The screened deck takes shape

Posted on by Ian C.

Another burst of work from the pool construction crews, and we have a great view now of how our finished, enclosed, screened pool and deck will look – the concrete columns and cross beams have been placed; with the rebar and concrete fill, this structure might be stronger than the house!
The finished structure is quite impressive! Here’s a few “during” pictures – amazing that this was all done by hand with no machine to lift the cross beams or pump the concrete!

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SONY DSC
SONY DSC
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SONY DSC
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The next stage is applying a stucco finish to all this concrete, to match the house – and then I think we finally get the pavers laid for the deck …

Less noise, more sound

Posted on by Ian C.

At the recent F56 launch event at Orlando MINI, I left Black Knight to have some service work done – and first of all I’m thrilled with the care and attention given to me by that dealership! My Motoring Advisor Greg had organized everything before my arrival, including ordering what was needed and getting the paperwork filled out – and Service Advisor Adante spoke to me both when I dropped the car off, and twice today, to keep me informed and to let me know when everything was ready.

So what was done? Well the most important thing was installing Sirius Satellite Radio! It was the one thing missing from an otherwise fully equipped car, and I couldn’t really understand why it was missing – even more so when I researched and found that all 2012+ USA MINIs have the electronics installed, whether Sirius is active or not.
So activating Sirius is a reprogramming / software only task – though one that takes multiple hours, which is why I left the car rather than waiting. And the proof of success was not only an email confirming my free one year subscription (Orlando MINI even configured that for me!), but also the displays and sound when I drove home tonight:

 

I also had the dealership hunt down the cause of an annoying rattle / rolling noise in the back of the car, which started a couple weeks after I took delivery; it sounded like a bolt rolling around in the bodywork, and that’s almost what it turned out to be!

Orlando MINI shop foreman Vann tracked the noise down to that wrench socket, the size used to fix the rear lights – my guess is that the socket stuck on the bolt during manufacture, and after a while it fell off the bolt and began rolling around. So I’m happy that noise is gone, too!