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Published: September 7th 2021
Completed Wall
As seen from above on my staircase, here's the completed wall in the bedroom.So, it's already September and my construction project still isn't finished...almost!! But it seems like it's been 'almost' for over a month. Argh! This last little push seems interminably slow. Right now the hardwood floors are going in, even as we are still working out kinks - like persistent dampness and leaks in the roof & the staircase. It's been a journey...and in true construction fashion the job has ended up taking twice as long and costing twice as much as originally planned!
As the architect told me (and I totally believe this) a remodel is much more difficult than building from the ground up -- since you have to deal with all of the existing factors. In my case it's been moisture in the walls that are shared with neighbors, rotting hot water pipes and bad wiring (the original part of the house is over 40 years old). Also contributing to the challenges of this project is the fact that my architect agreed to make my wacky ideas reality: things like a clear roof on the front bathroom, glass risers in the staircase, and woven straw mats for the ceilings.
Enlucido
Covering the brick wall with a thin coat of cement -- I can't even think of what this process is called in English. Since I'm living in the back house while the work is going on up front, I have been present through the whole project (a blessing and a curse). It has been fascinating to watch each step of the process - laying the bricks, smoothing them over with cement - very artisanal. On several occasions there have been days on end when nobody has shown up to work and I complain to Andres, the architect in charge. He's been pretty good about keeping me posted on how things are scheduled to progress, but since he's also working on a big house nearby, I sometimes feel like that other project has taken priority.
When he does show up at my place, Andres really takes time to chat with me and hear my ideas and concerns.He has excellent people skills, even if I feel like at times his organizational skills leave something to be desired. He acknowledges the validity of my complaints about careless workers and lack of supervision; his willingness to make things right truly does placate me when I'm feeling frustrated. One sunny day
Glass Risers
Each step has a little strip of glass berneath it! Blue plastic to protect the windows while painting the columns...in theory! early on, as we were planning the configuration of the windows, we pulled chairs into the place where my bed will be and made sure that the corner windows would be of a size and angle so I'd have a clear view of the volcano from bed.
When I'm around I usually put out a mid-morning snack for the workers. Coffee with cookies or bread if it's a cold morning; lemonade with cheese and crackers if it's hot and sunny. I figure that spending a few bucks and taking a few minutes to offer them something pays off in the quality of work and the spirit of the project. When it's especially loud and dusty I close myself in my room and put in earplugs or listen to music with headphones, especially if I have to get some works done on the computer. If it's impossibly noisy I work at Shana's house, three doors down. Since the workers are in and out of the front gate and more often than not they don't bother to close it, it's been much safer for CiCi to hang out in Shana's garden with the
Staircase from Below
Bringing natural light into my closet space. I'm thrilled with how my wacky idea of glass risers translated into this beautiful creation! little LuLu dogs.
I was especially excited to move ahead with the two bottle walls I'd been planning, so I timed it with the construction work to ask the bottle master, Francisco, to make the trip down from mountains. My local handyman, Fabian, worked with him so they were able to complete both wall panels (aprox 1 meter x 2 meters each) in four days. I'd been collecting the most beautiful bottles (thank you to the local bartenders who, pre-pandemia, put them aside for me) and was working out the designs on blankets up on my rooftop terrace. As I'd done before, I prepared for Francisco's arrival by printing out enlarged photos of the completed layouts. Then I moved the whole set-up downstairs loading them, row by row, into numbered boxes. In this way I was able to reconstruct the designs on the ground right beside the openings where they were to be reassembled.
The glass bottle panels in my shower and bedroom glow spectacularly! I am thrilled with the results and am so grateful to my workers who made them come
Bottle Wall Layout
Getting ready to create two more bottle walls. This design is for my master shower. to life. They turned out even more beautiful than I imagined them in my head. I am also happy with the rows of glass block set into the wall separating my new bedroom from my elegant new bathroom. Since the only window in the bathroom is the bottle wall, the strip of glass blocks up high allows for a flow of light that makes dancing patterns on the walls. In addition, there are 10 glass skylight squares in the ceiling of the bathroom. There is also some glass block in my closet, which along with the glass risers on the stairs creates a flow of natural light that will keep the persistent Baños damp at bay.
And construction decisions abound -- hinged or sliding glass doors? what kind of lighting fixtures? What color paint for each wall and room? These were important decisions whose results I'd have to live with long term! I decided not to overthink; to just dive right in, giving myself permission to change it in the future in case it wasn't just right. It made me laugh when the architect picked up a piece of broken brick
Propping Up the Bottles
Balancing, levelling, creating anti-gravity devices... These guys find solutions to the challenging angles of my bottle designs. to write on each wall the Sherwin Williams color code. Tricks of the trade.
All too soon I realized that anything left in sight or in reach was fair game for the workers, and once used for construction could never be used for anything again. They went through three of my brooms, disappeared all of my screwdrivers, used CiCi's water dish for who knows what, stirred paint with my driftwood collection, completely coated my stepstool with cement, dripped paint all over my plastic chairs. I insisted that the roof be repainted when I discovered that they hadn't even bothered to sweep it off before spraying it with the loud, stinky compressor (that stained my walkway with oil). From my new upstairs terrace I could clearly see (and reach) the globs of spackle, bits of metal, screws, twigs and leaves that they painted right over. I pulled them all off, leaving unpainted blotches and outlines to show the architect the kind of job his workers did if they weren´t supervised.
So eager am I to have things finished and move into my new
Junque Corner
Stuff I keep buying for the new spaces invades my current bedroom (the only dust-free place to store them right now!) space that I've started buying rugs, trash cans, toilet brushes, baskets...The junk corner of my bedroom is expanding and starting to close in on me. Oh when oh when will I finally be able to settle into my luxury suite. I'm especially eager to spread out into my new closet space. My current closet is in a dank nook -- hard to find anything! The new closet space will have hooks, open wooden cubbies, a long shelf, and room for big baskets -- everything out and airy and visible.
For a few weeks I had a nasty cold that just would not go away. I felt it drop to my lungs and I started coughing up yellow mucus so I decided to take a course of antibiotics. During this time many friends checked up on me, worrying that it was COVID but I assured them that no, it was just a bad cold that moved into a respiratory infection. I'd had pneumonia as a teenager so I'm more prone to respiratory issues. It's now been over a year since I've smoked a cigarette so that has helped a lot!
My Cramped Current Bathroom
For contrast, first view my narrow under-the-staircase bathroom. This is the space I've been using for the past 5 years. Functional, but not ideal. For days on end I hunkered down in bed amidst the construction noise and watched Netflix with earbuds.
While I was trying to get well, my neighbor's workman went away for a long weekend and left his radio playing full blast. Since my current bedroom shares a wall with the workman's quarters, it was difficult to get any sleep, even wearing earplugs. I could hear every word the radio announcer was saying. When I contacted my neighbor to ask her to please check on it, she insisted that there was nothing playing and went off on me for bullying her workers and complained to me about MY construction noise. A very difficult woman, there's no talking to her. I can't wait to move to my new bedroom that does NOT share a cement block wall with a noisy worker.
Once I finally kicked that cold (almost two weeks!) I was able to return to 3x/week yoga practice and swimming in the warm pools. I try to get to the hot springs by 7:30 am for several reasons. The baths actually open at
My Spacious New Bathroom
It's really big, but I'm sure I'll manage to use the space well!
5:30 am and the early bird crowd is just leaving by then, so it's less crowded. The water is still relatively fresh and clean since they change it every night and it circulates constantly. At that hour the sun hasn't yet popped over the mountain, so the whole complex is still in the shade. If I'm in the pools on a sunny day after 9:00 am I can get too burnt from the sun's reflection off the water. Even waterproof sunscreen doesn't stay on!
It's been nice to combine exercise with social life. My German artist friend, Michaela, and I meet for water aerobics once a week. We've been trying out a few of the different warm springs complexes to add variety to our workouts. It's been so nice to meet for yoga at Flo's house and check in regularly with our small group of yogi friends. One of our yoga friends, Bolivar recently sold his hostel so he can have time to travel the world. He's 83 but looks 55 (aside from doing yoga he lifts weights and plays tennis) and decided to finally retire (again) to take an around
My Yoga Group
When Bolivar sold his hostel he invited me and Flo and Julie for an elegant champagne sunset supper overlooking town at Cafe del Cielo the world adventure. To celebrate his sale and his decision he invited me and Flo and Julie out for dinner. We arrived just before sunset at Café del Cielo, perched on a hillside high above Baños. Bolivar ordered the most expensive bottle of champagne and we dined in elegance as the lights of the town went on, one by one.
Strange occurences...I have a back pillow filled with herbs and seeds that you heat up in the microwave. I've been using it for years but this time, somehow, the edge of the pillow touched the side of the microwave in such a way that it caught fire....flames and all. Amazingly, the microwave still works and the pillow had just a small burn hole that I was able to sew shut. Then the next day my power went out, came right back on, then went out again with a sizzling sound followed by a burning rubber smell. I called my neighbors to see if they'd lost power as well. Nope, only me. I called the electric company and within two hours they had workmen checking the house's meter.They informed me that the
Alternate Nostril
Chiquita is always right on the yoga mats with us during seated postures! problem had to do with my home's internal wiring.
That night I read myself to sleep by headlamp, secure in the knowledge that the next morning my architect would send over his electrician. When they identified where the faulty wiring was, smoke started to seep out from between a metal column and a stucco wall. Terrifying! The electricians had to break through an outside wall to reach the problem; they managed to cause a minimum amount of interior damage repairing the fault. Less than two years ago, when my dining room addition was built the electricians had haphazardly attached the new wiring to existing wires which were old and stripped. Therein lay the source of my current problem. I feel very fortunate as it could have been much more serious.
I'd been thinking about selling my truck for the past year or so. I no longer work with Engineers Without Borders projects, nor am I collecting donations for the volunteer library's second hand shop. I've been having some pain in my left hip (stretching to press the clutch) and my
Meet SuzyQ
Bye bye Scarlett the truck. Welcome home cute little Suzuki. Just the right size for my lifestyle now. And CiCi likes it too! right shoulder (reaching for the gear shift). The truck was just a little too big for my 5'4" frame and my aging body was starting to scold me, especially after a long day of driving or city driving with lots of shifting. Ideally I wanted to replace Scarlett, the double cabin Nissan pick-up, with an automatic vehicle, however my friends Mario and Melissa were getting ready to move to the US and their little Suzuki was up for sale so I decided to go for it.
It's a great little car with very low mileage and they've taken impeccable care of it. They imported it from the US 5 years ago and have barely driven it. My mechanic agreed to buy my truck for more than the asking price of the Suzuki, so that factored in to pretty much seal my decision. We agreed that they would replace the shocks and buy new tires before I bought it. They had to import the replacement parts, and my same mechanic looked it over and did the installation. I asked him if I'd have trouble selling it a few years down the road
Master Bathroom
I found this glass bowl sink several years ago and have been dreaming of creating my bathroom around it! if I decided to sell instead of having to hassle with importing parts and he responded, "I'll buy it from you!" I figured that was an excellent testament to how good a vehicle it was! Since then, three other people have told me that if I ever consider selling to let them know.
There are definitely pros and cons to driving this sweet imported vehicle. SuzyQ (Suzuki with a Q on her license plate) is one-of-a-kind. There's no other Suzuki X4, AWD (all wheel drive), mag wheel, 6-speed rally vehicle here in Ecuador. I fully appreciate how convenient it is to have central locking (beep beep) and electric windows. I love the hatchback for loading and unloading groceries, and the back seats fold down so I was able to transport a large piece of furniture. She'll soon need repainting, but the interior is pristine!
As for the cons, it's been a hassle registering the vehicle in my name and getting it insured. Not wanting to deal with the madness at the huge DMV in Quito, I went to a local vehicle inspection
CiCi's Glam Shot
CiCi finds a sunny spot to hang out in Shana's garden during one of our hours-long Scrabble marathons! and registration center a half hour from my home. In the end, it took 4 hours and $150 to finally get SuzyQ registered in my name. Every clerk at every window told me, 'Nope', 'Impossible', 'That vehicle doesn't exist' -- Uh, there it is, parked at the curb! I stood my ground and refused to leave until they found a way to make it possible. They dug up old unpaid fines, expired websites, everything they could to block my way. But I wouldn't give up or give in! My friends had it registered for 5 years in Quito!
Now came was the challenge of getting it insured. The fact that the odometer is in miles rather than kilometers brought about the first challenge. And then there was the issue of dashboard sensors that kept lighting up. Two different insurance inspectors (one 'in-person' and one virtual) refused to insure me because the passenger airbag light stayed on. I tried to explain that it was a sensor that was malfunctioning, not the airbag itself but NOPE. SO, I found an electrical technician in town who spent an hour or so with his computer
Lilies!!
A huge bunch of them for $2 - time to start buying myself fresh flowers on a weekly basis. I so enjoyed watching them open one by one thingie hooked up to my dashboard until he made the light disappear. We then went off for a spin on a bumpy road to make sure it didn't turn back on with the jostling. All good.
Then came the challenge of a second virtual inspection. Basically, you have to download an app that gives the inspector control of your cell phone's camera. My ancient IPhone 5 (a hand-me-down from my niece years ago) was too old to support that app so my architect let me use his cell phone for the inspection. I had to have the car parked with space all around it, but close enough to my house to access my wifi. Once we got connected, the inspector instructed me to point the camera at various areas of the vehicle so he could take pictures.
So he's talking to me on MY cel and I'm juggling both phones as I aim the architect's phone as instructed AND I had to pop open the hood, figure out how to make it stay up, lift the hatchback, etc. Then I had to
Lunch Delivery
New place in town has healthy lunches and they deliver in these stainless steel tiffin boxes which they come to collect afterwards. Great initiative! locate the plaque with the engine number (very well hidden; almost impossible to find in an unfamiliar place since it was a foreign car....) Meanwhile, the architect's phone kept getting urgent incoming calls, and then his battery died. SO, the very patient insurance inspector told me he'd call me back in an hour so I could get the phone charged. When he contacted me again my internet connection was going in and out so we tried using data which meant downloading the app again, The guys was really helpful - clearly this wasn't the first time he'd had to deal with the tech aspects of virtual inspection. We finally completed the inspection process and this time the car was approved for insurance. Whew!
As of this writing, the sale of my truck is still not actually finalized. So here's another longish story. The mechanic who bought Scarlett has serviced her for the last 3-4 years so he knows her and he knows me. He paid me the full amount in June as planned, but it was not yet possible to change the registration to his name. My current national ID cédula
The Corner Flower Lady
Each color was a separate bundle, for $1 each! I chose three and she gave me the 4th for free. Pictured is just half of them, Shana got the other half! card was issued in 2015, three years after the manufacture of my 2012 truck. My marital status on the card is listed as divorced which means that my 'wasband' could potentially have rights to the value of the vehicle. For the notary to accept our sale-purchase contract I would need to produce an apostilled divorce certificate. I have no idea where my divorce certificate even is. I might have even thrown it out, thinking I'd never need it.
Carlos (mechanic), his son and I spent a whole afternoon going around to various notary offices trying to get one of them to believe that I'd been divorced since 2006. No go. Then I had a brilliant thought. Just the week before I'd been sorting through some old memorabilia and I'd found my first cédula residency card, issued in 2007. I knew exactly where it was in my bottom desk drawer. This would prove that I'd already been divorced before the truck was made. We found a notary who would accept that. Hooray! I was back in Quito in August but Carlos was on vacation with his family at the beach. SO, I'll
Waiting to Erase Airbag Light
An early evening vivid rainbow drew oohs and ahhs! While the electrician fixed my dashboard sensors, I captured this image! be back in Quito at the end of this month and at last we'll be able to finalize the vehicle transfer. The good news is that Carlos has another vehicle he's been able to use in the meanwhile, since he can't insure my truck until it's officially registered in his name. He's a really good guy and we've spent a fair amount of time together through this process. He's been eminently patient and kind!
The first road trip I took with SuzyQ was over the Andes to Riobamba, about an hour and a quarter NW of Baños. She handled like a champ on the twisty, curvy, hilly roads. SO comfortable to drive - such a well-designed vehicle. Very ergonomic with lots of cool features (arm rests that lift up, a compass built into the rearview mirror, fog lights, etc) I went to Riobamba to order woven cane mats for the ceiling of my new bedroom -- the same type I have installed in my dining room. Armed with the measurements, I once again found the weaver's house in the tiny village of San Gerardo. Carmen Laurita is all of 4'10" tall
Greetings from Mama Tungurahua
Brilliant, clear skies after a night of rain create a radiant snow-capped summit!
and smiles broadly with all three of her teeth! Shana and Maricarmen came along for the ride and we went out for lunch afterwards in Riobamba.
Uh Oh -- fast forward a few weeks and I had to figure out how to get those huge woven mats back to Baños. I no longer had a truck! Well, I've been teaching Spanish conversation to a small group of retired Americans and Vic drives a pick-up so we took a class field trip! So we got an early start, had an oral Spanish lesson en route, picked up the 'esteras de carrizo', then went to the big mall for grocery shopping (limited selection here in Baños). We stopped for a local specialty meal in the village of Penipe on our way home. I was grateful for the transportation help. It all worked out well!
Right next door to me there's a small house (two story but only two bedrooms) on a large piece of land (3x the size of my lot). It was owned by a retired banker from Ambato and his wife María
View from My Terrace
Photo credit: Nancy Watson - when she and hubby Chuck visited from Cuenca she shot this late afternoon pic from my rooftop. Eugenia. Her husband passed away a couple of years ago and she decided to move to the US where several of her kids live. SO, she sold the house to her brother who lives in North Carolina. There was a couple working every day for weeks to spruce the place up - major garden work, painting the walls, lacquering every brick. The place really sparkled. They told me that the new owner, Mauricio would be coming down soon.
When Mauricio arrived we introduced ourselves and he told me that he wanted to rent it out. I told him I had a friend who was looking for a place and introduced him to Jon that very afternoon. They came to an immediate agreement that Jon would move in two weeks later. YaY! I got to pick my new neighbor. Jon loves to garden so he's thrilled with the huge yard. Jon and I took a trip up to Ambato to get him set up with the same internet provider that I use. Much to his delight, because of virtual learning the fiber-optic installation fees had been waived. Jon went shopping for a
Evacuation Mosaic
To celebrate the Return to Baños after being forcibly evacuated following the 1999 eruption, the town created this mosaic proclaiming 'Never again will we leave - We live together with the volcano' push mower and was also thrilled to find a pair of size 44 (US size 12) work boots at the hardware store. It's hard to fit big feet in a land of small people!
Mauricio warned me that he'd be hosting a gathering in the garden the following weekend before he returned to the states. OK, cool, fine with me. It ends up it was his 40th High School reunion so I had the distinct pleasure of listening to a group of 58 year-old men singing off-key karaoke all afternoon. At least it wasn't Reggaeton! I recognized a lot of their romantic 1980's era Latin music from my first year of teaching in Mexico ('83-'84) Juan Gabriel, José Luis Perales and others. I swung in my rooftop hammock chucking as these paunchy, balding men became progressively drunker and more outrageously funny. They tried playing soccer and the ball kept flying over my wall.The party shut down at 7 pm sharp, so I really couldn't complain!
For the past month I've been cooking for my neighbor Shana once again since her caregiver, Maricarmen,
Sunday Market
Whole Roasted Pig (Hornado) - the vendors stack the decorated heads to show how much they've sold that day! has been in Quito trying to get her passport and cédula renewed. Mari is here on a resident visa - she's Venezuela but has been living in Ecuador for almost 25 years. However, the recent influx of Venezuelan refugees has made it hard for her to renew her paperwork. It looks like she's finally got it done and will hopefully be returning to Baños soon. I've also been cooking for my carpenter and handyman who have been installing the hardwood floors (can you say DUST!!) So it's been me in the kitchen most every day. I'll be ready for a break from preparing meals! I especially don't love washing dishes!! I do enjoy creating delicious, healthy, colorful meals and the ingredients here are so fresh and economical. I just got more carrots than I can lift with one hand for 50 cents!
Enough for now...the next blog entry will feature my beautiful new home!! Thanks for reading. Drop me a message if you like....I love to hear from you!
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Janet Lukowski
non-member comment
Renovations
Your bottle walls are spectacular and the glass risers in the stairs is a brilliant idea. Can’t wait to see the final pictures. I look forward to reading your blog and hearing what you’re doing.