My neighbor has shamed me into working on my house

[OnMyWay]

After 5 days:

Our current house wall texture is a stucco-like rough texture.  Our neighbor put skim coat over theirs and we like the way it came out, so we will do the same on the yellow wall you see and eventually the rest of the house.  They will do that wall tomorrow.

 

[earthdome]

11 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

After 5 days:

Our current house wall texture is a stucco-like rough texture.  Our neighbor put skim coat over theirs and we like the way it came out, so we will do the same on the yellow wall you see and eventually the rest of the house.  They will do that wall tomorrow.

Wow. Those guys work fast. 

[Old55]

I know exactly what Jake would say..... Why be ashamed you should manipulate your neighbor into doing the work for you. My gosh it was all good until they moved in. Bunch of trouble makers.... I know that's what Jake would suggest

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, earthdome said:

Wow. Those guys work fast. 

We are happy with them.  We are paying them per day and thought they might drag out the work, but they are pushing hard everyday, almost too fast because my lazy a** has to try to keep up with them!  Also, they have to start working for the neighbor again when they return in mid-January.

Our first house that we rented was owned by an American.  He owned both halves of the duplex and employed a guy full-time to do everything around the house.  Yard work, wash cars, build things, repair things, walk the dog, etc.  We still know him and see him often.  We have been thinking about hiring someone like this because we have a ton of projects that could be one man or one man with a temp helper.  The lead guy on our project is a good guy and very knowledgeable about everything construction.  We are thinking of making him an offer.

[Gratefuled]

I am "shameless". I don't care how nice my neighbor's home is compared to mine. I don't try to keep up with the Jones's.

[OnMyWay]

2 minutes ago, Gratefuled said:

I am "shameless". I don't care how nice my neighbor's home is compared to mine. I don't try to keep up with the Jones's.

That was actually a bit of a joke, but I am looking at it as an investment.  We were lucky to get this house in an area that has some great houses worth a lot of money, and I got a good deal.  "Keeping up with the Jones" in this case means improving the home values all around us, as well as ours.  I have no plans to sell and we will be here a long time, but it is nice to know my wife will have a nice asset when I am gone.

The guy across the street listed his 2 story duplex for 15 million, with an agent.  It is not that nice and he will never get that, but I think some owners are fishing for big fish from Manila who don't care about a million here or there.

[OnMyWay]

After 6 days:

Ready for tiles tomorrow.  One coat of skim coat on the wall.  It needs two to be smooth.  They built the "sit-on" wall top and it has a lot of re-bar in it, so hopefully it will be strong.  It will have puwet friendly tiles on the top and sides.  They also worked on rain gutters in the back of my house too.

Interesting comment from the lead guy.  He said the neighbors plan to extend their sala out into the porch area sometime next year, where I built the small wall.  Seem odd as they just installed a new window there and they would have to complete move a load bearing wall, unless they just plan to enclose the porch and have a doorway.  That may be old information as she never mentioned it to me when we were discussing the wall there.  If they do, fine, I will just have a solid wall there, which we considered anyway.

 

[OnMyWay]

On 12/17/2016 at 8:59 AM, Queenie O. said:

OMW--will you have a trellis or some sort of divider between the your side and the other people next door, or will it be one big expanse? Nice and roomy, and very professional looking so far! You'll enjoy that new space.

Queenie, I thought you might have some suggestions for us.  We hope to some nice flowers in that new terrace (underneath the wood forms shown).  It gets hot afternoon sun there.  Do you have any suggestions on flowers that would do well there?  Honestly we have not had much luck with the potted flowers we have bought, except for the small rose plants my wife likes.

[stevewool]

Looking great

[intrepid]

8 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Queenie, I thought you might have some suggestions for us.  We hope to some nice flowers in that new terrace (underneath the wood forms shown).  It gets hot afternoon sun there.  Do you have any suggestions on flowers that would do well there?  Honestly we have not had much luck with the potted flowers we have bought, except for the small rose plants my wife likes.

Don, what is the blue vertical pipe beside the window?