Thank God for friends...

Well there is a new years resolution broken... I said I was going to blog every week, but never mind there is also next year hey. It has been a bit of an interesting couple of weeks actually - lots of work going on in different areas... where do I start?

Path in our backgarden

We decided on a brick floor paving which really goes well with the color scheme but is a pain in the ass to lay - not that I am laying it, as you can see from the title of this post I have a lot of thanks to give to people. My mate from the USA is laying the floor and in the process of grouting it which is a painstaking task to say the least - but it looks awesome and has saved me so much time from doing it myself.

The star of the Hot Tub

I also have my Hatians back after their xmas break - only for a few weeks to finish up a few areas and to build my Hot tub. I was in two minds about going ahead with the Hot tub due to budget constraints but we opted to go full ahead with it. So the day they arrived back they started to dig.

Pool drain

The hole is about 10 ft by 12ft, obviously the Jacuzzi will be smaller by the time I add the walls etc but it will still have ample room for 6 or so people. I have been meaning to sit down and plan it all out but I have been so busy I think this will be one of the day by day jobs. I have got the floor drain connected so tomorrow they will be laying the base for the tub. I think I have everything I need - jets etc so i am hoping this doesn't take much more than a week to complete.

The start of the bunk beds

Now my friend from Sweden turned up for a week or so and offered his carpentry services which has been very much appreciated. I met him in Panama on my travels - if anyone wants a good read check out - www.chrislinehamstravels.travellerspoint.com - that was my around the world blog, the sailing trip from panama to Colombia is the one to check out!

I needed bunk beds building for the upstairs rooms so he set to work. It was a job I wasn’t looking forward to myself and he has almost completed them all - so a massive thanks to him.

Almost complete

They look great and they are not even finished yet. My mum has also been racing ahead with the painting upstairs. The back part of the house is almost fully painted now - looks great.

Back balcony

My latest project was finishing the front doors - I find it hard not to swear when talking about this... I needed 2 double doors and two single doors. Not hard I thought being as I had already made one... The problem was that in my ‘trying to save money mode’ and using the caoba from the roof beams, it has taken a lot longer than expected - the wood isn't entirely straight... so it has taken me a lot longer than expected but I am almost there! 

Some of the front doors

My mate from the US has welded all the bars for them and I just have to add the glass. So I am hoping by the next post I will have all my front doors complete - downstairs at least!

Welding time

As a thanks to my generous workers I wanted to take them somewhere on our day off. I wanted to go and see the whales but I called up Kim Badell - a French lady that runs a whale watching company in Samana, I have heard good thinks about them but unfortunately the whales are a little late this year so there might have been a possibility of not seeing them - so instead I opted for a trip to Isla Saona - which is about a 1 hour 45 minute drive from Santo Domingo just past La Romana. 

Isla Saona

We got a Catamaran there and spent the day on the island... bliss!

And he told me he would never get back on a boat again after our Panama adventure!