Mid Week Ramblings

I’m coming to you from a state of head congestion and coughing, so you’ve been fair warned!

Chris was sick with a cold virus thingie about a week and a half ago and is still feeling a bit cruddy. I thought I had been missed but it hit Sunday and it’s a doozie. The downside is that things have been really busy in the past two days, which has meant not much rest. But, it couldn’t be avoided. Why?

Because we poured the roof on the house!!!!

I promise a house update in the next week, after I’ve gotten past the crud phase of this thing and feel like plunking pictures and words into a post. Until then you just need to read about it :)

So yes, as of 6 pm yesterday (Tuesday) evening we have a roof. Our original hope was that this would have happened sometime in June, but every construction project hits a slow down, and this was ours. But, it’s done now. The stairs still need to be formed and poured inside, but they started working on that today. And while some people might consider that big construction, compared to two days of pouring concrete with buckets up two stories, it’s not.

While the guys were working like machines to finish the last major part of the construction I was in Port au Prince writing a big check for our windows. Aside from yesterday being the last major part of construction, it was also the last major payment we had to make for any part of the entire build. We still have things to buy, but paying for the windows and making the official order was the last big thing. And, it was so fast! I walked in, the woman in the office took my quote, wrote the receipt while I wrote the check and we made arrangements for their guys to come and measure the window openings to confirm everything today – and they actually came! In about three weeks the windows should be done and ready for installation.

On Friday I went into town and picked up the first of three loads of floor tile. Another big thing off the list. Later this week after all the painting in the office has been finished and touched up the floors are going to start going in and Abner will just keep moving through the building as each room is ready. The whole downstairs is basically ready for the tile, we just need to do paint touch ups in a few places and scrape the floors really well. Once the tile is in at the door thresholds we can install the exterior doors. When those and the windows are all in we’ll be in official lock-up stage!

In another day the form work will get ripped down in the upstairs, probably a two day process, then Boss Saïl (Sigh-eel) can start stuccoing the walls. Our solar panels, inverter and charge controllers were all delivered before we got back from our vacation, so the guys can start building the solar array and mounting them any time. We’re just waiting for our batteries to ship in, and once they arrive Evens just needs to connect all the wires and we’ll go live!

I’ve been pushing through a lot of admin stuff in the past month, and aside from getting derailed this week with the virus I was making excellent progress and on track with a lot of stuff. I’m aiming to get most of my admin stuff out of the way, with the exception of the monthly things that need to get done, and then I’m going to shift gears to be out at the site building things most days. I have a ton of work to do, but I think once I get in my groove it’ll start to come together. I’m itching to get started with all of that, so it’s getting harder for me to stay focused on the tasks at hand.

Before I can build anything though, I need to figure out wood lists and buy a bunch of plywood and other stuff. And that requires not having a foggy head. I did get to go visit a place in Port yesterday that I want to write more about because I love what they’re doing, but that will be for another day! Needless to say, there was a lot of wood and things being made and it got my creative juices flowing. And it was encouraging from a development perspective too.

I’m going to sign off now because my mind is wandering and my head is plugged up. Look for more soon!

~Leslie