The Big Move Pt. I
This past week has been a test of ingenuity, patience, and (occasionally) pure muscle but we did it... we successfully moved out of the apartment and... drum roll please... we got our entire deposit back! Between moving everything out of the rooms, painting every wall twice and sealing up the hobbit door, it was certainly a time commitment. Although it is amazing to have two extra couches in the common room for meetings (and TV watching), the house certainly does feel smaller without our little apartment. Next week we will begin the process of moving out of this lovely home to our new one in Sangolqui! But until then... a little excerpt from Brock, our handyman extraordinaire.
The story of the hobbit door.
We finished moving out of the apartment this past week and I gotta tell you, a lot of work went into fixing and cleaning it. No project took more time and energy than the hobbit door. Background; the hobbit door was Bibi’s first project as Country Director and it served as the gateway to get from the house to the apartment. Before the door we had to climb on a ledge and through a window or walk around the outside of the house and into the neighbor’s house that was below the apartment.
The project started with Sam and me destroying the stairs inside the apartment that went to the hobbit door since the opening started about 3 feet off the ground. After taking out the stairs, Sam, Luke and I made mortar and filled in the hole with CMU block flush on the outside of the wall. While this was drying we took the sledge hammer to the outside hobbit door stairs. We
then used ghetto rigged form boards to pour concrete that we also made on the roof of the house. We had to hold the form boards in place until the concrete set. Once the concrete was dry it took several coats of stucco to make the inside wall smooth. But the landlord gave it the ok. This came as a great relief after Sam, Luke and I along with some help from Jack spent the better part of two and a half days working on the hobbit door.
And now... PICTURES!!
This past week has been a test of ingenuity, patience, and (occasionally) pure muscle but we did it... we successfully moved out of the apartment and... drum roll please... we got our entire deposit back! Between moving everything out of the rooms, painting every wall twice and sealing up the hobbit door, it was certainly a time commitment. Although it is amazing to have two extra couches in the common room for meetings (and TV watching), the house certainly does feel smaller without our little apartment. Next week we will begin the process of moving out of this lovely home to our new one in Sangolqui! But until then... a little excerpt from Brock, our handyman extraordinaire.
The story of the hobbit door.
We finished moving out of the apartment this past week and I gotta tell you, a lot of work went into fixing and cleaning it. No project took more time and energy than the hobbit door. Background; the hobbit door was Bibi’s first project as Country Director and it served as the gateway to get from the house to the apartment. Before the door we had to climb on a ledge and through a window or walk around the outside of the house and into the neighbor’s house that was below the apartment.
The project started with Sam and me destroying the stairs inside the apartment that went to the hobbit door since the opening started about 3 feet off the ground. After taking out the stairs, Sam, Luke and I made mortar and filled in the hole with CMU block flush on the outside of the wall. While this was drying we took the sledge hammer to the outside hobbit door stairs. We
then used ghetto rigged form boards to pour concrete that we also made on the roof of the house. We had to hold the form boards in place until the concrete set. Once the concrete was dry it took several coats of stucco to make the inside wall smooth. But the landlord gave it the ok. This came as a great relief after Sam, Luke and I along with some help from Jack spent the better part of two and a half days working on the hobbit door.
And now... PICTURES!!