Long time no blog. When was summer?

Hi!

OK, so you might think that nothing has happened on Casa Den for months, but in fact it's just that nothing has been posted on this blog. Work has definitely gone on. In my defense, a bunch of the work that has gone on is me being busy making money in California and Oregon to support this whole venture (and our life in general) instead of updating blogspot. So how to bring this up to date? Clearly I was going to have to go back through my email to remember what happened in what order. So the new, expedient plan is go through my email exchanges with Derek from the last 8+ months and paste some relevant passages and photos into the blog. Just so you know, there are about 400 emails, so I will be sparing you a lot of them. I'll put messages from me in my usual Arial text such as this and Derek will be speaking in this font.

February 19, 2009

Railings were still being worked on as of midday today. You will see we added two more posts on the curve as the points we chose for posts were not enough to make a smooth curve. I think Lencho really went over and above with the labor being included for the railings they are even touching up the posts with polido.....looks nice.

February 22, 2009 Peso headed for 1/15 dollar soon. 14.75 today. (Hindsight, 11/09: Those were the days. It's 13.15 now) I'm working on another list of stuff to do, in categories like "before occupancy" (referring to stuff I maybe could have you do by remote control this fall before we get there, and "Landscaping" (some of which might be good to do sooner), and "finish 1st and 2nd floor" (like be done with the place completely, still a uncertain dream for 2009-10.

February 22, 2009 Thanks for the pictures. I like curved railing shots, and the laundry closet shots make that more clear. Maybe you should measure the inside width of the laundry to see if a washer will actually fit in there.

I gather they mixed the concrete for the driveway right there on top of the fosa. Hope it cleans up OK. In the fosa (septic tank) we obviously need two Ts and some pipe.

I can't tell if the driveway slab is the shape and size on your pdf plan from a few weeks ago, looking at the angles of these photos. It seems like it should slant more to the north than it does.
You're absolutely right that I want to be there. Thanks for being my eyes.

Over the next few days there were a lot of messages about the driveway work, the laundry closet dimensions, and the need for some plumbing Ts in the fosa (septic) which Derek wound up installing....

February 27, 2009 So now we know for sure why Alvaro didn't go down in that hole. I think I could have had another inch or so around my waist and still made it. The step ladder was not going to fit so I had to separate my extension and use the smaller piece. The trouble was it stuck out of the hole by a few feet so I had to fit me+the ladder through!!

March 1, 2009 Stones looking good they will be cleaning up, moving sand /gravel and reattaching the fence Monday and Tuesday then all done.

Just a couple days left, eh. I will need to keep thinking up excuses to stay in touch, for my vicarious life. By the way I've just heard that I'm about to be paid for work last September in California. Now I just have to do my taxes and bill for Oregon trip and maybe I can afford a palapa. When is the exchange rate planning to peak?

Around the first week of March, work wound up for the spring, with the all the major concrete work done, from the driveway to the main roof beams. The pipes and conduits were in, but without wiring or plumbing fixtures. The water was connected (and running three times a week for a few hours) but not the electricity. This came on March 12:

I sent pics of the stuff again in the bodega moved to the north side of the room and the tools etc. covered with a conc. bag in the home theater.

I met Lencho there yesterday for a teary eyed farewell last payment and check of all. The total pesos paid to him ended up being 358,420. Additional costs being, Pollo 600, galvinzed tubes for rails 6930, PVC for post forms - 400, driveway stones - 1400, Fosa & bodega covers - 1000, Welded wire mesh for fencing - 670, and we deducted 2000 for not doing the bench around the palapa wall. I now just realised he did not charge for the 4 new fence posts. He did make a plea for a "regalo" for the extra labor that he did not think would be that much on the railings. I told him I would ask you. Maybe a couple or 3 mils would be the right thing to do, he did not really have that in his price and that would be about half of the total labor cost for the railings. Not a requirement though.... he will be fine without it.

Goat protection is in. Both Lencho and I agree that riffraf protection will be a lot of work and people do not sue each other here when a kid gets hurt on someone elses job site, the place is fenced sneak in and you are trespassing so if you get hurt tough luck.

We wound up giving Lencho a 2500 Peso "regalo" and started planning the fall efforts.

Through the rest of March and into April we worked on plans for the palapa (upper) level kitchen and bath, and commiserated about the slow pace of road work down there and winter in Canada, taxes, and my work trips out west. Enough for now. The saga will continue, hopefully soon.