Pool House Expansion Project, Days Twenty-Three, 24/10/15

Here we are at another day of the Pool House Expansion Project.

Day Twenty-Three - 24 October, 2015

One of the daily tasks the crew does is a general sweepdown of the whole construction area. Otherwise, the concrete debris would become overpowering in short order.

A Clean House is a Happy House

 Several columns and lintels have gone up. All of them will be tied in to the chain, the ring, or the belt-beam, whatever you want to call it, hopefully, making it a unitized structure of sorts.

Another Column Form Up

 Just a shot down the south walkway, which is the narrow walkway. The west and east walkways are both six-foot wide, while the south walkway is only four-foot wide. It was simply a cost-cutting measure that lopped off a few square feet thus lowering the cost a bit.

South (Narrow) Walkway Very Crowded

 Here's an overhead hot of the west outer wall. It's almost ready to receive the wooden forms for the chain.

West Outside Wall Almost Complete

 This is the lintel form for the office, on the right, going under the lintel from there takes you into the living room.

Office Doorway Lintel Is Ready

 Cutting up some wood for a form. Concrete houses use up much more wood than you would think for forms and supports, etc. Most of it is taken out after the concrete cures, and can be reused for other projects and stuff.

Surprising How Much Wood A Concrete House Needs

 Here's a view of the outside, south wall, showing the screen openings. We're planning to use shadecloth, like what we used on the pool awning and in the garden awning. Gina and Keith used it for their whole veranda on their house and like it well, so we're going to give it a go ourselves.

Outside, South Wall

 This view is looking from the southwest corner along the western outer wall, also showing the screen openings.

Outside West Wall

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 Seventeen Through Twenty-One, 17-22/10/15

Here we are at another day of the Pool House Expansion Project.

Day Twenty-One - 17 October, 2015, More or less, Through the 23rd.

You're probably wondering (maybe not, but bear with me anyway) what happened to days 17 through 30 of the project. Well, they didn't just disappear. There was work done on those days.

I think I explained in a previous post about the problems I've had with the computers, both my desktop, requiring a virtually complete rebuild, to the inability of my iPad to take care of, what seems to me, to be rather mundane and day-to-day bloggings tasks, like a posting that is longer than four or five paragraphs and that might contain more than one photograph - with caption yet.

Today will be the start of a sort of catch-up blog day. I've got several photos to share, some will only appear on Flickr (you can find the link in the last paragraph of this post). I'll put them in, more or less in order, so you'll see chronologically, how the construction is progressing.

To start things off, each day, after the workers have gone home, the dogs, free of their pen, head immediately over to the construction to see how things are progressing. Likewise, the cats, at least April and Nelson, come with us when we inspect the site. I'm sure they all are looking at the job with a critical eye, and not merely looking for a tasty morsel that the workers might have left behind.

April Inspecting the Quality of Work

We're only putting in one kitty door, and that's on the west side of the house, through the office. That's mainly to encourage the cats to stay on the land side of the house. We don't want to encourage them to come around to the canal side any more than we have to. It's probably all a moot issue, as they're going to do just what they want to regardless of what we want them to do.

These two photos were from Saturday, 17 October, 2015.

Nelson Checking The Kitty Doorway for Proper Fit

These next two are from Wednesday, 21 October, 2015, and illustrate just how fast everything is moving along. Walls are reaching their final height, lintels are being cast in place.

Lintels Are Going Up All Over

And, Omar is usually in two places at once, checking on measurements and lining things up properly.

Omar With His Ever-Present Tape, Measuring Things

The 22nd of October, another fine day, I managed to capture The guys getting one of the column forms ready to deploy.

Column Form Being Readied For Use

The following day, the23rd, was exciting, as this was the day the Mennonites were going to deliver the trusses. And that will be a new 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, Days Twenty-Two, 23/10/15

Today's the day the Mennonites deliver the trusses.

Day Twenty-Two - 23 October, 2015

Carl got his guys busy beforehand filling a couple of small cave-ins with rock, so that the truck delivering the trusses wouldn't have a problem.

Bringing A Few Wheelbarrow loads of Rock

Here's a close-up of the rocks being pitched into the cave-in. It's not deep, a couple of feet at best, but with a full load of extremely heavy trusses, dropping a wheel into one could be disastrous.

Tossing Rocks Into the Cave-In

And, in short order, just after the crew finished filling the holes, here comes the trusses. All forty-foot length of them. There's about 29 trusses in all. It's plain to see that this is going to be a job getting the trailer, much less the trusses into our compound.

Forty-Foot Trusses Arriving

At first, the Belizean driver the Mennonites use (they don't drive rubber-tired, motorized vehicles themselves) was going to attempt to back in. He almost made it, but not quite. Even with a goose-neck hitch, there just wasn't enough room for him to swing the trailer around to make it in the gate.

We'll Just Back It In

Then, they decided to pull the trailer in frontwards. This necessitated pulling out going down to the next wide spot in the road and turning around to get a shot at pulling in frontwards.

Most of the rig managed to get in the gate, but there just wasn't enough swing room without scraping (or worse) the right side gate and fence. So, the best minds in the business stopped a passing truck and asked if he would be willing to take a pull chained to the back end of the trailer.

Now We'll Just Pull It Around

Even with the truck and lots of willing bodies pushing, there was no way to slide the trailer around to clear the gate.

Everybody Push!

Once they got it more or less squared away, and were ready to come in, a couple of things happened in short order. First, the tail-end of the trailer, or maybe the wood from the trusses, snagged Denis and Vivien's fence across the road.

This wouldn't necessarily be a big deal, except it was in exactly the same location where, a few months back, John Harris had plowed into the fence when he was attempting to back Mike and Shelley's boat into their yard.

Second Hit on Denis and Vivien's Fence

And, just minutes after that, Craangg! Our gate and post took a hit from the trailer. Enough that it totally dislodged the gate from the post. In talking with Carl about both, we agreed that, regardless of who was at fault, it would be fixed by the end of the day.

Our Gate Took a Hit

At long last, the trailer and it load all made it into our place, ready to be off-loaded. There was also a couple hundred board-feet of baseboard trim and a bunch of ship-lap siding to be taken off as well.

Finally, In Where They Can Be Off-Loaded

 Moving truss number three. No small feat with it that high up in the air. Luckily, Carl was able to hire a back hoe to help unload the trusses.

Starting On the Third Truss

 You can see the back hoe was able to hoist about half of a trus and about eight guys helped move the other half. My back just twinged watching.

A quick word about the trusses. They're all made out of bullet-tree wood. Bullet-tree can be sawn while it's still green, but once it's had a chance to dry, forget it. Some of the posts for our porches on the Mennonite house are bullet-tree. I can't count the number of drill bits I've broken off in them trying to drive pilot holes for our screens. I've even bent a thick concrete nail trying to use that for a pilot hole instead of a bit. Tough, unforgiving stuff. The real benefit of using it, it it's virtually termite-proof.

Set 'Er Down Gently, Boys

 This is a good view showing how the chain was simply wrapped around the truss and then everyone just picked up what they could and lifted.

Setting Another One Down

 This view shows the louvered window the Mennonites built into each end truss. They ajustable, similar to the metal ones. Carl and his crew will add screen material to them to help keep critters out, and we should be good to go.

Wood Working Louvers and Siding On Both End Trusses

After the trusses were off-loaded, then they were lightly wrapped in a protective plastic till they can be hoisted up to the top of the walls of the house.

Wrapped in Protective Plastic Till They're Installed

I mentioned about fixing the fence and the gate. Here's a shot of a couple of Carl's guys doing just that. Denis and Vivien were kind enough to donate a short length of chain link fabric to the repair effort, as it's almost impossible to buy less than a full roll of chain link.

Carl Wasted No Time Having the Guys Fix the Fence

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.

What I Haven't Mentioned - Follow Up

Yesterday, I was all concerned about my desktop PC and the gate motor. Well, I still am, but there's been a great deal of forward motion. I'm not going to say progress, as I don't know yet, what all the results will be.

Suffice to say, that the gate wiring is repaired and is functional. The gate motor came through in good fashion, but the component card that controls the gate functions, didn't. Roger Chang had to replace that. The old one still had dead ants frozen or fried in place on the card. No doubt having caused shorts with their dying breath.

The gate now works better than ever. Well, at least over a longer range, than ever before.

There is one change however. With the old card, we could use a hard-wired button to open, close, and stop the gate. With the new card, we don't have that capability. We do have vastly increased range, and Roger gave me a new remote, that can open and close the gate from the pool house. We'll just keep that hanging in the house in place of the buttons.

Pool House Expansion Project, Day Twenty One, 16/10/15

Here we are at another day of the Pool House Expansion Project.

Day Twenty One - 16 October, 2015

It's taken me a while actually to be able to write this and several other blog postings. The date, 16 October, is when the photos and the narrative occurred, but due to several glitches, one with the PC, being terminal and requiring a new motherboard and a new hard drive, thanks to Fred at Corozal Virtual Offce, for his good work resurrecting my dead PC. The other, as far as the blog is concerned involved my iPad. I can create text relatively easily with the iPad and dump it directly to the blog. Where the problem comes in is if I want to add photos, like what are here. That is very hard to do with the iPad.

It was such a hassle, all together, that it was easier to just lay off doing postings for a few days till the PC was back functioning.

Finally, I listened to what my doggies have been patiently trying to tell me, that having all three of them tied up on a chain, sucks. I decided they needed to have a pen or run so that we could keep them out from underfoot either with the construction or, during pool parties and the like, they wouldn't be coming around mooching from our visitors.

After getting the idea for the run, where to put it was the next question. I decided that using the breezeway where they currently get tied up made sense, and I added on the virtually unused space adjacent to the house beside the raised bed of the garden, as you see below.

I had a roll of chicken wire that I decided to use for the project. Chain link would have been better, but this was here and available. I had Carlos build a couple of short walls at either end of the run, as you see below. The walls are just getting started here.

Blocks in Progress At Both Ends of Run

Carlos and I ran the chicken wire the length of the run. You can see Carlos fitting the wire to an end post.

Carlos Fitting the Chicken Wire For the Pen

We ran wire through each of the tubes supporting the garden awning to support the chicken wire. Not the prettiest set up but it works.

The Dog Run Extends Behind the House

The pen runs almost the whole length of the house, so there's plenty of room for the girls to walk around and see what's going on in their neighborhood.

The Other End of the Run

The hinges I purchased were designed to be fastened around a stationary tube and bolted to secure them. I had to put the male end of the hinge in my vice and pound them into shape so that they could be bolted to the concrete column as you see below.

This is How the Reworked Hinges Will Be Attached to the Column

We managed to scrounge a five-foot length of chain link from Lano's Hardware. They don't sell partial rolls of chain link as a rule, so we were lucky to get this bit, which was perfect. Here's the gate, in all its glory, with hinges attached to the column, and on the other end, the latch, attached to the gate, uses a short length of fence tubing that I bolted to the wall so the latch has a stop to secure it when it's in the down position.

Here's the Gate in It's Closed Position

The gate can open either direction, and opens up fully to allow complete use of the breezeway when it's not being used for the dog run.

The big butane tank you see laying on its side, I got from Sara and Jeff. It's not usable as a pressure tank any more, but I had the bright idea that I would try to make a large wind chime bell out of it. I plan to have the bottom of the tank cut off and smoothed, and where the valve goes at the head, I plan to suspend the 'bell' from an eye-bolt affair that also hold the clapper for the bell and below that, the flat piece that is moved by the wind that causes the clapper to contact the edge of the bell.

If it works, it should produce a deep, mellow gong sort of tone... I hope. Another project. I let you know how it goes.

The Pen Gate Still Allows Use of the Breezeway

On with the construction, which has been proceeding apace with the construction of the dog pen. Here, it's a break in the rain, that we had for about a week that really played havoc with the construction schedule.


Dianna's taking advantage of the break to inspect the veranda. This is the east side of it. The east and west sides of the veranda are both six-feet wide.

Dianna Inspecting Veranda in the Rain

The south part of the veranda is four-feet wide as you can see in the image below.

Looking Down South Walkway of the Veranda

The walls are continuing to go up at a fast pace. We continue to be appreciative of the quality of the block-laying. Very professional crew.

Digging For That Last Bit of Mortar

This view is looking toward where the office will be.

Looking Toward the Office

That's it for this installment. Stay tuned for more.

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. 

What I Haven't Mentioned

What I haven't mentioned, is that a couple of things have happened while all this rain and flooding has been going on.

One, my desktop PC has totally crapped out. I can't get it to boot up at all. When I press the ON/OFF button, I hear the DVD player cycle, and a couple of fans start up, but nothing else happens.

The other thing that has happened is the gate motor has quit working. That, and the gate lights as well.

Yesterday, I took the PC in to Fred at Corozal Virtual Office, for him to take a look at it and see if he can find out what's wrong.

Then, I called Arturo Rancheron, the electrician, to see if he can get the gate motor working again.

He and his wife (who's an able assistant) came and began troubleshooting the gate area. What they found was a lot of the wiring was, in places, stripped of insulation, so it was shorting out.

Broken Pot Metal Waterproof Housing

Arturo blamed geckos for eating the insulation. I'm more inclined to believe ants are the culprits. Especially since each receptacle box they opened was stuffed to the gills with dead ants and debris from their nesting.

Receptacle Clogged With Dead Ants and Debris

Luckily, using my fish-tape, Arturo was able to run all new wiring to the gate motor at least. He tested the link with his meter, so we know juice is at the motor. Unfortunately, the motor isn't responding. I'm going to have to call Roger Chang at Capital Metal for his repair guy to come look at the motor. Dang it. And the gate lights still don't work. That means, all the rest of the wiring for each of the lights will have to be replaced as well. What a pain. Well, as they say, or at least as I say, often enough, "If it was easy, it wouldn't be any fun."

Arturo Cleaning Dead Ants Out of Receptacle

 Lots and lots of dead ants and stripped wiring, in some cases several inches at a time, so it's just bare copper wire touching each other and causing shorts.

Even More in the Cavity Behind

The ants are doing a couple of things. One, they're looking for high ground to avoid the flood water that is accumulating everywhere; and Two, they're probably fire ants or a close cousin and as such, they're attracted to electrical fields. They cause outages and shorts and get themselves electrocuted by the thousands.

Our front gate area as been a constant attractant for ants. Must be some juicy electrical fields right around here.

Yesterday evening, I called Fred for his assessment of the PC. Not good. He apparently got it to begin to come up, but that's about it. He said the disk is telling him it's locked. He can't get it to a state where he can enter my password. Not good news. He was going to try later in the evening again, but it's looking like I may be starting from scratch - new PC, and no recoverable data. Oof course, I didn't have a viable backup plan in place. Foolish me. Well, more on that later.

So, that's all I know for now. I'll let you know more as I know more.

Wring Out That [Insert Item Here] - Part 2

I had high hopes the day before yesterday that things would be returning to normal. I was up and raring to go by 7:00 AM. My plan was to start work on the gate for the dog run that we finally decided was a project that was way past needing to be undertaken.

I was in my workshop bashing some fittings that would be needed to attach the gate to the columns. I enlisted Carlos, our caretaker, to help me. Once those fitting had been bashed enough, we needed a hammer drill to bore through the concrete of the columns. Carlos had one at his house, so we jumped into the Sport Trac and headed off to do that.

As an aside, we also had to run into town, so that I could pick up my compressor from Terrence. He'd been able to fix it. Apparently, one of the gauges rusted and froze, and another component had rusted some, but wasn't quite frozen. That's one of the problems with tools down here. If you don't use them every day, they rust, corrode, or decay in some other ways. Rubber bits decay from ozone and/or UV rays from sunlight, and probably other causes as well.

After picking up Carlos's hammer drill, and the obligatory parts for the gate and fence from Lano's, we set to work putting the gate together and getting it hung. Then we finished hanging the fence. All this was done in a drizzle, just like in the Northwest. The only difference being about forty or so warmer degrees of temperature.

An hour or so after we completed the dog pen, I got an email from Carl, letting me know he was still stranded over in Chetumal, so the afternoon was whiled away watching the weather steadily deteriorate.

Tuesday morning dawned, overcast, drizzly at times, verging on clearing up. It seemed like it might be heading toward better skies. At least, that's what we were hoping.

Around  10:00 or 10:30 AM, I got an email from Carl, he'd finally be able to cross from Chetumal to Belize, and that he and the guys were planning to come that afternoon and at least get a half-day's work in.

Of course, at 12:02 PM, just at the start of the lunch hour, the heavens opened up once again. Consequently, no workers.

Later in the afternoon, while I was napping, Carl and Omar came by to check things out. Dianna met with them. They are planning to try and get to work on Wednesday morning. Hopefully, that will happen. I just don't have a good feel for the weather right now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Wring Out That [Insert Item Here] - Part 1

Ok. Now's a weird time. It happens with just about any long-lasting disaster. By long-lasting, I mean anything that lasts longer than a couple of days, where you become tired of being cooped up, so you step outside, and the air feels fresh and clean (compared to inside anyway), the sun looks like it might almost break through the dingy, dark, cloud cover, and in the case of flooding, you can actually tell where a high-water mark might be.

I said 'a high-water mark' because, things could just as easily continue the way they have been since it started. There's the chance that that high-water mark may just be obliterated with the next rainfall.

That's what makes it so weird, and possibly, so potentially dangerous. Dangerous because you're outside looking at the sky and whatnot. You're susceptible to being directly impacted by whatever the 'agent' as they say, or cause of the disaster might be - in this case, rain.

Not just falling rain, but after it's hit the ground, it starts to flow, and as that flow increases in volume, it will also increase in speed. It's easy to underestimate the power of flowing water, not to mention the depth, or what's in it, like sewage, dead animals, stray electricity, oil, gas, and who knows what else.

By now, most folks have seen the photos of the new bridge from Corozal to Chetumal, or should I say, the canal. Our contractor, Carl, was trapped over in Chetumal for some time. I know that because I got a text message from him telling me that. I'm sure there were hundreds, nay even thousands of others in similar circumstances.

Bridge Between Chetumal and Corozal - Courtesy Que Pasa Corozal

Can You Say 'Cabin Fever?'

Sure. I knew you could.

This post started out with an innocent comment to Dianna, "So, I wonder what everyone is doing today?"

Which drew a glance that could have... well, suffice it to say, probably wasn't her most "Hi, how you doin' love?", kind of look, if you know what I mean.

Even the dogs and the cats are feeling the stress. During a break in the rain yesterday afternoon, Dianna and I went for a stroll down to see how the new construction is faring. Along with us came all six of the crew. Three kitties and three doggies.

All of us glad to have a break from the incessant rain. All three cats made sure to check out the new kitty door that is in progress of being installed. I got a picture of Nelson inspecting it, but on inspection, as with most digital cameras, it was a second too slow. All I got was a paw visible in the doorway.

We strolled back to the house, and none too soon either. The rain started up again, just as we were ascending the stairs.

So, again, I'm unable to put a caption with this photo. Oh, I could if I went in and edited the HTML, but I've forgotten too much of that stuff to be quick about it. Suffice to say, I must have taken a panorama shot with the camera. I don't know how that happened. Turned out interesting looking. My first thought was that somehow, I slipped in a photo of the Arecibo Telescope. But, no. It's just the plain concrete floor of the pool house addition.

Back to the topic at hand. What was it again? Oh, yes, cabin fever. Well, I'm sitting here in the living room, writing the blog., Deeohgee is huddled under the table beside me quivering from the thunder, Carson is doing his thing, and putting fear into Secret. She doesn't like his random approach to his business, and I'm just guessing here, but I think that Chanel is in bed with Dianna who is either reading or napping, Bela is under the bed napping till Carson chases her out, and Nelson must be in the overhead napping. Oh, yes. Almost forgot April. She's in the closet again, also napping.

I need to go outside briefly, to take some laundry downstairs and get that started, and to take some garbage out to the bin. From the sounds of things, both are going to wait.

Just a guess here, but I imagine most everyone in the neighborhood is having about as exciting a day as we're having. Wunderground is calling for 'moderate rain.' Whatever that is.

Yes, it's an exciting life we lead down here in paradise. Dianna told me a bit ago that we were virtually surrounded by water. I just went outside and looked myself. Yup. We are. There's even an egret standing in the water next to our property - nowhere near the canal. Hmmm. What does he know? I tried taking a photo through the screen of the porch, but the camera focuses on the screen and makes a mess of the egret, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

That's it for this edition. Enjoy.

Rain Delay

Got a message from Carl letting me know they would not be coming to the job site this morning.

Our Rain-filled Parking Area

 We're supposed to be getting about twenty-four trusses for the roof delivered sometime today. Carl has been trying to get in touch with the Mennonites who have built them and also will be delivering them - hopefully, not today. Well, we'll see how things shake out.

Our poor old Isuzu, now relegated to a parking spot out in the open, no longer protected by the palapa. There's a few small repairs I want to do to it, and then clean it up and put a '$' sign in its window. That's the local sign for 'I'm for sale. Buy me.'

Our Poor Forlorn Isuzu

Mostly we are just hunkering in the bunker. Dianna's under the covers in bed, along with Chanel, Secret's on her mattress on the back porch - it's dry there, Deeohgee is fretting here in the house, because Carson, our Roomba vacuum, is running around in random patterns and she can't figure him out, Nelson's napping up in the overhead above the bathroom, Bela is under the bed - unless Carson comes and chases her out, April our oldest kitty, is in the closet hiding from everything, and I'm here in the living room, my feet up on the ottoman,writing this posting.

White Egret Checking Out the Vacant Lot

We had enough rain, that the vacant lots to the north of us began to look like small lakes. So much so, that a white egret was attracted to them and spent at least a couple of hours 'fishing.' I guess he could also have been hunting for frogs. I don't know if they eat frogs or not. I would imagine so.

I was planning to work on the gate for the doggies new run today, but guess what? I don't think so. There's always tomorrow or next week.

On the Electronic Front, However...

Say what you will, down here, electronics, like so many other mechanical, and quasi-mechanical things, are doomed, that's DOOMED, to failure. Case in point, my old and decrepit desktop PC.

I bought it about three years ago when my laptop decided to give up the ghost. Dust, heat, humidity, in short, the usual suspects, all conspired to destroy it. Anyway, I made it down to Fred Orio (Oh-Rio, not Oreo, like the cookie) at Corozal Virtual Office, where he set me up with a desktop box of indeterminate age and pedigree. That's not to mention where all the components may have come from.

On the plus side, it did have a new hard drive, motherboard, and power supply. We managed to get everything transferred off the laptop, so that in itself was a lifesaver.

It has worked good enough since then, with more or less quarterly visits back to Fred to have various gremlins sorted out. One of the most persistent seems to be the power-on button refuses to work. I take it in to Fred, he fixes it, I bring it home, and it works for a period of time, and I repeat the process.

The latest iteration of this is going on now. I press the power-on button, and I hear fans start up, and the DVD cycles, and nothing. No log in screen or anything. And sometimes, I don't even get that much. Sometimes, I press the button, and a little red light appears, and just as quickly, goes out.

So, once the rain subsides, it's another trip down to Fred. I really should get a new desktop, but, I do enjoy my conversations with Fred, and his office kitty, Cauliflower, who reminds me a lot of our kitty, April. They could be cousins. That's a Belize joke, BTW.

"So," you ask, "How are you creating this posting?" Well, it's pretty easy, as such things go. I have an iPad and it has a handy protective case. It also has a blue-tooth keyboard, that makes the iPad behave much like a desktop PC. I love it. It makes creating the text for the blog very easy (as you can see). The one thing that I'm not sure about is, photos. I don't know if I can transfer photos to the blog as easy as I do on the laptop. I'll give that a go right now. If I find a suitable photo, I'll insert it below.

Well, what do you know? It worked! I can't figure out how to create a caption for the photo, but that's a small problem. At least, now I know that I can add photos to my blog postings.

A quick bit about the poster. Back in the late 60's, this poster hung on a readerboard outside the Post Office in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was what really drew me in to talk to the recruiter. and my subsequent enlistment in 1968. It's still my favorite Navy poster of any. It speaks volumes. I've always been a real romantic about going to sea, reading about the sea, and especially Naval warfare in the Napoleonic era, and Naval history in general.

Well, I've about exhausted this topic. The rain is still coming down as hard as it was earlier. We don't even have TV. We have Shaw satellite. Everything is pixilated or we've got a window on the tube that says "ATTENTION Receiver has lost satellite signal. Signal re-acquisition is in progress. Please wait." So, we'll wait.

Pool House Expansion Project, Day Twenty, 15/10/15

Moving right along with another day of the Pool House Expansion Project.

Day Twenty - 15 October, 2015

Day twenty, yesterday, started out like just about any other winter day in the Northwest... Oh, wait. We're not up there. We're three thousand miles away. Solid gray skies, no thunder or lightning, lots of drizzle. No wonder I got confused.

What it started out like, was a day with no work being done on the addition. Just solid streaming drizzle. All that changed, well, not all of it. The drizzle part changed. By ten O'clock, it stopped enough that the workers could continue laying block for the rest of the day.

More Blocks, All In A Line

Little by little, all the discrete pieces are beginning to come together to look like a solid structure.

It's Really Starting To Look Like Something

The east walls are just about at their full height. Weather cooperating, it won't be long till the rest are all up at that level. That's when the chain will be cast. Once that cures, then the trusses will be placed on top. Then it will really be looking complete.

Some Walls Are Reaching Full Height

We're having the guys put in a kitty door - Nelson's door, as they're calling it. We're going to move the actual door and frame down from the Mennonite house and cover that door with sheetrock on the inside and plywood on the outside.

Nelson's Door Is Roughed In

You can easily see the spacings for screening. We're planning to use shade cloth, just like on Gina and Keith's house up the road from us. If it doesn't work out, the plan is to put blocks on the bottoms of the openings, two or three high, then install frames and screens. A fairly easy fix if it's necessary.

Here You Can Easily See Screen Gaps

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.