Another Quiet Month for Construction News

It's the end of September, another month has slipped by. News on the construction front has been almost nonexistant. Just a few more pictures of the walls being plastered and that's it. I hope that they will start working on finishing the cistern so we have water when the house is completed in January. With only two months left in the rainy season, we're running out of time. But from what I've heard, there has been very little rain in the Consejo area.

The plastering in the kitchen area is just about finished.

The east side bedroom. Each bedroom has four large windows, like the one above.

Looking west from that same bedroom towards the living room and 2nd bedroom.

View from the kitchen area towards the 1st bedroom and living room.

The work on our home here in Camarillo is progressing faster than the construction in Belize but the contractor (me) is always taking time off to do other things. We're headed back to the fair today with friends, to pick up the mirror we bought and to view what we missed the last time. Then tomorrow we are going to Angel Stadium to watch our Angels finish the regular season and attend a big rally and fireworks show after the game to give them the push into the playoffs. We have tickets to game 2 of the playoffs against our nemisis, the Boston Red Sox, and if and when we beat the Sox, we also have tickets to game 2 of the American League Finals, probably against our other nemisis, the New York Yankees.

Then on Saturday, lobster season opens and several friends and I are going down to Newport Beach to dive for lobsters. The ocean is still fairly calm and the water temps remain warm (around 70 degrees) for California. Should be lots of fun.

Pictures from last years dive off Newport.

Then Sunday, it's back over to the Camarillo airport for ultralight lessons. I've been doing quite a bit of video work and helping to set up a new business plan for the owner, Mike. After a recent crash at one of the only other ultralight flying schools, it has left SkyRider Ultralights as the last teaching facility in Southern California. I'm lucky it is in my own backyard so I don't have a long commute to fly. Fall is here and it should be a great time to fly.

A Weekend at the Beach

Labor day is here and that signifies the end of summer for a lot of people. It's the weekend everyone tries to squeeze in that one last trip before the kids return to school. In other words, it's a mad house. The ones that don't go on a trip, head to the malls or department stores for all the back to school sales. In our city of Camarillo, we have the factory outlet stores and they are filled to capacity with shoppers. I dare not venture into that area of the city around school shopping sales, anytime around Christmas and especially the AFTER Christmas sales.

I spent the Labor Day weekend flying ultralights down by the beach. Like last weekend, I took a video of my flights and made a small film production for the owner of the ultralights, who in return provided me free flight time. I think it has turned out to be a good deal for both of us. You can check out the full video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTaCh0ZTbaU .

Not much happening on the construction of the home, but the plastering continues as they finish the ceilings and final coats. John will be up here next week, so we can catch up on all the construction news then. I just hope he remembers to bring pictures.

Fun in the Sun

Although the pictures and progress reports from the construction site have few and far in between, the work continues. With just a few workers on site, the plastering of the interior and exterior walls has taken longer than usual, but since we're not moving in soon, I guess it doesn't really matter.

But here at home, the work continues. I've managed to finish the guest bathroom, laundry room and most of the master bathroom and the walk-in closet here at home in Camarillo. The only thing left to complete is the bathtub and tiling in the master bathroom and I can't start on that until all of our house guests are gone. That should only be a few weeks more.

The guest bathroom - before

The guest bathroom - after

The master bathroom - before

The master bathroom - after


Sunday was a beautiful day here so I decided not to work today, go out and have a little fun in the sun and headed down to our local airport to do a little flying. I made arrangements with Mike, the instructor at SkyRider ultralights (http://www.skyrideraviation.com/), to do a short 15-20 minute flight around the farmlands that surround the airport. It was a perfect day for flying with just a gentle breeze and warm air, so that jackets wouldn't be needed. While I was waiting for Mike to show up at the airport, I met some other people that were also planning on spending their day doing an introductory flight, so we all sat and waited.

Donna and David were from the small town of Santa Paula, 15 or so miles from Camarillo, where they run the Santa Paula Inn (http://www.santapaulainn.com/), not too far from the Santa Paula airport. The Santa Paula airport is well known in the flying community and has many custom planes flying out from there. It also has one of the top aerobatic schools in the world. Unfortunately, they do not have an ultralight airport there, even though it would probably be a perfect place for one. So Donna, David and their friend Mark all came out to the Camarillo airport to try their first rides in an ultralight aircraft. Both Donna and Mark had previous flying experience, but none of it was anything close to an ultralight. But they were all up for the adventure.

This is what we would be flying in today.

Flight instructor, Mike and Donna ready for flight.

David and Jeffrey doing a little practice at taxiing up and down the runway.

Mike and Mark after Mr. Toads Wild Ride.

All in all, it was a great day. A good time was had by all. We came back in one piece and I think we're all ready to go again. I put together a short video of my flying adventure that I hope you enjoy. It gives you a small idea of the freedom that these ultralights give you while flying. This is a dream of mine to get an ultralight for our home in Belize. There are currently around three or four of them in the Corozal area and one of the owners even has a private airport. That will be another thing for me to explore when I return in November.