The first round of tile went in to the downstairs shower. China multicolor slate.


Laid out as you'd be looking from the top down. Left wall of 12x12 and 24x24, middle wall of 24x24 and then 12x12, then the right wall of three 12x12 columns.


Windows at last. Vinyl frames, bright white to contrast the swiss coffee interior paint color.


Rob dug up some photos from his trip down. Here you can see Connie knocking out a wall. I added few more pool photos to a previous post.

The Singapore GP was a good watch. How I long for it to be covered in hd and see the full brilliance of the machines at night. The significance of the safety car leads me to wonder if it'll be Ferrari or McLaren to first have their number two driver strategically impact a wall. You know, the Hamilton-Massa gap is only six points and that's nothing considering the final race is in Brazil.

Progress. I picked up the centerpiece for the media room. Furnishings include a futon and Justin's chair. The game systems are there, though tomorrow I have to call Microsoft to take the xbox back a second time. And the tv speakers were atrocious enough I immediately set up audio system.

The components are there, but much needs to be done before it actually looks like a media room. Of course this all comes after flooring and bathrooms. But the plans include:

• Paint the walls a darker shade to eliminate distractions.
• Polish the concrete floors for style, resilience, and benefits to electronics (cooler and dust free).
• Wall-mount the lcd.
• Feed wires through the walls for 5.1, mount the speakers appropriately.
• Devise a shelving system for electronics and accessories.
• Recessed lighting on a dimmer.

Tiling soon. Picked up some 12x12 and 24x24 slate pieces that should look pretty good.

A door.


A solar tube - seen at night.


A wood beam, now shown to be wood.


Someday, a fireplace.


Jon on the texture gun.

The hallway, stairway, and unnamed area adjacent to the kitchen is ready to be primed. And that will be the last of it.

I bought the flooring for the entryway, living room, dining room, and hallway. Installation will probably be this weekend, as the trim pieces make their way down from Oregon.

So I'm pretty happy with the resolution to my previous indecision.


Thanks to Jessica for pointing out the rectangular patch indicating that there was, at some point, an infestation of ceiling cats.

Another day, another few photos. The kitchen is now cleaned up, real renovations (cabinetry, counters, sink, etc.) are planned for a later date. But tonight was the first real meal thanks to finally having a selection of appliances. That would be chicken and waffles, delish.


The kitchen at purchase.


Behind the wallpaper, cabinet fronts, and appliances.


Hours of scrubbing and paint prep later.


The cabinets still need to go on, but all the major organs are there. It's aesthetically barren but produces food and cold beverages so I'm not going to complain.


The living room prior to today's texturing.


The master bedroom is a low priority now that it's painted.

The portfolio class final presentation was yesterday. There were a lot of visitors, much love to the people that came out. I don't have a copy of my artist statement at the moment, but it basically said "I'm shooting street bikes, cheers."

Check out Connie's photos here. A sample:


And here's what I matted...

So a little while ago the Morelos Era came to an end. It was an lengthy, sickly death with people coming and going in the closing weeks - not befit of the three years of history within the walls. Everyone's parted ways for greater commitments, girls mostly, so I guess it's time to grow up. No more California burritos and daily house memes.

But on account of a rear differential, the vr is not comfortable for sleeping so I decided to close on the reo I was looking at (in lieu of a live axle swap). The neighbors (and phone bills) tell me it used to belong to the dude that wore this:


And that explains the 90s-fabulous satellite dish, sauna, security system, and wallpaper. Oh the wallpaper.

The place has amazing potential though, and since it's in general disrepair I'll have to fix everything to my own liking (with some concessions for budget and resale).


In keeping with my blog as a time line and howto for years down the road, I'll cover the renovations. Of course I'm trying to do as much of it myself as possible. The obvious reasons are promptness, cost effectiveness, the security and perfection of work done by the person with the greatest stake in the project, and the opportunity to learn very valuable skills.

First to go were the dank carpets. They accounted for 60% of the smell. Next was the ceiling popcorn. Without a doubt this was the least palatable task. It's messy (you have to wet it down and hack it off with a putty knife), it smells, and there's a lot of it. Combine this with vaulted ceilings and you have a very daunting task.

With the ceilings clear I was able to knock out the portions sitting under the new skylights. I'm pretty happy with the distribution I decided on, they add quite a bit to the kitchen, living room, and master bedroom.

My dad and Rob came down for a week of great industry. Jon quickly learned how to texture ceilings and walls, then hit them with the paint gun. As it stands there are three bedrooms, plus the master, that are good to go from the baseboards up.

I have Connie to thank for getting rid of (most of) the annoying wall between the master bedroom and sink area though I'm still perplexed as to what to do about the spot. Jessica was prodigious with the spackling all the while.


Pool Boy Rob was the driving force behind converting the pond into a swimming pool. His research meant we could execute on the work needed to get it up and running. The first step was to rent a pump and drain it as the attached equipment was missing or in disrepair. Clairemont Equipment supplied the device for $42 + tax + required damage coverage. Connie and Jessica made sure to rescue the mosquito fish that the city never picked up.


Once the pond was converted to a skate park, we set upon it with a power washer, tsp, and muriatic acid. This eliminated most of the staining and prepped it for the epoxy painting that we waffled over.




We ordered the paint just as PBR had to leave on a cross country rock tour (sans band). The next day Curt and I put down the Nelsonite Poolpoxy primer with rollers. It was a two hour process made difficult by how quickly the paint became tacky and the porousness of the pool surface. The following two days I put on the two layers of topcoat as prescribed by the instructions, using two and a half gallons of primer, two gallons of coat one, and just over a gallon of coat two. Next came the five day curing period.


I can't yet speak for the material's effectiveness as a protectant or its ability to bond to the pool surface, but visual appeal has benefited greatly.