(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!