Tag Archives: building in Mexico

February 16, 2018 · 7:00 am

A bit of remodeling–The upstairs bathroom

With a teenage son now and plans of a multigenerational home in the future, (ok, so I can’t wait for grandchildren) we decided that a second bathroom would be nice to have. Since this bathroom was on the second floor, it needed to be raised up to include the plumbing underneath which meant making a step for my short legs.

My husband thought we should have a bathtub, which is a rarity here in Mexico. After pricing the fiberglass tubs, he decided he would make it out of tile. So he did. Again, because of my short legs, another step had to be built.

We had another search for suitable tile to go with the cream and brown color scheme. We found some creamy beige tile that seemed like it would be ok and ordered 12 boxes. When the delivery guy arrived, there were 9 boxes of cream tile and 3 boxes of other tiles. Of course, my husband didn’t notice this until all the tile had been unloaded. He refused the order. He and the delivery guy loaded everything back on the truck.

Over the course of the next 2 days, my husband went back and forth to town to try and get this resolved. There were only 9 boxes of the cream tile to be found. So he accepted the 9 boxes and the store manager deducted the cost of the 3 boxes of hideous tile. Then the 9 boxes were delivered a second time and work could commence.

Creamy!

Tile at the bottom of the tub.

Because there were now only 9 boxes instead of 12, there was not enough tile to do the bottom of the tub. His brother B was also tiling his house and had asked to borrow the truck for tile pickup so when they went to pick up B’s tile, my husband bought 2 boxes of brown tile to finish the floor. I can’t say that I really like it, but it’s not like many people will see it. It’s at the bottom of the tub.

Then there’s the issue of the tub not having a faucet. Our shower downstairs has a faucet on the wall, but no tub. I’m not sure why that is. So, lieu of a faucet, we opted for a shower nozzle on a flexible hose. I figured it would be just the thing since my son washes his hair every single day but doesn’t always shower. In the event of an actual bath, we could always fill the tub with buckets. My husband even assured me he would heat the water on the outside cooking grill if need be. Ok then. We do plan on getting a boila (hot water heater) eventually, but it will have to wait.

We had a toilet and sink left over from one of my husband’s remodeling jobs. He installed them but the toilet wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. It had a broken tank cover and was white which so didn’t go with the overall cream and brown classic look I was going for. I know, so picky!

We shopped around a bit, not precisely for the color although that was a big factor, but for a toilet that had a smaller tank. Water conservation is still our number one concern. We found a cream one reasonably priced and brought it home.

The next step was getting another tinaco (water storage container) and installing it. Some heaving and ho-ing got it up on the roof. An afternoon’s work and it had a base. The pipes took a few runs to the ferreteria (hardware store), but it got done. As it’s on the second floor and not the first floor, it is against regulations for the water delivery truck to fill it, so we are considering a water pump. Until that happens, ‘algo pa’la soda’ (a little donation towards the purchase of a “soda”) should get the tinaco filled.

The sink faucet was a hassle. We went hither and yon looking for something that would do. After we made our choice, my husband installed it only to find that it leaked. Back we went to return it. The shop gave us another model. AND it leaked too. Remember, water is sacred. There will be no leaking in our home. Third time’s the charm I guess. No leaky faucet with the third model.

The tub ended up being too big for just one shower curtain. It was a good thing I had bought two, thinking to change out the downstairs shower curtain as well.

Our Harley carpenter made a wooden towel bar the matched the wooden curtain rod. More on him later. A mirror positioned just so to reflect back the light from the window and a plant artistically arranged and the bathroom was done.

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Tagged as bathroom construction, building in Mexico, Construction

February 8, 2018 · 1:00 pm

A bit of remodeling–The fireplace

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, my husband made chimneys. It’s a skill he mastered and was able to use when we added our own chimney. (See Chim, Chimney). When we began the second floor, he had the foresight to begin the chimney base. Now it was time to finish that baby.

A job clearing a lot in La Yacata became the perfect opportunity to gather the rocks he would need. He and our son worked diligently for about a week cutting brush and small trees while at the same time scouting for rocks which they then loaded into the truck. A very short ride later, the rocks were tossed up on Joey’s roof for further examination.

Doing a little bit each day, my husband was able to finish the chimney in about a week.

Looks gorgeous, doesn’t it?

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Tagged as building a chimney, building a fireplace, building in Mexico, construction projects

January 4, 2018 · 1:00 pm

A bit of remodeling–Upstairs

Although I had my heart set on a solar electrical system, even gone so far as to price it, I realized I was putting the cart before the horse. Before we make manifest electricity (my home improvement goal for 2018), we needed to finish the upstairs. So since my husband decided not to return to work in September, that’s what he’s been doing. Of course, it’s now January, and we still aren’t completely finished, but we are closer than we were.

In 2016, we were able to put the roof on the second floor and then put in windows but for quite some time it remained uninhabitable. We used it to store junk. It was dark and dusty. But all that was about to change!

The first step was to patch the walls. This is my husband’s least favorite construction activity, so it took about 2 months for him to complete it, one buto (bag) of cement at a time. Not only did the walls need to be patched, but they needed afinado (refined), which meant a second round of patching, only this time with beach sand rather than brown sand.

The sand is sifted. It isn’t the same sand used in construction.

The mix for patching is gooier than the mix used for construction. No gravel is used.

Wall to the left is one layer. Wall to the right is with a second layer.

As for flooring, oh my, was this a hassle. When we built the house 10 years ago, we installed a lovely brown tile in the kitchen, both bedrooms, and bathroom. The outside porch eventually became an interior room but did not have any tile. Therefore, we hoped we could find something similar to it to tile the back room, stairs and then continue upstairs. No such luck. The tile we had used had been discontinued. We went to 10 flooring places and looked at floor models and books until we were cross-eyed. We’d find something we liked only to be told that they only had 3 boxes left. Or the color was good and there were enough to complete the job, but it was WAY out of our budget. We weren’t just tiling one room, but an entire floor, steps, and the back room. Finally, we found something that had similar tones although was completely different in the patterning and went with that.

69 boxes of tile

The tile we chose.

Buying all the tiles at once was a major purchase and construction had to be delayed just a bit since we also needed to buy the pegasolejo (cement for laying the tiles) and bujilla (grouting). But just like the wall patching, little by little it got done.