Since we returned to Santa Catalina on Tuesday, it has been a quite productive time. Slowly, step by step, one outstanding task after the other is tackled.
I let me ex brother-in-law inspire me to try to do a little different design with the tiling in the back-room's bathroom. Well, in the mind, it appeared to be not such a big deal. In practice, however... Man! If I had know what I'm getting into with this idea, I would have stayed with the same-old, boring, typical just-slap-them-on design! Turns out I have to cut more than half of all tiles to measure, with various angles. Adding the holes for the water-pipes - aye aye aye!
Well, today, I didn't do much tiling, though, because the electrician came to finish up the electrical installations. These tasks were weighing heavy on my mind, as I didn't feel I would be able to easily do it myself, should he decide to not come back. Well, he did come back. And he did them all. Yeay!
Hm. Yeay to a degree... It turned out, he didn't install a 10cm x 10cm electrical box, but simply left the conduits end somewhere in the wall. And, he didn't remember where exactly these pipes are. So, he proceeded to use the jackhammer to open the floor along the wall, trying to find them...
Interesting approaches! First he used the steel band that electricians use to pull the wires into the conduit, asking me to try to listen to where about I might here the scratching in the floor.
Secondly, he proceeded to pour water into the conduit at the breaker-box - hoping that there will be a moist spot, telling us where the pipe might be. after digging around for about 1/2 hour, ruining the floor at a span of about 60 cm along the wall, we noticed a wet spot in the concrete, a few cm further left than where he was digging. So, he dug some more at the new spot, and finally found the tubes. Then he opened the wall to allow for extending the conduits to a height of about 25 cm above the floor, where he created a bigger hole to hold the 10x10 box.
From now on it was all relatively smooth sailing. Pulling the wires, installing the outlets, and done!
Yeay. He was done! For me the hole mess is left to clean up and fix again! Iris had hired a guy to apply stucco to the walls. Later, I had hired a guy to apply drywall compound on top of the stucco. And finally another person to sand the hole thing smooth. Finally, I painted the walls with a sealer-primer first, and two coats of paint later. The very expensive, work-intensive wall now had a big gapping cañon! The floor, too, now had a hole in it, that goes all the way to the earth under the concrete slab. I have to fill that hole with slab concrete, then apply topping again, and try to get it all smoothed out again...
So, yes, he was done. But for me the work now just started!!! 🤷♂️😩
But, hey, I'm not complaining - at least not too loudly! He did hook up the electrical installation in the back-room with the breaker-box. So now we can use the outlets there, and I can install the light as well... 🤪
Once he left, I was in good spirits, so I glued the tiles I had cut to measure last night.
Then I decided to fix another problem the electrician created for us: there are no outlets on the terrace! Well, local folks don't have a terrace, and if they do, don't care about electricity out there! "Somebody else might come and steal electricity by plugging in an extension cord! So best not to have outside outlets!"
Well, we want outlets out there!
I opened the outlet box in the living room, that is in the wall to the terrace. From there I drilled a hole to the outside, so I know where to create the hole for the 10x10. Trying to not make a huge hole like the electrician did, I drilled a few priming holes with the hammer drill, then sed the chisel to cut out the hole. See for yourself the difference!
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| Center hole as pilot drilled from the enter of the outlet box inside |
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| 10x10 cm (4x4") outlet box inside |
 A connector on the inside box, anther on the new outside box, and a tiny piece of conduit to connect them and run the wires from the inside to the outside. One connector needed to be shortened a little bit, so the 10x10 is flush with the outside wall... |
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| Used some leftover Romeral to start filling the holes. Once that is dry in two or three days, I might need some more cement, or be able to directly apply the drywall compound... we'll see. The large hole in the floor left open will need more cement later, too... |
By now the sun was setting, so I left the rest for tomorrow: installing outlets outside, connecting them to the outlets inside, and adding a switch inside, with which I can turn off the electricity for the outside outlets. Darn! There the neighbors already were rubbing their hands anticipating to steal electricity, and this damn gringo foiled their plan!!!
Well, all in all, it was a productive day again! Electricity all done (aside of the outside outlets which I can do myself), tiling progressed a little, too!
Tomorrow's another day... for today, let me clean up and head ot the restaurant. Maybe there will be guests again today, with whom I can have another of my typical inspiring conversations...
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