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.

And the Rain Returns, But Guess What?

We don't care, cause the pool is done! Yea!

Yesterday morning involved some final cleanup of the pool itself, the deck, and surrounding area. The jets for the spa (well, the mechanisms anyway) had to be installed. That took altogether about three hours.

John and the Guys Figuring Out How
to Hook Up the Jet Mechanisms

Once the mechanisms were in, then we spent some time trying to figure out how they worked. Tough to do, since the only way to really tell was to have the pool full of water... A process that takes about 7 hours, for a little over 9756 gallons. John and the guys got it right first time. The jets work perfectly. The nozzle end is adjustable for water flow and the little knob on the deck controls the amount of air coming into the jet. Togther they make an enjoyable combination.

I tried them out yesterday afternoon - in the rain.

John Adjusting the Jet Mechanism

As a thank you for John and the crew, we put on a barbecue for them. We had several 1-1/2" steaks, chicken legs and thighs, German potato salad, baked beans, and veggies. Oh, and there was beer and Coke. We all ate till we were ready to pop. John had loaned us his BBQ - which performed admirably as did the locally made charcoal.

Mariano Getting the Charcoal Up to Temperature

We spent most of the day, starting about 11:00 AM, filling the pool. It finally was full at about 6:00 PM. We let the pump and filter run all night to really make the water crystal clear.

And this morning, here's what it looks like. It's done and ready to go. Gorgeous huh?

Spa Is Nearly Done

More good news. The spa is well on its way to completion. We might actually have a filled pool by sometime this next week!

Hard at Work on the Spa

More Work on the Spa

Here you can see John positioning the venturi controls for the jets. They control how much air is let in and mixed with the water flowing through the jets, making for a bubbling good time.

Venturi Control

Jet Body In Position

Mariano is under the deck busy gluing bits together so the jet and venturi controls all work as planned.

John and Mariano Adjusting Jets

You can see how the blocks are cut to allow the jet body to fit closely. Manuel does the cutting with a power grinder tool and Emir fits and mortars each block after the cut.

Emir Fitting Blocks

Mariano Sees the Light of Day

Casting the beam and filling the blocks - last item on the agenda for the day. Makes for an interesting form layout.

Beam Casting Underway

Another View of theCasting

And, here it is - all done for the day. The forms will be removed and tiles adhered, then the Diamond Brite will be applied. Then we fill the pool!

Final Step of the Casting Completed

A Closer View

Other parts of the project - Cody is busy priming the pump house. It takes time because of the rough texture of the plastering. It will be the same color as the fence. That is, except for the waterfall area. We're hoping to have a mural painted there, possibly by Gale Peterson or one of the other local artists. We'll see.

Priming the Pump House

Dianna, being somewhat anxious to use the pool, is busy chipping "tweeters" of Diamond Brite so the steps are nice and smooth.

Hard at Work

More Yin, Less Yang

In the "More Yin" area, Cody made some progress yesterday with priming the pump house. As you can see below, it got a partial coat. Once he is able to finish that, then we have some primer especially for Snow Seal (if that's the brand name) that he'll pain onto the roof. Then he'll apply two coats of Sno Coat (or the other spelling, if either one is right) to the roof. The, we'll hook up some thin-wall black tubing to the outlets up on the roof, taking care to coil the tubing tightly and all over the roof, to heat water and... there we are. A ready made solar pool heater.

Cody's Priming of the Pump House

Occasionally, miracles do happen. I was under the palapa talking about the pool with John when my cell phone rang. It was the lady from the Post Office saying she had a Special Delivery package for me. Yeah!

I jumped into the Isuzu and zoomed downtown. After explaining to her what the items were, she looked them up in the "duty" book. Ninty-three dollars in duty later, I walked out of the Post Office with the jets.

Shortly After I Brought Them Home

The Jets In All Their Glory

Excitement reigned more or less supreme for a few minutes as we checked the many parts, and figured out how everything fit together.

Slight Yang here... We needed about 5-feet of 2 1/2" PVC pipe for the jets. Turns out, 2 1/2" PVC pipe isn't used anywhere in Belize. Everyone we checked with said, "Oh, that's Mexican pipe". Apparently, Mexicans use that pipe for sewerage instead of 4" pipe as a standard. And it's not used for anything on this side of the border, so no one carries it.

That brought the work day to a halt. As soon as the stairs were done, John sent the workers to his house to do some things, and Agusto was going to go to Chetumal, Mexico to score a length of 2 1/2" pipe. He was going to try to buy just 5-feet of it, but probably will have to buy a 20-foot length. I told them they should keep the extra for the next pool they build.

On with the Yin...

Deck stairs are done and look and work very well. It's so nice not to have to climb up on a rock to get up on the deck.

Front Deck Stairs

Rear Deck Stairs

Cody finished applying fill to the concrete patch job as well as applying several wheelbarrow loads to the area behind the pool, next to the fence. We've had some serious low-lying areas right there with major puddling. This should help alleviate the problem.

Fence Patch Job is Done

Behind the Pool Filling and Leveling