Great progress on new home, and first “re-model” project already “

           Nights are so very beautiful overlooking the Caribbean Sea.

As we rush to the end of the year, and “maybe” a completion date and occupancy by Christmas Holidays, things are moving alone well. Most of the walls are sheet rocked, with exception of where final plumbing and electrical need to be finished.

                         Sheet rock up on almost all walls.

The floor tiles are just about completely installed in the main house. This required many extra work and days, because the concrete floor was so uneven. I have to say that my site foreman, Rigo and his crew did an awesome job on this, taking his time to perform this task with precision and accuracy. I am quite impressed.

      All inside floors have the ceramic tiles installed.

Next the tiles will be installed on front and back concrete stairs, as well as the entire oceanfront deck. Rigo will be “floating” the deck with a leveling agent before laying the tiles, which should make it easier and quicker.

Our house design utilizes every square inch of space, and to do that we have no doors that swing open. The entry to the Laundry/Pantry as well the doorway to master bedroom closet, both incorporate barn door style sliding doors. “Pocket doors” will be utilized for entry to bathroom from living room, to bathroom from bedroom, and from great room to bedroom.

                 Ready for the “sliding pocket door”.

I found out this morning that the air conditioning units will be installed in living room and bedroom early next week. As the custom front doors, as well as remaining windows and folding doors should be installed in next two weeks, I assume we will run AC via generator 😉

Heavy wires at top for installing AC Unit above our giant screen TV 😉

Under the house, the preparation has been done for the cement truck to arrive and pour the floor.  This is exciting, as we are already talking about building in a enclosed garage under the right side of house.

             All prepped and ready for cement truck and new floor.

And then there is our first “remodel”!

Marsha had commented on her last visit a couple weeks ago, that the windows in the kitchen appeared low. Our  Tracy was here right after that and we looked at the large window opening over the sink looking out at deck. Although it does appear low, it is to spec. However, we didn’t really look at side windows over counter, and specifically the range.

Under that 1st window is the gas line for the range. Little low…ya think?

Then one morning Kevin my builder asked me to check out the height of the bottom window sill, and how it would work with the height of the range we had ordered. I immediately got the specs. for the range from Marsha, and with tape measure in hand, measured from the floor to where the top of the stove back would be. To my disappointment,  the back of the range would be approximately eight inches above window sill, blocking the window.

     Hard to see but this is window, see floor ?

Now keep in mind, we ordered a standard size and configured stove, with the raised area at rear with all the controls in it, not any “special order”. Marsha then checked with the Belize City store, Benny’s, where our builder sent up to shop appliances, for other options. She found that all the stoves were configured like this that would match the other appliances we ordered. She looked outside of Benny’s, to see if we could perhaps order a stove with controls on front, and not so tall. Yes, she found one, which would cost us an additional $1000, and nor really match.

Therefore, we made the decision and told the crew and Kevin, that we needed a “re-model”. They will be removing the new window, adding 2×6 fillers, sheet rocking the opening, removing all the involved wood siding, and installing all new siding where the window was.

I will say, somethings happen for good reasons. We were trying to figure out how the existing stove would vent thru the open window, especially if wind was blowing in from the sea? We are now re-figuring the location of the microwave, and model, to a “over the range, venting model”. This will now be installed above the range, and vented outside.

We will be using natural custom cut doors like this in multiple places of the house.

So, my advice to all readers, pay attention to details, and your wives concerns. Another thing I would suggest is be sure when you plan your house, especially the kitchen, be specific with appliance spec’s, in regards to windows, electric outlets, etc. In our case, although the house designs are good, there was no side view with measurements in the plans, that we could have referred to when purchasing our appliances.

If it’s going to happen, it will, so just go with it, make it work for you, because after all, its your home being built, and you will have to live with it.

Happy weekend all, and until we meet again in my next blog post, enjoy your life to the fullest, because you only have one.

Cheers,

Gary…The Pirate

Coming to our new pier, being built in front of our new home 😉 Like the name?