stiles and slicing thru
the foam inner core. Then Dan took out some foam at the bottom of
the door with a rasp, and smoothed the cut metal edges with a file.
Melitón extracted the bottom strip from the cut-off portion of the
door, and glued it at the door bottom with some Gorilla glue.
Everyone, including Luís who was checking out the progress, learned
something new.
Saturday the guys
arrived muy pronto and got back at the daunting task of
scraping the old paint off the building and walls. For some reason,
prior coats of paint must have been put on without a consistent coat
of sellador (sealer), resulting in the paint's poor adhesion.
This means that at certain places large sheets of latex paint can be
peeled off in sections larger than several sheets of paper. In other
spots the paint adheres very well and can't be removed. All this
means they have to go over every inch of wall with scrapers and wire
brushes. The wall, once scraped, will be smoothed, hopefully evening
out the spots that still have paint with those scraped back to bare
concrete, by applying a skim coat of fine white cement. Then all
will be sealed, and a thinned cost of our selected blue paint will be
applied, followed by a finish coat. These guys will have very strong
wrists when this job is terminado.
