(Post 111 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

Today was the Home Depot run for bathroom fixtures. My contractor, Adrián, is so amazing! He was very patient as I hemmed and hawed and tried to find something I’d like from a rather limited selection and displayed items not being in stock. I do have to give myself credit, though, because I was able to look at was there and make a satisfied choice of what was available rather than holding firm to a vision and making myself unhappy for not being able to realise that vision. So instead of a vintagey bathroom, it is going to be super modern! That actually goes with my plan to make the office look different from the rest of the house. For my other bathrooms, I plan to buy from special-order faucet catalogues to have more selection.

But this little bathroom needed to come in on budget because the reno overall is right at budget now. Adrián had said he could bring me in for around $50,000 all-in for his part of things. With the floor surprises and my very pricey custom chair, I’m now at close to $90,000. My hard budget was $100,000. Sounds like a scary number, but that’s still only 5,000USD and includes a full bathroom, custom doors, a stone desk, and, the aforementioned very pricey chair, so I’m getting a lot for my money!

Some items on the list turned out to be easy. For the mirror, I was fine with just a plain mirror since the tile does have a pattern and I think a frame would look too busy. I spotted a mirror in the correct dimensions with a little shelf under it and Adrián went “That’s the one. You’re not going to otherwise have anywhere to put things down.” We were both surprised by how absurdly reasonable the price was, around $1,000. The accessories — towel bars, toilet paper holder, and robe hook — were tougher. The one I wanted was out of stock. The next closest looked okay, but I was worried would be a cheap chrome-finish plastic that would not wear well, so I was happy when I opened up the box at home and the pieces had heft to them.

The sink was the biggest question mark. I wanted something like this, a basin over a concrete slab, and Adrián said that was a great idea and would be inexpensive as long as I didn’t want the in-wall taps!.

Home Depot had this exact sink in miniature, but as we looked at it, we both realised that the taps I had spent all that time picking out wouldn’t work. Neither one of us liked the drop-in sinks that would fit the taps, and I absolutely did not want an all-in-one sink and MDF cabinet that would look like crap in a few years. Adrián made me leave the sinks and took me to pick out a light fixture. That was way easier than he expected — I found the bathroom light fixtures section, quickly eliminated anything pretty, and picked out a very sleek modern LED fixture that turned out to be a bargain purchase!

Next, we grabbed a shower curtain rod. All that was left was the sink. I asked Adrián what he would do. “I’d sort of stick to your vision, but for the size of the space, I’d do a round basin instead of a square one, and then change the faucet to a taller single-handle one in that style you told me you’re not keen on.” I decided I really wanted that style of sink so I was willing to compromise on the faucet. Back we went to the faucet aisle and… I almost immediately found the perfect faucet to match the shower taps! It wasn’t even on display, but I spotted it in a box underneath the display! It had been so hard to initially find a matching set of shower and bathroom taps that we knew the bathroom gods had just blessed our design! 😆

I keep finding little details that have been taken care of without my asking about them, like this cable runner for the AC copper grounding wire.

I’ll add painting it to my sign-off list, but knowing them, I’m sure it’s already there.

I’m thrilled with the progress this week and have been promised my office will be done by next Friday! So now, I have to schedule Izzi to come move my modem. We want that done before sign-off day because the last time they were here, the installer made a lot of damage to my new exterior paint job. The hope is that if he can be here at the same time as the crew, he can be better directed and then the crew can patch up if necessary.

Onward to work. I have two days to catch up before the work starts up again!

(Post 110 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

It was a quiet day, just one worker on site. Even though he was cutting ceramic tile, the noise cancellation on my AirPod Pros is such that I barely heard him.

The floor poured yesterday was cured this morning. I was a bit surprised by how rough it is, but they use a self-levelling compound that works best with a rougher surface.

I requested that we keep that threshold. It’s super rough-looking but has that rustic farmhouse aesthetic that I’m craving. There’s a similar finish on the ends of the stairs that I also hope to keep.

I caught the tail end of the discussion between the contractor and tilesetter whereby we all realised there had been a miscommunication that the wood-look tile would continue in the bathroom. I think it would have been beautiful, but it’s not the look I was going for. I want to walk in and feel like I’m underwater. My contractor said that would be fine and asked me to confirm the arrangement, saying that staggered like the wood-look would use up more material. I think he was relieved when I told him they can just go end-to-end, like the tile in the house is right now. So they’re going in like this and then will continue up the wall.

If I understood correctly, the longer walls (one of which we’re facing in this photo) would have the tile with the long end perpendicular to the floor and the short walls will have the tile with the long end parallel. This way, there will be a seamless continuation from floor to wall. I think. Anyway, for some reason, I’m not as fussy about that, so I’m willing to keep trusting in the process.

The wood-look tile is exactly what I was dreaming off. I cannot wait to have it through the house, even if that’s going to be a bigger project than expected. I’m so glad I’m going all out and having my master bedroom done with it next. I’m absolutely thrilled with it — it’s not too light or too dark, and the tonal variations make it look like the real thing.

(Post 109 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

No video or photos for today because I was under strict orders not to go into the office once everyone left. A reasonable request since I now have a new and level subfloor that is currently curing! The room was a whopping 2cm off level, which I find concerning and need to speak to my contractor about to make sure it doesn’t reflect a bigger structural problem…

My contractor sat me down first thing to talk about the bathroom fixtures, which I have not bought yet. We made a deal to go to Home Depot together on Friday morning, where I’ll choose what I want and he’ll approve or veto my choices. He already vetoed anything that would require ripping out existing plumbing, like replacing two shower faucets with a single faucet — save that for your master bathroom, he told me. But, he did authorize one luxury item that I’m ridiculously excited about and that will make this tiny bathroom feel special — a rain showerhead! He also confirmed he can put in a leg-shaving shelf and a niche for storing shampoo, soap, and other items. I can pick out anything I want for the towel bars, hooks, toilet paper holder, mirror, and light. For the sink, due to the tiny space, we’ve vetoed any under sink storage (so bathroom storage is going to end up in the office closet, which is fine), but he approved a concrete slab with a square basin over it (a huge step up IMHO from a stock wash basin or pedestal sink), as well as slightly better than builder-grade piping for under the sink. One of my pet peeves is having to see the undersink plumbing, so that’s a huge concession on my part, but there really is no room to put in a cabinet or to enclose the plumbing while still leaving access to it for repairs.

He and I are so in sync it’s both awesome and scary. After we got done with the bathroom matters, he said I had another important decision to make. I told him I knew what he was going on about, and I was right — the pattern and orientation of the flooring in the office!

I then headed off for a quick bank run to get more cash as I gave him everything I took out yesterday. I also caught up on my books — I’m at about 36,000 of my 50,000 peso budget spent. I do believe I only have two more big expenses, the doors and the Home Depot run, plus the rest for labour. I would not be surprised if I come in closer to $60,000 because of the floor issue and my spending more on my minisplit than if I’d gone with a non-inverter model.

The only other thing of note today is that I found out what this ugly thing was, the threshold for the old shower.

For the new shower, the contractor is instead dropping its floor a little lower. I think that will look great.

I’m super happy with how things are progressing — tile is going on tomorrow! And I’m thrilled with how well my contractor and I are communicating. Sure, I do have quite a lot of construction knowledge, but not the Spanish vocabulary to go with it! Still, most of the words are close to French and I always understand the general gist of what he’s trying to tell me sometimes if not the exact definition of some words. I also understand him perfectly when he’s talking to his crew. I’ve come a very long way from the summer of ’17 when I didn’t even know the Spanish words for things like debris (escombros) or paintbrushes (brochas)! But a project like this isn’t just about understanding what the other is saying. It’s about a shared vision, and we have that in spades. I just know I’m going to be thrilled with my new space when I finally move in!

(Post 109 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

Day two was primarily an electrical day, and, of course, there were surprises, like that you can buy either a 110 or 220V AC, depending on your house wiring, and, of course I bought a 110V model when my outlet was wired for 220V. 🤦‍♀️ At any rate, I’m in good hands and the contractors sorted out everything for me.

copper wire for ground the outlets; I like how it’s going to be under the floor

contractor photo showing the wires connecting the rooftop condenser and the interior AC unit, as well as the drain.

contractor photo showing the rooftop condenser, with grounding wire, and the cracked skylight that we will replace with a glass block

The contractor made an executive decision to give me a third grounded outlet, the one to the left. At this time, I really don’t need it, but I bet in the future, I’ll be glad he was smarter than me.

copper rod driven into the ground to which all the copper wires connect

the third grounded outlet

How is the shower looking both better and worse than it did last night?

New AC and fan in — super happy with both. The dark grey is a change from the usual white, and the dark brown fan will pop against the blue walls and white ceiling..

The new fan was a source of amusement because I won an argument. The contractor said that it was pointless to install a fan that small and that I might as well just put in a new light fixture. I found him at the end of the day standing under the fan with a look of surprise on his face — that thing was really moving air!

Two days down, how many more to go? At least, we agreed that the guys are starting around 8AM and are to use their key. I’m usually awake by that time but not downstairs, so my mornings aren’t going to feel so rushed if they can just let themselves in.

(Post 108 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

All renovation projects come with surprises, but the surprise I got yesterday was definitely not one my contractor expected, given the age of the house — I’ve got a nearly 2,500-square-foot house without a proper subfloor. The flooring replacing project should have been quick — pull up old tile, clean and level out the subfloor, apply “pegazulejos” (literally tile glue), and add new tile and grout. Instead, the subfloor came up with the tile to reveal bare sand underneath. This was apparently an older building method that doesn’t use concrete for the subfloor. So now, we have to pour a whole new subfloor before we can replace the flooring. Am I glad I’ve got experts working on this and did not attempt a DIY! My contractor says that we should go over top of the existing tile for the rest of the house, which sounds like both a great and terrible idea.

I trust my contractor and am letting him do his magic. This morning, they are clearing out debris and someone is coming by to install the new minisplit air conditioner. I was surprised that that’s happening already, but then I realised that that will give them a climate-controlled/dry room to work in, which will make everything everything easier.

I also just had to pick out my two doors. I was middling on my choices and my contractor must have sensed that because he came back with more options that were much closer to my vision. It’s amazing to feel so heard. I really lucked out finding him!