Some pictures from my second trip:
Author Archives: mathan
A look at this trip
A look at things from this past trip
She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain’
And what a mountain she is. I am, of course, talking about the Andes. When flying over the Andes from Montevideo to Santiago, they force you to put on your seatbeats. Mainly because of unexpected turbulence, but Air Canada doesn’t force it when flying over the Rockies.
I suspect it’s because of how high, and how close you are to the Andes. Also the Andes have the highest point – 7,000m in South America. You can’t really tell in the pictures I post below, but we are pretty close, and they are quite jagged mountains, and also possibly weather related. These are from just slightly higher than 11,000 meters high in the sky.
Two other stories, some of these you may have heard about, one documented in the movie, Alive:
And now, some pictures:
We have spotlights
And the shower is done…
Noche de la Nostalgia
It’s you’re night to get up and dance Uruguay!
As described at this blog:
Noche de la Nostalgia is a night to stay out late and have fun dancing to the music clichés of the past. Some Noche de la Nostalgia classics are Total Eclipse of the Heart (1983) by Bonnie Tyler and YMCA by the Village People.
Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve all come during the summer in Uruguay. Noche de la Nostalgia provides a holiday celebration to look forward to during the middle of winter.
I’m not sure what my plans are for tonight. I’ve been, once again, a bit of a hermit here in Uruguay, and I almost wonder how easy it would be to get a taxi tonight to go to a bar right in Montevideo. In some respects, I wish I had a car, but we know how that worked out, down here – and with a bunch of people partying, etc…
That said, I do hear the police are WAY strict on drunk driving down here – and that is a good thing, given how people drive here.
It’s almost done :)
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
And today we have grouting!
With electrical and plumbing to be finished tomorrow, here we have the last of the tiling and grouting!
I love the work they did on the tiles… especially where the temperature/flow control knob will go. Perfect circle!
Comparison
How did we live with this so long?
Houston, we have a problem
Two in fact, but hey, things are looking good as you’ll see down below.
In short the two problems are
- The mirror we ordered, which is the go-to product for our contractor, is too small.
- We are 8 tiles short on completing the shower tiling.
There is a third issue of the vanity which is half- in, meanwhile they’ve not taken care of the extra access hole they created the need for with the plumbing.
There is also a fourth issue of one of the marble dividers being broken by the bedroom so that one or they both (to the hall) are going to be replaced.
So… would I recommend the contractor at this point? Well, they’re doing what they can to get things fixed. On their plate they had to scramble to get more tiles for the bathroom, and they’re looking into the mirror issue.
If I were to provide feedback, here is my list – and I’m sure Scott can come up with more:
- Detailed measurements need to be done and confirmed
- Confirm the actual numbers of tiles needed for the floor and wall, and confirm overages just in case
- Make sure you know your product – specifically thinking of the mirror issue
- Confirm what is happening each day the night before and even the day of. Changes always happen, that’s cool, but communicate
- Confirm if you are purchasing the fixtures or if the customer is purchasing them.
- Make sure you acknowledge your customer’s emails and confirm their issues list.
Now that said, these guys are growing, they’re busy and while we’ve had these challenges, from what I have seen, the work is very good, they have good guys behind them. I cannot complain based on what I’ve seen from far. Here is the good:
- The teardown and putting in the tub was painless.
- The plumbing looked good when It was put in.
- The tiles look great from far.
- The people behind the contractors have been great to work with.
- The guys have been attentive when there have been issues – except for one so, far, but they’ve also been looking after other items which are priority.
So, I’d say they’re getting a B-grade so far. I think if we had gone with another contractor, we probably could have found better, and I sure know we could have done worse.
So when we get our kitchen done, at this point I don’t see why it won’t be with the guys, and we will be better prepared. I know that we will get all the fixtures ourselves, ensure they get good measurements, so all they have to do is to get paint, the kitchen cabinets, and tiles and away we go.
