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.

Rain Stops, Construction Continues

The daily rain has stopped and construction continues, with the walls getting higher by the day. The new pictures that John has sent reveal some things that need to be changed, and is one of the reasons I had hoped to be there while the construction on going. Even though they are simple changes, the less changes, the better. The ceilings above both bedrooms and bathrooms should be poured later this week or early next week. No real changes can be made after that. The living room and kitchen ceiling will be poured at a later date, after the walls get raised to 11ft 6in.

Looking south to the front door

East side of the house

Looking back to the living room, from the pool and cistern

The west side of the house

The doors leading to the patio from the living room are set for a 6ft 8in door, and we have since changed that to an eight foot French door. The bathroom windows also need to be changed to high level windows, because I don't think Mischelle would like windows in the shower that start at waist high.

John is sending out the order for his windows this week, so I am looking forward to seeing the pricing info that he received from WinDor. Hopefully these will be the quality windows we were looking for.

New Pictures Arrive

After three weeks at home and limited news of the construction in Belize, pictures of the house in Belize have finally arrived, showing the construction as of June 25th. Several days of rain have delayed construction, but the walls seem to be going up and everything seems to be in the right places. These first few pictures show the construction as of June 19th.

These last pictures are of the construction as of June 25th. The walls for the bedrooms are just about to the right height, then the blocks need to be set for the higher ceiling in the living room and kitchen.

View of the front door

East side of house

View from the water looking back at the retaining wall and patio

View looking at the retaining wall and west bedroom

View of retaining wall and east bedroom

View of retaining wall, cistern and pool

Almost finished east bedroom and bathroom walls

All of the walls almost complete

I have decided to change the patio doors from the standard 6ft 8in height to a larger 8ft height. With the living room ceiling at 11ft+, it should add to the air flow and sunlight in the living room and kitchen, while also adding a visual effect of a larger room.

On a more serious note, Bob Wright, whom I rented a studio apartment from while I recently was in Belize, is undergoing surgery tomorrow to help restore his hearing. Good luck to Bob and a speedy recovery. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the surgery is successful.

The Building Goes On

When I left Belize, the house was two sets of blocks up from the foundation. The electrical boxes were just being placed and some flex conduit between boxes was installed. The pool was just getting a rough coat and the lounge area cement pads were just in the finishing stages. The area below the retaining wall is now flat and ready to work with. The project is beginning to move along rather quickly.

When John sent these new pictures, they had already moved up to eight blocks up on both the inside and outside walls and looked like they were moving fast. Since I was out of town and didn't have internet access, I didn't check my e-mail until Saturday. From the pictures that John had sent, I noticed two things were wrong and one thing I had hoped to change. But, were they too far along to easily fix the problems? The first thing was that the bedroom windows facing the ocean were being set for 4 x 4 foot windows and not the 4 x 5 foot that was on the plans. The other was the placement of a bathroom window and also the size. When I called John, he assured me that both problems would be checked out and changed as needed. The other change that I wanted was removing the top step out of the pool. It just looks like a great place to stub a toe. Also, by removing the step, it doesn't allow for dirt collection and provides a larger step, down into the pool. John has to check on that to see if is safe and possible to do.

For now, I have to wait for the next set of e-mails from John, hopefully, with more pictures. So in the mean time, I will update the blog with the things that I saw and the people I met, during my months long stay in Belize.

Work has begun on the main house

After a month doing all the prep work, installing the cistern, pool and retaining walls, the work on the main house has now officially begun. The forms for the structural beams were set up on Monday, the cement pour was on Tuesday.

The tearing down of the wood forms was today. The crew has had a few busy days and the temperatures have been on the warm side, but they just continue to work to get the job done. There are between 15 and 18 guys on the work site everyday, so things do get done rather quickly. Tomorrow they start to fill in the voids between the beams and the areas surrounding the cistern and pool. The estimate is for around 40 truck loads of fill, with each truck load of around 20 cubic yards. That's a lot of fill dirt and will take at least a couple of days to finish filling in all the areas between the structural beams and tamping it down.

The view from the patio door with the unfinished cistern and pool.


The view from the front door

I had a wonderful dinner with Donna and her mom, Jeanne, last night. Filet mignon, bar-b-que chicken, garlic and buttered shrimp. Who says you can't live the high life in Belize. They are good people and I'm sorry to see them go, but I am looking forward to having them as friends and neighbors in the future. It's their last night here in Belize and I'm sure after 3+ weeks here in Corozal, they are ready to go home to start making plans for their new home on Four Mile lagoon. I think Donna is happy with the progress they achieved while she was here and with all the people and contacts that she met. And I think her mom has adjusted well down here and will fit right in to the Belize culture. Good luck to them in the future. And if you haven't seen Donna's blog, Our Belize Planning, just follow the link on my blog. Between the both of us, you should get a good feel of what it takes to build in Belize.

Finally, we have rain

It has been a while since we have had a good rain, but last night it poured for a good hour or so. It also put on a good light show on the distant clouds, with lightning about every couple of seconds. It was too far away to hear the thunder, but the light show was enough. There has been rain in Chetumal and in Corozal, just not here in Consejo. It just seems to pass us by.

The work site was a mess with all the mud and water and they needed to empty the cistern and pool before they could start their work, so things got off to a slow start. But they had a job pouring concrete around the pool and cistern that needed to be done today. A little rain won't stop these guys. They did need to dig a small trench to drain some of the water from around the retaining wall but the concrete pour went ahead as scheduled. Things are starting to move along.

John has scheduled us to go over to Chetumal, Mexico on Friday, to look at a window manufacturer that may have a better price and/or quality than he is getting right now. With so few construction jobs going on in the area right now, suppliers are lining up to do business with him. He stresses quality first, then price. I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.

On Saturday, Phil Freytag was looking for company on the drive down to Orange Walk, a medium size town about an hour or so drive from Consejo. I had no plans that day, so I said sure. I had only been through Orange Walk once, and that was driving through at night, after I had flown into Belize City. Phil had some places he needed to visit, but was willing to show me around the town and stop in the few places that I had wanted to see. We stopped in a couple of tile shops and hardware stores that he thought I should know about. It's a much different city than Corozal. It's geared more towards the business sector and manufacturing and had many more big businesses than Corozal. The tile shops had a nice selection of tiles and trim, so I don't think we will have a problem finding tiles that we like. The hardware store, though, is no Home Depot. They are more like a small town hardware store, but unfortunately, what they have is what you get. There is not a lot of selection and you must be willing to improvise with what you do have access to.

After showing me around Orange Walk, he took me to a wonderful Chinese resturant, Mr. Lee's, where we had a plentiful lunch and a price that couldn't be beat. Three entrees', a Belikin, Coke and water cost all of $38 Belize, or about $19US. That meal would have been double that in Camarillo. I haven't had the guts to try any of the many Chinese food places in Corozal. They just don't look that appetizing.

After lunch we went over to where they made the pilings that they drove for me at the Shores. Quite an operation they have there, making pilings, T-bars and pre-manufactured septic tanks. It was really dusty though and probably a miserable place to work when the wind kicks up. I'm sure last nights' rain helped that situation. They showed us around all of the manufacuring facilities and how they pre-stress the concrete.

After that we went over to another brick and pre-stressed concrete manufacturing facility, Rick's, that was in town. They are a business that really wants to expand their product line and are looking for new ways to do just that. Phil had worked with some of Rick's clients before, so they were able to "talk shop" and catch up on old connections.

It was getting late in the afternoon, around 3PM and we had been gone for about 6 hours, so it was time to head back to Consejo. It was a pleasant drive with everchanging scenery and even a Mayan ruin or two. We were back in Consejo in no time. It was a very informative trip that I will probably do again before I leave.