The pattern is burned into my retinas...

[Aeson]

The big room, laundry, and bath is poured cement/foundation. The original portion of the house has a crawlspace, with wood joists... but in order to get the second story in without violating the allowable height in the neighborhood, we had to set the addition down about 3 feet, so ground level. That's because the lot has a slight slope to it, about 5 feet from street to alley. Gives the upstairs some partial views on the ocean though, which is nice.

The master bath is upstairs. There we painted on a waterproof membrane over the flooring. (The membrane is the greenish stuff crawling the walls.) We taped/membraned the joint between the floor and walls too. Then put a layer of thin hardibacker board across the floor as well, with the thinset going directly on that.

[Lancer]

The flex caused by normal movement of floor joists causes the grout to crack unless you get the flexible grout, but you knew that right?

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Lancer
The flex caused by normal movement of floor joists causes the grout to crack unless you get the flexible grout, but you knew that right?

I'm sure my cousin knows that... he really researches everything we do first. I'm not really in charge of operations... My cousin decides what needs to be done... I just do grunt work, post on poly, and go to the beach.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Aeson
I just do grunt work, post on poly, and go to the beach.

I am envious of the life style you have achieved, Congratulations.

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


I am envious of the life style you have achieved, Congratulations.

It's pretty good I admit... cept girls don't tend to look on the whole ~$0 net worth very favorably.

[Lancer]

Sounds like the tiles need to get laid more than the girls, that's the problem.

[Krill]

Aeson, the original surfer dude

Anyway, all you really need to do is start up that computer business, right?

[Aeson]

Been at my parents' house in Utah for the summer. Saving up money for the phils... and doing a bit of work to earn my keep.

Here's the front porch, which is all new this summer. Textured and tinted concrete to look somewhat like native sandstone (though native to further south). Replaced the old supports for the upstairs deck with some nice 6x6 timbers, which gave us about 5 more feet on the lawn which is still admittedly very narrow... the house is on a very steep slope. But it's a good bocce ball court, and a nice spot for a hammock between the aspens, at least from about noon till 2pm while the shade is right

Going to build a sun-room up above.

My dad brought a truckload of granite and basalt from the orchard in central Washington, where they had just blasted out a few big rocks to build something or other. Stacked and restacked that ton or so of rock about 20 times (wore out my gloves on it too, it's rough/sharp stuff) until we got it how we wanted... then unstacked it, poured a base with some troughs for planters, with a drip irrigation system and drains (we "lost" one drain in the process though... ooops), and mortared in the rest of the rocks.

A temporary water tank is just a plastic storage container with a slot cut in it for the drain to pour through. A submersible pump recirculates the water through 3 outlets.

Needed something behind it to screen the plumbing and exposed concrete/mortar backing, and since the wild rose growing back there just won't grow high enough and the quakies we're planting back there will take a few years... on my hikes with the dog I started hauling back cottonwood and quakie deadfalls, built a frame to tie/bolt them to, and a table top of wood slats to hold potted plants.

Going to plant some grapes behind the screen, and train them up onto the branches. Still need to break up some of the extra rock we have to lie in the concrete channel in the base.

[Theben]

mmm... rocks...

[Krill]

cool

[Tuberski]

Hey, my hospital has the same tile.

ACK!

[Lancer]

Very super nice stone work! Its cool to stuff a little potting soil in various spaces on the side and top and plant flowers, really helps the water works bring it to life.

Aeson, are you going to try to bring your comp? We have the broadcast type internet which is wireless for Dolores's laptop but wired for my desktop. If you can make your comp wireless then you can get connected. I brought my desktop over. Stuffed it into a large box (find out the max size at an airline's website) and cut up camping foam and stuffed it all around it. Worked great, no problems.

You can pick up a small transformer fairly cheap there but you would need to bring a 110 V surge protector. They're 220 there. Hmm, I suppose you could put the 220 surge protector between the outlet and the transformer, never thought of that.

Anyway, moot point if you're not going to bring it.

Could also set up a comp in the salocot at the ocean property no problem, and at the little house there later when its more finished. Its an option for you anyway.

Regarding your bocce, I have 2 cheapo bocce sets over there and will be building a court at the beach this trip for Sunday party fun. I've only ever played once when I was a kid so your experience could be helpful. I was thinking of sand as a field for the court, good idea?

[Lancer]

Ahh, I watched it again and see you have your plants in.

[Kidlicious]

Good job. When you are all done with everything you can come over to my house and fix it up.

[Aeson]

Actually I just checked my camera and laptop, and both of their transformers accept up to 240V. Just would need a plug adapter then?