Only a quick browse of TheTimes online for me yesterday-more to see if Arsenal had ventured in to the transfer market (they hadn’t!) than to catch up on world news and then I knuckled down to start reviewing a draft contract that an ex-colleague in the UK has asked me to look at.
Now -as most people that I worked with will confirm – I love reading contracts but there is only so much legalise that a person can take in one sitting before clause references become a blur. When that happens, and it did for me yesterday, I find it best to switch to something else. So I did. I resumed my reading of The Covenant by J A Michener. Just switched from one type of fiction to another really!
Knowing that we were going to the Catamaran Beach Bar (based at Caribbean Villas) in the evening for the pig roast to ‘honour’ the plethora of birthdays this week of people we know Rose and I set off to visit our build in Ambergris Caye, Belize around 2 pm.
When we got there we found a much depleted group of guys. There were only eight of them! The reason for this was because Daniel Camal, our building contractor, was pouring the pillars for the house he is building (funnily enough for a reader of this blog) just north of our build. And, as we know, when a pour takes place you need the bodies!
On arrival the first thing we looked at was the well (located just near the road in the north-east corner of our lot). We will use the water from this for toilet flushing so that we can conserve the rainwater collected in the 25,000 gallon tank under the house.
Early stages of our well.
A walk around to the northern side of the house and we could see that the soak-away was taking shape.
Still some work to go but…
We also saw that Eduardo and Nicholas had applied the finishing coat of cement for the underside of the First Floor northern veranda.
Scaffolding left in situ for José and Alfonso to fit the ceiling grids for the plycem boards.
Up on the First Floor José and Alfonso were fixing the ceiling boards for the northern veranda.
José cutting the board.
And the duo fix it in place.
Inside the house Rolando was running the wiring for the kitchen lighting.
Rose and I then used the scaffolding ( oh are we looking forward to the stairs being fitted!)
to gain access to the Second Floor where we ‘found’ Martin and Angel who had just finished laying the floor for the few strips that hadn’t been done near our bench and table.
Looking down at the back garden we saw some upturned buckets and on seeing us looking at them Angel explained that after work the previous day the guys had played a five-a-side football (soccer for readers from the States) match. Yes, the first match at Highbury!
The red arrows highlight one of the goals.
At this stage of the build – whilst waiting for the windows to arrive – it really is a case of little by little.
The headline is based on the ‘B’ side of “Not Fade Away” by The Rolling Stones which was released in 1964. The single reached number three in the UK Singles Chart.
Oh, by the way, the pig roast was fantastic.
Belize- building a new life . A Belize blog. 
Your view is to die for
Hopefully not yet awhile !
Please do not confuse your readers by using the same title name for your blog twice in a week! Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Wanted to see how many readers are paying attention! If there was a prize on offer you would have won it. Prize – ticket for Luton FC’s next home game!
Sorry but I don’t watch non-league football.
Good job I didn’t offer the tickets as a prize then!
You are right, contracts are tedious to read, drafting them is worse !
That’s why lawyers get paid so much!
John, what have you found to be the cost per square foot of building a home here in BZ?
Hi Jane. Willing to share our experience of building a house on Ambergris Caye but not on cost. So much will influence this. Where you build. What you build? What fixtures and fittings you go for. What building contractor you use. How you negotiate. Ect.