7 September 2010

I woke up late today and quickly got around to go get the groceries. Theglass guy went with me so he could buy another sheet of glass. I also bought gas for the cooking stove, petroleo for the generator and groceries for Juana.
Once back at the house, we met with the architect and did a walk through of the house with the man of the glass. He is also the one that has installed the screens for the windows. There are several issues with the windows: some of the screens don't fit well, there are no locks on some of the windows, and others just don't fit well. We are told by Koki that these things will be corrected...we shall see.
We then spent at least a couple of hours discussing the stair railings and railings across the lofts of the second level. It will an interesting project as the stairs and lofts will have the same kind of railing as across the terrace. One of the problems was that the stairs flex as someone walks up or down them; therefore the glass and the railing couldn't be anchored to the stairs. Suspending the glass across the length of the staircase posed some problems as far as the weight of the glass. We finally came to an agreement on how to approach the railings. Workers have already drilled holes throught the tile to locate the posts. The hard part, I think, will be cutting the glass into the right trapezoidal pieces to fit.
We were also supposed to do a walk through with Chino, one of the maestros. We have fewer issues with his work; and most of what he needs to do yet are small fixes....things like chipped tiles of missing tiles or grout. We never got that far, but have confidence in Chino's work that this will get done.
Right now the workers are watching a "futbol" match on the TV in the living room. This is a soccer match between Perú and Jamaica. I made a large bowl of popcorn for them, and explained that when men got together in the US for a game, it often meant popcorn and beer. The beer was offerred later. Last time I checked, the score was even at one all.
I did get a chance to design one of the dolphins today. I´m hoping to be able to apply this design on the wall tomorrow. It is one of my favorite designs. I´m still thinking I will redo the tuna.
Today was an overcast day with some mist....the closest thing to rain we get. There was a pretty heavy mist this morning, but it didn´t effect the roads going into town. Because the ground here is so full of clay, it can get really messy when it gets wet. It never did get sunny, and was overcast all day long. I think in all the time we´ve been here, this may be only the second day like this. I wore long pants and long sleeves all day!
We also had the opportunity to locate the soap dishes, toilet paper dispensers, towel racks, and hooks in all of the bathrooms. We asked Juana to give us her input in the servants´quarters as it is possible she and Sanchez may be living there.
We´ve heard through the grape vine that Sanchez would like to resign his position with Georg and work for us. This becomes a rather touchy subject as our relations with Georg are already strained. We have approached his wife, Juana, to work for us full time helping us to keep the house clean and she has accepted our offer. Sanchez has been around listening and learning how the pool functions, and how the irrigation system has been set up. He has spent a lot of time on our property, and has a good handle on how things work here; the pool and the garden. We have told him, he needs to make his own decision; work for Georg or come to work for us. But he is the one who needs to make the decision and tell Georg of his decision. We do not want to hire Sanchez away from Georg. But then, our ideal situation would be to have both Sanchez and Juana working for us. They are the sweetest couple and are so willing to do whatever needs to happen.
Again, we have enjoyed watching the US Open tennis on the tube. Even thought the commentary is in Spanish, we still enjoy watching the game.
I was able to talk with Blaine tonight. I don't get the opportunity to talk with him as often as I would like, so when we do connect it is really special.