Walls, walls, walls...

I have been waiting for this time for a while... the Roof is 100% finished! All sealed and is water tight - it has been tested with a few big rain showers and no leaks!

Back part of the roof ready for sealing

It looks pretty cool I think, it makes me happy as no more roof work as now I can turn my attention to the second floor walls. Those are holes for the skylights you can see if you were wondering.

100% finished roof

Im not sure if I mentioned in my last post but I have been installing all the electrical wiring which is probably my least favorite job and I have the cuts on my hands to prove it.

Wherever I am - Enzo is watching

Upstairs is all wired and I have also installed the sub panel so all that is needed is to connect up all the wires to the breakers and install all the outlets - but this can be done when the walls are complete.

The start of the walls

Talking of the walls I had the guys make a start upstairs. I decided to start the second floor first even though I want to move in as soon as I can - it would have made sense to start on our living area first as we will be living downstairs but I have so many deliveries of materials that come through the main doors I decided to finish upstairs first.

Health and Safety?

One of my tasks that I set myself last week was to clean up the place - it started to get to the point where I was having to climb over stuff just to get in to rooms. Enough was enough! About three van loads of trash later the place was clean and organized.

What a mess

So back to the walls... I had the guys start on the front room first which had the worst condition walls of the whole house and was also the biggest room. I figured it would all be downhill from there. 

Looks like a disaster zone - something had to be done

The plastering should be done with a cement and fine sand mix with lime - the old colonial walls need to be able to breath hence why you see a lot of cracks and plaster falling off the houses here.

It took a day and half but the garden is cleaned up

Now it takes a long time to make the lime mix plaster as it is recommended that you get it made up to 6 months before you need it as it needs to sit - I m not sure why but thats the way it is.

Remember this picture in a couple of weeks

Even though I have just said all that I chose not to use the lime mix. I had a few reasons ... the main being that about 20 years ago someone had started to renovate the house (and never finished) and reinforced all the walls with about half a foot of concrete and steel bar inside. So it would have been pointless.

The high walls are really time consuming

For it to be worthwhile using the plaster with lime would mean having to take all that metal bar and concrete off the walls. That would have been a huge job taking a lot of time and money - also there was a chance to damaging the original colonial walls as pulling off all the concrete and bar would be a difficult job. It may not have looked neat but the concrete they put on the walls was solid so it didn’t make sense taking it off hence the decision to use normal plaster or panete as they call it here.

The walls were different levels hence the steps - easiest way to sort it

It has taken over a week to finish the big room but they did it - it still needs tidying up but  now all that is left in that room is to put on all the outlets/lights and to add the doors and the room will be ready for decorating.

The front doorways and windows

I have decided to plaster all the rooms apart from the bathrooms as I still haven’t started the plumbing yet but that will be started as soon as I finish the downstairs electrics.

Almost ready to paint... almost

The job I have started to think about was the doors... now this has the potential to be a massive cost. I have worked out I need about 40 doors and 20 windows - yikes. So I am  trying to find out the best way to do this (and a cheap way).

The final part

I bought a couple of budget doors just to test out the quality to put on the pool house. They are pine and need finishing but I have almost hung one - I am am undecided. I suppose I will make a decision when its varnished. This is the cheapest way to go but I might go for the wood look aluminum doors as they are less maintenance and stronger - not very colonial I know but they actually look pretty good - although the cost is prohibitive.

The jury is still out on that door - maybe it will look better when varnished

I will custom make the front doors for the house I want these to be good quality, heavy doors to match in with the colonial zone. Busy times ahead!

Starting to get excited...

Oops its been a couple of weeks since my last post and I have to say I am pleased with the progress. It has been a up and down two weeks though - where do I start?

Finishing the roof

Well in my last post I was in the middle of doing the floor and was trying to finish replacing a back part of the roof. Well I will start with the roof... the bad part was I decided to replace the whole back roof aswell as when I was roughing in the electric lines I notice that the 4ft thick walls were wet all the way through... the water was just sitting on the roof and filtering down the walls. I really didnt want to have to do it as my budget is stretched as it is but it needed to be done.

Rear Roof

The guys have been working hard on the roof and they have almost finished it. There was holes left in the roof for skylights so I decided to keep them and they will be skylights over the showers. Now the roof all runs the same way so all the water runs down in to a pipe rather than straight of the side of the roof. 

What a mess

I do not know if you heard but Tropical Storm Chantel passed by and although it wasnt that bad it did bring a lot more rain! I have been waiting to seal the main roof that I finished last month but due to the rain it made it impossible. However just a day after the storm we had a few days of sun and I took the opportunity to seal it. I was getting fed up of having leaks inside so it had to be done and I have to say it looks pretty awesome. I have one more coat to go but it has done the job - I now have a watertight property!

Sealing the roof

So the back part of the roof is coming along well, a couple more days and that will be finished also, it will be a happy day as that will be the end of all the roof work.

First coat complete

The next job was to finish the floor, I mentioned in my last post that I did two layers of boards of the beams to keep the noise down from downstairs. It was a bit tricky at times as I used wooden boards, not pre made floor boards. The problem was that even though they are meant to be cut to the same size and thickness they are not all the same so it was a bit like a jigsaw. 

A completed floor

But thankfully I finished with just a little wood left over and I have to say I am pretty happy with the result! It still needs to be sanded, filled and varnished but it is going to look really good. Again very happy as thats more heavy work out of the way.

Just need to sand and varnish

I had started the electrics in my last post and I am two rooms away from finishing the upstairs - this is without a doubt my worst job... digging in to the walls to run the lines and cutting all the wire is tedious work - but upstairs is almost complete.

Tropical Storm Chantel pays a visit

So as soon as the guys finish off that part of the roof then they have about three weeks worth of plastering upstairs. They have already started on the big front room as it was raining one day and I cant wait for it to be completed.

Starting to plaster the walls

I haven’t installed the plumbing upstairs yet as that would involve digging up down stairs and I want to get upstairs as close to finished as possible before I start the plumbing. I will not recognize the place when the walls are done, it really is coming together and as soon as the plastering is done I can start getting the door and windows put in.

So thats all for this post, it will be an exciting few weeks with a big transformation!

Week 8 - The rain has to stop at some point... right?

Ok this is starting to drive me crazy... when will the rain stop? This is actually the first June I have spent in the country as I am usually in the states for a few month each year and I do not like it!

All I need is a week of sun to dry out the roof so I can seal it. Obviously thats to much to ask even though we are in the Caribbean. The new roof is holding up well though its just around the edges that I have some filtration but the sealant will stop all that when it is applied.

Beams all up!

So the rain has thrown a spanner in the works for a few of the jobs I had planned last week but not to worry, I had the guys start roughing in the electrics. Basically I spray painted where I want to outlets to be and they have dug in to the walls, its a dusty and horrible job but it needs to be done.

View from the ground floor

Last week I said that I had hoped to get the floor completed and I am almost there, just a few of the edges and over the stairs that need to be covered over. Getting the beams all aligned was a tough job as I have 13 on each side of the main house, I had to use the hydraulic jack from my car to raise them from underneath then the guys would set them in place.

Upstairs common room

One of the problems I had was there was a big concrete beam at head height when you walked up the stairs... not a great location. It was not a supporting beam so I took that out which was not an easy job. 

The floor boards went up pretty fast actually and it is such a good feeling to be able to walk on the floor when just 4 weeks ago I had bare walls with no roof or floor. I still have the second layer to go on but that should not take long at all.

Soon to be completed bedrooms

Some of the other little jobs I have been working on was the back pool house - I added a concrete step and used one the old Caoba beams from the roof as a pillar to support the roof that was put on.

Recycling the old floor beams

We have also put the frame up for the little roof section on the back part of the house, which wont take long either. The hardest decision is to decide where all the rain water will run. My garden is on a slope and at the moment the water just pours into the house... not ideal. So I will install a waste pipe going from the roof out on to the street. It is a big run but has to be done. Although I have decided to leave the plumbing as one of my last jobs. I will concentrate on the electrics at present. 

Small section of the rear roof being replaced

In order to save money due to my very tight budget I have decided to put in the electrics. I know a lot of people will say thats not wise but I have all the plans so know the size of the wires and I will get a qualified electrician in to join it all up at the main service panel and test it all. There is a lot of work ahead to get the electrics in but I am hoping to have the upstairs completed in the next week or so.

Roughing in the electrics

So until next week.