Almost Day's End

Towards the end of the work day, I managed to capture a few more shots of the progress being made. The tile really sets off the pool. It is really beginning to look complete now. I'm ready to jump in. The crew have done a really nice job on the whole project.

Steps Receiving Their Final Shaping by Emir

The texturing on the pump house echoes the same "rough" texture on the house. After we get done painting the exterior, it will really look unified.

Fore and Aft Views of the Pool

Which Way is This?

Here's John showing how to do tiling the hard way - basically setting tile upside-down.

John Tiling the Steps

Now the steps really look official - their tiled edges just look wonderful.

Pool Steps Look Great

A view from our front porch of the pool. Our rubble pile will be moving very soon. Cody was moving it, but he was out yesterday with a touch of the flu, or something.

Upstairs View

The guys from Vasco Doors and Windows came yesterday, late in the morning. I wasn't expecting them till the afternoon. But, after some welding and grinding, the door fits great. Now, I just have to modify it (Isn't that the way it always is?). I've ordered a louvered window to fit over the grill of the door. I misunderstood John when we were discussing the door. Ventilation without any water getting in. Now I understand! That should be ready this next week.

Pump House Door Almost Completed

Starting Another Edifice

Yesterday marked the start of yet another part of the project - our parking palapa. Florencio and his crew from Progresso arrived early with a truckload of timber from the bush. It's all hardwoods and extremely heavy. Much heavier than anything I ran into in the Northwest.

Backbreaking Labor to Unload All the Timber

A Lot of Work

The last bit to be unloaded was the vertical columns, an extremely heavy and dense wood. When they fell to the ground from the truck, there was no bounce, just a solid "Thunk" as they hit the ground.

Unloading the Last and Heaviest Pieces

There was still quite a bit of the lumber that needed to be skinned, so that's what is going on here. These guys are artists with the machete, which just about everyone down here has at least one - carried on their bicycles, cars, you name it.

Skinning the Lumber

Skinning the Lumber - No Easy Task Either

Lots of Poles To Be Skinned

Mind-Numbing Labor

Florencio ?? is the head builder or "Maestro" as they call lead workers down here. He built the palapa over Jim and Melanie's Trinity House. He's been building palapa structures for around thirty years, so he has probably more experience at it than anyone.

Florencio Explaining the Process

The other project going on is the basement tiling. It's just about done and is really looking good.

Tile Just About Done

And On, And On, And

Work continues to progress. The guys have been diligent in placing and finishing the concrete work for the louvered windows as you can see below. They're starting to look like they've always been there.

Looking the Length of the 'Basement'

Louvers In Place

In addition to the louvers, the decorative blocks have been moving right along. They've been kind of hard to install, since they're tapered on all four sides, and not grooved or notched so as to be somewhat interlocking for some reason. They do look pretty cool in place.

Double Blocks -From the Inside

Double Blocks - From the Outside

And the single blocks. The arrangement is mirrored in the other breezeway as well.

From the Inside Here Too

And From the Outside Here Too

Here's the view looking out from the inside.

Looking Out

The front (canal-side, lest you forget) blocks are a bit trickier to install since the stairs block so much of the area where the workers need to be able to finish the mortar.

Canal-Side - Inside

Canal-Side - Outside

The inside is beginning to take shape. Tile work is beginning. Here's the first course of tiles laid down. The tile here is just a plain brown with no pattern.

Laying the First Course of Tiles

Laying the First Course of Tiles - All the Way

The First Course Roughed In

Today, will see finishing the decorative blocks, laying more tile, after I go and get three more bags of cement and six more bags of Thinset mortar. Also, on tap for today is the digging of holes for the vertical poles for the parking palapa, as well as delivery (I hope) of most or all of the poles and sticks needed for the palapa. That's enough for a Saturday, I think.

And A Happy New Year To You Too!

Well, here we are already into 2008!

New Year's here in Corozal is celebrated with fireworks, similar to Christmas, just not as many fireworks. They do believe in LOUD music from early afternoon straight through the night to about 5:30 AM today. Of course, all we heard was the bass and drums.

Oh, well. Once you kind of get used to it, you can sleep through it with no problem. That's what we did anyway.

Today, New Year's Day, being a holiday, nothing much was happening. About all I did today was relieve Cody, my caretaker and night watchman, so he could go home for breakfast, then again at lunchtime, and finally at supper time.

While Cody was at lunch, I did take the opportunity to partially wire up a door bell assembly. We're going to put a door bell at the front gate. I now have it about half done.

Monday, Franz's guys got here a little early and proceeded to get to work. Doing trim around the doors and windows, working on tile in the bathroom, and filling in the wood floor joints with Plastic Wood.

Abraham Planing Door Trim

Abraham Fitting Door Trim Pieces

Our bathroom tile job is really taking shape. It's amazing the tools used to accomplish the mission...

The tile setter (I spaced on his name) does have a scoring tool to break tile in linear shapes. He doesn't have a water-cooled tile saw, so he uses a small grinder tool with a tile blade to freeform cut as necessary.

Tiling in Progress

Cutting Tile A Different Way

Plastic Wood - Once you smell it in wood shop, it's an aroma you never forget. It still smells the same way. Doing it on a scale like this, it sort of gets overpowering.

Filling the Cracks

I mentioned the doorbell. It was fairly easy to run the wire (no #20 bell wire here - we use paired speaker wire). I did have to buy a fish tape to fish out the wire for the run down the wall. Unfortunately, there was no plastic holder for it, so my tape is a jumble till I can get the holder.

Ding - Dong, Ding - Dong

Fish Tape Gone Awry

I did spend some time this evening when I relieved Cody for dinner. I watched the most spectacular cloud formations over the bay. It was just superb. If you get the chance, I highly recommend it. At the same time, the egrets were coming in to roost in the trees along the canal, along with some velvety midnight black birds, shaped like herons, but much darker. They also roosted in the trees. Altogether a most magnificent sight.