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!

A happy new year!

I would like to wish everyone a happy new year and hope you all had a great Christmas. Speaking of the new year one of my new years resolutions is to keep up with my blog on a weekly basis... but then again new years resolutions are there to be broken! But I will try my best.

Outside furniture

I have just realized it has been a few weeks from my last post and lots of things have been happening. Good and bad! Lets start with the good. It was our turn to host our family xmas party and even though it is still a bit of a building site we had two weeks to prepare and get the essentials finished for xmas eve. 

Outside Lights

The first thing was to sort the outside out - at this point we didn’t even have any lights in the garden. So I fitted all the outside lights and added ceiling fans in the undercover outside area. Finally I can put away the work lights we were using to see at night outside.

I had a friend come and stay which is awesome as I have another helping hand. He is a tiler from the states so with his help things will start moving a lot quicker. He has been finishing off a lot of the jobs that I haven’t had time for. 

Decking 

The old roof beams that I had cut up into planks last month have been amazing. Not only has it saved me money but the mahogany looks great and of course it is very strong. I needed a decking built over my water shut offs and clean outs so he threw this together one afternoon. It still needs sanding and finishing but it looks great.

Almost finished decking

I bought some bamboo chairs for the undercover area and my mum made the cushions for them so we now have somewhere to sit outside. We also finished off the outside kitchen - well I say finished the floor and tiling needs to be completed but at least it is fully functional now.

Outside Kitchen

If you remember last time I was in the process of making the front door - again from the old roof beams (I love using this up on the features for the house). I thought it was about time we took off the broken gates from the front of the house and at least had one front door for the party.

Our first front door!

It may sound crazy but having a front door is a big step! I am very excited. I have all the wood lined up ready to make the other three. So I started work on putting up the other three door frames so I can make the door. Now this is where the not so good part about this month comes up....

Finished the last downstairs room at the back

So again in my recycling mode I decided to use the bars from one of my big front gates that was on the property and build it in to the door frame. Now this thing is heavy - it took four of us just to lift it off the hinges. Its made from 3/4 inch steel. 

Front door frame and grill

So I measure it out and started cutting it up with my grinder - which took a long time. I started using a sanding block attachment for the grinder - its kind of like a heavy rock that takes the bars back down to bare metal. So there I am grinding away and the block decides to explode on the end of the grinder and smashes in to my foot.... ouch. You might not want to look at the next photo...

My black and blue foot

I don’t think it is broken but I am going to be hobbling for the next week or so. It hurt a lot. Now this is an advertisement for safety at work - probably not the best idea to wear sneakers when doing this type of work, they did not offer much protection. So my first job was to buy a pair of new work shoes online. You live, you learn and it could of been worse.

Set up for our Xmas party

So back to a better photo - the xmas party, I have to say the place looked amazing all lit up at night. This photo kind of gives you an idea of what the finished property will look like.

Lindas new cage

So after an enjoyable xmas party I decided to give Linda (my pet parrot) her xmas present - a big new cage for outside. So after buying this cage I decided to use the wood (yet again) from the roof beams to build a table for it to go on. 

Caoba table

I was practicing on this table as I plan to make a lot more for the furniture around the property. Not bad for a first attempt a furniture making - I love the way the wood looks.

Almost finished guest room

So after a lot of fun finishing off certain areas for the party it is back to the upstairs rooms. We decided to finish the back upstairs before we make a start on the front main part of the house. So my friend has been tiling floors and my mum has been painting. It is really going to move on fast now.

Until next time...