Progress: House, FM3, and razor blades

(Andy blogging here)

Sorry that it's been so long since the last update. It's been so busy I don't know where to start.


We DID actually find razor blades - WalMart. We bought the entire stock (just in case) and went to work on scraping the floors of decades-old paint. Oh, and just after the last post we (cue the hosts of angels singing) we received out FM3s. I nearly wept!

A funny FM3 story: our pal Jorge spilled tea on his FM3 and the ink ran such that it became unreadable. So off he went to the "palace" of government to get a replacement. They told him that a simple $400 pesos and a letter describing what had happened to his existing FM3 and they would issue a replacement. Using his Spanish-speaking friend, he wrote a page-long description of the tea spill, turned in it and waited the usual week. When he returned, he was told that the letter wasn't detailed enough. He kept his cool and asked: "What more is there to say? There was tea, it spilled." Not much dramatic tension to work with here. "You see, tea was first domesticated by the Chinese. . . ." After much pleading, whinging, and refusing to go away, they finally agreed that a page was enough and he was told to return in 2 hours. The FM3 was waiting for him.


Now, on to sewage. . .


(Warning: geeky home-repair detail here, feel free to skip to next paragraph)

If you'll remember, we had to replace the in-floor plumbing in the kitchen. It was old and was leaking (and leaching up the kitchen wall - causing the plaster to fall off). We replaced the pipe in the floor and routed the 4 inch PVC through the wall and into the garage. But now, what to do with it. I decided to put a distribution box with a drain in the middle of the garage floor and then route the plumbing to this. They call it a "registro" here (not sure of the actual translation) It's just a concrete box into which the many different waste lines run. One line then runs out to the main sewer. I expected that I could just buy a prebuilt one. Ah, but no. You have to make it by hand.

A picture is worth a thousand words (especially when you're dealing with sewer) so here you go:

First I broke out the concrete floor and dug a hole in the middle of the floor. Next, I cut the top out of a 5 gallon bucket and ran the lines into it (I ran a new line for a second drain which will accommodate the washer on the other side of the wall and a second work sink).

I covered the bucket with wire mesh and then threw concrete at it. It took several coats but eventually I was able to build it out the right thickness. Near the end I added a drain with a trap so the stinky gases won't enter my workshop/shrine.

I capped the top with manhole cover that I found under the counter at my local hardware store. This week I repour the floor and will slope it all toward the drain. A sewage masterpiece.

And now on to electricity (more geeky home improvement stuff to follow).

The wiring in the house in freakish. I'll spare you the details but a few of the lights were registering either zero, 70, 130, or 240 volts. Depending on which combination of 2- and 3-way switch positions were used. If defies logic but, the best I can surmise, is that many of the lines were doing double duty as ground and hot, depending on switch. I'm pulling EVERYTHING out of the walls and am going to start over. First step was to get clean power to the house. We installed two, new 16-breaker boxes on two separate meters outside. We'll gradually cut over from the weird old system to the spanky new one.

Enough with the technical details. The look of the house has changed so dramatically that it's difficult to relate it to the stinky, grungy place that we originally bought. We changed Maestros and now Lupe is our man. It's made all the difference. In addition to getting more stuff done, he has a great eye and has made tons of wonderful suggestions.

First, the paint.

Stina (in consultation with George and Lupe) gets the credit for choosing the color combinations. They certainly aren't subtle but will blend in a bit more when our stuff (furniture, paintings, etc.) is in the rooms.

Stina bought a half/dozen lights from Tonala to replace the cheezy, mid-70s chandelier/Ethan Allen-type fixtures that were there. The new ones look very cool.

We also decided to change the walls/doors in our bedroom. We knocked a big door openning into the patio area and reconfigure the closet. I was surprised to find that new floor and wall panels are actually made from Styrofoam, sandwiched by wire mesh, covered by concrete. They say that it's stronger than 100% concrete and with only a fraction of the weight.

Before

During

After

Closet

Once the painting was completed, they moved on to the patio out back. First step was to chip all of the existing concrete off (made easier by the fact that it was mostly falling off). Then they hosed it down and hurled a coat of sloppy concrete (with some magic liquid that deters salitre, legend has it).

Another great Lupe idea was to frame the doors with bricks - it was cheap, easy, and makes the doors look a lot better.

The (nearly) finished product:

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. The truck with all of our stuff is supposed to arrive by the end of the year and we we're in a crunch to get the house as far along as we can. At the very least, we wanted to have the painting done and the dust-creating tasks mostly behind us. Mission accomplished.

We still have wiring to do, cabinets to install, doors and windows, etc. but the end-of-year crush is nearly past. It's been a lot of fun too. The workers are really nice guys. We've celebrated a couple of their birthdays with cake, beer, and tacos.

They've even let the kids do some brick work.

I've learned so many new things about how to build/restore a house here. I've also learned a lot of cultural and language things (saving for upcoming posts). All-in-all Mexico continues to be one of the best decisions that we've ever made. We are having a ball!