8 April 2010

Never got a chance to blog last night. Bruce, the cabinet maker and his wife, Peggy, arrived with Luis. Bruce and Peggy arrived in Peru last Tuesday and have been traveling with Luis north from Lima visiting archeological sites since. They arrived yesterday afternoon in El Nuro and we've been catching up with them and Luis since. Luis left this morning to return to Lima. Bruce and Peggy are staying in a hotel in Vichayito (with 24 hour electricity and hot water). Koki also arrived yesterday with a truck of supplies.

Luis, Koki, Doug and I sat down this morning and talked about the frustrations we've felt over the delay of construction. Many things have contributed to this; the difficulty of getting reliable workers to travel to El Nuro and stay throughout the heat, the difficulty of obtaining materials and transporting to a remote location, and, honestly, some ineffective planning. We both enjoy and like Koki tremendously, but he lacks proficiency in planning ahead and preparing for the next stage. We've been reminding him of the arrival of the cabinet maker for weeks. He has known that things needed to be ready for him to install the cabinets at this time. But the big push seems to have come a bit late. Right now we have 15 workers on the site and they are doing everything they can to get ready. It's just that if we had had 15 workers last week, then things would have been ready for the instalation of the cabinets.

The carpenter has put the roof structure up for the kitchen and began on the master suite today. We haven't been impressed with his work so far, but have been assured that all will be fine in the end. The ridge beam for the kitchen is not perfectly straight and there are some joints in the support beams that leave a lot to be desired. We've been assured this will work out.... we shall see.

The trusses for the master suite seem to have gone up much more smoothly. The overhang beams here are being attached with a finger joint. It hasn't been easy to get everything aligned. Right now they are only doing the roof structure over the kitchen and the master bath so those cabinets can be installed. However, the walls need to be finished and the floor still needs to be poured before any cabinets can be put in.


This picture shows the workers finishing the walls at the back of the kitchen. These are the only walls that will have upper cabinets. All of the other ones are lower cabinets that will be installed below the level of the windows. These walls will be nicely finished today. However, along the sides of the kitchen, not all of the brick walls have been built until today. And, again, these walls need to be finished before the floor can be poured.....and the floors must be poured before the cabinets can go in.

Seems like a vicious circle sometimes.

Meanwhile, other workers have been preparing for the pouring of the dining room floor which cantelevers out over the piano/bar. My guess is that they will want to do this pour at the same time as the kitchen floor. That will be another major pour; probably deserving Chicha (the fermented corn liquor Peruvians are so fond of), but tradition restricts the bestowing of Chicha to the pouring of roofs in the air. Does this qualify? Not exactly a roof, but the effort sure equals that of a roof.

Bruce and Peggy were here all day. They didn't seem to mind, although I can only imagine how difficult it must be to hang out someplace all day. Bruce and Doug spent some time down with the construction workers. Later in the day, we walked down the beach to a cave located just south of us. For me, it was a very pleasant day. Never having met Peggy, I was unsure what to expect; but I felt comfortable and enjoyed her company immensely. Stormy had a great time chasing the crabs on the beach and running to and fro. Doug and Bruce threw rocks for her to retrieve; which she did but didn't always want to relinquish them for a second throw.

Doug, Bruce, and Koki are all going fishing tomorrow. Our fisherman friend, Perico, has arranged for a fishing boat to take them and some other friends out fishing for half a day. It will be interesting to hear of their experiences..... this is not a charter boat, but a local boat. They should have a truly Peruvian experience tomorrow.