Progress...

I changed the fountain color to match the new floor color -it is an epoxy acrylic silver grey floor paint. The little wall going up the stairs was tile red and is now "light oak" which is a little nicer with the stone and tile there.

I was going to wait until the whole house was finished before adding a finishing touch, but it has been a huge job and I needed a pick-me-up. I found this nice pot to sit where the former kitty stage was. When we first bought the house there was a stump in that location.

The corner of the house before.

The same corner after (still need to finish the rejas and paint the storm shutters white).

Jungle room before...

Jungle room after. When I finish everything we will get a nice lamp, some tree fern stumps to grow neat plants on and pack the room with ferns and flowers. I'd like to redo the cushions in bright colors but don't know how to sew so it will never happen.

The front before...

The front after. After we install all the solar stuff we can get new lights for the outside (if we can find interesting ones).

House Progress..Will it Ever End?

I don't know what it is that I am thinking when I start humongous projects sometimes. I guess I knew things needed to get done and started to realize the dry season was coming to an end when I saw other people doing their roofs and pruning and painting. I am always looking to see what the locals are doing to learn when I need to do things. Somehow though it seems I could have started these projects (sealing the roof, cleaning the water reserve, painting the house) a little (or a lot) sooner. I am making progress...

How it looked before (note the puny plants).


How it looks now - bigger plants and newly painted walls. I have been cutting the tops off the plants and rooting them to make more - they were getting tall. The carport took longer than the house to do because of posts, lots of trim work to do.

Here is the carport area before - the wall was a pale green and the shed was creme colored.

Now the wall and shed are the same color.

Here's the front area before ...red benches, and trim on the ground and fountain. The floor was a dark grey.

Now the floor is a little lighter with matching fountain and benches. I put green accents on the benches to tie it in to the house. The trim is a light oak instead of red and goes a little better with the stone wall. A new pot adorns the cat stage. So what's left? Rejas rejas and rejas...oh, and the metal storm shutters (oil paint - yuck). Poco y poco since my hands hurt. A couple hours a day and I will be painting until this time next year!

House Painting Progress

Here's the back of the house before. Our bedroom is behind those windows and the wall to the right is where we get bat crap or bird crap splatter in the middle of the night when it gets creepy. I pressure washed the house before painting but the splatters left little brown marks so I had to prime that wall before painting.


Here's the front with my jungle green porch area (which is the same green inside) and the Tropical Mango on the rest. I have done two coats of trim, the green is done on the upper house and three walls of Mango are done. I haven't touched the rejas yet - the Jungle Green area will have green rejas and the mango areas and balcony will have mango rejas.

Here's another view coming up the long driveway. Oh, another thing on the "to do" list is to spray a copper fungicide on all the chinas (13). I pruned them when we first got here, and if I do a copper fungicide they will be all revitalized and ready to provide us with too many oranges!

Here's the view from the carport. The stuff that looks light green isn't painted and will be the dark green. The inside will be mango. I still have to pressure wash down here and do some scraping/patching and prime it since there are a couple "powdery" areas. We also will be adding things to the area for the batteries and switches required for going off the grid with solar. I'll keep paint for touch-ups.

The back is primed and ready for mango next week. No more splatter.

Here's a side view with the gingers in the foreground.

Here's the real work that is left. This wall needs to be pressure washed, primed and painted (mango). Before I can do that though we have to move the plastic shed, the conduit along the bottom leading to the cement shed/compressor/dive area. I want to paint behind it since when we convert to solar the dive compressor will be converted to an LPG powered engine and the conduit will disappear. I probably should prune the bottom of the crotons to make painting easier. And then there is the marquesina. Hmmm...when do the rains start? Why didn't I start all this sooner? It has been endless sun here for months but I know it will end and I want it all done mas rapido, not poco y poco! Yes I am impatient, but right now my hands are so sore I cannot lift a brush...

Big Project - Painting the House

You know how it is...you start in one place and then everything else looks bad! I sealed the roof and it is a bright pure white that makes everything else faded. The house is in need of some paint and I'd like some real color if I'm gonna do it. I decided I'd start with my favorite room - the screened/rejased in porch room. It started out as a pretty faded yellowish and I wanted it to be a real "jungle" room since it looks out at the jungle. It is the inside-out room. Here's the front and you can see the trim up top is half done.


My original thought is to paint the rejas in the same green, but I am now having second thoughts. I tried to paint some of the rejas in the jungle room, and it is going to take two coats. It is hard and I don't want to do all of it twice. So my latest thought is - green rejas for the jungle room in front only, and this balcony railing and rejas over the windows are going to be orange like the other walls of the house so that it hopefully takes only one coat! There has got to be a way to spray it or something instead of hand painting it. I have no idea how I will get my brush through the shutters from the inside to get the inside of the rejas. Anyone have rejas experience? I don't want it white, but spray paint sounds really easy.

I painted the top trim (one coat) today and will do the other coat tomorrow. I'll move the ladder down and do the trim under the balcony railing next week? Rejas rejas rejas. We love the rejas because we can leave the house open all the time. It will also protect things in hurricanes. I could spray it white I suppose but it would get dirty fast. Might be a good contrast since this wall will be a bright orange.



Here's the jungle room (front of house) with part of the door rejas painted green. Hamilton Jr. says the house had the front room open with just a railing at one point. That sounds kind of nice, but having it all screened in is lovely. We have a great view and that is the room I live in (Jeff lives in the TV room). When the house is done I will paint the red things (fountain and on top of the wall) orange like the other walls. I'll repaint the cement around the house a medium grey. Good thing it isn't raining. The yard just needs some watering, and can be kind of ignored for a while so I actually have time to do all this!