Farewell Ye Noble Sheets

Some boards get cut up and made into things ... and that’s the end of that.  Other boards do a job, such as being a form for concrete work ... and then they go to the burn pile.  But we know of some special boards that performed many jobs in two countries and across the high seas, yet may now have found their final place in the world ... and they may be doing that final job for a long time.

Mezzanine goes into the sea container.

Back in Houston, about a year ago, I realized that we were pushing the limit of what a 40-foot sea container could hold, due to the volume of “stuff” we were taking to Costa Rica, along with the space to be taken up by our Subaru Forester.  So, I designed a “mezzanine” decking to be assembled around and over the Subaru which would create quite a bit of useable space above the car – space which would normally be “dead air” where nothing could go.  As a plus, this wooden cage would protect Subie from shifting cartons or falling stuff while out on the heaving ocean.

I went to Lowes and bought three ¾” plywood sheets and a bunch of 2x4’s for the mezzanine’s support structure.  I pre-cut and pre-drilled everything so that it could be slapped together in minutes, once the car was up inside the sea container.  [We had been told by the shipping company that we were only allowed 3 hours to load the container, so there wouldn’t be time to diddle around cutting lumber and figuring things out on Load Day.]

The plywood sheets were a good grade and based on earlier purchases in Costa Rica, I knew that good wood like this was very expensive in CR.  Not wanting the mezzanine structure or plywood to be, umm, “borrowed” on the dock when the container was unloaded, we marked all of the boards with shipper’s inventory numbers and declared them on the manifest as “property to be delivered.”

Well, they did the mezzanine job just fine, crossed the ocean, got removed from the container and showed up in Atenas, CR, with all of our junk.   Really.  Used lumber.   Oh, well, it made the trip so I leaned it up against the tapia (our property perimeter wall).

THERE! Hiding behind the blue tarp.

We had no more than begun breaking ground for construction of our “Rancho” (party-patio) when our contractor came up and asked if they could use the plywood and 2x4’s, temporarily. Why not?

They put everything back together almost exactly like the sea container mezzanine and this became protection for the guys and for building materials from the sun and rain.  Those sheets of plywood took a direct beating from the elements for months and they took on a kind of dirty grey-brown look.  But they held together just fine.

Kind of small and rickety but Da Boyz loved it.

Before starting on the main house, the contractor built our “Bodega” (storage building) so there was no need for the poor old plywood mini-bodega up at the Rancho.  They took it apart and leaned the boards back against the tapia.

No sooner had they scratched the earth for the house foundation when it became obvious that we needed to break the tapia open so that the large volume of construction materials could be unloaded and brought in from the road “down there” at the house site, rather than hiked all the way from the driveway, up at the Casita.  Trouble was, we didn’t want the big gap in the wall to be left open at night.  Hey ... plywood!

The guys started out the “closure” of the tapia opening by just leaning two of the plywood sheets against the edges of the gap.  Pretty soon though, the dry season winds came and the plywood would get blown down almost as fast as they could pick it up and put it back.  But, the guys didn’t “get it” since "quitting time" was the only time when they would stand up the plywood, close the gap, jump in the crew truck and be gone --  before the wind could blow the sheets down (some times.)  So, the solution was up to me.  I built a giant bolted-on tongue and groove assembly which locked the two sheets together in the middle while a rope (eventually a chain) across the downwind side of the closure would keep this wooden wall from collapsing.   This worked for many more months, as the plywood sheets became sadder and sadder looking.

One sheet down ... one sheet up. The Closure.

{The observant reader might well wonder what happened to the third sheet of plywood.  Well, um, can you say “outhouse” kids?  Yes, sadly, Da Boyz required some means of protecting their modesty whilst watering the plants in the back 40 and they absconded with poor old Sheet Three.  Don’t know if you’ve had much experience with outhouses and messy boys but, (urk) Sheet Three was not suitable for future usage after this job.  So sad.}

 As the rainy season came back and construction started into the home stretch, our wrought iron gate was installed across the opening in the tapia (site of the new driveway) and the Big Bad Boards went – guess where – back to leaning against the tapia.
 
But are The Little Plywood Sheets That Could down for the count?  Nah.

As told in an earlier post, the Brave, Courageous and Bold guardian of the Kingdom, Don Newt, had been sleeping on an air mattress inside the casa for several weeks protecting our new stuff from thievery and thuggary during the hours of darkness.  But it came to pass that I COULDN’T STAND IT NO MO, so we gagged and choked up the two bucks an hour and hired Jesus, er, I mean Jesús to patrol the grounds and sleep with the bugs every night.  And a darn good job he does, too.

The other morning, Jesús spake (sorry ... da devil made me do that) and asked if we had any plans for the two sheets of plywood leaning against la tapia.  Seems his mattress at home was sagging badly and he figured ¾”plywood sheets would be just the ticket to bolster up the bow in the bedding. 

Holy crow – an opportunity to get those nasty looking things out of my everyday sight, after 10 months!

So, today, those two sheets, which started life protecting Subie and giving us room, were hauled by Subie and taken to the room of Jesús, where they may rest, quietly retired, beneath his mattress, doing a job where appearance means nothing and their proven strength is everything. 

Farewell ye noble sheets.


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Construction Update: Where are the doors?!?!?

So close and yet so far… Here we sit, waiting on electricity, waiting on cabinets, and waiting on doors.

We won the standoff with I.C.E. (the national power monopoly) that I mentioned in an earlier post. Our little service road has now been declared a public rode and I.C.E. showed up last Saturday and actually ran power cables up to the pole in front of our Casa. First thing Monday morning, we went to our local I.C.E. office and requested new service with an electric meter to be mounted on the service pole a couple of meters from I.C.E’s new power pole. Cindy, the I.C.E. agent that waited on us, said the law states electricity must be hooked up within 10 business days of the request for service. At this time, she thinks it will be installed in 4-5 business days. Today was day 4, so I’m hoping, by this time Monday, we have power. Do you think we’re being too optimistic?

Doors!!!

Where are the doors?!?!?!


We inked the deal for the 11 doors on the 10th of April. At that time, we were told it usually takes a month for an order, but they felt they could have them ready in about 2 weeks. Yeah, right. Two weeks have come and gone, a month has come and gone, and still no doors. We really need the 4 external doors, like right now. With doors, we can actually start moving our stuff out of the Casita’s garage and start unpacking things we haven’t seen in almost a year. We’ve had problems getting John (not my John, but John the door guy, whose name is also John, not Juan) to return phone calls or give us a straight answer. So our builder Rodolfo told us where the door workshop is in a neighboring town. This past Tuesday we took a drive and after a few stops for directions, we found the workshop. John wasn’t there, but his dad, Eduardo, was busy making doors and was well aware of our order. He said they could probably install the external doors on Thursday (yesterday) or Friday (today), and the internal doors can be installed Monday or Tuesday of next week, “si Dios quiere” (if God is willing.) Yeah, right. At 2 p.m. this afternoon, no external doors had been hung and I called John the door guy again. This time he told me they are just putting the finish on the doors and they can probably be hung tomorrow, “si Dios quiere.” Now I don’t know, but I really believe God wants us to have doors and He wanted us to have the doors about 3 weeks ago. I don’t think it’s a matter of “si Dios quiere.” I think it’s truly a matter of John the door guy “no quiere” and God doesn’t enter into this equation at all. What do you think?

I think the cabinets are supposed to be ready sometime next week too. William (not Guillermo) the cabinet maker is a pretty reliable guy. He worked in New Jersey for about 15 years as a cabinet maker when he was younger and he tells it like it is. So far, he has been great to work with and he has made some beautiful furniture for our friends, Maritza and Vinicio. I trust that when he says 2 to 3 weeks, he means 2 to 3 weeks. He doesn’t get caught up in the Tico way of telling you what he thinks you want to hear, he tells it like it is.

Other than these few finishing items, we are almost finished and we are extremely please. I know I’ve promised to post more photos, but I’m holding off until everything is done. I want you to enjoy the full effect.

¡Pura Vida!
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Our non-confrontational Tico neighbors

Today, I had the best laugh I've had in a long time! I still chuckle just thinking about our "non-confrontational" Tico neighbors. Costa Rica natives HATE to confront anyone with bad news, a gripe, or anything else that might make them feel uncomfortable.

A perfect example is the guy that made the windows for us. He was supposed to be here a week ago, on Saturday, to put the little plastic plug covers in the window frame drain holes. He didn't show up, so I called him yesterday and he said he meant this Saturday. My Spanish is very good and he really did say last Saturday, but whatever. It's now almost 3 PM and when he didn't show up again, I'll call him on Monday to see what happened. It would never occur to him to call us to tell us he can't make it.... that would make him uncomfortable, because he would have to deal with our disappointment once again.

Another example of this Tico personality trait is the situation with my neighbors that own the farm property adjoining our place. There are 4 brothers and sisters, one of which is the father-in-law of my cousin whose wife sold us our little piece of paradise. Every Sunday at least one of them comes to the farm around 4 PM. I have no clue what they do down there, but they'll stay for an hour, or two, then stop to chat with me on their way back home to Alajuela (a neighboring town).

This past Sunday they showed up after dark, stayed about 10 minutes and drove out again quickly, without even so much as a wave. Very strange! About an hour later John found they had stuck a letter in our gate, signed by all the family member and it included all of their national identity numbers. Most peculiar. I translated the letter and started seething. I couldn't understand why they just didn't stop and discuss their concerns with the house we have constructed. I forgot the Tico way of doing business. Here is the loosely translated letter they stuck in the gate:

Dear Señora
Receive a cordial greeting from us. At this time we solicit in the most respectful way possible to communicate that the water you have leaving your property is not positioned toward the right-of-way road. That is to say, the water is entering to the right, below the gate and we, the property owners are not in agreement with this.

Then they listed all of their names and identity numbers. Needless to say, we were clueless as to what they were talking about, so I stewed about it all night and gave the letter to our contractor, Rodolfo the next morning. He thought maybe they were complaining about the rain water run off, so he had one of the workers dig a trench and move a drain line so there is no way our run-off will flow on their property, instead it flows away from them, toward the right-of-way passage road.

Fast forward to today. One of the brothers and a sister showed up today to check on their farm. On their way out, the brother stopped to talk to me because he thought it would be better to discuss the situation face to face. Wow, a Tico that is actually willing to confront someone with a problem, I'm impressed. I told him I agreed, face to face is always better as it eliminates misunderstandings.

I told them what Rodolfo had done to correct the run-off and then the sister asked why the drain pipe was still positioned below the gate. I asked her to show me. The gate is not a gate, it is actually our property wall. When she showed me the pipe, I burst out laughing! This pipe is the remains of the improvised urinal the construction crew setup when they first started the construction on the Casa. They took a 5 gallon water bottle, cut the bottom out of it, turned it upside down, and attached a drain to the mouth of the bottle. This drain was then position so that their pee would run under the wall and down the field with the rest of the pee from the cows and horses. Needless to say, we all had a hearty laugh and I promised the drain pipe would be removed when the construction crew shows up on Monday.

My only regret is the sleepless night I had as the direct result of the non-confrontational Tico.
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INVASION!

It’s raining hard.  Not “hurricane-hard” but “Uh-oh ... there’s going to be street flooding-hard,” if this were in Houston.  This has been going on, steadily, for at least a half hour.
 
In the sky, there are tens of thousands of flying insects visible from the Rancho.  Their bodies are smaller than black flies but their wing span is greater.  That makes them easily visible to me out at least 20 meters – maybe more.  How are these little things staying in the air?  There can’t be that much space between raindrops.  They should be dropping out of the air like ... uh ... flies.

I’m going to revise the above estimate.  There are hundreds of thousands of them.  Where’d they all come from?
 
Now, in the rain, I see a few opportunist gnat catchers flying madly through The Feast.
 
Boink.  Rain quit.  Insects identified.  Termites!  And, that tells me where they came from.  There’s one big nest, larger than a basketball, affixed to the crotch of a stunted tree at the edge of the sports plaza, maybe 50 m from here.  I’ve found several other huge nests down in the lower tree lines.
 
They didn’t all survive the rain.  Hundreds are stuck to the stucco.  [Hey, is that were the name came from?!?]  Thousands of little bodies are floating in puddles – most of them with their wings knocked off.
 
And now the bug eatin’ birds are swarming!.  The sky is filled with them but alas for their tummies, most of the termites have gone to ground or back to their nests.  You’d think that the energy these birds are expending chasing “flying ants” is way more than they can gain from what they’re able to pluck out of the air.
 
O.K., scholars, here’s today’s challenge.  How many termites (average weight and height) does a gnat catcher have to catch and eat per minute to offset the energy expended by flight, plus having some reserves left over (to make it worth the effort)?  You may assume a relative humidity of 90% on an air temperature of 25C with calm winds, for your flight calculations.  The phone lines are open now for your answers.  The first correct answer wins all the termites off the side of the house and mirador.
 

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Casa Construction Update - New brick pavers

The construction team started laying our concrete brick pavers this week. The pavers are going all the way around the house, under the eaves, the carport, and our terraza. We are really pleased with the overall look and the upkeep will be a breeze. The splash over from this afternoon's rain is clearly visible on the bricks in this photo.

We drove into San José today to pick up a very nice humidifier we found on Craig's List. We plan to keep it in our new walk-in closet to reduce the possibility of mold and mildew in the rainy season.

Last week we started looking for a new refrigerator for the Casa, to replace the side-by-side we sold with the Houston house. We found a nice one at PriceSmart (Costa Rica's Costco), but before we dropped some major bucks on it, we wanted to check out Consumer Reports . It turns out it had a much lower rating than we had hoped. So, after lunch today, we went to a local appliance store here in Atenas. We lucked out! They had the much higher rated Samsung on sale at an even better price than the Frigidaire we saw at PriceSmart. We are now the proud owners of a 26 cubic foot side-by-side, with an ice maker and water dispenser in the freezer door. The refrigerator was delivered this afternoon and for now, we have parked it in the spare bedroom.

In other news, we are still waiting on electricity because the power cables haven't been strung on the new poles. That was supposed to happen last week. We are also still waiting on doors so we can secure the house. In the meantime, John is still sleeping with the dogs in the new Casa to deter any crimes of opportunity. The doors were supported to happen last week too. No word on the kitchen or bathroom cabinets yet.

The good news is that the toilets were installed today and only one of them leaks. We also discovered a hot water line was not installed for the twin sinks in the master bath. Rodolfo promised he would take care of it right away. Apparently we missed this error when we reviewed the plans prepared by our Civil Engineer. We can't install any of the sinks until the cabinets are installed, so we have time to fix this. At this rate, we may not make our target move in date of May 15th. :(
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Water Can Cause Stress

Some weeks ago, the national water company, known by their initials, AyA, put in the water connection and new water meter for our house. Just a few weeks prior to that, a real genius truck driver had cut the corner to our property “a little short” and had taken out two of three water services at our corner. Now our new service sat within this same corner area, vulnerable to the same type of dopey driving. “I’ll fix this,” I said.

At the corner, between the driving lane and the water meters, I dug a deep hole with a borrowed rock bar, dropped a heavy-wall 4x4 steel tube 3 feet into the hole, left it protruding 6 feet up into the air and filled the hole with concrete. Just for good measure, I filled the tube with concrete. The next dump truck to run short across this corner might take my tube out, but not without significant body damage to his truck.

Admiring my work, our contractor sent a couple of guys to the new water meter and built a massive concrete vault and support platform for the meter and its associated piping. Now any errant driver would have to smash down my pole AND break through a foot of concrete.

Today, as we prepared to head out to the farmer’s market for fresh fruits & veggies, I noticed three hombres down by the water meters, smashing away with a sledge hammer and a digging bar. One of them pulled a monstrous chunk of concrete free, rolled it across the road and down into the soccer pitch [Yeah, who cares if there is now a bunch of scrap concrete right where the kids will run out of bounds and bash themselves up on it. No skin off of this worker’s knees.]

I hurried translator, Patricia, down to the workers for an investigation.

In her excellent Spanish, she asked them, politely, what was happening (as I was asking them in my mind, “What the f*** are you stupid a***oles doing?!?”) They were smashing up the (underground) ragged edges of the meter vault our contractor had built.

“Oh, no, we’re not going to harm the vault,” Pat translated for me, “We’re just removing the rough edges and we’re going to make it nice and smooth.”

Huh? Before these geniuses started digging, nobody could even see the danged rough edges.

With an uneasy feeling, I drove us off to the farmer’s market.

Forty minutes later, we’re driving up to our corner and water is shooting out from the area where the meters sit, all the way across the street. And our meter vault is completely gone. And our meter is now resting on a rotten piece of wood and a concrete block (which looks suspiciously new and clean, as if it was borrowed from the nearest pile of construction materials -- our house.)

Son of a ....

I let Pat out at the house and walked back up the road to see how bad this was really going to be; and, if these geniuses were backfeeding from my water storage tank, out into the street (not too thrilled about already paying for 2,500 liters of water and having them blow it down the street.)

Good news and bad news and bad news and bad news and, “OMG.”

The good news was that the blow was coming from the AyA water main connection, not from my tank. But, there was nothing left at all of our nice concrete work; this, was not actually an AyA crew (they were an independent sub-contractor); they had almost no tools to work with; and, apparently (the OMG part), they had no way to shut off the water.

I’ve grown to appreciate the creativity of the Costa Rican field workers as they make do with just about nothing. I think they could probably make an airplane out of the ubiquitous galvanized sheet metal, baling wire and “stuff” that they find lying around. But this wasn’t going to be one of those days.

In case you haven’t seen me discuss (with disgust) the AyA water “system” being totally constructed of small-bore PVC pipe, here it is – our water main, water main connection, meter piping and 100 meter feed to our tank is all PVC. All ½” size, except for the feed to our tank because I popped to buy the HUGE (!) 1” size (hoping not to lose all water pressure running that far with dinky ½” pipe.)

So, as I rolled up on their scene, it appeared that during their “trimming” of our concrete vault, they must have broken off the feed pipe going to our meter. Why this required breaking out the entire vault isn’t clear but caca happens here in the land of Pura Vida. The skilled craftsmen were just finishing up gluing together the elbows and stubs to line back up for a reconnect to the water main riser, which was still blowing.

Long Aside: I might take this time to point out that not one beating heart in Costa Rica has ever connected PVC pipe: With PVC primer; or,
With squarely cut pipe ends; or,
With deburred pipe ends; or,
With the requisite twisting motion as the pipe is thrust into the glue and socket; or,
With the recommended hold time (to keep the pipe from rebounding away from the socket stop; or,
With the requisite waiting time for the glue to harden up enough before turning the water back on.

I tried, hard, to acquire primer for the construction of our new house, even contacting the biggest manufacturer of PVC glue and primer in the USA. They assured me that their master distributor in CR had PLENTY of primer in their warehouse here. No they didn’t. They never even heard of primer. So, “Primer? We don’t need no stinkin’ primer. This is Costa Rica and our glue is magic. Pffft. Primer. Stupid gringo.” Back to the story.

So, I watched with dropped jaw and bugged out eyes as one worker crammed his glue dobber up into the downward facing elbow socket coming off my meter and then, using a rusty hack saw blade, proceeded to cut apart the blowing (live) riser to proper length to meet up with the elbow. Immediately, he was drenched, the little hole he was working in filled with water (submerging the elbow socket and riser ends in a sea of mud). In the next second, he shoved the newly goobered up elbow over the newly raggedly cut end of the underwater riser, held it for 5 seconds, then stood up. I was struck dumb.

The same guy dipped some muddy water out and tried to clean away the sight glass of our meter, I’m assuming so that he could verify that the slug of mud he had just introduced into MY water piping was gurgling happily down my water line to my storage tank where it could contaminate the entire water supply.

POP! The new meter elbow blew off of the riser. Now the water was shooting straight up in the air. I backed out of range. Then I walked away. Why get any more worked up. I’m retired, damn it.

Two hours later, I go back out to see how things are going and the crew is gone. The blow is no longer erupting into the sky and two of the four meters (both mine) are encased in new concrete. See the photo. Notice the great workmanship of the concrete and the cute little step they formed into the side of the new vault. I have no idea what the little step does for them but it does nothing for me. Notice the Tico pride which they must have poured into this “repair,” as they ensured that the two meters were cockeyed with respect to each other, before they secured this example of their master craftsmanship for all the ages amidst the setting concrete. Notice the blob of free-poured concrete on the front of the vault WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT (they said) THEY HAD BEEN SENT OUT TO REMOVE FROM MY CONTRACTOR’S VAULT WORK.

I wonder how long before their pipe joints blow apart

Think they’re going to send me a bill for screwing up their system with my sub-standard concrete work and costing them all of this labor and water loss?
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Typical Product Packaging in Costa Rica

Ketchup, Mustard, Mayo, Sour Cream & Refried Beans

We've been meaning to blog about the product packaging you find here in Costa Rica compared to the methods used in North America.  Back at H.E.B, our favorite grocery store in Houston, the top three products in this photo would be in either glass or plastic bottles.  The sour cream would be in a plastic tub and you'd find the beans in a metal can.

These Costa Rican packaging choices may have happened because they didn't have the USA's huge glass jar and metal can infrastructure in place but whatever the reason, this way of doing things is simply sensible.

The sour cream is the real stuff (not full of guar gum and thickeners -- it almost pours) and we simply snip off the edge of the recyclable polyethylene bag and squeeze the contents into our own little tub.  Either the empty is off to be recycled or it is very low profile land fill.  We're talking "sandwich bag" vs., plastic tub, plastic lid, and foil safety liner.

The other products in the picture are all squeeze pouches.  Not only do they recycle, take up less room on the shelf and reseal like magic but think about never again digging around in the bottom of the Hellman's jar while your knuckles get smeared with mayo; or never shaking that danged Heinz ketchup bottle; or, don't go get a knife dirty -- lay down a perfect bead of mustard on your bratwurst.

Another great aspect of this is if you're any kind of a refried bean fan.  In the USA, what do you do with the rest of the can after you open it up and only want to use a few tablespoons?  Scoop it into Tupperware?  Then it either gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator and turns into a "strange biological growths" science project, or you take it out a few days later and it has that nasty crust all over it.  With the CR packaging, we just unscrew the little cap, squeeze out a dollop, or ten, and stand it back up in the refer door.  Better yet, we can have a pouch of regular refried black beans; some with jalapeños; some with Salsa Lizano; some red bean; and, oh, the flavors go on and on.

Almost everything that is a watery liquid comes in refill-size poly bags.  Lysol in a bag?  Weird.  Floor polish?  Windex?  Hand soap?  Weird, weird, weird.  It's a recycle thing again and an efficiency benefit.  One quickly gets used to it.

Pump bottles and sprays:  Here, if you're smart, you get a good pump or spray bottle and keep it forever (with a smile.)  Almost everything is sold as a refill, rather than with the pump every time.

We were a little unprepared for the laundry detergent powder to come in a giant, floppy poly bag until we realized that they're sized to fit neatly into a snap-on-lid 5-gallon bucket.  Way-hey-hey-hey more convenient than those big cardboard boxes and in this climate, no clumping.

A few things need a little work here in the CR packaging industry.  Although aseptic packaging puts myriad tropical fruit juices at our fingertips, the pouring spouts are awfully splashy unless you pour awfully slowly.  Aseptic boxed milk is ultra convenient (and we try to always keep some, "just in case") but they still haven't figured out how to get it to taste as great as the fresh stuff.  

Now the downside.  Coffee is all in form-fill-seal bags.  No cans.  What the heck am I supposed to use for nuts, bolts and shop junk?!?  These barbarians.
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Just another Casa update

Every week, since we started construction on the Casa, we have monitored our expenses to make sure we stay on budget. As of today, it looks like we are going to finish the job right on track. Our actual cost per square foot is going to be just under $50 USD. That's not bad considering the house we sold in Houston, just before we moved here, went for $91 per square foot, and it was almost 40 years old.

Today, the boys have been busy on clean-up details and small projects. Two of them leveled the dirt in the yard so we can put St. Augustine sod down in the next couple of weeks. Mario, the tile master, started the tile work in the master bath today and it's looking great. Eliécer hired a dump truck and a backhoe to haul away all the left over dirt, broken concrete and general debris. The folks that play in the sports plaza across from us should be pleased when they see our unsightly mess is now gone.

I.C.E. (see last week's post) actually showed up on Saturday and set the new electricity poles. I talked to the jefe from I.C.E. and asked him if I could submit our application for service today and he said we should give him a week to get the cable strung so the guys from the office don't whine about putting in a meter when the cable isn't installed.

The technician responsible for the L.P. gas lines came today to hook-up the lines for the water heater, dryer and gas range. As soon as we have electricity, we will have a tech out to hook up the mini-split A/C unit we are installing in our bedroom. I wonder how often we will actually use it considering the affects of our insulated clay tile roof. We have an A/C unit in the casita, that only gets used once or twice a month. I must admit, it is a nice luxury to have when you need it.

There has been another delay on the concrete pavers we ordered for the driveway and walkways. We ordered them back in March and were told they couldn't get them until after Easter. Now they are saying is looks like it will be at least another week.

This past Saturday, we went shopping again and found a small shop in a town very close to us that carry some really nice kitchen, bath and lighting fixtures . To top it off, the sales clerk spoke perfect English, making it so much easier for John. We found some nice pendant lights for the master bath and some for the front and back entry ways. They had to order them for us, but the sales clerk told us they should be in tomorrow or Wednesday. The last thing we need to buy now, which will round out everything, is wood for the baseboards. That will be our next, and hopefully the last, shopping trip for the Casa.

I'll post plenty of photos when everything is closer to completion.
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