The Floor Pour is Done

Yesterday the forms were set up for the first floor pour. A vapor barrier was put down to stop moisture from wicking through the floor later on. This was the last chance to make any changes to the plumbing or electrical outlets in the floor.

A fellow owner here in the Shores, that I had never personally met but we had communicated by e-mails, showed up to see what was going on. Brian Aho and his friend Eric were down here from upstate New York to explore the possibilities of selling their seafront land on the north side of the Shores and maybe picking up another seafront lot here in the Shores or at least something nearby. So, with not much going on at the construction site, we piled into his rental car an headed out to a couple of lots that he may be interested in, on the road into Consejo. These were bigger lots than in the Shores, but also a little more remote.

Our first stop was to view some land down near our friends, Phil and Jill, at the Bed & Breakfast, Serenity Sands (http://www.serenitysands.com/). They were in the process of getting ready for a visit from Lan Sluder, a well known writer of Belize travel books, but took the time out to share their knowledge of the local properties that were for sale. Jill is becoming a real asset to Belize with all the community service she does and I don't know where she finds the time to do everything she does, with a B&B to run. Her family is behind her 100% and they also put in a lot of time going out to neighboring villages to help those that are in dire need of medical, food or shelter. Her current project is trying to get through ALL the red tape to get four pallets of medical supplies and equipment from Canada to Belize. Getting it sorted out and transported is only part of the problem, and our friends Dave and Kristen, who were here a few weeks ago, are helping to solve that problem. The other problem is the duties that Belize Customs wants to charge, in order to bring the medical supplies across the border. You would think that Belize would want these supplies because not only are they for the Belizian people, but Jill and her family are willing to train the ambulance drivers and police officers on how to use the equipment. As it is, ambulance drivers are just that, drivers. They provide no first aid and if an ambulance is not available, the police are not trained in first aid, and will throw you in the back of their car and drive you to the hospital. I'm sure a few people have died from shock or no immediate first aid. Please contact Jill if you would like to help in any way.





She gave Brian and Eric a tour of their property and showed them a couple of other properties that were nearby. We shared a couple of Belikins with them, talked for a while and then it was off to town for lunch. We went to Patti's Bistro for some good food and discussed some of the pros and cons of the properties we had just seen.

From there, we went out to see some other seafront lots that I knew about just outside of town, then it was back to the Shores to see the completed form work. The form work was complete and all the rebar had been placed. We were ready to go for Friday's pour.

Today, the crew was there at 5AM to start the cement pour for the first floor. By the time I got there at 7:30AM, the job was already one third finished. They needed to start early because this was one of those days where the temps were high and the wind was almost non-existent. But these guys just pressed on. By 1PM the pour was done. Great job guys.

At the end of the construction, the tradition is to invite all the people who had worked on your house, to a big finishing celebration party. Since I am leaving in three days and don't know when I'll be back, I may not have these same workers here on the site when I return. So today, I brought everyone lunch and beers. Well, I brought the beers early, so they could chill on ice, and went back to retrieve lunch at the local store. By the time I had returned, the beer was history, as in GONE. It was a hot day and the beer probably went down really good. It just wasn't the plan. Hope the boss doesn't find out. An hour later, I delivered the lunches and I went around and personally thanked everyone one on the project for their hard work and help. Did they all understand what I had meant? Probably not. But that's OK. These guys did a great job and I just wanted to thank them.