Renos under way

Can’t believe it has been almost a week since I moved into this place. Spent the first five days without hot water or stove. Got a fridge and stove in on Saturday and got it hooked up after two days of hunting and gathering gas fittings.

I talked to a contractor I like on Sunday. (I got his name from my pipe-smoking New York drummer friend.) He and his four boys turned up on time on Tuesday morning and got 80% of the pounding and demolition done the first day – lots of dust. (These guys work like Trojans!) Now the scars will be able to heal, as I will no longer be hitting my head on the steel door jams every time I go into a room. The place was built for someone 4 foot 8! This contractor will heighten the garden wall about four feet, change the entrance stairway direction so it is an easier step down (including stairs that all have the same rise!), and replace all of the steel doors to arched entrances including widening the opening between the kitchen and the dining/living room. All work is to be done to the point of readiness for either painting or tiling. Doors will have to wait.

Also talked to a gas and plumbing contractor who will hopefully put the gas on the roof, some heat in the bedroom and living room and do a fairly major makeover of the plumbing including changing the ancient gravitation water system to a pressurized “farm system”. This is all bleeding the bank account big time but needs to be done I guess. I still need someone to take a close look at the ancient electrical system. In the meantime I am learning a lot about brick and mortar construction. Greg is unimpressed but is happy he still gets his walk to el Jardin every morning where he inevitably meets someone who either feeds him or sniffs his butt.

I am told that due to the large number of pictures on this blog that those with dial-up are having a hard time. Asking your browser for “text only” may be a (not entirely satisfactory) solution. If there are other suggestions I would be pleased to entertain them. I will also try to archive the older parts to see if that helps. Alternately I could delete all of the old stuff. Let me know.