Pool House Expansion Project, Days Five and Six - 26-27/09/15

We got back from Belmopan on Saturday afternoon.

Day Five and Six - 26 and 27 September, 2015

Just in time for Sunday and Sunday night's Blood Red Moon, really just a total lunar eclipse. But still, pretty cool. I stayed up as long as I could to see it. Not quite half way through the five and-a-half hour progression of the eclipse.

You'd be surprised how strong the beliefs down here are in old wive's tales and legends of what can happen to pregnant women, children, women who want/don't want to become pregnant, etc. I think the old beliefs may be losing ground, because of some of the questions we got asked about it. But, unless you can give a factual, simple and easy to understand answer, but even then, the fall-back is to continue believing the old ways.

My Pocket Camera's Take of the Blood Red Moon

 We came back to lots of mounds of marl and trenches run everywhere.These guys worked hard. And that's even with rain delays.

Colleen, who house-sat for us and tended the animals too, told us about the heavy rains and how the guys had to shovel the water out of the trenches before they could continue doing their work. We owe Colleen a huge debt of grattitude for staying here, and for her husband Bruce, who had to take care of matters at their own home while Colleen was gone. Thanks guys. We owe you.

A Lot of Progress - Mounds Everywhere

Of course, by the time we got back, the heavy rains had subsided. It was pretty much georgeous weather on the home-front by then. Don't those trenches just look great? We were surprised and happy to see how much progress had been made.

Trenches Look Great in this Shot

Pool House Expansion Project, Day Two - 24/09/15

The guys show up, all riding in Carl's pickup. 

Day Two - 24 September, 2015

He has a Sport Trac too. An omen, perhaps? They get directly to work cutting poles down to size to use as stakes, which they promptly pound in various places around the yard. Much better than beer bottles.

Stakes Appearing All Over the Yard

Omar spent much of this first day, supervising placement of the stakes. Some of them are measurement stakes and some will be holding corner boards.

Measure Twice and Stake Once

All the measurements for level stem from measurements done earlier by Omar to find where the floor level was at the back of the pool house. Everything comes from that level. There's high-tech solutions, to accomplish the same thing, but the best and cheapest is still the ancient water level.

A form of the water level is credited by many to Theodorus of Samos,a 6th-century BCE, Greek sculptor and architect.  Carl Sagan, in  his series Cosmos, said that Theodorus invented the level, several other tools, and bronze casting. Good enough for me.

Ancient Water Level Technology Determined Floor Level

Now come the corner boards. They do a couple of things. The corner boards help keep the block lines running true, that is straight, and also carry on the level as determined by the water level. They also help determine square corners.

Corner Boards Come Next

Here you can see a slightly more modern level, a spirit level being used to determine the straight run from two points on the corner boards.

Floor Level DeterminesString Levels

As you can see, if you look close, corner boards become somewhat complex items in and of themselves. They'll be used clear up till about when the foundation walls are finished and the floor is ready to be cast or poured.

Surrounded With String and Corner Boards

Pool House Expansion Project - Day One 20/09/15

Somewhere along the line, Dianna and I decided now was the time to get serious about expanding the pool house so that it could actually become our house. The drawing you see below is actually number thirty-five or thirty-six of a progression of drawings, once we decided that the addition would be all on the same level. There are probably another thirty or so with the addition going upstairs for a second level to the house.

The numbers are somewhat skewed because there have been a few where I forgot to 'save-as' and overwrote an existing drawing. There might be an additional ten or so drawing that simply vanished as a result of forgetfulness. Oh well. Here's the end result.

You might ask, "Dave, what software did you use to make such a fine drawing from?", or something like that.

Well, I'll tell you. "I used an open-source (as in totally free) program called Sweet Home 3D ® Version 5.0.1 (www.sweethome3d.com/)." Eteks is the company, and the founder/driving force is Emmanuel Puybaret, info@eteks.com. He's French, but don't hold that against him. For a free software program, it is pretty cool and it's easy to learn as well.

Final and Working Drawing of the Proposed Addition

Ok, so a few words about our contractor, Carl Raney. He was introduced to us by Charlotte Lanore, which is a pretty high recommendation in itself, in our estimation

Carl is relatively new to contracting, but is not new to Corozal and Belize. He has a very good crew working for him. Between Carl and his lead man, Omar, it's hard to tell who is more of a perfectionist. If you like what you see here and in subsequent postings as the construction process unfolds, I suggest you get in touch with Carl. You can call him at 501-636-5270, or email him at tauceo@yahoo.com.

We like working with Carl and his men very much. In the eight, going on nine years that we've lived here in Corozal, we've worked with a few contractos, so we can speak from some experience.

Day One - 20 September, 2015

Getting things started, since we had an empty crate of Belikin bottles just hanging around, Carl and Omar took advantage of that and did a rough layout in the yard of the proposed addition, using the bottles to mark the boundaries of the project.

Belikin Bottles Set the Boundaries for the Project