“A House Is Not Home” in Ambergris Caye, Belize.

Knowing that the windows, tiles and paint were being delivered to our build in Ambergris Caye, Belize yesterday, Rose and I really wanted to make an early morning visit but we controlled ourselves. Daniel Camal, our building contractor, and his guys definitely didn’t need us getting in their way. So I focused on other stuff.

Up at 3.45 am (must stop going to sleep in the evening on the couch) and made a cup of instant and straight on to the veranda to read The Times online. Once finished catching up on the news I spent a couple of hours reviewing some schedules for a contract that an ex-colleague in the UK had sent me. After I had sent my comments and suggested amendments to him it was time for a quick shower and shave and then on with the ‘T’ shirt and shorts (it’s so easy choosing what to wear here!) and I set off for the town.

First stop was a visit to Atlantic International Bank Limited‘s branch in Pescador Drive to withdraw some money (again). Unusually for a Tuesday it was quite busy and there was a long queue.

With the money in my pocket I headed off to the Post Office just up the road to find out if the manager had worked out how I could be given a P.O. Box without being able to provide a utility bill. He had! I just need to take a copy of a bill for our lot that Daniel Camal has received (Daniel is responsible for all electricity and water costs until we take possession of our new home). The fact that it will not be in my name doesn’t appear to matter!

Back at the condo we are renting Rose and I found it impossible to exercise any degree of control over our desire to see if our windows had been delivered so we set off for our build in Ambergris Caye, Belize and got there around 2 pm.

On arrival it was eerily quite. No sound of cement mixers. Where was everybody? We were about to set off to see if anyone was in the house when we heard the sound of an engine behind us. A truck (lorry for my UK readers) was reversing in to our lot. On the bed of the truck we could see packages that obviously contained some of the tiles for our house.

Watch the golf cart!

On speaking with the driver we found out that Daniel and the guys (the mystery was solved) were about half a mile north of our property unloading the container in which our stuff had been barged across from Belize City so we jumped in to the ‘cart and sped off (if you can describe a maximum speed of 15 mph as ‘sped’, that is).

On the way there we saw Daniel and the guys travelling in the opposite direction but with a quick wave we carried on going and found the container parked in front of the build that Daniel is carrying out for Kris (a reader for some time of this blog).

Peering inside we could see Porfelio some distance away guarding the remaining items on board.

Back in the ‘cart we headed back to our build to find Daniel reversing towards the house.

In to the Store Room/Garage for safe keeping.

The sliding windows are seriously heavy and it took seven of the guys to lift and carry each one of them to safety but within minutes they were back on the truck heading off to collect the next load.

You would think that they were setting off for a picnic!

When they had gone Rose and I took a walk around to see what had been delivered.

Some of the sliding windows.

The single hung and clerestory windows.

Roof insulation.

Tile adhesive.

The ‘runners’ for the sliding windows.

And lots of paint and masonry sealant.

Outside we could hear a truck pulling in again so we stopped our walk around and took a look outside.

More tiles.

To join the ever increasing pile.

I know that they say that a house is not a home until there’s someone living there but with the delivery of so much of the materials to finish off our build in Ambergris Caye, Belize it sure started to feel like one. Well, maybe not for us just yet but definitely for the couple of Daniel’s guys that will now sleep at our house to safeguard the stock until it has been fitted/used.

The headline is based on the 1964 single (one of my all time favourites) by Dionne Warwick which surprisingly only reached number seventy-one in the US Billboard Hot 100.