My Wife, the Kitchen Magician

Start with the lower left picture, with my wife and our contractor looking over the kitchen when we bought it.
Move clockwise to the "in progress" picture, then feast your eyes on the finished product.

The kitchen was less than inspiring when we purchased the home, and the tile floor had to go. New wood flooring throughout cured that. The popcorn ceiling had to go. A very talented guy skip troweled the entire house in 12 hours, and only charged $1,600 to do it - a fantastic price for an even more fantastic result. The kitchen had an adjoining breakfast room. Breakfast rooms are so 80's, but the house was built in 1988, so "out with the old, in with the new". Gone was the "pass-through" and replaced with a wall, where additional cabinets could be placed, and the breakfast room became "the office". The old dishwasher....gone. The old microwave.....gone. The old garbage disposal.....gone. Granite replaced the counter-top, and a new sink and hardware replaced what had been there since 1988.

When I said "sure, go ahead and make this place yours" my wife took my word and my wallet to the test. The new cabinets feature pull out drawers, and after two months we still have empty space for storage. The new refrigerator has exactly what she wanted, and what mama wants, mama gets.

The whole place turned out just perfect

My New Pool - Part 2

The pool "project" moved into a new phase, following the archeological dig that went halfway to China in search of logs the original developer placed as "fill". The developer cleared the land, but rather than haul off palm logs, live oaks, and other debris, he simply buried it, and apparently buried it DEEP. At which point, the pool contractor took the easy way out and simply added some dirt fill. Ultimately, the fill degraded, the pool cracked, and we had to start over 20 years later.

In part 1 of this story, I showed how heavy equipment was brought into break up the original pool (which had settled and cracked, ergo needed to be replaced), and prepare the ground for a new "dig". In the pictures posted above, you'll see the final steps of removing the last of the logs and debris, and then the repacking of the ground with fresh fill (without the "chunks") which will not be settled and compacted in preparation for the ultimate excavation. My last trip out the back door with the camera resulted in finding the uneven hole gone, and replaced with a smooth rectangle of fill......ready for phase 3, construction of our NEW pool.

When we bought the place, we knew there was a pool project, but had no idea how long it would take, and how much it would cost. Fortunately, we had $4,000 placed in escrow by the seller - which probably would have cut it before they discovered the need to go down fifteen feet to find "bottom" of all the debris. Oh well, sometimes the elevator, sometimes the shaft, and in this case the mine went much deeper than planned. When it's finished, we'll see how much gold came out of the old wallet.

Life's a Beach, wherever you can find one

I had fun driving that little Rhino, and at the end of the ride we took some time to enjoy the sun and surf. A little bit of salsa and chips, a margarita, and then hit the hammock. All in all, a great day - now where did I put that Jenny Craig brochure, cause I'm sure I'll have to pay for this one way or another.

Los Banditos de la Rhino

This past week, we wrapped up the move to the new house, and decided to reward ourselves with a short hop over to Costa Maya, Mexico for a rumble in the jungle. We rented Rhino all terrain vehicles, and set out for a jungle and beach adventure.

A Rhino is not (despite the immediate prior post about politics) a Republican In Name Only, but a 650 cc Yamaha 4 wheel heavy duty golf cart. I swear, the body said Custom Cart and while it had a shorter bed than the Custom Cart my buddy Bob drives at our condo complex, it had the same basic set up - one speed forward, one reverse, and a 4x4 and a 4x2 (two wheel drive) setup. On the road, it felt like we were making perhaps 35 mph easy, maybe more. Part of the run was on gravel roads, several running along the Caribbean sea shore. We were part of a tour, of course, and when you're on a tour, all sorts of folks get involved, including the usual poor drivers. Now, I'm naturally competitive and don't enjoy people failing to put 100% into their efforts, so I just had to pass where I could. Not sure how the guides felt about it, but my passenger was pretty upset when I'd move up the line by passing somebody who just didn't know how to drive (my opinion, of course). My passenger, who generally hates to see her picture published anywhere, was gracious enough to snap the shot of the two of us with brain bucket, bandanna, and glasses. She's the one making sure she doesn't eat anybody's dust by pulling the scarf up to "burkha level" - I'm exposing my nose, so folks would recognize me.

Anyway, we had a blast - almost as much fun as last year at Cozumel with the dune buggy ride through mud holes in the jungle. Not a lot of mud, but really not that much dust either this time. The track we followed however had lots of stumps and rocks and vegetation slapping the Rhino at the front and sides. That golf cart was a hardy beast, and mastered it all. I've got to get me one of those.........but I think I'll take the governor off and add a Nitros bottle. Then when my wife says "this isn't your Corvette", I can say "no, it's better!".