After 4 days of work!

The beginnings of a partition wall.

While everyone were enjoying the long weekend. … Lang and co were working on reno…

Its a quiet neighbourhood, so we try not to disturb the peace… with our machining noise that is… we try… but when its raining heavy and ringing thunder, thats our chance to quickly saw up some wood for making this partition wall.

Wall painted while still on the ground.

Assembly is not so noisy.. phew. Painting is nice and quiet… I love the painting part, cos its the finishing part of a project. Its relaxing and its very visual… especially when I choose such bold colors to work with.

And now the wall is up.

And here it is… we have a lift off .. from the floor that is..

Pushing it up is easy.. its very light, plywood and block board construction.. to be filled in with foam for soundproofing, then screw in the other side.. After front side is up, the rest should be easier to fit.

And after this partition, there’s still 3 more “fake” walls to build … and the list of other things goes on.

Back to DIY reno

As it was before

Back to my new and un-finished place… sigh… after a great month long vacation from this work… .. now where did I stop?

Yes, the stairs… then there is the ceiling that needs alot of work.. and the walls need paint and the kitchen needs too much attention… One day at a time… one project at a time.. really gotta learn how to pace myself.

Cementing over the slippery old tiles

The stairway… lets tackle that one 1st. I ripped the old wood laminate flooring … only to find it glued to 24 yr old tiles that are already popping in some places. To remove the tiles or not…? 

 Nah, only the popping ones and then cement over. I hired some cheap labor for it, and it turn out to be quite a nightmare. Cementing over slippery old tiles is really tricky, plus its definately difficult to get wet cement to stay in shape.

BTW, notice the dark blue wall behind the stairs… got some more cheap labor to help with painting inbetween times.

And my mini utility truck..

Re-working some spots myself… sigh… Me, I can fix that myself. Sigh…

Look… I gotta go get me own bag of cement too…

Resin over canvas.

After getting cement down and allow to dry for 2 days, add 2 coats polyester resin. Then cut canvas and lay over, and 2 more coats resin. …

Not as smooth as I hoped

That was quite a chore. The canvas bubbled up! Why? maybe the cement was still quite wet underneath… dunno. Rework…

Map of pacific ocean near Marshall islands..?

Using the Fein tool, cut from the base of the bubble and lift away the “peaky” canvas. Find jelly like resin below… what does that mean? … Then resin over again, big time, make sure it fill up smooth…

Thats the Fein tool..

Then sand away the “atolls” and get ready to paint… My plan is to paint over with 2 coats epoxy… Bought NA4, indoor protective floor coatings by Nippon… we’ll see how that works out. .. but later… now, still grinding away. ..

my amazing US west coast journey-driving down south

Nice color, this cute little boat at Monterey has my name all over it...

We had 1 full week on the west coast… Yippee! … but we cheaped out by staying at Econo Lodge at Seaside near Monterey… yucks! Horrible place, altho cheap… I dun wanna be there ever again! Run by a group of India Indians, the place is relatively clean but largely un-maintained….

One of the residents at Monterey bay

Well… but we were there for checking out Doug’s storage and visiting with family and friends… okie… as aunty Bean would say.. very cute … … and after 4 dreadful days at Econo, we move to stay 1 night at a campground run by Doug’s long time friend. What a treat that was!

Somewhere between Big Sur and Carmel ... and the Pacific ocean

This is my 1st time at Big Sur and staying at a campground! A little background info about this area… so I heard… from Doug and his friends… this is a aggressively regressive community… they stood firmly against fast food chains… so you will not find any big american brand names south of Monterey until you get to Santa Barbara.

Sitting at the edge... its a long way down

A spectacular coastline that is not tainted by the obnoxious golden arches… or anyone of those chains.. not even Walmart or Safeway or Starbucks!! Thats what I needed… a break from the temptation of cheap junk food and junk Coffee..

A wholesome breakfast at Deetjens' would set you up forever...

… and eat real food… I was told, you havent been to Big Sur if you havent got a breakfast at Deetjens’…

Our cozy room at Big Sur Campground

… and stay at the best cabin in a real 1st class campground! Wow! ..

Thats cabin 101...

Strong winds where blowing on our drive down to Big Sur Campground.. and just as we were visiting Don and Mieke, a tree fell and hit Don’s old place at the campground.. … shucks…

80mph wind touching down on Pacific ocean

No storm, just 80mph winds. .. this is definately unusual.. according to the locals.. It was just gusting out there.. and when balls of winds touch the ocean, it creates an area of spray and disturb water visible to the eyes. See this, was a wind landing spot…

High winds. Birds are grounded.

And see these gulls… do they look confused or what. They are obviously grounded for the day.

Doug at Paddington Cove...

Next on our plan after leaving Big Sur was to continue south to LA for the night, check in at Four Points hotel and return the car. Making some stops for sightseeing at Partington Cove and Morro Bay.

Me leaning on a rock... looks scary ...

On hindsight… some of my sitting on cliff edge or leaning over a rock… seems like dangerous business… Looks scary on picture, but it wasnt how I felt when I was there. .. strange ..

The Morro Bay rock and the estuary

Here the Morro Bay landmark! What else could it be! The lone rock sticking out … studies say that this is a volcanic cap… BTW.. this was Dougs’ stomping ground.

Not many beaches on this coast.

I just realize that there isnt much in beaches around this coast until you get down to Santa Barbara… Alot of cliff, rocks .. Some of the yellowish stone is low grade granite, and the green greyish stuff is unformed jade. According to Doug, if these green greyish stuff remained under earth pressure, it will compress and become jade in a matter of time. Too late, it surfaced and will not be jade anymore..

It was pretty much go – stop – go again … gawking stop really. The daylight was beautiful.. perfect for driving… . albeit too much wind… .. ok, by the time we made it to LA, we were pooped! … Naturally.

my amazing west coast journey- driving up north

Looks bad... is there a road thru to the other side...?

The final installment of my US 2011 trip. Yes, serious time lag between being there and writing being here. … been back for about a month now.

As seen on Google maps! I-8 and the green mosaic

Ok, so where was I? … In the final week of our travels, we drove from Arizona to San Diego on I8, passing thru some really spectacular mountain range passes. It was alot of uphill, downhill and rocks! … and sand dunes and fields of crops!

Its a great day for DUNE BUGGY TIME!

Right, so I was wondering… what kind of crops do people plant in arid deserty conditions in Arizona? … Just hay for feeding the cattle! Mainly that is. Some corn… maybe thats for feeding the livestock too… huge cattle farms that produces milk and beef needs lots of food for the cows … and really, the land probably doesnt produce enuf to feed them at all… so bales of hay were left out and about for them… I am just amazed at the scale of feed production as we drove hundreds of miles of no man farmland. No dwellings, just fenced up tall grass fields. This satellite pix tells it all.

Part of the mountain levelled for making the road

This is, literally, driving thru the green mosaic on I-8! And then continue on the dirty yellow desert…

And now, driving thru the mountains. These peaks are caused by platonic movements upthrust. According to Nuvi (our electronic guide), we went from no elevation to 4000ft to 2000ft and then 4000ft and then finally down to nothing again near San Diego. Driving thru a range like that was pretty weird… the mountain was not pretty, but it was awesome… at least it was to me.

Yawn... another marina area. ... Long Beach eh...?

Only in San Diego for a day, shopping at Long Beach marina area. Yes, boats and marine parts are always part of our journey… and we stopped for some authentic Mexican food too… at the Old’ Mexica . .. food always taste better when you see chefs making them… ya know its real fresh and the restaurant probably have a reputation for good food…

Chef preparing totillas at the window and diners sitting in line.. must be good eh?

Next, a slow ride up north to Monterey… where we did visiting with Doug’s family and friends… They happen to be pretty much scattered over this west coast side … so every where we go, we party, have lunches and dinners…

Doug request that I post No family gathering pictures … ok thats that…