Rain....July...San Diego???

Yes we had rain in SD tonight. It has been so hot lately, 94F when I got home at 3pm. We had monsoon moisture that built up over the mountains and usually it stays over the mountains but today the rain moved toward the coast and we got a little water. But the more important is that it cooled the air and currently as of 8:15 pm it is 76F, very nice. Yesterday at this time it was mid 80s. Keep in mind we don't have air conditioning. But then again we are wimps in SD and if the temp swings 20F either way then we complain. I did get another nice sunset, sorry but I can't help myself. Kinda like someone else I know who always took pictures of ducks...you know who you are :)

Summer Sunset

Tonight I think this is the first real nice sunset that we have had in a long time. We had May Gray; June Gloom, and the first week of July it did not get out of the 60's F and was cloudy all the time due to the marine layer. But now the temp is rising along with the humidity as the monsoon moisture starts to make its way up from Mexico.

Enjoy!!!!

That shiny thing next to the tree branch is suppose to be the moon. I just had the exposure set wrong for the picture.

Bathroom Project part 6

I have been a little behind in updating the progress but that is just because we have been so busy making progress. We are in the final push and hopefully will be done very soon. Earlier this week after framing out the shower we installed Durock and it went easy. The next step was to use the fiber mesh tape and thin set to seal all the seams and corners. This wasn't too hard either, just messy.

In my part 5 post I mentioned using Redgard and I think this was the easiest step so far. If you can paint, then you can waterproof your shower with Redgard. It goes on pepto bismol pink, and I mean florescent pink. You know it is dry and cured when it turns a deep red. It also doesn't smell too great either :(

I did make one mistake, but like I say it is not so much that you make a mistake it is what you do after you make the mistake. For some reason I did not trim the edge of the durock properly near the step and there was a major lip. This was a big problem because tile could not lay flat. If I had been using a typical water proofing membrane, major problem. With Redgard, no problem. I just took a blade trimmed back the excess durock and repainted to seal the wall, EASY!!!!!

You could see this stuff from the space shuttle.

Kuuipo is not impressed!

Outdoor Project part 1

We recently hired a landscape designer to plan the entire perimeter of our house. I had been procrastinating this because of the cost but I am glad that we finally did. I think we had the overall design in our heads of what we wanted but putting it together is not easy.

We knew that we wanted a wall to enclose the side yard.
We wanted to replace the back porch overhead structure.
We wanted an outdoor kitchen.
We wanted beautiful plants.
We wanted lighting to show off the plants.
We wanted a fountain.
We wanted a great courtyard.
We wanted more privacy.

We wanted a lot!!!!

The hardest part of all of our wants is the plants. There are so many factors that go into plants.
1. What kind of sunlight do they require.
2. What kind watering do they need.
3. How to place them where they would go with other plants. (believe it or not that is actually important).

We plan on taking this in stages since it will be quite expensive and we do not want to borrow money to make it happen. No equity loans for us.

We turned to Steven Letz of Letz design. Below you can see the results.

Bathroom Project part 5

The demo went great and the framing went well.

Sunday I finished the demo and started framing.

Monday I finished the framing and began installing the Durock.

Tuesday/Wednesday evening I finished the installing the Durock.

Thursday was a rest day.

Friday I built the curb.

Once we decided to gut the whole thing it went pretty smooth. Now we need to tape and use thin set to fill the crack and crevices. Once that is complete then the waterproofing layer will be applied. We are using a product called Redgard. It rolls on like paint and hopefully will not give us any problems.

I also left a time capsule with info on the date/cost of the remodel.

One important note: I bought an impact driver because I was having a heck of a time driving 3" screws through the 2x4s that I was using to frame with. I had my drill and was applying as much pressure as I could in the small space and still stripping the head and usually not getting it halfway into the wood. Once I got the impact driver it was incredible how easy it was to drive screws. I think it is a must in anyone's tool box if you have to use screws. They are not cheap but the time and frustration you will save is worth the cost. I bought a Makita at home depot and I got 10% off with military discount!!

AWESOME TOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time capsule

Bathroom Project part 4

Yesterday we finally demolished the entire shower. From start to completing the cleanup it was around 5.5 hours. Not as bad as I thought it would be. The next step will be to frame it out. I will have to take down my previous frame job :( After the framing will come the backing (durock) and some type of water proofing substance. Not sure if I will use a membrane or a paint/roll on proofer. The only thing it had prior was the plaster/concrete but it did leak over time due to separation/breakdown of the grout and tile.

Thankfully we did not find any surprises. Although it was interesting to see how they did the mailbox. I think I will have to improve on the design to re-enforce it. Also when building the step they used bricks encased in concrete, interesting.

This is the mailbox, I love how they used the vertical piece of wood on the left and wedged it against the wall for support.

Bathroom Project part 3

The bathroom tile we ordered on May 29th is still not in and not due to arrive until around June 22nd. So this morning I cancelled it and we have changed tactics once again, this project has more lives than a cat. We are now going to completely remove all the tiles and replace them. Believe it or not it will probably either be the same cost or maybe even less expensive. Not sure yet, it depends on what we decide to do.

So today I begin the removal of the tiles and will keep you posted.

Below are a few other things that we have done. I patched the floor in the shower and we removed the toilet, sink, and floor.

If only I knew how to operate the can opener!!!