Last week I had started to build the outside kitchen and I am happy to say it is now 99% finished. I had a bit of a problem with the roof tiles leaking which involved me having to remove them all (breaking a lot in the process) and having to re lay them but at least it is complete. I think it looks pretty good for an idea that started at just a BBQ!

Outside Kitchen

I thought it was about time to do something with all the caoba roof beams that i saved from the original roof and floor. So I had them all cut up into planks - the idea is to build furniture and use it around the house. I have about 200 of them so it looks like I have a lot of work coming up. 

Painted garden

Now that the outside kitchen is finished my next priority is the front doors. I have searched around but due to the size of my front doors the cost was prohibitive. So I decided to give it a go and make them myself. I have used the Caoba that I cut up and made my first door. I just need to insert the glass and get some bars put in and I will finally have a front door!

Almost finished front door

It has been a god send having my mum here to help. She has basically painted the whole outside so far and is still going strong. We have decided to finish the garden first - I know its usually the last thing left in a restoration project however the being as I have no rear access I didnt want to be taking debris and materials through a decorated front of house. So it makes sense to get all the messy work out of the way first.

Inside laundry

I am in the process of finishing the last section of building work - the laundry. Its exciting as its the last part of brickwork and plastering I need to do. I had to build the back wall up quite high to cover the unsightly side of a neighbors house so it was a bit more work than expected but I am only a few days away from completion.

Laundry under construction

Until next time...

All moved in!

So yet again I have to apologize for the long wait between posts. I was working 16 hour days to finish our area so we could move in. I had a deadline as my mum was coming to stay and we only just made it. We moved in the day before - it was a bit of a mad rush to say the least but we moved in. The last couple weeks have consisted of me finishing off the little details in our place whilst the guys finish off other parts.

Our finished bedroom

The day we moved in I had only just connected the water pressure tank so I was a little nervous that as soon as I connected it I would spring leaks everywhere but thank god it all worked fine.

Living room

It took a lot longer than expected to complete the finishing touches but I am so happy that we have finally moved in.

Ceiling fan

We were lucky enough to have been given a bath and shower unit by a fellow expat that no longer needed it so I would like to thank him on here.

In my last post I hadn't even finished all the doors let alone the windows but luckily I finished it all in time. The windows were a bit of a pain to say the least but I am happy with the results.

Windows installed

I have gone down to just two workers now as I only have a few jobs left for them. We have decided to finish the garden first as we didnt want to finish the front of the property and then have to bring materials through the finished rooms. So work has begun on the outdoor kitchen and Jacuzzi. I have also finish the pump room walls which I will be adding a roof in the next few days.

Outdoor kitchen

I am putting a BBQ, fridge and sink in the outdoor kitchen with a bar that I can put a few chairs up against.

I almost forgot how to say about the front of the house... finally we have finished the panete on the front. As soon as I finish off our place I will get to work on the doors for the font.

Front of property

I am really excited for the next few weeks. I plan to get the garden finished and the front of the house complete. It should go a lot faster now that we are living here.

Until next time...

Busy times...

Yes, again, I have let the blog slip but the good thing is with this update I have lots to report. Good and bad/frustrating. So where do I start... well I will continue from last time. The garden wall is now finished, which was a lot bigger project than expected but now I have a nice tall garden wall. I have kept a couple areas of open of the original bricks but a lot of it I had to cover up as the wall was in a really bad condition.

New garden wall

I have also started building the room to house my water tanks and pumps, it is half completed but got sidetracked (as always) with other tasks. So one of the next things I really had to sort out was the power. When I bought the house it had no wiring at all but there was a wire coming in the house that ‘borrowed’ power. I do have a generator that I have been using but thought it was about time to get the power officially connected as I want to move in next week. 

Pump house (soon to be completed)

So simple, went to the electricity company signed a form and they sad I would have power in 5 days... ohhh but wait a minute I forgot - doesn’t quite work like that like that here. After 3 weeks and about 8 hours in total spent waiting in the office I finally got the guys out to put my meter up.

Connecting the power

So power is connected, I have only connected a few outlets at present but I will connect the others as I progress through the house. Next on the list for this very frustrating month was front of the house. Now I have purposely left the front so it looks run down so no one thinks there is anything worth stealing inside. However there is a permit issue with doing this... I have all the permits to renovate the house but I found out that you are not allowed to use the sidewalk without getting a permit.

Preparing the front of the house

I thought that I was finished with all this permit b*****t but yet again I found myself in Ayuntamiento. Simple they said... write a letter requesting use of the sidewalk and you will get permission in two days... so yes a week later I had no permits - then after calling about 4 different departments (none that know what the official process is) I get told that I need to pay for the permit which is 15000 pesos! 

Starting the panete

So I decided to do what everyone else does and just work on a sunday without permits. I did get a bit of hassle from the police on the Sunday that said you are not allowed to work on Sundays... (again - havent a clue). I decided in the end however to bite the bullet and do it the proper way as it is a big job to do the front of the property and if I just do it on Sundays its going to take me a long time!

Finished door

So we managed to get through to someone that knew what they were doing and got the permits for 6000 pesos - better than 15k but still a lot. So the last few days I have been working on the front of the house and I have to say its going to look awesome. A few more days and it will be finished - then all I have to do is decide what color to paint it.

Putting in the overflow pipe

We have had a lot of rain the last few weeks and I finally decided to connect up the rainwater overflow pipe to the street. I have been putting it off as it means digging up the sidewalk to put the pipe in (which requires another permit) - its good as we had so much rain the other night that my infiltration pit filled up - overflow does its job perfectly.

Asphalting the roof

Another thing that I haven’t mentioned was about the roof. Over the last couple months cracks have started appearing in the roof. I have been told that this is due to the wooden roof beams drying out and contracting. I was told it will stop in time when it settles - however it has been a couple of months and I have spent hundreds of dollars trying fixes but in the end I decided to felt the roof. I want to start painting soon inside and I cant have the roof leaking when I am decorating. So I had to felt the roof to make the building watertight - a big dent in the budget but if it kept on going with the amount of rain we have been having it would have started to damage the walls and floors.

Hopefully will stop the little leaks

Now to the exciting part - my apartment. I will be moving in next week - I have been painting beams and rooms all week and I have to say the place is starting to look great - all I have to do is finish our bathroom and we will be able to move in,

So in my next update I should be moved in! I have been waiting a long time for this.

Bedroom

Time for doors!

So I am getting closer to moving in although the tiling did take a bit longer than expected. I am actually really pleased with the finished floors, I have never tiled floors before - or anything else for that matter. So it is one step closer to moving in.

The only brick doorway I could save

There has been a lot of progress with the plastering the last big room is complete and I will be starting on the front of the house next week. It was funny I walked out the front of the house the other day when I was walking Enzo and this girl asked me if I lived there - obviously I said yes and she said ‘what an ugly house!’. I was a little bit offended but then I actually sat back and had a look and it is about time I sorted the front out.

Finished bedroom floor

I have to get permission to close the sidewalk for a week or so whilst I plaster the front - I am hoping to start mid next week. 

Rebuilding my garden wall

I also started to rebuild the garden wall as it was half falling down, I decided to add an extra six feet on top of the wall as the house next door is ugly to say the least. It will add a lot more privacy to my garden.

Concreting the floors

So whilst all the plastering has been going on I decided it was about time to put some door on my place. How hard could it be I thought? well it turned out to be very difficult. First of all I had to decide on the type of doors  - metal... wood... glass... etc. Doors can make a huge difference to the appearance of the house so I wanted to make the right choice. 

First door frame up

Now not only was it the style but the fact that every single door way in my house is not a standard size the cost would be prohibitive as they would have to be custom made. I put a couple doors on the pool house a couple of months ago but I didnt really like them, they were cheap but they are very thin and lightweight.

First door hung - will look better when stained

Soooo there was only one option left - to make the doors myself. I decided to use 2 inch pine for the doors - I want heavy weight solid doors so decided to give it a go on my apartment first and I am pretty pleased with the results.

Next double door to be hung

Ok I know they dont look great at the moment but they will look a lot better when I stain them to look like dark wood. I am also thinking about cutting a hole in them and maybe adda window or two but will decide that later on.

Starting the floors

I have been slacking a lot on my blog lately so here is where I am at... The plastering is STILL going on - the amount of cement I have used is unbelievable, I reckon it will be close to 1000 bags once the walls are complete. 

The end of the plastering is near though, they are on the last big room downstairs which leaves only the front and sides of the building and a couple of bathrooms upstairs and it will be done.

Completed balcony

The walls without a doubt have been the biggest job - the time it has taken has thrown me off schedule by about 2 months! The guys are getting on well though - I reckon one more month and they will be complete. I have got one of them rebuilding the garden wall down one side of the house and making it higher as it is not the most pleasant view at the moment.

Finishing touches

I have been working so hard on getting my area ready. All the plumbing is complete and the cistern is now fully operational. It has been filling up for three days and is still not full so I am hoping that means I will not run out lol

Cistern complete!

For me to move in obviously I want running water but I cannot have that until I install the pressure tank - it should be soon though as I am building an outbuilding in the garden to house the tanks and pumps next week.

Almost ready for the roof over the balcony

I have also tried my hand at tiling the floors in my place. It was a bit of a slow start but I got the hang of it and now I just have two rooms left in my place. A friend from Australia is visiting at the moment so I managed to convince her that helping me tile floors is more fun than laying on the beach! Not quite sure how that happened.

Starting to tile my apartment

This next week I am hoping to have my place almost ready to move in. I went to the electricity company today to get a meter installed so I can finally connect up my panel. So after I finish the floors I just need to add doors, windows and paint and it will pretty much be ready. Its starting to get exciting now!

Tahnee helping with the tiles

Looking good...

The rain has stopped which has been a blessing as being up to my ankles in mud was starting to get annoying. I have finished the steps outside my apartment in the back garden which is awesome as I have been waiting sort out the balcony for a while now. The rear balcony although safe was sagging in places so I decided to use some of the old Mahogany roof beams to level it up a bit and give it a bit more support as I am going to add quite a bit of weight with the hand rail upstairs.

Putting up the pillars

It was tough work getting the beams up as they weigh a lot but with ropes and a hydraulic car jack I managed to get them up and straighten the balcony. 

Pillars in place

Now that this is finished the guys have started the plastering of the outside downstairs which is awesome as its looking like I will be able to move in soon.

Infiltration pit

I have had a lot of bad luck with tools this last week my skill saw, drill and chainsaw have all broken which sucks. They are all covered but warranty but I soon found out that  it is not worth the paper it is written on. If you buy something here after sales service is non existent. One place actually told me it is not their problem - go to the manufacturer (on a 2 day old chainsaw).

Plastering under the balcony

The plumbing has been coming along nicely - I am about 80% finished downstairs so not far off finishing. Due to all the rain the cistern filled up with water - ok I know its meant to be full of water but I hadn’t finished the inside of it so that is now all drained - so I am hoping I can get that finished in the next week or so as I am building a little shed to house my pressure tank and pumps which means I will soon have running water - exciting stuff.

I have also started putting my infiltration into place - the big hole in the ground was starting to annoy me. So I aim to get that finished tomorrow - hopefully that will stop the river running through my house when it rains!

My finished pillars

So a pretty short update but I am very excited at the moment, it is finally coming together.

Rain and mud!

I do not now what is going on but without a doubt I have picked the rainy season to complete this project. My whole garden is full of earth from digging all my channels for the plumbing which is now all mud and running through the house. But I will not let it slow me down! So in my last post I was just about to start the plumbing which was a job that I should have done earlier - probably before the electrics but thats just the way things go.

I feel like a plumbing store

Probably the hardest thing I have to deal with is having to start jobs whilst I am in the middle of another job - that is one of my biggest hates - I like to see a completed job before I move on to another but that is impossible, for example the reason why I started with the electrics first after the roof and floor was due to having the guys ready to start the walls - so I started the electrics telling them to just leave to rooms with the plumbing until I start plumbing. Then something will come up - like my rear balcony is not level so they could not start the plastering under the balcony as it would crack when I jack it up... simple - add some pillars, but before that I need to lay the concrete base for those pillars - but thats where all the plumbing pipes run so I need to do those before the pillars... you get my drift? My mind has about a million things running through it!

getting to grips with the pipes

The issue is I am just one person with two hands, it gets pretty tough. People just say to me why don’t you get someone in to help but to be honest you never know who to trust and also budget constraints - plus if i do it myself I know where everything is - so when it goes wrong I will know where to fix it!

So time for the plumbing update - I feel like a plumbing store as I ordered enough pipes and fittings to get started and set to work. My priority was to sort a working toilet as I mentioned last week that the inspection pit was collapsed in so the pipes were just backing up. I tried to find a pvc inspection pit like I have seen online but after visiting what seemed like every hardware store in Santo Domingo I gave in and started to make it myself. I have to admit I am pretty proud of it - although it did take the best part of a day to get all the angles right and to ensure it all flows correctly.

My homemade inspection pit

So after sorting the main inspection pit out to the street I turned my attention to the downstairs plumbing. I mentioned before that I wanted to move in as soon as possible and that has not changed so I decided to focus all my attention downstairs in my apartment.

The bathrooms pipes are all fitted and tested - again like the electrics first time I have done this so it is a learning curve - my evenings involve watching youtube videos and searching google for answers - what fun!

The hole for my infiltration system

Now back to the rain... I have a big roof which obviously means a lot of rain water. Almost all of the houses here just have pipes emptying it onto the street, which is fine until the street fills up - which does happen! Not ever wanting to deal with that I decided to make an infiltration system in the garden - simply a big hole with rocks, barrels and pipes with holes in it... I wont go in to the details but it is a great way to drain away all the rain water. I am building it at the bottom of my garden so not only does the roof water go into it so does all the water running down the hill. I am hoping this will solve the river running through my place when it rains!

The balcony needs to be leveled asap so the guys can start the outside of my living area so I also turned my attention to that. Now as my garden in on a slope I decided to make a walkway with steps outside my living area under the balcony. I am about a day or two away from finishing that which is when I can finally finish the plastering outside by putting up the pillars.

Steps in the garden

So that is about it for this installment. I am absolutely shattered but loving it, just cant wait for the property to be completed.

What is that funky smell?

You guessed it - time to start the plumbing. Now I knew the pipes were in a bit of a state as all the upstairs plumbing was blocked along with all the drains so I was expecting to replace everything.

Trench the length of the property for pipes

I got an extra guy in to dig up all the channels for the new pipes as I didn’t want to slow down my guys doing the plastering. They have finished in the inside downstairs and have just started to do the outside under the arches. The ceilings are so high it makes me want to cry when I see how much cement I go through a day... but the good news is I am about two thirds done with the walls - I cannot wait to to finish them all.

All the old pipes were blocked solid 

I have dug the trench a bit wider in the back garden as I need to make some concrete foundations for the pillars to sure up the balcony - I thought I may as well do this whilst I am putting the plumbing in. 

There was a lot of rocks!

My original plan was to install a 6 inch pipe down the length the of the property and tie in all the 4 inch wastage pipes from the bathrooms and drains. All looked good on paper... However when I got to digging up the collapsed inspection pit - which is inside the house I might add - I found the old clay pipe that connects the main sewage line under the street outside. Now the good news is that it seems to be all in tact but the bad news is that it is only 4 inches... 

Thats the clay pipe in the right hand corner of the pit

So I have a decision to make before I move on... I have spoken to a few other house owners and a small hotel in the Colonial Zone and apparently that is the norm. To me it seems very small as I will have around 10 bathrooms - it doesn’t seem right to me. My choice is either go to Ayuntamiento (which I really don’t want to do after the permit process) to dig up the road outside my house to connect a 6 inch pipe or just go with the 4 inch and add an extra inspection pit and cleanouts to ensure if it does block I can unclog it with ease.  I haven’t a clue what to do yet to be honest going to have to think about that one. 

Plastering under the sun deck

So plumbing wise I have about 6 more days of digging for the guy to do and in the mean time I am getting quotes for all the pipes and fittings. But I am hoping it goes quite quickly to actually install the plumbing - I have it all planned out so hopefully I shouldn’t run in to to many problems. 

Plastering is moving along well

I am eventually getting through my job list - every now and then something pops up however... like yesterday I forgot to run the wire to the grounding rod so I was rushing to get it installed before the guys plaster that wall. Also I have been meaning to fix a few things on my car and service my bike - so this week I replaced my starter motor, two window motors and front brakes on my Jeep and replaced the front and rear brake pads on my bike along with changing the oil. Its little things like that I have been meaning to do for a while now but you know its time when you have to carry a hammer to start the Jeep and you hear scraping whilst you brake on your bike. 

Fixing my bike around the mess

So hopefully by the next post I will have most of the waste pipes fitted in the house and the guys should almost be finished the plastering out the back. Until next time...