Big Progress at the Mayan Seaside

Our blog has recently passed another milestone. It's been a year since I added the Flag Counter and the Live Traffic Feed to the blog, just to see who and where the people are that visit our site. We've had almost 10,000 page views and 66 different countries have visited our site since March 22, 2009. We've communicated with many of you and have met several of you, here in Belize. Overall, the blog has been a good experience. As we continue the blog, I hope that the information passed on has helped some of you on your move to Belize and to the others, I hope that it has at least been entertaining. The best is yet to come, as our house gets closer to completion.

I recently went over to the Mayan Seaside to visit friends and to see the progress that is being made to the community area over there. Art Higgins is really doing a wonderful job at creating a community with a large park, dock, seawalls and palapas. But it's the neighbors themselves that really make that community. The afternoon board meetings out on the dock are a great way to meet your neighbors and plan for the future. Some are already planning to have a December 21,2012 "Mayastock" with bands, food and drinks. They'll play until the end of the Mayan calendar (kinda like the Titanic). Who knows what happens then.






Our friends, Rick and Dawn, were just down here last month to put the finishing touches on their new home and several others in the area are completed or near completion.





The houses can vary from the very simple Mennonite homes to the multi-story mansions. You can pick your own lifestyle.

Shopping Adventures in Town

Sunday was a mixed bag as far as the weather was concerned. It started off in the morning with high clouds, and the sun peaking through every once in a while. But it was perfect for a game of Bocce Ball. It was Sunday morning Bocce Ball over at Bob and Martha's place (which is where I'm staying). So by 8AM, two Bocce Ball courts were in use, the games were a close matches and so began the roar of the crowd (and the neighborhood dogs). I evidently wasn't sleeping in today.

I didn't feel like playing Bocce Ball today and it seemed they already had enough players. It was a good time to head into town and pick up some supplies so I wouldn't be eating out so often. As nice as it was at the Don Quixote, they didn't have a stove to cook on, only a microwave. At Bob and Martha's, at least I have a stove and lots of utensils.

So once into town, I stopped by our P.O. Box in town to see what had accumulated over the couple of months we had been away. No junk mail here. The only thing I had in my mail box were bills from Belize Electric, LTD (BEL), and they were addressed to the former tenant of my mail box. That will be a job for me to do during the week, to go to BEL and get my bill sent to the P.O Box and have him removed. It's amazing to see the P.O. Boxes still use the old skeleton key.






After that, it was to the local market to pick up some essentials. Bread, eggs, milk, juice, etc. Not much that different than home, just not the selections you have at the big supermarkets. More like a 7/11 or Circle K. And once in a while you may find that special spice or seasoning you need for that special occasion. Unfortunately, you will probably find it when you don't really need it or just after you really needed it.

From there it was over to Chico's tortilla factory for fresh, hot tortillas. Mmmm. $1.25BZ for a pound of them. $2 worth, please. Hot off the tortilla press, weighed on an old time scale, wrapped in soft butcher paper and given to you still steaming.





After that it was over to Frank's, the butcher, for fresh bacon from the slab. How thick, Mr. Perry? Only one pound? Oh, I also need a couple of pounds of ground beef and a pound of chicken. Is that all Mr. Perry? It's nice when the locals know you.

From there it was over to the fresh fruit and vegetable market to pick up a few things and then to head home. As you can see, shopping in Corozal is a adventure, moving from shop to shop, place to place. But that is part of the enjoyment of living here. And it's not like I don't have the time. I get to meet people and go places that are sometimes overlooked. From there, it was time to head back to Bob and Martha's.

After I made some lunch, I want over to the house to clean up the future lawn area and get it ready so I can install the sprinkler system on Wednesday. Of course, about half way through cleaning up, it begins to rain. Not too hard and it wasn't cold, so it was back to work.





Because I had been working outside, I had battery powered music and an ice chest with beer, I didn't realize that the power to all of Corozal and Consejo had been knocked out, and for more than a couple of hours. Maybe it was time to stop working and go home to see if I had any candles in case this blackout lasted into the evening. By the time I got back to Bob and Martha's, the power was back on....only to go back out a few hours later. Oh well. No internet tonight. And it began to rain again. Time to kick back, light some candles and enjoy some smooth jazz. Nice way to finish the day, Belizian style.

The Slow Dash to the Finish

Mischelle and I have been here in Belize for ten days and time seems to have flown by. Mischelle had to leave yesterday for home, to take care of our four legged kids and to pay the bills that are due. It looks like it's time for me to start paying all our bills online so I get used to the process and make sure I don't miss any payments. We accomplished most everything we needed to do that, required input from Mischelle. Now it's up to me to finish all the details and make sure the work gets done. We enjoyed our last day at the Don Quixote and lounged around the pool all day. It was a nice way for Mischelle to finish her work trip.









That evening, it was over to the New Millenium for a few farewell drinks and dinner. Jorge is the bartender and waiter and his sister, Sara, runs the kitchen. Dependably good food for very reasonable prices. And it's the local meeting place during the week and weekends, except for Fridays, which are spent over at Smugglers Den.







Now that Mischelle has left, I have moved over to Bob and Martha's studio apartment in the village of Consejo. It's a nice, comfortable, safe place to stay, close to the work site. I've stayed here so many times, it's going to be strange once the house is finished. It's been my second home, in Belize.





Now it's time to make any last real changes, make sure everything is the way we want it and let the workers do their job. Our site foreman, Amir, and I are now on the same page and I feel he will get the job done right. I've added some small changes to the patio and pool area and where there are changes in colored stucco. It's all those little changes that only can take place during the last stages of construction. It's all fine on paper, the drawings, the computer simulation. But it's until you see the actual home, that you make those final, subtle changes, that can change the whole character of the home.







They have started applying white stucco to the outside pillars of the patio. The main house and retaining wall will begin next week when we receive the complete batch of colored stucco from Mexico. We have decided to go with a light, mint green stucco with white as the accent color. It should blend nicely with the surrounding colors of the vegetation and trees. It is also a different color scheme than the surrounding neighbors, so that even though it is a subtle color, it will stand out in the neighborhood, just as much as our neighbors that have the bright colors of Central America.










The cistern access openings were in the wrong location (in front of the pool steps), as I had seen in the pictures e-mailed me before we arrived, but have since been corrected and are going to be perfect in the new location. The pipes for the cistern intake have also changed from the patio area to the far outside corners of the house and when encased in block will look like pillars at the ends of the building. It's amazing look inside the cistern and to realize that basically you have a flooded basemant. Our "basement" cistern is a large room, that is eighteen feet by twenty feet large, and 10 feet deep. Over twenty thousand gallons.







With all this hard work, it was time to head back to the office. There was a "board" meeting that I had to attend. An exchange of ideas, things to come and to plan for the future.








It's Sunday tomorrow, so I will be able to rest from all this hard work and planning. But wouldn't you like to be here as a planning assistant?

We're finally here!

After months of waiting, we are finally back in Belize, and enjoying every minute of it. We are staying at the old Don Quixote Hotel in Consejo Shores that can be discribed as a diamond in the rough. The main caretakers, Tanya and Kayo, have done a wonderful job bringing the hotel back from the brink to a very comfortable place to stay with large rooms, air conditioning and a wonderful pool overlooking the blue bay of Chetumal.





The progress on our house is slow at the moment but around the first of April it will really pick up. We went over to Chetumal and picked out all of our tile for the main living space. It was really easy dealing with Interceramics, in Chet. We had picked out most of our tiles and alternates from the catalog and showroom in LA, so we only spent an hour or so at their showroom. My contractor said the prices, even with duties and taxes will probably be less than getting them from Belize, and a MUCH bigger selection.







After that we went over to the Free Zone to have a few beers, discuss some business....and have a few more beers, and then over to the Las Vegas Casino to have...a few more beers. You get the idea. At least I didn't have to drive.

After that lengthy "business meeting", we decided on a color for the exterior stucco. We are going with a soft mint green with a white trim. They will begin applying the stucco sometime next week. The windows should be here in about two weeks along with the quartz countertops. The cabinets for the bathrooms are just about complete and they are currently working on the kitchen cabinets and all the interior doors.

It's getting exciting to see the finished product. It won't be too long now. Mischelle leaves for home tomorrow, so it will be just me for the next 3 weeks. I hope to see a lot done in that time, but unfortunately, the tiles won't be in until just after I leave. But it has been a productive trip, so far.


I am relocating to Bob and Martha's place for the next 2 weeks, so updates to the blog should be more often. Then it's back to the Don Quixote for the last week of my stay. It's hard work, but somebody's gotta do it.

A Post Before We Go

It's now less than a week before our trip to Belize. We are assembling our items to put in the shipping container along with our windows. We hope that everything will arrive in Belize by the end of March. We ended up buying quartz counter tops from here in the States because the price was so good and I didn't think we could find anything comparable for the price, even including shipping, duty and taxes. With the quartz being a man made material, it is less porous than granite, does not need to be sealed, and is stronger yet lighter in the thickness and width available.

We bought true granite counters for both the bathrooms, that included the sinks and pre-drilled faucet holes, at HD Supply (www.HDSRR.com) for under $300 for both bathrooms. Such a deal. We will also ship those down in the container along with the pool tiles, Decora light switches and outlets.

The work on the house continues as the walkway on the side of the house is built and the patio cover is completed. Work was to begin plastering the outside of the house but we have put that on hold until we can decide on the color.








After looking over the pictures of the patio, I have discovered that the access to the two cisterns are right in the walkway to the pool. I don't know what they were thinking when they put them there, but we had specifically told our contractor to put them on the side of the cistern so they would be out of the way and out of view. The lids, with the lifting handles, are now positioned in the middle of our main walkway from the patio to the pool. We even redesigned the patio supports so that there would be no obstacles from the patio to the pool and the view would be unobstructed. I guess that they will have to fill those holes and cut in new ones. Hopefully that won't be too much of a problem.

The Excitement Begins as the Trip Nears

We are leaving for Belize in just over two weeks and we are still deciding on what needs to be accomplished while we are there. Apply for the QRP, renew the vehicle registration and insurance, look for a local doctor and pick out our tiling are just a few things on our list...and it only seems to get longer. I will be down a few weeks longer than Mischelle, so I should be able to get most everything accomplished.

New pictures have finally arrived and work has indeed begun again on our home. The openings for the patio doors are being enlarged, the cistern cover has been poured and the patio columns are finished. It also looks as though the ceiling has a coat of white plaster applied.








Hopefully, the windows will arrive by late March so I will be able see them once they are installed. After that it will really start to come together in a hurry. Once the front door goes in and the windows are installed, the house can be sealed up so that the interior door and cabinets can be installed and the house can be secured. It will soon be time to plan the next trip down for the final walk through.

Belize Time Abroad

Belize time seems to have affected our window company up here in the States, so our windows won't make the Feb. 21st container shipment, as we had hoped. Other factors factored in the decision to put the shipment off until March, but it won't set us back too much. Our plans won't have us moving in until June or July, so a month delay is not that big a deal. It will give us a chance to complete the paperwork and qualify for the QRP program so our household goods are shipped in tax and duty free.




We still plan to go to Belize in March, to get the tiles and pick out other finishing items but it may be more of a vacation than a construction visit. If that's the case, I will take Mischelle over to San Pedro and Caulker Caye to see the tourist side of Belize and maybe do some diving or snorkeling.



Several of the friends that I have met through my blog are now in Belize full time or they are there now checking out the progress that has been made on their homes. I get to learn from their experiences and gain from their knowledge. Donna, of "Our Belize Planning" has been updating her blog, from Belize. She and her husband, Jacques, have been down there for a couple of weeks now and are lamenting the return to the cold north next week. Our other friends, Rick and Dawn, are also in Belize, to check on the progress of their home in the Mayan Seaside. Pip and Jason have moved into their new home, next to ours. And since they have been down there for a couple of months now, they have already set their body clocks to Belize time. Also, my friend, Hipolito, whom I drove down with to Belize last year around this time, is flying down to visit his relatives and to pour the roof for his place near Corozal. It's quite a busy time down there and I wish we were there to meet everyone.



A new roadblock has creeped up on the construction site, that won't affect us at the moment, but has affected others in the community that are close to having their homes complete. It seems that the Belize building authorities (CBA) has now decided that if there is a stairway to the roof, inside or outside, then the entire roof must be counted as habitable space and will be counted towards the square footage of the entire house. Anything over 3000 sq. ft., and that includes patio and veranda areas, needs to have an approval by a certified Belizian structural engineer. And that, of course, adds a whole new layer of paperwork and rules. It just seems to get better and better. I just want to get the construction completed before anymore "new" rules come up. So for now, we are eliminating the staircase and just making it into a room with a 21 foot ceiling. Others unfortunately, have already built the staircase, and now must tear it down or face more paperwork and expenses.



Here in Camarillo, the remodeling of the master bathroom is complete. We will wait for our return from Belize before we put our house on the market. Time seems to be moving faster and June is not that far away.