March progress

Things appear to be moving along at the house. A common question I get from friends and neighbors who know about our project is, "Is the construction on track? When do you think you will be able to move in?" The funny thing is that I don't know the answer to these questions, nor do I want to know. Eventually I will ask our contractor about timing and where we stand with respect to progress, but I figure with just about five months of work completed and with a projected timeline of 8-12 months, we are way too early in this process to be asking those questions. As long as we see progress each week and there are no significant weather issues (none yet, knock on wood) I presume we are close enough to being on schedule.

Before Spring Break we stopped by the house and noticed the concrete for the front porch area had been poured.

 This is the side of the garage and utility room area. We have windows!

And many more windows were waiting inside the house. We walked around for about 20-30 minutes, and during that time the workmen installed two windows.

The tub in the master bathroom.

 In the photo below you can see the front facade with the windows installed.

And just before Spring Break, the structural team started putting on the siding for the addition. This is the side of the house near John's old room and the new area for Scott's office. 

The photo below was taken a little over a week after the last. Here you can see that all of the front facade siding is complete. The siding comes in a yellow color and the house will eventually be painted all one color - with brick on most of the first story and siding on the second story.

I love our little circular window to the right of the entryway. The circular window and the glass panels to the side of the front door will both be filled with leaded glass, designed by a local artisan.

The crew also installed some of our exterior doors. This view is looking out towards the backyard on the first floor, in the space that will be our living room and kitchen.

A few days later the kids and I went by after church. This is the back view looking in from the alley. The siding on the garage and most of Scott's outdoor kitchen (second photo below) is nearly complete. Those are our old doors leaning in the outdoor kitchen space.

The last photo shows that the electrician has started installing wiring inside the walls. You can also notice visible progress on the plumbing work in the house too.

More framing

I had an appointment with our contractor over at the house early last week. When I drove up to the house, the first thing I noticed was that the demolition of the front window was in process. This photo was taken around 10:00am that day. The front door entryway of the remodeled house will be located where the window was before.

Below is the side window area that you could look through into the living room on the way in the front door in the old house.

 It was easy to notice finished work inside the home as well. Notice the plumbing running through the ceiling of the first floor and down through (what will be) a wall. The blue boxes on the framing indicate where the architect has called for electrical switches. We will do a walk through of the home to make sure we like the location of the electrical switches and outlets before the electrician installs the wiring.

In the photo below you can see that the electrician has started installing the cans that will hold the light bulbs throughout the ceiling.

Scott's outdoor kitchen area is pictured below.

The deck space off the game room surprised me the most. I took this photo standing just inside the game room looking out towards the backyard, where we will have french doors leading from the game room out to the deck. For some reason, I had pictured the deck to be much smaller, kind of like a hotel balcony or the size of a balcony on a cruise ship. But this space is huge! We will be able to put lounge chairs outside if we want.

I took this photo around 12:00pm when I was leaving the house. The entire front window area is gone!

Two days later I drove by the house and noticed the framing for the new entryway is in place. I like it! I look forward to seeing the exterior continue to evolve in the coming weeks. Our windows arrived in Dallas last week so the crew should begin window installation this week.

Concrete and framing

In my last update, I posted photos of the concrete piers in the backyard with empty space between the piers within the framed areas. After those photos were taken, the crew finished the prep work for the floor of the new areas and the city inspector signed off on the inspection.

I took the first two photos below on February 1. I arrived at the house just in time to run upstairs and watch the gigantic concrete truck maneuver its way into the alley space. It;s a good thing our fence is knocked down/being replaced because otherwise it never would have fit into the space.

I watched the truck get set up and I stayed for the beginning of the pour. The wet concrete coming out of the hose was quite gross! They poured the concrete for the garage and the outdoor deck area. II took the photo below while standing in the remnants of our living room, looking directly out the back towards the backyard.

They let the concrete settle for the rest of the week and at the beginning of the next week they started framing the addition. The space closest to where I am standing is the garage, which will connect into a hallway with a utility room, half bath, office nook, and storage closets coming off the hallway.

John and I drove by a few days later over the weekend and it was fun to see the progress in the framing. John is standing on the concrete slab of Scott's outdoor kitchen/grilling area. 

More stories

We have a second story on our house! First, let's take a look at the before photo. I took this photo on January 4. Notice the absence of a roof on the first story in the front.

The day after the above photo was taken the crew started adding the structural support for the second story. And then literally a few days later I drove by randomly and was quite surprised to see this.

We have a second story! Seeing this for the first time was probably my favorite moment so far. I think it's because we finally have some construction, rather than destruction.

 At this point, framing for the new concrete pour was underway in the backyard. We are adding a small amount of square footage to the back of the house and connecting the new garage to the main house. The existing left back wall will be knocked down when it all connects but the farthest back wall will remain in the same place.

Then a few days later they poured the concrete piers in the backyard. We were expecting heavy rain the next day so I was glad to see that the inspection was finally complete (apparently the city can sometimes be slow with inspections) so that the crew could pour the concrete before the storm came.

The above photo was taken from the second story, because inside the house we now have a new staircase and new access to the second floor! As part of the revised plans we are moving the staircase (formerly located at the back of house) to the front of the house. To my surprise, the new staircase is built and the crew has started to frame the second floor. 

My sister and my nephews were visiting over the MLK holiday weekend so we took them on a tour of construction land. The next photo is the start of framing of the second floor. When we visited on Saturday, there was a heavy tarp covering the second story roof because the wood planks for the roof have not yet been nailed in.

And this one is standing on the second story looking downstairs towards the front of the house.

Last week I spent three (!!) hours with our contractor on a consulting visit at the plumbing/bathroom/kitchen showroom. Who knew that there are a dozen manufacturers of faucets/toilets/sinks/bathtubs?

This was our (I should say "my", as Scott declined to attend, I wonder why?) first consultation appointment to pick fixtures for our home, and I have a feeling I will have to head into each future session with a very good attitude and prayers for a patient mind frame. Actually the time flew by quickly and it wasn't that overwhelming, but after picking out a half dozen faucets and fixtures, I was so done that I would have accepted anything. The consultant told me (with a straight face) that "the tone of the fixtures in your home sets the tone for the overall feel of the space", so I sure hope I did a good job!

HA! Way more construction adventures to come.

Feliz Navidad (and excellent food!)

We spent one day at our hotel's sister resort, Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay. Emerald Bay is a newer property that was built a few miles to the north of our hotel. Emerald Bay is a larger resort with better pools than our property, but the drawbacks are the limited beach area and father distance into town (about a 15-20 minute pulmonia trip). Our family had decided that Emerald Bay is a fun place to spend the day, but we prefer staying at our more Mexico-authentic hotel closer to town for our vacation.

The layered infinity pools are gorgeous. Compared to our day visit last year, Emerald Bay was not that crowded. This was a beautiful day, perfect for spending hours by the pool.

Amelia and I enjoyed several hours lounging by the pool devouring our books, but eventually all four of us were in the water at the same time. We played monkey in the middle with John's football, and it was surprisingly really fun!

Above - a perfect light lunch of greens, grapefruit, peanuts, slaw, and shrimp. Plus Pacífico and a side of chips and guac.

 

On Christmas morning, we woke up to this view on our balcony. Enjoying my coffee on the balcony with the sound of ocean waves and the warmth of the ocean breeze was an awesome Christmas treat! 

Around lunch time we took a walk south along the main street and found a beach side restaurant, El Capitán, that had been recommended to us by a pulmonia driver several days earlier. This place was not fancy but the food sure was delicious! And the atmosphere was awesome - the first time we ate "on the beach" during the daytime on this trip. What a unique venue for Christmas lunch!

My plate is shown above. Grilled fish with squid and shrimp, pepper and onions, with a small amount of rice and potato on the side. Definitely the most non-traditional Christmas meal I have ever had. It was delicious!

El Capitán had an old foosball table in the restaurant. After we ate John and I played two games against each other. In the middle of the second game I excused myself to use the restroom, and when I returned I found John playing foosball against one of the waiters. They were having a ball!

We walked back to our hotel along the beach, stopping to let the kids battle a Pokemon gym (naturally).

One more food photo as I wrap up the Mexico posts. We enjoyed dinner at Poncho's Restaurant three (THREE!) time on this trip because we remembered how amazing the meals were last year. This was my favorite entrée from the trip. Grilled fish in white wine sauce, dusted with squid, shrimp, peppers and onions, served alongside rice and steamed vegetables (the nachos in the upper right are Amelia's). This dish was so amazing (!!), and a steal for the Mexican pesos equivalent of about $10 U.S. dollars.

Our family has enjoyed our visits to Mazatlán so much, primarily because of the beautiful location and the friendliness of the people. everyone is so welcoming - from the pulmonia drivers to the staff at the resort to the excursion operators. We love the fact that the guests at our resort are not majority American (we estimate that about 50-60% are Mexican tourists) and that the whole scene is more down-to-earth than in other areas of Mexico. However, I have to admit that a major portion of enjoyment, after the people and atmosphere, comes from the excellent food we enjoy at each meal. We have never had a "bad" meal, and the freshness of the vegetables and seafood is pretty remarkable.