Pool House Expansion Project, Day Nine - 30/09/15

 Everything up to now has been preparation for this.

Day Nine - 30 September, 2015

Sand, gravel, cement, blocks, all coming together in this next stage to actually make the foundation and the house.

Here's the first of two loads of sand, just starting to dump. It'll all be over in just seconds.

First Load of Sand Coming Down

Our hard gravel arriving. This also comes from Orange Walk. I don't think it quartz, but it's certainly harder than the local limestone gravel we usually get here in Corozal.

Hard Gravel Arriving

A load of block coming. Now, these may look like normal block, and they are. But here in Corozal, there's block, and then there's block. By that I mean, pretty much all the block available in Corozal is made with local materials, which makes for a poor quality block. I know. I've had more than enough of them fall apart on me.

Blocks Arriving

I mean, there's nothing like grabbing a block off the stack and only coming away with a small hunk of the block. It literally crumbles in your hand. Sometimes, they just crumble sitting in the stack. They're just terrible quality. and at about $1.50 BZD each, nothing like paying for nothing.

On the other hand, there's these blocks. Not only are they very well formed, they're properly cured. They've been allowed to age - not long, maybe a day or so, and the important part, the stone used in them is from Orange Walk. Granite. Makes all the difference in the world. These are some nice quality block.

Once you've been around block for a bit, you can tell at a glance, that these are not your average Corozal block. The edges are crisp and sharp, the color is slightly different, the feel of the block is different too.

I mentioned earlier about the concrete standoffs. Here's a photo demonstrating just how they're applied. Not only are they placed under the rebar, just like you'd do with any old hunk of concrete or block that you're using as a standoff, but with the built-in tie, you can anchor it to the rebar so that it stays in place, and can resist the forces applied when a wheelbarrow load of wet concrete comes crashing down on it. If the rebar shifts, the standoff is coming with it, improving the integrity of the pour and the materials used.

Demonstrating How the Standoffs Work

I've felt bad since this project started, that I've had to chain up the girls all day while construction is underway. I'm looking at how I can make some sort of pen for them while this is going on, so they don't have to remain chained.

The reason they're chained is two-fold. One, so they don't interfere with any of the construction going on, and two, so there is no familiarity developed between the girls and the workers. It's all part of the ongoing security process down here. You have to be very selective about who you let get close to your dogs and thereby develop familiarity. It's best if they know and are friends with a few people and alert with the rest.

Yes, they're pets, but the primary purpose for them is alert and warning, and a certain amount of intimidation for strangers coming around. The fewer the dogs become familiar with, the better your security picture is maintained. They are your alarm company. Security here is way, way different than security up north.

The Girls Being Patient

Well, I think that's about it for this post. This was mostly to get us current with the project. and we're almost there. The next step is actually pouring concrete and setting blocks. I think that's a good place for a new post. It'll be a couple of short steps and you'll be all caught up and current, as long as I stay caught up and current with my posting.

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 Eight - 29/09/15

This cave-in, which occurred adjacent to the 2nd gate and driveway, required some prompt action.

Day Eight - 29 September, 2015

The guys were expecting several deliveries of sand, gravel, large rocks and cement. None of it light (in weight) stuff. In the picture below, it's been cleaned and readied for a small load of rock to fill it. After it's filled, Carlos (our caretaker) will cover it with marl and after a while, you wouldn't know there was ever a cave-in there.

Cave-In Being Remedied

Before the trenches can be filled with concrete, steel rebar must be added.

Cutting Rebar to Length

Along with cutting the rebar to length, there's a need for smaller diameter rebar (like 1/4" stuff) that is bent and formed to make a sort of collar for the rebar that helps give it some 3-dimensional qualities, like in the rebar columns. Here's Omar forming up a bunch of those for just that use.

Omar Bending 1/4" Rebar As Frames For Heavier Rebar in Columns, etc.

The rebar part of the project moved right along, as you can see from the photo below. And already the vertical pieces for the columns are set, making use of Omar's frames.

Rebar is Already in the Trenches

The shot below gives you a little bigger perspective of the whole project. if you're wondering why the rebar runs up so high for the columns, keep in mind that our ceilings in the new part are going to be 9-foot 6-inches. Nice and high. They appear more so right now since the floor level hasn't been cast yet.

Big Picture of the Vertical Rebar Pieces

One thing I had never seen before is the use of concrete standoffs to raise the rebar in trenches up to the mid-point of the pour. Oh, sure, everyone uses bits of concrete block to use as standoffs, as well as whatever other material may be on hand.

This is the first time that I've seen purpose-built standoffs. These even come with a length of tie-wire molded into the standoff, in order for it to be married to the rebar, so there is little danger of the rebar becoming misplaced during the pour. Pretty cool idea.

Deeohgee Inspecting the Concrete Standoffs

One of the tasks that's very important from our perspective, is keeping a handle on the spending for a project, especially something that's fairly major - at least as far as our bank account is concerned. Dianna loves doing this, and dove right in. She set up a notebook, and has everything organized. Tracking invoices, receipts, and estimates, is right up her alley. I'm so glad she likes doing that, and she's good at it too.

Dianna, Reverting to Her Past Life, Keeping the Books

Of course, we've found another small cave-in. It's right next to the round one that we patched up already. This one's a lot smaller. As work progresses, any leftover concrete the guys have, goes into the hole. For now, that seems to be sufficient. We've had heavy trucks run over it with no problem, so it seems to be under control. We are keeping an eye on it. Just one of the hazards of living on a limestone coast. We're lucky in that none of the cave-in activity around here seems to be on a par with the really scary stuff like up in Florida.

Another Small Cave-In. This One is About One-Foot Across

One of the real treats whenever we have a construction project is that the breakfast man,  'FatBwai' (Fat Boy in standard English) shows up and sells hot dogs, tamales, hamburgers, patties, all the good breakfast stuff to the workers. He doesn't have everything every day, but the menu varies a lot. He also sells bags of juice and some bottles of juice too. The mornings he doesn't show up, the workers all complain that FatBwai is starving them.

FatBwai Bringing Sustenance to the Troops

If you'd like to see more photos of our project as it moves along, check out this link. Click on https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/GwZ9si to see the complete album of the Pool House Addtion Construction. It'll get added to daily.

We're Belizeans!

The morning after our Nationality ceremony at the University of Belize gymnasium, Dianna and I were relaxing with a nice cup of Nescafe instant coffee in our hotel room, watching local news on TV, when on came a report about the ceremony from Belmopan's Plus TV.

Dianna Checking Our King-Sized Bed At the Hibiscus Hotel, Belmopan

Actually, it was longer than that, as we got the call from Immigration on Wednesday, letting us know that our Nationality application had been approved (this had been a three-year-and-three-day wait). Immigration also told us that we had to have our Nationality fee ($300.00 BZD, each) paid by Thursday. Immigration said we could pay the fee in Corozal.
There was a real sense of urgency to all this. So, right away, I told Dianna what was happening, and that I was going down immediately to Immigration to pay the fees. I got to Immigration at about 11:30 AM. Now, our experiences with the Corozal Immigration from three years earlier, were that nothing happened with any speed inside their office. It was a pleasant surprise to find an open window as I came in and a friendly sounding uniformed Immigration officer asking if they could help me.
I explained I was there to pay our Nationality fees and showed our receipt that we had gotten three years before when we submitted our application. There was some consternation on their part that I only had one receipt. I explained that way back then, Immigration at Belmopan told us they were consolidating our application under my 'case' number. Luckily, I had written Dianna's 'case' number on the receipt, so the officer was able to write up two receipts for our fees.
However, as most folks who deal with the Corozal office know, they don't actually handle any money there. You have to go back downtown to the Sub-Treasury Office beside the Post Office. Which is where I ran off to as soon as the Immigration officer handed me the initial receipts.
At the Treasury office, all went well. I asked where the nearest place was to get copies of the Treasury receipt. I had been told by the Immigration office that I needed to have a copy of the receipt that Treasury would give me. Of course, the Treasury office had a large sign in their cashier's window saying they didn't make copies. The clerk told me either the school supply store across the Central Park square or the Library.
Exiting, the Treasury, I glanced toward both places and decided neither was going to be quick Which is what I needed right then. I jumped back in the pickup and zoomed over to INK Supply, a few blocks away. Much to my chagrin, they were packed with teachers getting lesson materials copied and colated. As I went in, Miss Clara noticed me and asked what I needed. I showed her the small receipts I had and that I needed copies of each. Luckily, she took them and pulled one of the teacher's copy jobs off and ran mine. Whew.
I jumped back in the pickup and rocketed back to Immigration, and miraculously was able to find a parking place directly in front of their office. I ran in, gave the same officer the receipts and got the most necessary rubber stamps on the varioius bits of paper. I made it at two minutes to twelve. We were good to go to head over to Belmopan.
We contacted Colleen, who immediately said she would babysit the dogs and cats for us. All was set for our adventure to begin. The following morning, we asked Carlos, our caretaker, to be in charge of tying the dogs up when the construction guys came and to let them loose after they had departed. We gave Colleen a rough primer on where the food was for the animals, and how to do this and that in our house,  and zip, bang, boom, that was it. We jumped in the pickup and away we went to Belmopan. That was a little after 11:00 AM on Thursday.
Somewhere in there, Dianna had called and made a reservation for us at the Hibiscus. We got in to Belmopan around 3:30 PM, or so. Found the Hibiscus - Boy, had things changed in Belmopan. New round-a-bouts, and new paving, made things look different and confusing.

Our Initial Line At Belmopan Immigration

The Crowd Milling Around the Passport Office

PlusTV Photo of Abu Bakkar Being Interviewed, Who Hopped a Ride With Us

Dianna in the Bleachers - On the Phone With Colleen

More Or Less Seated in the Bleachers

Putting the Immigration Banner Up

Our Attempt At Lining Up Single File

Finally, They're Seating Us in the Correct Order

A Blurry Snap of Dianna, Clear On the Other Side

PlusTV Photo of Minister Godwin Hulse

My PlusTV Interview - Displaying My New Nationality Certificate

It was fun to watch the news report (http://www.plustvbelize.com/200-new-belizeans-with-elections-around-the-bend/) because it covered the big picture of the ceremony and the final process at the Immigration offices earlier in the day. Here's my interview clip (http://youtu.be/tD_JojbCcaM) featured in the report. Enjoy.

 The whole experience was an eleven-hour ordeal. To start at the beginning, we had been told to be at Immigration in Belmopan by 7:00 AM, Friday morning. This meant that we had to go over to Belmopan on Thursday. We stayed downtown at the Hibiscus Hotel.










We checked into our room. A king-sized bed. Wow. Luxury compared to our double bed at home. We went next door to Corker's Restaurant for a nice dinner then hit the sack to get ready for the following day's ordeal.

Friday morning arrived bright and early. I showered (a cold shower as there was no hot water for the shower). A cold shower being relative, as the cold water was probably around 78-degrees (f) as usual, so it wasn't exactly a chilling experience.

We skipped breakfast. I guess we assumed there'd be opportunity to grab a bite later on. Not so much, really. The morning at Immigration was bizarre and became more so as the morning wore on. We had assumed that we would be done with the ceremony by 10:00 AM - 11:30, at the latest.
After initially lining up, we were told after an hour or so to gather round the doorway to the passport section, so we could hear when our names were called. Of course, as yet, no one had turned in their receipts, which, every time an Immigration offficer appeared, hands clutching receipts began to wave in the air. And, each time, the officer would grab a few receipts and duck back inside the building.

Immigration also had a small awning set up on the grounds, and had brought in some plastic chairs which were more or less placed under the awning. This was suitable for, maybe forty or fifty people. But, since the crowd had grown to be around 200 or so, clearly was inadequate. Some folks did use the awning to escape the rain.

One good thing about the rain, was that it seemed to dampen the ardour of the Immigration officer who was determined that we would line up in some particular fashion. Instead, they seriously began to collect the receipts. We then still had to listen for our names to be called.
Checkout time at the Hibiscus was 11:30 AM. At 11:00, I knew we were going to need the room for another night. I called them and secured our room for Friday.

Finally, around 12:15, my name was called. I told Dianna to come in with me, since I figured they would be confused since everything they had was contained in one file under my 'case' number, even though we had turned in two receipts. That was a lucky call. They had both our names under the one 'case' number. We were in. They gave us new receipts that had a penciled number (mine was 155, Dianna's was 156), and we were told to be over at the University of Belize gymnasium at 1:00 PM for the actual ceremony.

After getting some rudimentary directions, we headed out to find the gymnasium. Eventually, we stopped at a store in a strip-mall sort of affair and asked the clerk directions. "Go this way and so" was essentially what we were told. and of course, "you can't miss it." Which pretty much guarantees you'll be perpetually lost.

We weren't. we actually did find the U of B. We asked what we thought was a student where the Gymnasium was. Turns out he was a Nationality applicant, just like us. He told us where to go and hopped into the bed (or pan as it's called here) of the pickup and away we went over an amazingly bumpy road to the Gym.
We parked. and went inside. There was a whole fleet of white folding chairs set up and more plastic chairs were arriving. We began the organizing process again. We had been led to believe that we would find our seat number and sit. Not so simple. None of the chairs had numbers. So, some sat, some just kind of mingled around. Then an Immigration officer attempted to take charge. I think it was the same Immigration officer as before. This time, she wanted us to line up. No, that wasn't going to work.
Then, we were directed to sit in the nearby bleachers. I actually thought we'd find our numbers in the bleachers. No. But we did sit there for an hour or so.
We were entertained by watching Immigration staffers attempt to hang a banner on the wall behind the podium using a common office stapler. Then they tried to use massive amounts of masking tape. Eventually, it got up. I had visions of it peeling down and falling over the dignitaries while the ceremony was happening.
And now the Immigration officer wanted us to line up single file in numerical order. We fumbled about with that for at least half an hour.
Giving up with that, they decided on a new strategy. They would call our name and two or three Immigration officers and staff would guide us to the chair they wanted us to sit in. Eventually, all two-hundred and ten of us got seated more or less in the correct order.
You'd think Dianna and I would be seated next to each other, at least going by our initial assigned numbers. Not so much. Dianna was about fifteen seats away from me on the other side of the gymnasium.
By now, it's about 3:30 PM, or so. The ceremony got kicked off about 4:00 PM. One of our fellow applicants played the Belize National Anthem on recorder. An amazing job of it too. He did a beautiful job of it, concert quality. Then there was a recitation of the Belize National Prayer (Amen). This was followed by a couple of speeches by Ministers of government. The first, I couldn't tell you who the Minister was.

The second, by Minister Godwin Hulse, Minister of Immigration, Labour, Local Government and Rural Development. He's also head of NEMO - the National Emergency Management Organization, was actually a very good speech. In it, he detailed all twenty-six countries the applicants had come from, our responsibilities as citizens, etc. In the end, I think, we all swelled with pride that we were becoming Belizean.
There were a couple of more speeches. Then Minister Hulse led us in a recitation of the Citizenship Oath. Then came the good part. We got called in order as seated, to come, one at a time, up on stage and receive our Nationality Certificates and to shake hand with the dignitaries. Of course, we were toward the last of the crowd. That was fine.

As I left the stage, I was stopped by a reporter for Belmopan Plus TV and interviewed.
We first saw it Saturday morning as we sipped our coffee in the king-sized bed at the Hibiscus. The ceremony finally concluded, after a couple more brief speeches, at 5:15 PM. A little over ten hours. Whew! A very long day. We made it back to the Hibiscus and dinner at Corkers, then back to our room and sleep.

Now, before anyone takes a dive off the deep-end, yes, we've become Belizean Citizens. No, we didn't give up our US citizenship, nor are we required to do so. Dual citizenship is allowed for certain countries, Belize being one of them.

Incidentally, we feel a great deal of pride in having become Belizean Citizens. This process gave a great feeling of accomplishment. Perhaps something similar should be required of natural-born US citizens.

Going through it really does put you in touch with the country's history, government, culture, etc. It might help some wingnut Americans reconnect with what it really means to be an American. It ain't all guns and some guy on a cross.

The US is called the Great Melting Pot. Believe me, after that ceremony, you know that Belize IS the true melting pot. We're very proud to be a part of that process.

You can see the rest of the photos of our Nationality Day adventure on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/q5M578

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, Days Three and Four - 24-25/09/15

We kind of lost track of the construction for the next couple of days.

Days Three and Four - 24 and 25 September, 2015

We had to run over to Belmopan to get our Belizean Nationality or Citizenship. You can read about that here(http://www.winjama.net/2015/09/we-belizeans.html)

Can You Find the Green Shirt? (Again Thanks to Belmopan PlusTV)

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

Is the Hiatus Over?

I don't know. I have been wasting time on Facebook, which I detest. Just about every posting I've made over there, I've had the niggling feeling that that posting should have been expanded into a blog post. Well, what can I say? As usual, my inner voice is probably right, but it wasn't shouting loud enough to overcome my laziness.

That is, till events have sort of forced my hand. Several things have occurred, or will be occurring. Ranging from upgrading my desktop PC to Windows 10 - that went painlessly. Windows 10 isn't perfect by any means, but it's light years ahead of any other Windows system upgrade that I've ever done; to finally getting a new-to-us vehicle, a Pueblo gold color, Ford Explorer Sport Trac XLT pickup. It's a 2005 and the odometer has been around the world once (I hope).

Brand New Sport Trac

The color is an exotic-sounding Pueblo Gold Clearcoat Metallic - otherwise known as marl, eventually, the color of everything down here - which it matches perfectly, whether it's mud or dust. Much easier to keep that clean look than with the black Isuzu.

It has electric everything - windows; outside mirrors; the inside rearview mirror has a compass and a thermometer; electronic door locks - remote keyless entry, number code pad on the driver's door (I haven't figured that out yet as I haven't located the master code which is hidden somewhere). It even has a power sliding window in the center back of the cab. Well, it should have. It came with the window (which was good), but no mechanism (called a regulator) to raise or lower it, oh, and no motor to power the regulator. I'm shopping around for those items. Stay tuned.

Even the gas cap has a sensor to tell you if it's fastened correctly or not. I've also been chasing down lightbulbs that no longer work. So far, all fairly easy fixes. Hey, I know it's not perfect, but for Belize, it's a pretty cool ride.

Let's see, what's next? Oh, yes. I now have a dental bridge on the lower left side of my jaw. I had a broken tooth removed and within a couple of days, the tooth right in front of that one decided to explode. So a visit back to Dr. Cima to take care of that tooth as well. Then we had scheduling conflicts, so I ended up at Dr. Garcia's. I've now been to every dentist in town. And they're all very good. I can recommend each one wholeheartedly. Then, an infection developed. Turns out there was a bit of a root from one of the extracted teeth left that decided to go south. Dr. Garcia sent me over to an oral surgeon in Chetumal to have that removed. The stiches come out tomorrow and all should be A-OK.

And then there's the pool house. We finally bit the bullet and have decided to add on to it. We decided against going up, as in a second story, instead, we opted to go out as the drawing below shows:

Our Pool House - The Expanded Version

The left side of the drawing with all the detail is the existing pool house with a couple of minor changes, like an exterior door being moved from the existing bathroom to the outside door of the office, and a couple of windows will be repositioned.

We're going to convert one of the existing rooms to a small dining room, just off the living room. The other existing bedroom becomes our 'utility' room. That actually will be the pantry, laundry room, and utility room, housing the water softener, etc.

Our contractor, Carl Raney, took the first step the other day by laying out a rough footprint of the new structure using some leftover Belikin bottles.

Back of the Pool House Will Have Some Changes

Belikin Markers - A High-Tech Solution

The living room kind of becomes the central hub of the whole thing. You'll be able to go out to the veranda through a 10-foot sliding glass door, just like the one we already have, opening in the center.

From the living room, you'll be able to go into the bedroom and from there into the bathroom. Back in the living room again, you can go into the office and from there also out to the veranda.

There's going to be a pad outside the screened veranda where we're going to put a circular metal staircase that will use the existing flat roof as an observation deck

The walkway will be screened with shade cloth all around the outside. The roof will be gabled (I think is the right term) covering all the veranda and the interior spaces.

The pool house kitchen will still be our kitchen. The existing bathroom will still be accessible for pool use and if we want, we have left the door to the new dining room so we can secure the rest of the house from the pool part - if that makes sense.

Once we get construction finished, we're planning to move into the pool house. That becomes our home. The Mennonite house, we plan to rehab it a bit, new paint, kitchen counter, some minor repairs, that sort of thing, and then maybe rent it out for long-term tenents. We're still thinking about it. We'll physically isolate the downstairs laundry room so the tenant will have laundry capability and some storage space. We'll electrically isolate the two from the rest of the Mennonite house, so a potential tenant would only be paying for the current they actually use.

We will keep our workshops and storage downstairs as is. We're thinking about re-routing part of the driveway so that all three bays of the parking palapa can be used easily.

We'll see. A lot of this part is just possible ideas, no real action yet. We're hoping to be able to start construction sometime this week. Again, stay tuned.

 Let's see now. Oh yes. The September Celebrations here in Belize. Kind of a loose grouping of several holidays, kicking off with celebrating Belize's first strike for independence with the Battle of St. George's Cay on the Battle of St. George's Cay Day on September 10th, then Carneval (which is often spelled Carnival, or Carnaval, depending on where you live), with a big parade downtown on the 20th (yesterday), and on the 21st, today, Independence Day. There's a couple of smaller things thrown in there as well, but suffice to say, September is a pretty hard-partying month. Tough sometimes to get a lot else done then.

Speaking of Carneval, we had probably among the best seats in town to watch the parade. Chef Mike Wu, owner of Z-Restaurant (and his new logo below):

Mike's New Logo

It's cool when inspiration hits. I had fun designing it. I'm glad Mike liked it. So, back to the parade.

Here's out crew getting ready to do some bodacious spectating:

Most of the Group Ready to Watch

Chef Mike was nice enough to let us use the balcony above his restaurant to watch the parade - a great location. And the crowd, for Corozal, became quite huge. I've never seen that many people here.

San Antonio Village Dancers, Their Float, and Their Sound System

Virtually every float that came by had a sound system. I'm not talking a few hidden speakers to provide a little music, I'm talking major, blow out your windows, behemoth sound systems, complete with DJ and support crews - all drinking Belikin too!

I have about seventy-some more photos of the parade, etc., but I'm not going to put them up here. They'll all be loaded up to flickr.com for your viewing pleasure.

Our Host, Chef Mike Wu, Taking a Break From the Kitchen to Watch the Parade

It was a glorious day for a parade. Overcast, so the marchers didn't get burnt too bad. It was hot, as usual, but hey, it's the Caribbean Tropics - You're supposed to sweat!.

We met about noon at Z-Restaurant for lunch, then about one-thirty - two-ish, made our way up to the balcony for the best parade any of us have seen in Corozal. Unlike today's Independence Parade, which is probably going to be a rain-fest, unless it lightens up. There's still time - it's only eleven AM.

So, there you are, about as up-to-date as I can get it for now. Hope you enjoy it.

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