Casa extension Sep 27

Here are some photos showing how far the work has progressed with the new living area for the house in San Felipe. The walls are almost completed and the contractor has gone north to buy the roofing material for the new roof. I am trying to sooth myself after writing a check for all this work. There will be more checks to write later. Being a cheapskate I obsess about spending money; now and then I whine and or snivel, occasionally I have been know to go into a panic mode. I eventually recover my senses and get on with my life but until then I drive myself a little crazy.

Here are the new photos;

Interior Facing South

North Doorway To The Stairs

Room From The Entrance

South Facing Wall

West Wall Facing The Gate

Progress report on construction project Sep 22

The construction of the new living room is moving along the walls are going up at a steady pace and it is beginning to look like a room. Some design decisions have been made and I think this will be a good looking room once completed. Here are a few photos of how far we have come since last time.

Hurricane that wasn’t and more on the project

We were all a twitter about a hurricane that was headed our way. It hit Baja Sud which is hundreds of miles away the strongest hurricane to come ashore in years. It wrecked a lot of homes downed power lines stranded thousands of tourists and headed for us. NOAA said it would turn north-east towards Tucson and Phoenix and sure enough it did. All San Felipe got was a few showers-it could have been a lot worse.

My contractor said it would be fine and just kept on working. He was right and the project continued as the photos show.

Good-bye Hurricane and hello nice day!

View of our street after the rain

Puddle in front of the house new gravel in front of the house

Some rain water on the slab

Slab and footing pored and setting up.

New Project

I have decided to add on to the house in Mexico and the work has begun. I want a room to use for a living room and to be large enough to invite friends over. I also want a fireplace. At first I was just going to build a walled patio but then I thought about it and went for the room addition. The grey water tank had to be move so that took time and labor. The ditches for the footings have been dug and the cement, block and rebar have been delivered. next week the footings get poured and the beginning of laying up the block begins. It is getting exciting seeing a plan come together.

Here are some photos of how it looks at this stage.

Long view of the construction

Cement mixer and more blocks

Cement and more blocks

Sand and gravel for the cement

Pile of blocks just delivered

During construction

Before construction

Fiesta!

I found out about a fiesta at the local Navy base and went to buy a ticket at the office that does my immigration application when I met the lady who was in charge of the event the Commandant’s wife. She was very nice and even asked for my email address so I could be included in other events at the base. The purpose of the fiesta was two fold one was to support the hospital at the base and the other was to celebrate Mexico’s Independence from Spain. This day like a lot of holidays in Mexico lasts for several days the actual day of Independence is the 16th of September but they start early.

The event was very well done lots of music, dancers that were very beautiful a really good singer singing the traditional songs and then a band for dancing afterwards. We also had food a pazole that is soup with hominy, meat and other goodies and side dishes of stuffed chiles, cheese and avocados.

I had difficulty in taking photos as my camera speed wasn’t up to the rapid pace of the dancers, but I got a few photos that give an idea of what the event was like.

Shopping trip

Now and then I need to return to the old country to do some shopping get prescriptions filled and do some bank stuff in person. Such was the case the first week in September. A neighbor and I went to El Centro CA, on a shopping trip we both had long lists of thing to do and buy. As usual we spent the night at Vacation Inn in El Centro some nice things about the Inn are they know us, give us a discount, there’s a free hot breakfast, and a free drink at happy hour; also many of our neighbors stay there and it is like a reunion when we meet them.

We shop and then we bring stuff back to our room and then shop some more and leave more stuff in the room. Then we consolidate our stuff into less packages and load the truck with our buoty to cross the border back to our homes in San Felipe. We also enjoy dining out will visiting the “Old Country” and talking about our finds while crossing stuff off our shopping lists. It is both fun and work on these shopping trips and it is more pleasant when you have good company.

Here are some photos of our last trip. The room fills up with stuff rather quickly then it all has to go into the truck for the trip home.