My neighbor has shamed me into working on my house

[OnMyWay]

21 minutes ago, intrepid said:

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

That is the air con drain pipe.  It used to drain into the gravel that was there but I had them run it under the new concrete so it drains in the garden.  I will paint it the same color as the house so it will not stand out too much.

[Queenie O.]

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.

OMW--I've thought about it, and came up with two popular plant possibilities for you. One is Adenium, or Desert Rose plant that has unique roots and it flowers all the time. It's a pretty plant that could stay in pots or be planted directly in the border there. Here's it's found in pink and red colors. They can grow to a good size over time. The other one is Madagascar Periwinkle, a soft border type plant that is easy to grow and spreads as the seeds are found along the stem of the plants. They come on shades of purple, white and coral. Only really needs to be watered regularly, and blooms all the time. They are both bright and colorful, and could be seen from the road too. You might want to give these a try. I grow both here and they're very reliable plants. Here's some pics for you--see what you think. 

[OnMyWay]

Thanks Queenie!  I think we have one or two of these Adenium in pots and they do flower for us.  The trunks can be very unique looking too.

[OnMyWay]

After 7 days:

I'm not happy with the tile colors we selected yesterday but they should be fine.  I'm picky.  What happened was, when I went to pickup the tiles yesterday, our first choice for the outer wall tiles that you see here in the first picture were not available.  We had picked one that was a lighter beige/tan mixture and thus would contrast with the darker reddish brown column tiles.  We substituted these and they have gray in them and in reality appear darker than they did in the store.  Not much contrast from the columns.  Oh well.  For about p2700 I could rip them off and replace them, but I think I can live with them.

[OnMyWay]

I didn't get any pictures the last two work days because it was dark when I got back from dropping the guys off and running errands.  I took a couple of pics this morning.

After 9 days, most of the tiles are in.  Only the floor tiles are left and we have to add grout to some other areas.  We may decide to add more tiles in the front but haven't picked them out.

Unrelated to the porch work, my newly installed gutters in the back of the house are not working as planned in the heavy rain.  The area did not have any gutters before and the rain would run off the roof and splash on some garden terraces, then bounce back onto our lanai.  We had to hang a couple of tarps back there during the rainy season.  The gutters will fix that but I have to take 75% the credit for them not working correctly yet, today.  I only asked him to put in one downspout.  Leaves from the main roof (I should have cleaned them off yesterday) slid down and clogged that one 3 inch downspout right away, causing the gutter to fill and overflow.  The overflow went over the inner edge of the gutter and got into the ceiling area a little bit.  (I will be replacing that ceiling later so no big deal).  That inner edge needs to be sealed with Vulca seal in case it ever overflows again.  Additionally, I will add a second 4 inch downspout in the area I see is getting the most water from the roof.
 

[OnMyWay]

After 14 working days, we are just about finished in the porch area.  I still have not found new lights and a new doorbell switch for the door area, and I will get a new screen door too, as that one is getting bad.  They have also been working in other areas, so it did not take 14 days to complete this.  Everything is still dusty, especially the floor, because they were sanding on adjacent walls.

 

[Jack Peterson]

17 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

 I still have not found new lights and a new doorbell switch for the door area,

 Beware the Door bell at your peril

[intrepid]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

After 14 working days, we are just about finished in the porch area.  I still have not found new lights and a new doorbell switch for the door area, and I will get a new screen door too, as that one is getting bad.  They have also been working in other areas, so it did not take 14 days to complete this.  Everything is still dusty, especially the floor, because they were sanding on adjacent walls.

 

Wow Don, from the pictures, I think you may now  shame your neighbor into upping his!  Looking good!

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Beware the Door bell at your peril

It is a rare day when someone rings our bell, but the wires are there so why not?

Actually the biggest problem with our porch is security.  I have had two items stolen from the front porch.  Both times it was one, not both, of my slippers.  I have a suspect in mind, but I will install a security camera so I get a positive id on the canine.

[OnMyWay]

28 minutes ago, intrepid said:

Wow Don, from the pictures, I think you may now  shame your neighbor into upping his!  Looking good!

I'm not too thrilled with the Spanish red color on the gutters, but that is what it was before, along with the roof.  In a few years I will change it to a lighter color.