Casa Update 17

Hi all,

Well, Phyllis left on Thursday and forgot to take her cold with her. I found it. The acid wash guys showed up after lunch. They spent the entire afternoon on the rooftop deck and back porch. They came back on Friday and re-did it all again. We spent the weekend just messing around the house. Monday brought the acid wash guys back and the contractors guys to redo the vent for the water heater. All left before lunch never to return. We went to El Centro on Tuesday to re-supply. Emailed the contractor to complain about things stopping. Wednesday was spent running to town to get everything done as the San Felipe 250 is this weekend. You do not want to be going to town for milk for the next few days. We have spent the last few days using the "ditch road" as they are putting the final layer of asphalt on the southbound lanes of Mexico 5. Looks like they will be done with the road construction well before the house blessing.

Most everything got finished on Friday. As you can expect, there is still things on the punch list. It has gotten very windy and we can hear the racers practicing the course in the background. We got in touch with the "Blind guy" and he came over. We ordered blinds for most of the windows. About 1/2 the cost of up North. As luck would have it, they will be installed the day after the house blessing. Well, after dinner we go to do the dishes. No hot water. Pilot light is out. So I re-light it. Then again, again, again. It will not stay lit. Sent an email to the contractor and we washed the dishes with some stovetop hot water.

Saturday brings the race and the wait for the plumber. Who will come first? Well, the race wins and we try to watch it from the rooftop with binoculars. Best view of the dust cloud and the chase helicopters that I have ever seen. They were at least 3-4 miles away to the west. We could hear them clearly. The drone lasted way past when the plumber finally arrived. He takes one look at the new vent pipe and throws his hands in the air. Now I stare at it. Something does not look right. Jorge gets on his cell phone and calls someone. After a minute he hands the phone to me and it is Lupe. Lupe tells me that there is a problem with the vent and they will have to come back on Monday to fix it. Jorge will try something on the roof to fix it temporarily. Jorge runs up top and I hear some banging. He then tries to get the pilot light lit. Success! we have a big flame. He leaves and we miss the race. I go back and look at the water heater again. Then I see it. The vent pipe attaches directly to the top of the water heater. There is no "air gap". In plumbing terms, that means that all of the air rushing (or being sucked) up the vent has to come from the bottom of the water heater, passing thru the pilot light and burner flame. That is why it is going out. It is real windy here today. Think it is going to be a cold water weekend if the wind does not stop blowing. I was correct.

Sunday was another lazy day. We hung the curtains for French doors. We will do another round of pictures when we get back.

Monday is the wait for the plumber. He does not show up but the Propane guy does! We have invited friends over for a traditional American St. Patty's day feast. Wind finally dies down 1/2 way thru the evening and I get the water heater working. We will have hot water for a while.

Tuesday brings a call from the contractor assuring us that the will fix everything by 5:00 on Wednesday. Well, at 1:00 here they are again. This time it is Luis' crew. He is Jorge's older brother and the best worker we have seen down here! He does the same thing as his brother did after looking at the hot water heater. He speeds away and 15 minutes later he is back with the right part. He called it a "sombrero." As he fixed the water heater, his crew acid washed the front porch and my office. They now are the best looking floors in the house! Wish we could have had them the whole time. Funny thing. Both Jorge and Luis do not speak any English. I have a better success communicating with them with hand signs and noises than with the other works that speak a little English.

Well. It is Wednesday now and we had Luis and Jorge back here today to install the water filter and weather-strip the French doors. The punch list is now down to less than 5 things and it is time to get out of here!!! The rest can wait till late April.

We are off to the Bay Area for a week and will resume our Mexican saga then. Everybody have a great Semana Santa and we will be back on March 28th.

Larry gets on Soap Box:

It is a shame that some of you have listened to the press and equate the problems in Tijuana with all of Mexico. We have never felt uncomfortable down here and I feel safer here than in San Francisco. There is a lot of trouble near the border relating to the "drug" issues. It does not spill to down were. The only "crime" that we hear of is petty theft. Common sense would protect you from that. Mexico is a cash economy where both the Dollar and Peso are readily accepted. That means that very few places accept credit cards. The Mexicans carry cash with them too and we have not heard of them being robbed. Of course there are ATMs in town if you need to get more Pesos. Problem is they sometimes run out of cash on the weekends and they have to come down from Mexicali to fill them. Not a good thing if you need the Pesos that day. So, if you plan it right and understand the environment, you can have a GREAT time down here without feeling uncomfortable. We would not have moved down here if we had believed the press coverage of Baja.

Larry gets off Soap Box.

Till later......

Larry and Regina

Casa Update 16

Friends,

Here is what has been happening around here for the past 2 weeks. Been getting very lazy about writing once a week.

We were invited to a Jenga tournament Saturday evening. Had a great time. Attached a few pictures of that. Spent Sunday just recovering from the tournament and did a little snooping around the neighborhood. There are currently about 20 houses either up or going up. Some are real interesting designs, others just look like tract houses except for all of the concrete. A couple of them have some real design problems. One house has its garage facing the right side of the lot. They built an outbuilding between the garage doors and the street. I'm guessing that they can only get one car into the garage. Another two have the garage facing the same way only it is 1/2 underground (allowing for a slightly higher elevation). Guess where they put the Electrical transformer? Half way between the garage and the lot line. I'm betting that they can park a VW bug or ATVs in that garage. Will try to include pictures of these.

We went out on Monday and got the accent tiles for the mosaic tiles that we are putting up in the kitchen. Got the mastic and George is back so the mural should be up by this weekend. Have to order the little tiles next. Stopped by the builder and turned in out updated punch list.

Well, its Tuesday and they started. Promised to be out of here by Saturday. Don't see how they can do that but we'll see. Plaster patches everywhere from where the tape that was used for the re-stain process. Have a supervisor's meeting this afternoon.

It is Wednesday and they are still plastering and they have started to sand. We now have a real dust storm going on in here. Covered up everything with sheets and towels. We hired a local artist to paint the Casa name on the courtyard arch. He came today and finished in 4 hours. Looks beautiful! Really slowed down all of the other work as everyone had to stop and watch him for a while. They finished the sanding finally. Electricians have done everything they were supposed to do. We have the new pendant light poles up and they look marvelous. Got a call from Sabina that Alex (the carpenter) could refinish our bar stools (they got pretty banged up in the move) right away. Packed them up in the truck and headed off to his shop. Looks like Thursday will be a day of cleaning again. Plumbers coming Friday.

Thursday was a day of cleaning and staying out of the painters way. They finished!! Now for the plumbers and the laundry room and guest bathroom tub. We went to the Thursday social late even though we were supposed to be there at 4:00.

Friday started out poorly when the plumbers just walked in without knocking. They went straight to the Laundry Room and disconnected the washer and dryer. Next came the hammer drill and 6 hours of chopping out the floor from the washer drain to the outside wall (seems that when we do a load of clothes, the washer fills the guest bath tub during the rinse cycle). They finished at about 5:30 way past quitting time. We were supposed to be down at Kaaren and George's at 4:00. Had a very nice late dinner after we got back.

Saturday brought us a new concrete floor in the Laundry Room plus plastering the hole in the Guest Bath wall along with a visit by the Contractor's main supervisor for a bitch session. I was getting tired of yelling at the Customer Services rep and thought it was about time to take it out on management again. We successfully got the plumbers fired from our job and a new set of plumbers will be assigned from the contractor's personal staff. We went off to the San Felipe Home show. Very nice exhibits. We found that our kitchen was included in the granite company's display and literature. Nice feeling. Got a lot of ideas from other vendors at the show. We then had a very nice lunch at the pool and I got a haircut (85 pesos) from the haircut lady. On the way home we called George and asked if he had time to install the mural behind the stove. He said sure and we speeded home to resume cleaning. Well, an hour later 2 trucks show up; it was Kaaren, George, Long Hair Larry and Debbie. George finished the tile in about an hour but no one left till well after dark. Had a great time getting more ideas from LH Larry. He started building his home (they also have a Ramada on the lot next door) this past week. Will be made out of adobe blocks. Going to be great fun watching this one go up.

Sunday started off well till we turned on the generator to get showers and clean up the dishes. Regina shrieked that the courtyard was flooding. Ran outside to see a gusher of water! Shut off the main water valve and sat down to think. No one in Mexico works on Sunday. There are no emergency Plumbers. Electricians, etc,etc. Checked the cistern and decided we had enough water till Monday. We turned the water back on and had our showers and finished the dishes. We then finished up the dust removal as we were going to have company on Monday. We Vegged the rest of the day. I finished "Sum of all Fears."

Monday morning brought the workers back to tile the Laundry Room and Guest bath. Lupe was close behind to look at the water leak. We turned on the generator and before I could get back to the house, he said to turn it off, he knew what was wrong. He dug up a corner of the courtyard and found a pipe to nowhere. Had jagged edges as if it was cut with a shovel. The new plumber came by to cap the pipe and to check that everything drained OK. That afternoon the workers were back to grout and paint. Phyllis, our company arrived after 3:00 and we called it a day for the house and we spent the rest of the evening chatting.

Tuesday was spent waiting for the plumber to come back and hook up the washer and dryer. Not really, we gave up on him at 10:00 and headed for town. Spent the whole day touring and having fun. Invited Gordy over for dinner. Fresh Corvina in a roasted pepper relish sauce. Yummy!

Wednesday the plumber showed up at 8:00. He got the washer and dryer in place and we went out for breakfast. After that we toured the ranch looking for landscaping and exterior ideas. I stayed home and read while Regina and Phyllis went to the beach. At 5:30 we fired up the generator for the evening. First was the test of the new plumbing. Started a load of clothes. We were all standing there waiting for the rinse cycle. Cycle started and within a minute the tub was filling again. So much for all of the hammering. Regina gets the clothes out and exclaims, "They are hot. I washed them on cold-cold!" I checked the back of the washer and yes, he had reversed the hot and cold water. I fixed that myself.

Thursday brings the departure of our friend Phyllis and a day of putting together a new punch list, run into town to get more Pesos and do a little shopping.

Friday brings all of the workers back. The new plumber tries to reverse the hot and cold water lines again on the washer. He then goes outside and starts looking at the drainage problem. After about an hour and a consult with his brother Luis, they come and get me. Well, they gray water line from the Laundry Room and Guest Bathroom seems to go nowhere. We all laugh and shrug. Lupe even drives back to see it. He tells me; "Larry, we will get this fixed today." And they did. We had a 60th Birthday party to go to so we chased away the workers at 2:00. They will be back Monday. We did leave the acid wash guys there as they were working on the rooftop deck. We had a blast at the party. It was George's 60th. That is George of "Kaaren and George."

Well, it is Saturday and I have to eventually send this email. We spent the morning watching the acid wash guys do the back porch. They left at 12. We have been lounging ever since. The San Felipe 250 is next weekend. I have a shot from the roof and you can see the trail of dust from today's practice sessions. We are going to have our Valentines meal tonight. It got postponed due to all of the commotion of the past 2 weeks.