Taly took off for her second home in Byron Bay, Australia on October 19, and I am leaving tomorrow to join her for eight weeks.
I have busied myself with the ongoing efforts at upgrading our house in San Miguel.
At this point, the laundry room in the panhandle of the back patio has been completed; a water heater, plumbing, electrical, and lighting have been installed, and the sink, washer, and dryer have been moved into that new space.
Finally, the electrical and plumbing for the former laundry room have been modified to accommodate a full bath and a kitchenette; walls for the shower and toilet have been installed. It remains to put in base cabinets and floating shelves (no wall cabinets) to complete the kitchenette.
Tomorrow I fly to Australia to spend eight weeks with Taly. Kat Armei is house sitting and caring for Daisy, whom I will miss terribly.
We have completed many of the projects described in the post of March 7:
- The covered portion of the rooftop terrace has been enclosed with glass walls and doors
- The unused portion of the rooftop contained only the LP gas tank, and was mostly inaccessable from the main areas of the rooftop, but is now easily accessible due to the removal of a half wall and installaiton of the aforementioned door as well as covering the area with a roof
- Water filtration, UV purification, and softening infrastructure have been moved from the laundry room to this newly accessable area. Before I leave for eight weeks in Australia, the panhandle of our groundfloor back patio will have been covered; we will then be able to move the washer and dryer to this new room.
- With the laundry room thus vacated, we can begin converting that space into a proper bath and a small kitchen, thus making the rooftop a fully independent suite for guests.
Taly and Wilbur just returned from a trip to Denver, where we connected with a number of Wilbur's old friends. The trip was occasioned by a number of gatherings of friends; at the largest and most elegant of these gatherings, a good number of Wilbur's old hippie friends from the sixties, and some from the seventies and eighties, gathered to witness us getting married. It was a fabulous party and Taly was much loved by all.
Taly returned from Australia, and we resumed plans for expansion/improvements of our house. Subsequently, we added a 3.5 KW solar array, thereby reducing our once-every-two-month electric bill to less than 65 pesos (about $3.25) - WOW!We also completed the enclosure of the covered portion of the rooftop terrace with glass walls, thus starting the eventual addition of a completely independent guest suite which will eventually comprise a living/sleeping space, a private bath, a small kitchen area, and a couple of outdoor spaces (one covered and the other open).
Then the addition of mini-split heat pumps in the five major areas of the house (main living area, Taly's and Wilbur's individual craft spaces, main bedroom, and the rooftop living space) making the house much more comfortable in the heat of summer as well as on mornings in the winter.
Wilbur left Australia for Denver today, where he has been readying his house here for sale. The projects to be completed include: Selling a bunch of stuff; packing stuff for shipment to Mexico; making the place ready for deep cleaning, painting and finally selling. He has until his flight on February 28 to get things in line, and is finally (February 10) starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We can't wait to be together again.