The sanding of the hardwood floors was the last step of readying my master suite. Heres my carpenter, Leonidas, surviving the process! Thanks to Cynthia for loaning me her ShopVac!
Im free!! Free of the constant banging of the worker with whom I shared a cement block wall for five years! My new master suite and it is a true. Is it possible that the finished project is even more beautiful and functional than I envisioned it might be? For decades I have imagined creating a liveable work of art, and I am now inhabiting the brick and mortar reality of those imaginings. I am infinitely grateful to all who helped me bring my vision into being.
I am especially grateful to my carpenter whose hard work was integral to the beautiful space we created! Almost six months ago we began the flooring process with a trip to Puyo, an hour away on the edge of the Amazon basin. We selected each plank of canelo wood (cinnamon tree -- the from the bark) and had them grooved to create the wide plank hardwood floorboards. Thank you to Cynthia for loaning me your ShopVac which was essential during the sanding process! As you can see from the photo, Leonidas had to do a lot of
The bottle walls gleam on the new wood floors! I have treated myself to a new duvet cover since this pic was taken!
dirty work to sand the floors down to a perfect finish. Im still removing sawdust from ledges, cracks, nooks and crannies! Thanks to my architect Andres for searching far and wide to find the matte finish sealant and lacquer so that my floors would be protected yet retain a natural glow rather than a high polish shine.
The last several weeks of work dragged on into months. When workers came to repair a minor flaw, they often created more issues - banging around like bulls in a china shop, dinging walls, scraping paint, breaking glass panels, splattering spackle, leaving greasy handprints and traces of gooey silicone -- in short, showing little regard for the work done before by others. For weeks on end it felt like the work was moving one step forward, then two steps back! Then came a holiday weekend, and then a mudslide with road closures so no progress for days and weeks. I got so tired of waiting and waiting to move into my new room that I finally just did it, but woe be unto me if I forgot to move every rug and
Everything visible, out in the open air! Musty, moldy smells in this damp climate, but I have created a solution!
towel before workers came. Muddy footprints, smudges of cement, splashes of paint, cement dust tracked everywhere. Arghhh.
And then came the leaks. So many issues to resolve. Every big rain brought new surprises. Fixing one area caused another spot to leak. The entire metal staircase needed to be resoldered, blemishing the appearance of the aluminum frames around each glass riser. After every attempt to stop the leaks, we had to wait for another storm to see where it might drip in next. All this, even as the wood floor was being installed. I made a snap decision not to extend the wood under the staircase, just in case the leaks continued. Using bits and pieces of leftover bathroom tiles, Fabian made a patchwork ceramic design under the steps...much more practical!
The week after I moved into my new suite, damp patches began appearing near the ceiling on the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom. The darkening of the paint began to spread to the area above my bed and one stormy night it developed into a row
of constant drips. No sleep for me as I scurried to mop up the drops as fast as they fell. Fearing that my hardwood floors could be irreparably damaged, I begged the architect see to it immediately. To his credit he managed to get a worker to him, travelling by bus an hour from Ambato on a Sunday in the middle of a long holiday weekend!
They discovered that the culprit was an exterior outlet that had been installed in the wall of the terrace above.
