After Christmas and New Years

Here we go, after a mini hiatus. You know how it is, with Christmas, and New Year's, and this and that. Some things just slipped by the wayside for a few days - like everything on this page. Anyway, this is a good opportunity to get caught up.

Noel Going After Nelson

 Our little girl, Noel, started off barely able to fit in a teacup, on her last visit to Dr. Sheila, tipped the scales at a little over four pounds. For such a little girl, she has been giving Nelson a genuine run-for-his-money. He's lucky she can't yet jump from the floor to the island top. She's working at it, and has figured out how to keep Nelson on his toes.

Cleaning Concrete Splatter Off

Even though the workers have been very careful throughout the project, some spattering still has to occur. The tool bar took its share of spatter. Thankfully, they clean up their messes.

Touching Up Paint After Welder.

After Carlos the welder got done installing the ramp rails, there was still some cleanup to be taken care of. Wherever he welded a support for the rail, there was a little welding spray that needed to be touched up.

Installing Waterfall LED Light

 After a suggestion by Mario to add in a small mood light for the waterfall, his guys worked to get it installed. The actual light fixture is just behind this beam and will shine down on the waterfall at night.

Waterfall Rotating Color LED Light

Here's the fixture installed and working. Red, blue, and green LEDs rotate their colors to show off the waterfall.

Applying Roof Fabric

 After that comes the roof fabric. Stretching it became a real chore for the guys. There wasn't a lot of spaces in order to get leverage and really tug on it.

Stretching Roof Fabric

But, little by little, the fabric stretched and stayed in place, as we wanted.

Circular Stairs Going in

The circular staircase we bought from Eric Burson has worked out very well with little extra welding required to make it fit.

Ladder Reaches the Top

And it actually reaches the sky too. All the way up to the roof. What's cool, is it looks like it always was there, like it was part of the original design, not a spur of the moment after-thought, when I saw that Eric was selling it.

Roof Fabric Nice and Taught

 The roof fabric, the same sort of shade cloth as the side panels, is now fully stretched and in place. It really looks nice and smooth.

Well Earned Pizza Lunch

As a thank you for the crew, right before the Christmas holiday, we sprange for pizza and Coke for everyone. I got six Supreme pizzas from Corozo Blue's that morning. I had iced down a case of Coke the night before, so by the time it was lunch, everything was ready.

We made a lucky guess on how much pizza to order. When all was said and done, there were five slices left over.

Getting Ready For the Feast

For our Christmas Day dinner, it was a sort of pot-luck affair. David and Elizabeth brought a wonderful ham, and some nice home made bread, Denis and Vivien brought a nice cheese spread for Hors d'Oeuvres (A big tip of the hat to Google Spell Check for correcting my attempt at those two words). I made a first attempt at stuffed 'shrooms with a recipe I found the night before. I was lucky.

Some Hors d'Oeuvres 

Everyone being polite before diggning in on the hors d'Oeuvres (have to use it now that I've got the spelling).

Packaging Up the Booty

I forgot to take any photos while the meal was in progress. Here we are dividing up the spoils from the dinner. Even after David and Elizabeth took the preparer's portion of the ham, there was still a more than generous portion for all of us as left overs.

Hey, There's A New Cover

I got the new pool cover into the pool, more or less trimmed to size, and mounted to the reel, just in time to have to move the reel precipitously close to the water in order for the guys to seal the deck.

Freeing Up Spa Jets

While they were sealing the deck, Randy got into the pool with a hammer and chisel. Ever so carefully, he chipped around each of the three spa jets to free up the outer rings which control how strong each jet is. They work fine now.

Chasing Down A Leak

Turns out there was a small leak inside the wall which was keeping the inside wall of the pump house moist. They punched a series of exploratory holes and filled each cavity with concrete. That took care of that leak problem, but another surfaced  from another pipe through fitting. They're still working on that one.

Filling the Holes

Here, they're filling the cavity, using a half-piece of three-inch PVC pipe as a trough to pour the concrete mix into the hole.

Clear Acrylic Sealer

Easy to see just what a difference the deck sealer makes. Wow! It just brings the concrete stamping to life. Very impressive.

What A Difference

Endher is working his way down the ramp. I'm still amazed what a difference it makes.

This Sealer Came From Merida

Here's the sealer. It's only available in Chetumal. This particular brand is only available in Chetumal and Home Depot, and as luck would have it, they were out. This bucket came down from Home Depot, Merida.

I'm going to check with Lano's to see if they can get it or a similar product, as we'll have to re-apply the sealer about every year-and-a-half or so.

Getting Near the End

Endher getting near the end of the sealing inside the pool enclosure, and heading down the west ramp. I thought it looked really good, but Mario wanted another coat today on the inside. The stuff is pretty cool. Stinks to high heaven as it's being applied, but dries in about a half-hour. It applies easily with brush and roller. It has a sort of gel-like consistency, which makes it very easy to work with.

Our Christmas Tree

Naturally, I did't take a nice photo of the Chrismas tree when I should have, so right before Dianna and Vivien took it all down, I took several shots, with this one being the best of the lot.

The Cursed Toilet

With the guys chasing a leak in the pump house, I've been chasing one of my own in the bathroom just off the kitchen. It's taken three days so far, and Denis even came over to help yesterday.

I replaced the last part, this morning, the bit that holds the flapper. I also added more gasket material to the two bolts that hold the tank to the bowl, and it still leaks.

I'm letting the tank dry out and then I'm going to silicone the sh** out of the bolt heads before I add more water back into the tank. If that doesn't do the trick, I may have to resort to buying a new terlet. I hope not.

All New Innards - Still Leaking

Here's the innards of the tank. Everything is new inside that you can see. But, like I said, it still leaks.

Monday, Again And Tuesday

Monday, 07 November and Tuesday 08 November, 2016. Well, I've recovered full access to the blog (Whew!). I'm not sure how or why it happened, but, once I realized what happened, correcting it was fairly simple. My account got changed to another Google account that I have and I didn't notice it. Oh well, live and learn

I'm going to post a bunch of photos that really go with the post from last week. Especially the croc and the turtle. They're both cute. So, here goes.

Putting Up the Bull-nose Forms

Quite a novel solution to this situation. Using 3" PVC cut in half and mounted onto a piece of wood which is then fastened to the pool wall.

The only bull-nose I've seen before is concrete tiles positioned around a pool. This is quite a creative solution. It'll slope back gently from the pool edge to the far side of the deck. This should help keep debris from draining directly into the pool.

New Waterfall Pump

Just a shot to show the new ½ Hp water pump out of the box and in its planned location. We got it at Benny's in Belize City. Flotec and made in the USA (probably of Chinese components).

It's going to be operating off 220 VAC, so a little bit more cost savings on the electrical front.

Cut to Access Electrical Lines

A side project while all this is going on is changing the wiring for our main house. I had originally run it on 12 AWG from the main power panel in the Mennonite house, since at the time, the only thing the pool house was going to be used for was parties, etc.

After the new house got built, I realized it was drastically undersized. Cutting the wire and extracting them allowed Bani, the electrician to run new #6 house wire, this time from the power panel street-side, direct to the new house. This also meant a new meter, so we're now a two-meter family. The Mennonite house will be on it's own circuit as well.

Tarp Protecting This Side

Because of the failed paint on the metal beams (someone forgot to Ospho the beams before priming and final coat. They showed up with just the final coat on them. When it rained, the paint virtually began sloughing off and going all over the place.

To protect the house and doors, they put up the plastic as they were Osphoing, priming, and applying the final coat, all with spray gun.

New House Going Up Across Canal

Just a quick shot of a new house going up across the canal. they've been going like a house a-fire after a lengthy delay right in the beginning.

Scraping off the Old Finish

Activities today and Tuesday focused mainly on the metal crew removing the faulty paint and then Osphoing, priming, and final coating the beams. There were some things that could be done in the vicinity of the work, but also some things that had to wait till it was done.

Sample Stamping - Light Color

Although it's hard to tell the difference, both sample stampings are different colors. The upper one just has the powdered pigment coloration and a white mold release powder. The mold release washes off.

Sample Stamping - Dark Color

This one has the same color powdered pigment coloration, but has a purplish mold release, which also adds a slightly darker tint to the stamping. Dianna and I both like the darker one.

Trying Out Waterfall Tiles

Trying out the choice of waterfall stone/tile. The tiles are temporarily screwed into the greenboard mockup to see if they look as good as we hoped, and how water behaves by running a hose over them The tiles passed on all counts.

Waterfall Pipe Outlet

This is the level that the waterfall will start its cascade down to the pool. That piping will be hidden behind some rock tile. You'll see. It'll be great. The best (to quote someone).

Plastic and Steel Going Down

There's now a lot of steel in the deck, as well as plastic underlayment. All a rush to get ready to pour Wednesday morning.

Charlotte, Dianna, Yavette and Tree

They get together a couple times a week to craft. Today, they took a break and decorated our tree. Something Dianna and I haven't done in a few years. Kinda nice having it up, I must say.

Noel's First Night Here

Poor little kitty. A cute calico kitty, brought to us by our cleaning lady, Karen. It didn't take long for her to adapt. Bela ran over to her immediately and they've been fast friends ever since. Now, she's tearing around the living room, unless she's napping.

Smallish Croc

The guys, fishing during their lunch beak, managed to catch a young croc. I'm sure if we hadn't been there, it probably would have been someones' evening stew. They are proected her

Even Littler Turtle

This one is just like the kind you used to get at the five and dime store. You know, the kind with the plastic pond with a ramp and island with a plastic palm tree. We didn't keep him. He went right back into the canal, where his home is.





Oh, and before I forget, today is election day up in the States. We have hopes that Hillary will win, but we'll see. Dianna and I voted way back in September thanks to Washington State's progressive voting policies.