Progress Report

Mar. 7-12, 2005 // CONSTRUCTION LOG #22

CONSTRUCTION

Synopsis: The main priority this week was advancing Unit 108.

Unit 108: Significant advances were made. All drywall boarding is completed; all exterior stucco work is also completed. All exterior window and door moldings are finished. Window frames have been installed; glass on Monday/Tuesday. Several rooms on the ground floor have received their final coat of paint. Ground floor tiles have been rearranged to fill the gaps and to replace the broken or damaged tiles. Entrance and terraced tiles were selected and on Saturday installation began. We had just enough. The kitchen is 75% installed; Ground floor bedroom built-ins are also 75 % installed.
Master bathroom cabinets are also 75% installed. Wall units in the master bedroom and ground floor living room will follow early next week.

Landscaping will begin on Monday and finish Wednesday. Landscaping of the main interior roadway is also expected to be completed by Wednesday.

Note: The purchaser arrives on Wednesday. I have taken the decisions up to the point where I felt comfortable. With fax layouts and cabinet / kitchen designs and digital pictures, a lot of information can be reliably transmitted -- but there is a limit. The client gave me his confidence to proceed but this is a responsibility I would prefer not to have, especially since he and his advisor can be here and make their own color choices. I’m ready to install. All construction work has been done and issues where circumstances prevented much flexibility (see below) have been committed. His visit comes at just the perfect time for me not to break construction stride and for him to choose what he wants.

In order to fast track this, I determined that the main supplier for cabinets couldn’t meet the deadlines for all millwork I needed. I have therefore, tried two new suppliers -one for doors and another one for bathroom cabinetry. We’ll see how it all works out. We also have a different supplier for granite than in previous times -so far he seems no better.

Design issues: I continually find it amazing that we are, in this case, building 1,720 sf of space yet we have had to push, pull, rearrange, and otherwise fuss over centimeters. And such has been the case this week. The counters for the guest bathroom and for the 2nd. bedroom are so narrow (40 cm) that an ordinary solution to a vanity simply doesn’t work. We’ve tried a number of variations and either price was an issue or design/functionality was an issue. We now think we have a solution (the same for both actually) but we have yet to get one piece of information.

New Construction

Work advanced on filling in the voids crated by plumbing and electrical rough-ins. and additional re-bar pieces were added. Also some columns were filled in.

New Bodega: we started construction on a small building to house two clothes washers and two dryers. It is now mostly framed and roofed. When finished, this will complete all the planned support structures.

Curbs and Landscaping: The curbs have been virtually finished on the east side. Some good dirt was added to the green space between the curb and the ficus hedge. This will be landscaped next week. We plan on adding some pineapple plants along with decorate plants.

Marketing: The property manager was going to purchase 104 -he was given a fairly free hand in some aspects during it’s development. He reconsider that commitment. I offered it to one person on site who had asked for the right of first refusal should any detached units become available; (he had missed out on 107 which the current purchaser picked up his option to purchase). I notified 4 people who had also requested to be notified should the 104 deal or any deal fall thru. Three of the 4 responded positively but since the on site person exercised his option, the other three were out of luck.

Note: I goofed on this announcement by not including an advisory that there was a right of first refusal.; I have egg on my face and a public apology to all for the omission is in order.

Permitting: I now have the revised drawings and have them signed. They are to be reprocessed beginning Monday. Until this process is vetted, we wait.

OUR LIVES

This has continued to be another hectic week work wise. We have gone out to dinner a couple times, pool once which was a disaster (I just could no longer make excuses for Tico’s and their 40watt bulbs for 2,000sf.) -Lita certainly couldn’t see anything and I wasn’t much better. Lita continues to go to her gym although she hurt her knee so she’s backed off a bit.

Keith’s friend arrived and they went to Guatemala. She left this morning.

My partner arrives Monday to check out how I’ve been spending our money and another friend/purchaser and his friend arrive on Wednesday. It will be a very, very busy week but hopefully, a very rewarding week.

Have to go fix some fresh tuna on the bar-b-q for dinner and then we’ll try to find a pool table that has some light on it.

Brian, Lita, Vicka, and Hugo

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