Bedeviled by Details

It’s been over a month since our last excitable post about our pool, so we thought it was high time we resurfaced and assured everyone that we are still alive and kicking.

We’d love to say we’ve been relaxing poolside while our crew wraps up around us with efficiency and outstanding speed. Alas, that would be a lie. Instead, we find ourselves mired in the painful phase of corrections - a process that seems to take us two steps forward, just to bring us back another three.

For instance, our guest bathroom vanity is supposed to go here.

There was in fact a moment when it was here, but due to some issues we had with the positioning of the drawer (it was wrong) and a curious downward slope on its left end, the vanity had to be pulled from its spot and sent back to our carpenter’s workshop.

This patch of missing pasta tile has been like this for about a month now.

We have the tile and could install it tomorrow, if not for the fact that the temporary steel door (shown in photo) was installed too low and would not open if we were to install the tile now. To finish up, the temporary door needs to go.

For that to happen, however, the colonial wood door beyond must be restored, which entails first removing and replacing the rotted door frame. Although the frame could go today, a new one can’t be installed until the facade is refinished and the new frame cemented into place while the door opening is reconstructed.

This long chain of events involves our carpenter, a couple albañiles (masonry guys), a tile guy, and electrician (for the doorbell). Time to completion? How long is a piece of string?

This mess in our rear garden is due to the fact that lines of conduit and plumbing were incorrectly positioned directly underneath our future garden. At a depth of 20cm, our concern was that there would be nothing but trouble when we (or our gardener) began tilling the soil and split a water pipe (or worse electrocute ourselves when we cut through a conduit). The solution? Dig it all up and push it to the right so it falls underneath a brick walkway.

These three items have 137 “friends” nailed to a board in the kitchen. As is typical during the end of construction, the list is long and we are measuring our progress daily. A lot of people worry about these things further down the line. We, however, have the energy and inclination to get things done right now.

Some days the issues list drops by inches, other days not so much. On those days, we remind ourselves that although we are sweating the small stuff, we still have a pool to cool off in.