The construction of the house is done! The only things left are waiting for the granite countertops to be finished, the upper cabinets need to be installed and the sinks hooked up. Once all that is done then we will install all the appliances and start moving in some furniture, and by furniture, I mean something soft to set our asses on. We are still waiting for our bed to be finished and another woodworker is making the medicine cabinet for above the bathroom sink and a small entertainment center for the TV, stereo, and DVD player. So now all the cleanup and tree trimming is about to take place to make this place look good.

Since we are in a waiting pattern for a week or more for our granite, upper cabinets and bed to be finished, the timing worked out perfect for our quick trip up to the states. We will be heading up to see the kids and grandkids for an early Christmas. We are also planning a short trip down to Mexico to visit friends we haven’t seen in a while. Once we get back to Belize it will be Christmas for us. We will get to move into our new home and open up all the stuff that we had brought with us that we have not seen in a long time and all the new stuff we bought at the last minute to fill the container.

The front door turned out beautiful!!! It all started with an idea not to have a simple front entry door since that is what makes the great impression of your home. We kicked around a few ideas of having a door made and then we said why not have a carving done on it. Our first thoughts were a toucan or a parrot or maybe a jaguar, but after thinking more about it we settled on just some big tropical leaves. So I came up with a drawing of what we wanted and gave it to the woodworker and he transformed it into this beautiful one of a kind door that is really amazing.

This project is finally coming to an end, no more saws, sanders, constant hammering or people running around, just peace and quiet from now on. It seems like this was taking forever, but we think that was because we were here almost every day during the construction. In reality, it is amazing what has been done in the past nine months considering there was nothing here when we started. We now have a nice entrance and road coming in, a big garage\workshop, a guest house, and the main house, plus power and water where there was nothing before. There are still a lot of things for us to do around here such as landscaping, building shelves, building the BBQ, trash containers, etc., and that will keep us busy for a quite a while. After seeing everything all together and done I do see what the little boy meant when he said that we are building a beautiful resort. It does sort of look that way as you come through the front gate. Isn’t life wonderful when you have a dream and pursue it until it becomes a reality?

Since we are now starting to think about plants and landscaping we thought we would start by looking around the property for plants we could move closer to the house. We managed to find some nice big heliconia (lobster claw) plants that have the orange flowers on them, but we had to cut the blooms off because they were done. We moved a couple of them and I think we will be moving more once all the clean up is done. The picture below is what they will look like once they bloom again. Who needs a Home Depot garden department when you have a jungle full of tropical plants.

We always like to try new things whether it’s food we’ve never had before or exploring new things. The other day I got to do something I had not done in over thirty years. I got a ticket, for parking too close to the intersection. I guess you can not park within thirty feet from the corner. There was no sign or anything saying that anywhere, I guess you are just supposed to know that. The ticket was only $50 BZ or $25 US, so it really was no big deal and it only took about five minutes to pay it down at the Town Hall. At first, I thought there should be a sign stating no parking, then I thought about how you could get a ticket in the states for parking too close to a fire hydrant. They don’t have signs there either, it’s just something you are supposed to know. Oh well, lesson learned.

Once again it is that time of year when the new Belikin calendars are released. This years release party was not far from us so we decided to meet some friends, have a few beers, listen to some music and meet the models. They use to just sell the calendars, but for the past three years, you can only get them at a release party. We have somehow made it to the last three years releases and got to meet the models and get an autographed calendar. And the only reason we actually go every year is to get a calendar so that we know what day it is living out here in the jungle. Yah right!

The pig roasting box has arrived! In Mexico, we had a “La Caja China” cooking box that we cooked lots of whole pigs and other stuff in and everything always turned out great. After talking to one of our neighbors who raises pigs and lambs we thought it was only appropriate that we got another cooker. The Caja China cooker in Cholla Bay, Mexico was promptly repainted to read “La Caja Cholla” and now that we live in the Cayo Belize, you guessed it, new paint so it will read “La Caja Cayo.” One of the main reasons for ordering this (on Amazon) was to throw a big thank you BBQ for all the workers and their families who helped build our little piece of paradise. Plus you never know when someone might need an event catered or something.