August is almost gone

Here it is, already August 28th!  Where does the time go?  We finally have some relief from the weeks of windy weather that blew the sargassum seaweed ashore, although piles of sargassum linger.

Lovely, calm sea in the view looking north from our dock.

The calm weather was helpful for getting the next batch of lumber boated over.  As usual, Dennis and I are consumed by the construction process.

And our cabana as viewed from the dock.  The siding is up on the 2 gable ends of the addition.

We are making slow, but tangible, progress.

A closer view with the scaffolding moved to the inside to start on the interior roofing trusses.

A view of the north side of the addition.

Getting the first of the 5 interior roofing trusses up was a big milestone.

The first of the interior trusses is now complete.  It was a challenge to install because the west gable-end truss is not parallel to the remaining trusses.  Tricky measurements were needed.  The next ones should be easier ...

You can just make out the nylon lines that were strung to keep everything lined up right.

And here is the view from the back showing the west wall with the back door and windows.  The windowless wall is where the electrical inverter will be housed.

Like Dennis and me, Max takes a keen interest in the construction.  Every evening she makes her inspection of the day's progress.

Max on the job.

 It is tough and tiring work.

Exhausted by her efforts, Max takes a little break, still keeping one eye open.  Sort of.

Construction, Coffee, and Constrictor

Just a short post today with, you guessed it, construction, coffee, and constrictor updates.

The crew have been hard at work on the roofing trusses.  The trusses have a fairly complicated design so that a large central space is left unobstructed for a nice sized loft.  

The view of the whole place from the dock.  You can see that roof of the addition is quite a bit higher than the original cabana and that roof line is almost perpendicular to the original.

Instead of a central "king post", there are 2 "queen posts" spaced eleven feet apart for a good sized open area in the loft.  The horizontal tension piece is about 8 feet from what will be the floor of the loft.  From this view, you can easily see how irregular the sides of the hexagonal floor plan are.  There is also a good view of the black-painted iron plates that we had fabricated to secure the joints in the trusses.  The plates are 5.5 inches wide and are bolted through using 1/2 inch threaded rod cut to length.

A view of the partially assembled west side gable end truss from the inside.  The trusses pre-assembled on the ground, disassembled, and then re-assembled in place. The central beam has been finished and is protected from the sun and rain by tarps.

Our friend and neighbor, Craig Pearlman, loaned us his scaffolding.  It makes this work much easier and safer.  This is the riskiest bit - securing the top of the truss with the ground 30 feet below.  That is Tiger at the top with Pascal holding the foot board in place and Derwin keeping the truss board at the right angle.

The hardest part is done and that is the stopping point for the day.

Another view of the heart-stopping view open space where Tiger was reaching up to fasten the top of the truss. A good place to stop until everyone is fresh.

Speaking of fresh - one of the things I like to have here in the heat is a nice glass of iced coffee sweetened Vietnamese-style with sweetened condensed milk.  The beautiful glass cup is one of a set my sister gave me.  They are really glasses that folks use in the middle east for hot tea.  They are perfect for iced coffee, though, just the right size.

Mmmmmm ... iced coffee.

Last night when Dennis went out to turn off the generator, he was surprised to see this tiny boa constrictor climbing up the veranda stair rail.  I was able to get a few flash photos of it before Dennis took it out to a noni bush.  The baluster the boa is leaning against is only 2 inches wide - the snake is smaller than the diameter of my little finger and is about 2.5 ft long.  Very pretty.

Last, but not least, the constrictor.

Construction Continues

Lots of progress on our building project since I last wrote.  Our design is, shall we say, unconventional.  It was not on purpose, but was a failure of communication between us and the Spanish-speaking crew that did the concrete foundation.  We had asked for the addition to be at a 26 degree angle relative to our existing cabana and somehow that 26 degrees was spread out over the entire matrix of the base rather than being executed in one segment.  So we wound up with a sort of fan shape.  Unfortunately, we did not realize this until all the concrete had been poured.  I looked it over and thought I could make some adjustments to the design without too much trouble, so we decided not to tear it down and start over, but rather to adapt to what was in place.  While that wasn't exactly a bad decision, it did have a far greater impact on the construction than I had anticipated...

We wound up with an irregular hexagonal shaped addition having no square corners, no parallel walls, and 6 walls of different lengths.  In addition, the ridgeline for the roof is not perpendicular or parallel to any of the 6 walls.  And the orientation of the ridgeline is critical for correct positioning of the solar panels.

Fortunately,we have an excellent carpentry crew that has risen to all the challenges thus far and I have confidence that they will rise to the upcoming challenges.  The first challenge was to create the 6 corner posts for the stud walls.  We used 10ft long 4x6s that Derwin and Paschal managed to custom rip-cut to precisely fit each corner.

Derwin marking and starting the first cut. Paschal is in the background marking the next post.

Derwin completes the first cut. Notice that this complex cut is done more or less free hand with only a rip fence on the hand held circular saw for guidance.

Derwin completes the second cut which forms the point of the chevron with assistance from Matthew.

Paschal and Derwin consult about the positioning of the cuts for the tail of the chevron.

Derwin completes cuts 3 and 4.

Behold the chevron!

For each corner post, Paschal patiently transcribed the angles from the 4x4 sill plate that had been fastened to the concrete beams.

Next, the crew positioned each corner post.

Paschal and Orington (AKA Tiger) secure the post in a plumb position.

Richard attaches another brace to hold the post plumb.

The next post ...

Richard screws down the plate securing the post to the 4x4 sill plate.  Notice the precision with which the post is shaped and positioned to match the odd angle of the corner.  Also notice the lack of footwear - a reminder that Belize is still a 3rd world country. Even here, though, we were able to find people like Richard, Paschal, and Derwin who are perfectionists and with real professional skills.

Getting the corner posts up and plum was a significant milestone for us.  As was using the laser level (an eBay purchase by Dennis that we brought down here with us) to get the tops of the posts all at the same height.  Even if we have no square corners or parallel walls, we can do plumb and level!

A corner post positioned over concrete support column and beams.

The post is right over the concrete column.

At this point, I went to visit a friend for 5 days and I came back to see the stud walls with headers in place for windows and doors all in place and siding up on most of the walls.  Tar paper (roofing felt) is used extensively in Belize, and we are using it too.

Looking to the north.

The west wall with the high bathroom window to the left and the back door and an office window to the right.

Most of the siding is up on the front of the addition.

The view from the dock.  The roof will be fairly high to accommodate a loft with doors to the front and back.

So that it how things stand now.  Next up is window delivery and construction of a wooden supporting beam, columns, and roofing trusses from Santa Maria tropical hardwood.