Everybody is happy

A new construction project in west Melaque

I've been trying to get this project going for Canadian friends

Across the back

Starting down the side

It's been a pretty strange trip so far with lots of misinformation and misunderstanding. Starting with a wanna-be lawyer who studied for a few years on Saturdays claiming she knew everything about Agrarian (Ejido) Law ..... she knew little. Then we/I had to deal with an extremely unhelpful Accountant who you need for Seguro (health insurance and retirement) for the workers. 

I finally got us in touch with C&C Constructores (architect and engineer) and they were very helpful even though they finally didn't get a contract to do the building. From them we learned Seguro is not required for any foundation work. They also suggested the Canadians get the Seguro rather than their Presta Nombre but they need a Resident Visa. Neither of those were offered as information from the accountant. 

So the big thing for me was getting the guys (my friends) that built my house this work and with all the uncertainty it was questionable what was going to happen. The bottom line was dealing directly with the workers turned out to be about half the price the architect and engineer gave us.

The maestro and helper are very easy to work with and really know what they are doing. The only issue is language and I drop over every couple days to see how they are coming and help with translations. So far it looks like work will continue through January. We'll see where they are at the end of January and maybe we can go a bit further if they leave me some money like they did before they got here.

New front door frame

I was thinking of something like this months ago but how many extra little things can you add to a house. This got forgotten in a long list because things had to move along.

So now we're back to it because between my metal guy that made the door and the aluminum guy who made the screen door ... they could not figure out how to hang both with enough room for the screen to close. I just removed the screen door yesterday and we are building a frame around the door that will extend the opening 3 to 4 inches. This will give both doors room to work together and the screen door won't be flush with the house like it was.

The original idea of frames around doors and windows was that it's kind of old style and gives a bulky look to a house if the dimensions are right. We'll see what this looks like in a few days.

New door and window on the workshop

Just installed a new door and window on the workshop this last week. I wanted to check out this new guys work and wanted another secure storage area now that Ron is keeping his stuff here. Nice metal work and think I'll use him for the rest of the house.

The new lawn

Well the yard is cleaned up, gravel and sand moved, septic covered and pretty much leveled to handle some heavy rain. I was thinking about bringing in some turf of the Bermuda or St. Augustine type but it would just be ruined if and when construction ever starts again. So I cut a bunch of plugs out of my garden and planted them around the septic to both hold the earth and mark it's location (no vehicles). For the last three weeks we've had water all day - every day, and sure enough when the grass goes in - no water. I've been taking those five gallon jugs of water out every day .... because stupid me drained the tinaco.

Here I go again with another bottle and see if we have water yet ....

The new lawn (pasto)