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Rolly / Moderator

Aug 10, 2003, 11:02 AM

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Building Projects Updates for 9 August 2003

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I haven't made a new webpage for the past couple of weeks because we haven't been doing anything that you haven't already seen, but I do have a little news.

The Remodeling Project is moving along nicely. The new walls on the second floor are done. The roof forms are in place, and we are beginning the rebar frame for the concrete roof. The Styrofoam blocks should be in place by the end of this week. I'm at work on the electrical rough-in. Papa Valdepeñas has started to make the frames for the windows and doors.

Las Casas continues to have a few catch-up items. The cabinet makers are still no shows. We have some tile work to complete in the bathrooms. Coco has completed all the safety railings on the stairs and balconies.

All the air conditioners are working now. One had a faulty motor, and one had a wiring error. When we got those taken care of, we still had the puzzling situation where the two first floor units worked just fine, but the two second floor systems did not -- very little air movement, and the systems were very noisy. We called a professional A/C guy who told us the problem was the design of the ductwork between the blower unit and the main duct running down the hallway -- too many sharp turns in too shot a distance. He changed the ducts to make a gentle curve rather than sharp turns. Now the air flows smoothly, and the noise level is OK.

We have water problems. I made a serious miscalculation of the amount of water needed for laundry and the evaporative coolers (air conditioners). We are OK on the days when the city water pressure is strong enough to lift the water to the roof tanks or when no laundry is done. But on laundry days when the city pressure is low, the tanks run out of water. We put the tanks on the roof because there was no room for them on/in the ground unless we put them in the patio, and nobody wants that.

We have come up with three options:

1) Replace the 600 liter tanks with 900 liter ones and hope that solves the problem. That's not a very good option because the larger tanks won't fit on the reinforced pad we built for the tanks (water is heavy). It also cost money for something that may only reduce the problem, not solve it. Veto.

2) Move the tanks down to the garage in Coco's house. Nobody likes that idea. Veto.

3) Move the washing machines down to the clothes line area at the north end of the house, and connect them directly to the city water rather than to the storage/pressure system. The only real drawback to this plan is that it will take longer for the machines to fill with water. It is not uncommon in this area to find washing machines outside on the patio. The ladies have all agreed to this plan, so I guess this is what we will do.

After a solid week of dealing with an unbelievable bureaucratic nightmare at the IMSS office, we have (I hope) been able to close out this social security account. Only the cabinet makers outrank the social security people as the biggest hassle of the project.

Rolly Pirate

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