tiling continues, floor tiles start to go down

So the tiling continues. With more than 600 sq meters to put down between floors, walls, counters, and shelves, it's time consuming work. Fortunately, we had a few cousins of mine come up from their place in Bucerias to put in some work prepping, scrubbing, and hauling tiles up and down. Thanks to Danny, Noel, Randy, and Darryl for your help. Continued thanks to Roy Brown, who has been invaluable in helping my dad manage the construction and sort through some of the challenges.

So on to the progress pics.

The first of the floor tiles are going down. We're starting at the rooftop, and working our way down. The tiles are still dirty and not yet grouted.

Completed stucco in the skylight area of the second floor creates a nice moment. This will be a great place for a large potted tree to grow.

Tacho works on the first floor ensuite. This bathroom will have full wheelchair accessibility.

A fuzzy pic of the main floor backsplash being completed.

Second floor kitchen counters and splash tiles are complete

Second floor outdoor kitchen area tiling is complete.

More top floor floor tile being laid. It looks largely complete from this picture.

Second floor B suite bathroom wall tile complete

B suite bathroom vanity and wall tile

Random pic out of the bedroom window, 2nd floor master.

2nd floor master bath

B suite kitchenette

First floor outside kitchen cabinet tiling complete. Floor tile and some minor  stucco to finish.

first floor second bathroom. The last bathroom to tile.

stair issues

So we had never quite figured out how we were going to finish the stairs before we built them. Exposed aggregate? Tile? Acid etch and stain? 

In the end we chose to do an exposed aggregate tread. But the problem is that this decision is normally made as the stairs are being poured, so that the aggregate is a feature of the solid concrete. We're now having to use a smaller pebble and do it as a coating. this isn't a problem at the rear of the building- we didn't pour a bullnose on the step at the time, so that becomes part of the aggregate application.

exposed aggregate finish applied to the tread of the rear step. The bullnose is poured as part of this application.

Full rear stair with the tread application.

The stairwell at the front is a different story. Because we already poured the bullnose, we can't apply the aggregate without it being thin and brittle right at the spot that gets the most potential wear. How will we solve that problem? Stay tuned.

Bathroom tiling

So now the electrical is installed, the water system is online, the propane system is charged, and the hot water heater is online, the focus is to move on to pushing through the considerable tilework remaining. After completing the kitchen and bathroom vanity surfaces, the next challenge is the bathroom wall tile.

Surprisingly, the guys that we have left aren't amazing tilers. I had assumed that they would be- they're otherwise decent craftsmen that understand common construction techniques fairly well. Since half of Mexico is tiled, I assumed that they'd be great at it. Turns out that a little guidance is needed to achieve the level of finish that we're looking for, but they're taking to it quite well. Thanks to Roy for all of his help!

The penthouse bathroom shower tile, pre-grout. On the right beside the glass block window is the soap and shampoo cutout, still to be tiled. We're mostly starting at the top of the building and working our way down. We want to get this bathroom online so that we have at least one functional bathroom in the building.

B-Suite bathroom, shower area to the left, toilet area straight ahead.

Our above-mirror light wasn't perfectly above the sink, so we had to move it. It's no small feat when you're working with concrete walls, since they need to be channelled and base stucco re-applied.

Top courses of tile in the b suite bathroom.

Tiling begins

Happy New Year! Our crew is back at work. We scaled down from the 8 or so guys that we had working before to just 4, and our big push now towards completion is the tiling. Vanities and kitchen surfaces are the first things to do. I'm not sure when we're going to be done, but my guess would be late January early February. We'll see how it goes.

Second floor B suite kitchen is tiled.

First floor east vanity is tiled

first floor indoor kitchen counters and lower shelves getting tiled

first floor indoor kitchen counter and shelves being tiled. The dropdown stove area is calculated so that, with the burner risers on, the top of the cooktop works out with the countertop.

First floor west bathroom vanity is tiled.

first floor outdoor kitchen counters, shelves, and faces are tiled. Up next is a bit more stucco and the backsplash tile.