The Trusses Are Up, the Roof is Next

The trusses, ceiling joists, etc. are up!!!  Hooray!! Hurrah!!!

These are the ceiling joists and trusses before



These are  the ceiling joists and trusses after 









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MM calls this wood San Juan Chin.  It is a very hard, dense wood that termites do not attack.  That is very important here in the tropics.  Termites can destroy a property in a very short time-space.  Once this wood dries you cannot nail it without drilling a hole first.



This is the roof system from the ground

If you are wondering why so many pictures of the trusses, it is because I am so very, very proud of my little Honduran Honey  Bun and Marvin and Jose. These are not prefab, machine-made structural components.   Macho Man is a Master Carpenter, but all his adult experience has been on cruise ships and yachts, not houses.  Marvin and Jose are getting a lot of OJT.  The three of them have constructed the roof support system with a carpenter's square, fishing line, hammers and nails, and a table saw.  Yet, look how precise it is all  put together, how perfectly aligned it is.  It is truly magnificent.  It is a work of art. 



This is my new roof, before.  The after pictures will come next week.  My BIL is going to try to come next week and bring some helpers.  If they come it will certainly speed things up

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These are my door and window frames, and even my doors.  Part of this may even become part of the ceiling.  The wood is Rosita.  It  has a beautiful grain.  It is another dense,  heavy hardwood.  Once you get a nail into it, you can't take it back out.  It is also too hard for termites to chew. 

This house is truly a house built out of love.  To me, not even the Taj Mahal is more beautiful.  The best part is that when it is finished, the house is paid for.  It cannot be foreclosed on.  It cannot be repossessed.  It is ours.  Thank you, Macho Man.

We are blessed. 

My Cositas Arrived Yesterday

For those of you who don't speak Spanish, cositas translates 'little things'.  Actually it was big things, like my car and a truck load of furniture. We haven't seen any of our things since November 13, so yesterday was like Christmas.

Today we have been unpacking boxes, deciding what stays upstairs where we live or stay in the downstairs bedroom, which we have turned into our bodega.  The bodega wins, because we have very little room for furniture.

I will write again on this, but tonight I am just too tired. 

International Banking Fixed? Well, At least the movers got paid

Hoo RaH!! The transfer we made last night went through without a hitch!!!   The movers are paid, and all is well in the world today, at least for now. ;-D.  I spent the day on the phone yesterday, pitching a hissy fit and probably sounding like a deranged person with a bag full of weapons, but I finally got hold of someone who was interested enough to help. 

Seems like the answer, in reality, is very simple.  The first bank officer I spoke to a month ago should have told me that SafePass has to be set up inside the US.  Then you opt for a SafePass card rather than give them a cellular number.  Use the card for the first time in the US, and after that it can be used anywhere in ther world.

I am still skeptical, but at least I won't be ripping someone's heart out with my fingernails.

Things to Be Thankful For

One of the main highlights of my day today was the delivery of my new refrigerator and my new oasis.  For those who do not know what an oasis is, it is a water fountain like you see in the waiting rooms of  many doctors, you know, with the five gallon jug of water turned upside down on top of it.

You may think I need to get a life, if the delivery of  a fridge and a water fountain are a highlight of my day.
There is a short little Spanish phrase, no sirve, which basically means it doesn't work.  The nicest thing you could say about the fridge that came with the apartment is, "No sirve." 

Besides being extremely small, it took three days for the ice trays to freeze, and then they only froze on the back side, over the only two coils of the freezer that worked.   Every time you opened the door, the freezer started to defrost.  The water then ended up in the vegetable bin, seriously affecting the condition of the vegetables.   It also defrosted onto the floor, making a slip and fall hazard for someone with two left feet. 
Throw in that the electricity in the kitchen is not grounded, and you have a formula for disaster.

The oasis is important, because nobody drinks the tap water, not even the Hondurans.  The same case of 24 bottles of purified water we buy for $5.00 at Publix costs $12.00 here.  The five gallon bottle of water on my oasis costs a little less than $2.00.  As I can go through a case of water in about 3 days, this was the only way to go.

So, today I have ice cubes, a sanitary place to keep my food fresh, and clean water to drink.  That is more than most people on this earth can claim to have.  We who grew up in a privileged society, regardless of our socio-economic status,  have no clue what it is to do without clean water.  We can't imagine not having a refrigerator, and many of us can't imagine not having a refrigerator without ice and water in the door.

So, I am thankful for my new fridge, because I can keep my food fresh.  I am thankful for my oasis, because I have clean water to drink.  I am thankful for my washer, because that means I don't have to wash my clothes by hand in a pila (concrete sink with a scrub board built in), or worse yet, take my laundry to the river and beat it clean on the rocks.

I am thankful for all my blessings.