Pool House Expansion Project, Day 111 - 16/02/16

Cleaning up, Moving Furniture, Burglar Bars, Kitchen Mess, Loading Debris, Carl Raney,

Day One Hundred Ten, 16 February, 2016

We're down to the nitty-gritty. Omar is working a mop cleaning up the dining room and living room floors.

Omar Doing the Mopping

While he's doing that, Errol is also in the living room scraping up some paint drops that inevitably find their way onto the floor.

Errol Scraping Some Errant Paint

Finally, the bathroom linen closet has found its way into the bathroom.

Bathroom Linen Closet

Here's another view of the burglar bar screen door. The metal door has just received a bonus coat of paint. That's why the green tape is on the hinges.

Good Looking Burglar Bar Screen Door

An up-close shot of the burglar bar, made from one of the bars that protected the A/C units in the pool house. There's not a lot of room for error on the bottom.

On-Demand Water Heater Has a Cage of Its Own

Here the guys are picking ans sorting some of the debris prior to the truck Carl hired to take all the debris to the dump.

Sorting the Debris Prior to Truck Arrival

Our kitchen is getting emptied, but I wouldn't say is usable yet.

Our Jumbled Kitchen

The large bookcase that has been residing in the bathroom for this whole time has temporarily made it into the dining room along with the futon. The futon will be going upstairs while the sectional will be coming down.

Futon and Large Bookcase Temporarily in Dining Room

The truck is here, and all hands have turned to in order to load up all the unwanted construction debris.

Keeping Things Clean While Loading

I suspect that all these 'sticks' from concrete pours, will be making it to the dump. After all, the sticks are the preferred wood for outdoor cooking. I'm sure they've been shared out and will be delivered along the way.

Loading Sticks Into the Truck

Omar has been spending the last bit of time making sure the smallest details get paid attention to, as in touching up the blue paint on our front door.

Omar Touching Up Blue Trim

Here's our queen bed (that I spent a month flat-out on when I injured my back) at long last set up in the bedroom along with the night stands. The headboard has been reattached as well.

Queen Bed and Night Stands in the Bedroom

Each pile that gets loaded means the truck has to back up to tackle the next one.

Ready to Move to the Next Pile

One of our little bookcases has taken refuge in the living room.

Small Bookcase in the Living Room

The utility room is again accumulating stuff. Only temporary, of course.

Stuff Migrating to Utility Room

The truck is ready to head to the dump. More stuff than I thought there would be.

Surprisingly the Truck is Getting Full

And now, finally, that's it. The job is done. Construction is finished. One hundred eleven days. There is no more. We will be cleaning vigorously and moving stuff down from the Mennonite house to the pool house in a timely manner.

First thing we have to do before moving in is to seal the tile. I'm hoping to get some foam brushes to do the job. I went to four hardward stores today, and no one has them. They really are tailor-made for sealing grout. Soon.

The end of the job came somewhat suddenly. Carl and I were sitting on the futon, going over some receipts, and we agreed the job was done. We settled up the bills, I threw in the hammocks we had bought (the bars make them too wide for us to use on our veranda), and we shook hands, sealing the deal.

Overall, it was a fun project. We're very happy with the result. Carl has a great crew. They all were so considerate of Dianna and myself. Whatever we asked, they rushed to comply. Never surly, always focused and professional. A great project.

 There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.    

Pool House Expansion Project, Day 109 - 14/02/16

Valentine's Day, Isaiel and Welding, Burglar Bars and Doors

Days One Hundred Nine, 14 February, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day.

What a way to spend the day - installing burglar bars. Still, this is one more thing that lets you know that the project is nearing the end.

Isaiel Pech, our Godson, lives with his wife, Amarilly and their son, Joshua, in Guinea Grass, a few miles south of Orange Walk. He has his workshop there as well.

Isaiel works as a custom art welder. He works for an art-welding firm in Orange Walk and also has a small art-welding business of his own. He has done all of our outdoor hose hangers. You can see pictures of them elsewhere on the blog. He also did some nesting, glass-topped tables for us.

One of the projects he's working on is a custom, curved stair railing, down in Cayo. That piece is costing around $13,000, just for the stair railing.

Our project was nowhere near that extravagant. Just some straight forward burglar bars, and a burglar bar screen door of our design.

Here's our burglar bar screen door waiting for installation.

Burglar Bar Door Waiting to be Mounted

 But first, the burglar bars need to be installed. We had them mounted using screws and metal shields in holes bored into the concrete block walls.

Drilling A Bolt Hole

 Isaiel's brother, Romelio, came along with Isaiel and Joshua. Here Romelio is holding the Shop Vac to capture the drilling dust. Joshua spent most of the day entertaining Bela our youngest dog, and playing games on his tablet.

Drilling Another hole

 After drilling, the bars are mounted, and the screws tightened.

Mounting Burglar Bar to Wall

 Our first burglar bar, mounted. We call them burglar bars, and they do serve that purpose very well. But they also have another purpose, and that's hurricane preparedness. If you look closely, you can see there's a half-inch channel  on both the top and bottom. That's so we can slide a prepared piece of plywood into the channel, and then lock it down with a threaded bolt in the lower channel. They fit close and do a great job of protecting the louvers and stopping the intrusion of storm-driven water.

First Burglar Bar Mounted

 Here the east side is almost done.

Almost A Whole Side Done

Looking at the action from inside the house.

Bars From the Inside

South side is all done.

Bars On the South Side

As is the east side.

Bars On the East Side

Back to the west side. This time showing the burglar bars for the water heater, making it less susceptible to theft. This bar was originally protecting a window air-conditioner unit we had installed in the pool house. Both of those units have gone bye-bye. It seemed sensible to re-purpose the bars to their new task.

Even One For the Water Heater

Last part of the project is installing the burglar bar screen door. We sort of screwed up by mounting the regular entry door first, but Isaiel was able to work around that difficulty and get it installed nicely.

Burglar Bar Door Getting Mounted

Here's a detail of the door. The design is supposed to be an art-deco lily, but it more resembles an olympic-style torch. Whatever, it still looks cool. We've got the same design on all  of our burglar bar screen doors. We have four others - two upstairs for the Mennonite house and two downstairs for the 'basement'.

Burglar Bar Door Detail

Part of the process is spent modifying the frame to take the lockset. Here Isaiel has been drilling holes to make a hole for the deadbolt and knob latch.

Cutting Openings for the locks

Several trial openings and closings later, Isaiel declared it a good fit, and the job was done.

Making Sure the Locks Fit

A little final touch-up by Romelio, and we could kick back and relax for a bit.

Romelio Touching Up Paint

Admiring the work. It is one fine looking door.

Pretty Cool Looking Door

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.   

Pool House Expansion Project, Days 104-108 - 09-13/02/16

Front and Back Steps, Water heater, Burglar Bars, Vanity Mirrors, Backsplash

Days One Hundred Four - One Hundred Eight, 09-13 February, 2016

The days now are just filled with little things. Little detailed things that need doing, fixing, or  re-doing. Most of it isn't worth shooting a picture or writing about, but it all adds up to the job becoming very close to being done.

Here's a shot of the front, or is it the back of the house. I'm going to say the back, because, the view is still toward the canal.

The Front or Back of Our house

Here's the Front or Back Steps. Either way, they look very nice. The guys did an exceptional tile job on them.

Front Steps All Nicely Tiled

The water heater is finally leak proof. It's ready to go. I just have to remember to get two D-cell batteries so the igniter will work. BTW, there will be burglar bars over the heater, as well as all the windows. Our Godson, Isiael is coming this Sunday and will get them all installed.

Water heater Ready to Roll Jut Need Batteries

He's also bringing a burglar bar door for the front (or is it back) door.

Our Front or Back Door From the Inside

The green rollup button box is now a pale blue. Much better.

Rollup Button Repainted

Just a shot of the bathroom vanity with the base and medicine cabinet installed. The backsplash tiling has started. The mirrors are still waiting to be contact-cemented to their plywood backs. The granite is looking wonderful, and an outlet still needs to be wired in below.

Bathroom Vanity and Medicine Cabinet

Vanity plumbing with a little extra. You can just see a second shut-off valve. That and the strange pipe going up are both parts for the Cat Genie - its water supply and waste line. It is a self-cleaning system, after all.

Sink With Stuff for Cat Genie

The shower is all done and ready for action. Everything is grouted. I installed the shower head and hose this morning. Omar got the valves installed, so it's good to go.

Shower All Grouted and Ready

Backsplash on the vanity is nearing completion here. Once it's grouted, it too is good to go.

Backsplash Tiling Going On

The pantry, freezer, laundry, and storage room is clean as a whistle. the board is half a sheet of furniture plywood. That will be ripped and used as part of the shelving in this room.

Utility Room With Wood for Shelving

Finally, making the cuts to install hammock hooks so we can relax in style on the veranda and walkway. We bought two hammocks with wood bars as separators. But with the way we had to install the hooks, the bars just get in the way. So, we're selling those to Carl, our contractor and will be shopping for two hammocks sans bars.

Cutting Hole for the Hammock Hooks

Speaking of bars, I went out this morning, hoping to find a couple of bars for the closet. Villa's Imports didn't have anything, neither did Lano's, but Dragon Hardware had exactly what I was looking for. I came home and installed them right away. I even used epoxy in the screw holes to help hold everything together.

Closet Rods in the Closet

Speaking of the closet, it now has handles on all four doors.

Handles on the Doors

Now, isn't that gorgeous? the Medicine cabinet now has mirrors in place (they really need cleaning), and the tile and grout work is finished.

Mirrors in the Medicine Cabinet

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.  

He Said He'd Be Here 'Right Now'

A few days ago, on August 10 at 7:17 AM (not to put too fine a point on it, as they say) Tracey wrote a comment on the blog:

Hi,
I've really been enjoying your blog. I am an American considering doing the move. I am not sure how many years down the road...Could you write about how much new construction you see around the area? How available secure homes with gates are? Please keep up this great blog. It seems that a part of me is already there.
I am very glad Ernesto spared the area.
Thanks!
Tracey

Well, there's certainly construction going on around Casa Winjama. In our immediate neighborhood there's at least four or five houses going up as we speak. There's several lots that have been filled with marl (necessary if you live right near the water), and we've heard through the grapevine that several lots have been sold as well.

And, building is not happening just in our neighborhood, it really seems to be all over Corozal. In fact, we've been hard-pressed to tell that there's been a slow down in the local economy here with all the building that has been going on pretty much continuously.

I'm not sure what Tracey means by 'secure homes'. Every home, if you want, can be secured with gates and fencing. That's just for starters. Don't be fooled into thinking a gate is going to protect you. Constant vigilance, lighting, burglar bars, not doing stupid things, etc., etc., are all important. Most important is dogs. Big dogs. Here dogs have to be looked at as more than just pets. They are the primary part of your security system. They know how to do their job. Your task is to learn how to work with them so that they can do it and at least, provide you with early warning and in many cases, a good dose of intimidation.

There's some housing, already built that's available, but a lot of folks build new. There's pluses and minuses to both ways. The temptation, of course, is to build your own McMansion - the house of your dreams. As an example, when we first got here, our plans called for a 60-foot fish pond in our main hallway. 60-foot? We each were going to have our own office, workshop, a monster kitchen, etc., etc., etc. Thankfully, we woke up. We lived for a while in the Mennonite house we had purchased with the idea that it was going to be our caretaker's house. After a bit, we realized, it was comfortable and easy to keep, and just what the Hell were we thinking? Consequently, our design became a quaint memento.

Keep in mind, down here maintenance is absolutely on-going. The bigger your house, the more time and money you are going to spend on repairs and keeping it functioning. I'd rather be in my pool. If you're a regular reader of the blog, you know we've done our share of repairs and such. Tropical weather, the heat and humidity kills tools, materials, metals, plastics, batteries, electronics - you name it. So, if your main desire is to relax, then think about building accordingly. You'll find that, rather quickly, you become good for one project a day. and that work day begins early (to avoid the heat and humidity) and generally ends by noon or before. I absolutely am not joking. There's days that I walk the dogs on our usual 4-mile routine, then, that's it. That was my project for the day. And, as we all get older, guess what happens?

As far as realtors, I only know of one that I can recommend and that's because we bought our property through him. That's Gregg Turrentine, Belize North Real Estate. Reach him at 501-422-0284 or czl@belizenorthrealestate.bz. Not to say the others aren't good, but I have only dealt with Gregg. Keep in mind there is no multiple listing service, licensing or mandatory training, etc., for realtors here. Caveat Emptor is the rule of the day.

Just like everywhere else, there's some areas of town that might be more desirable than others. Your best bet is to come down and spend some quality time - as in renting for six months or so before buying. You need this time to learn how things are done here, from the construction materials, methods, skills, quality of workmanship, availability of everything and anything, and how long it takes for even the simplest task to be completed. Plan on becoming your building crews chief gofer. Making six or seven trips into town in a day is not unusual. It will pay dividends. You'll become acquainted with the storekeepers, how to interpret the various dialects, what things are called, what is available, what isn't (and in some cases, why). In short, it will force you to become integrated into the community faster and surer than any other way you could possibly think of. You'll even learn the true meaning of "Right now."

Oh, and I can't say it strongly enough... Be here, onsite daily, as your house is being built! It's an experience to be savored for sure.

We love it here, so do lots of other folks. But, it isn't for everyone.

More Bunker Hunkering

As I promised a few minutes ago in my comment on the last posting, here's some shots of the hurricane shutters we put up on both houses.

First, I was tickled with the shot on Google Earth that clearly shows Hurricane Richard. Now if we could just get them to update the land images more often.

You Can Almost See Us Waving

It's still drizzling and blowing (about 10-15 MPH), so quite comfortable right now.

Here's the shots of the Hurricane Shutters:

Front Porch Hurricane Shutter

The above shot is of our Mennonite house shutters. There's a groove in the burglar bar so we can just slide the plywood into place. I have some bolts (not installed yet for this house) that will lock the plywood into place if the wind really howls. Not much to look at but they're very effective.

The only problem with the Mennonite house is that we only have shutters for the front and back upstairs - we didn't have any bars made for the side windows. We may look into rectifying that sometime. We have shutters for all the windows downstairs to shield the workshops and utility rooms.

Guesthouse Hurricane Shutters

The guesthouse is much more organized regarding the shutters. We have 'em for each window. And, each one is locked in place with a 1/2" bolt. It took us about 10 minutes per house to put these up.

More Guesthouse Shutters

The only thing I forgot for the guesthouse is shutters for the A/C units. Strong wind blows water through the cooling fins. Minor oversight that will be corrected in a couple of weeks.

As you can see, not much is going on here right now. I took these photos about 3:30 PM or so. If things change much, I'll take some more. If we get much of a storm surge, I'll be sure to include some shots of that as well - assuming we're not swimming for all we're worth.

Thanks for the kind thoughts and prayers. It's all appreciated. I think we're in pretty good shape for this thing.

More later,
Dave