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Keep us posted!

Joe

Good to hear, EW.

It's been a long slog for you.  Here's hoping you'll be laying track before Christmas!

Blair

Track laying unlikely this year

Sadly, I don't expect to lay any track this year. Just today I finally got my application accepted for permanent resident. That couldn't be started before this month, but was due on the 20th, and it took me a couple tries to get all the right paperwork in order, but now the pressure's off on that one. They will take a long time to process it. It was 10-12 weeks before covid. They seem to be operating at the same pace as before, but I doubt it will be any less than 10-12 weeks.

Once I have my residency card I can once again travel (can't leave the country while it's in process). When I can travel I will see about getting my stuff moved down from storage in Laredo, TX. Included are my MRR tools.

When that stuff arrives I can start benchwork. It's a long process, but it's moving forwards in spite of everything.

I'll be doing good to get all my stuff down here by the end of the year.

pic

Got bored so I snapped a pic of the train room (living room) on my phone. Today is Mexican Independence Day, so no work going on. You can see, maybe, the tile is down in the room, but the edge pieces have not been cut and placed yet. None of it has been 'fixed' (grouted, whatever they call it). 

The old ceiling is gone, the aluminum hangers taken down and the new hangers are up, but the drywall isn't. 

One month done

Renovation started on Sept 1, now it's been one month of a three month schedule, and they're more like half done it seems to me than one third done. In the last two weeks they've completed the tile around the edges, added a strip of tile where baseboard would be, so in effect I have ceramic baseboard made from the floor tile, put up the ceiling drywall in most of the room, leaving only the areas where the AC ducting would go. The AC ducting has been installed, and they're waiting a couple days to see if there are any condensation points before putting up the rest of the ceiling. 

The rest of the apartment is coming along nicely too, and I think in a couple days I'll move between bedrooms, from one that I've been living in that hasn't been touched yet into the completely-renovated master bedroom, so they can start on the last bedroom and bathroom that I've been using. 

My application for permanent residency in Mexico was approved (in much less time than I expected), but the next step after approval is an appointment to get finger printed and supply pictures for the ID card, and they scheduled that appointment for November 3rd (six weeks out, sigh). Then after that there's a 2-week wait for the card, so maybe by Thanksgiving I can travel back to the US again, and work on getting my stuff moved down here (including trains). 

My retirement 'nest-building' is all coming together, slowly. Trains are on the horizon.

Encouraging news,

EW.  Maybe, you'll be able to at least put a loop of track under the Christmas tree, to whet the appetite!

Hang in there

Blair

Renovation update

The renovation was supposed to be completed by Nov 30. It's mostly done, but we're in extra innings. The contractor is trying to finish up most 'details' (i.e. little things that need fixing) by Tuesday, because I'm flying out for Christmas and won't be back until New Year's eve. 

So December, which I thought was going to be the month when I bought a car and retrieved my tools and other stuff from storage in Texas, is shot, and all that slips to January.

Worse, the contractor dilly-dallied around about buying the lights for the apartment. A total of around 60 fixtures are needed (these are LED ceiling spots). When he finally needed them, they didn't have them at HD. So most rooms have either no lights or some placeholder fixtures that will get swapped out eventually. As in next year. 

In particular, the main room still has a smooth ceiling with no overhead lights installed. My contract for the renovation has a penalty clause of around $25 a day for going past Nov 30, but I doubt I can collect it. At this point I just want to get done. 

If I can remember tomorrow when there's light I'll snap a pic of my train room, it's beautiful in the daytime...

PS: no christmas tree either, it's in storage in Texas along with my tools :<

But I won't be here to not appreciate it. I'm flying to DC to stay with my Mom for 2 weeks. She hasn't seen me for a year due to covid restrictions. I hope they don't change the rules on me before next wednesday.