9 September 2010

We are really getting close to being done with the house. Chino, José and Freddy continue to make the final repairs and clean-up. Chino replaced several tiles today that were broken or otherwise damaged after they were laid. José has concentrated on the touch up painting and cement work while Freddy has been on clean up duty. Today, Freddy broke up the concrete pad down at the worker´s camp, so it is now completely gone. There is still a tremendous amount of clean-up that will need to happen around the property, but the repairs and final touches are coming along well.

The other thing we are lacking are the railings between the levels in both the master suite and the living /kitchen. The glass guys have been working on the railings in the dining room for the last couple of days, and just about have it done. They also still needing to complete the screens in the upper cupolas of the roofs of the at least two bungalows. I wish they would just finish one project and then move on to another. For example, last week they worked on the screens; but now they are working on the railings rather than finishing all the screens. It wouldn´t bother me so much except the flies are terrible. You can´t sleep past 7:30 am because they come alive as the sun warms up the room. At this point, they are relentless so you might as well get up.

The pool is full, and we have been taking advantage of it almost everyday. We had a crash course on chemicals and maintanence, but found out we don´t actually have chemicals and cleaning equipment. What we were using, belongs to Georg. We have now ordered what we need and it should be here tomorrow. Sanchez has been wonderful about checking the chemicals and cleaning the pool with the brush and vacuum.

We talked with Juana a while back about working for us. She indicated that she would like to do that at the end of the construction project. We have also talked with Sanchez, as he has been spending a lot of his time down here. He has taken the time to learn about the pool and its maintanence. He is often around helping workers with various projects. And he has always been available to help with pouring diesel in the generator or changing out the gas (for cooking) tank. He has adopted us as part of his domain, and has provided security as well. We sat down with both Juana and Sanchez to talk about what might happen next. Juana is very happy with our offer. Sanchez basically told us he would do what work he could for us when he wasn´t working or obliged to Georg. Through the grapevine, we´ve heard that Sanchez would also like to work for us and resign his position at Georg´s. We´ve let Sanchez know he would be a very welcome employee; but we didn´t want to create any problems with Georg. Both Juana and Sanchez would prefer to live in one place or the other; which isn´t an issue for us. If they live at Georg´s or here; we don´t care. At this point, Juana will continue to cook for the crew until they are gone and begin working for us at that point. After a couple of months, if all goes well, Sanchez may choose to join us. We didn´t anticipate that Sanchez would want to make a change...
We got a chance to see Jay this morning. We haven´t seen him in well over a month so it was nice to connect. Unfortunately, we didn´t have much time but he will be out to visit Saturday, and we´ll catch up then.

I started on the dolphins on my mural today. The base colors don´t seem to have much contrast, but I think when I get the accent colors in, they will be awesome. José made my funky and out-of-whack tuna disappear by painting over him. For me, I think the problem with the tuna was its overall shape. It just wasn´t quite right. Now I will have another opportunity to make it better.

We had the generator serviced again today. It is supposed to be serviced every 150 hours. Right now we are running it about 12 hours a day. We have ordered a solar system from the US which should arrive in the next few weeks. Both quotes we received here in Peru exceeded $60,000. The system that will be shipped from the US, including shipping, will be about $16,000. We will still need to buy the batteries here in Peru, but that shouldn´t be a big deal.

The dog and the cat are still having spitting/barking encounters. I really think the kitten could fend for herself. It´s just hard to watch Stormy be so relentless in wanting to get at the cat (to eat?)! Someday they will have to come to terms. We´ve managed to keep them separate, but it always requires prior planning. Even the workers know to keep the two separate!