Of concrete, paving stone & patios...

When we phoned Pierre early Monday morning to ask if we could borrow his wheelbarrow, (yes, we could), Pierre & Doris also volunteered to help with our patio project - that's Pierre in the far back, Rolando in the middle and Doris cleaning slate pavers.
It was difficult to get a good photo of Rolando because he was always hard at work - by trade, he repairs shoes, but he's really good at working concrete - and he cleans up, too!
Doris was tricky to 'catch', as well.

As the project progressed, the pile of paving stones we had stacked against the wall diminished -
This is the 'almost finished' back patio - stones still need a final cleaning and flower bed needs plants, etc., but the hard part is done.
The project also covered construction of a concrete trough on the west (high) side of the house
The trough curves around the west side of the patio before the water goes down a drain & into the creek -


& this is the view from the living room out the front door - blue tarp was up because it started to rain --- more on paving the front in a later blog.

Security bars installed on the carport.

Despite the fact that neither of us like security bars on the house, which is a typical thing for this area, we realized that we would need some for the point in time when we get our things moved down here and Paul converts half (or more) of the carport into a wood working shop - tools lying around could be very tempting.



The gentleman on the ladder is Rafael Samudio, the creator of the bars - we are very pleased with his work and the way he followed our directions to make the bars at the 'windows' look like window mullions instead of security bars.


Rafael built us exactly what we requested and started the instillation on exactly the day he initially said he would - and his price was economical. We encourage anyone local who needs a similar project to call him (he doesn't speak a lot of English) at either 771 5295 or his cell 6577 4184 ... his shop is near downtown Volcan.
The project 'sizzled' when Rafael and his 2 helpers welded the units into place -
And these are the guys he hired to help him install our project - we plan to hire them this coming week to help on the rear patio project, which was initially scheduled to take place this past week, but after the fellow we'd hired 'with a handshake' to do the job didn't show up by the 3rd day, Paul decided to do it.


As a side note, prior to the guys starting the installation, Jeanne went out to bring in the laundry she had hanging in the carport and was quite startled to find this guy (gal?) on one of our towels ... couldn't figure out what sort of bug it was -

Until it moved to the edge and Paul realized it was a grasshopper.

Inaugeration of our new fire pit, etc.

Though we aren't done with landscaping the backyard, we tested our new firepit and got rid of some junk while we were at it:
(above) Jeanne watching the ladder the construction crew had thrown together go up in flames + (below) a closeup of the first fire.

When she wasn't making sure that 'killer ladder' burned out of harms way, Jeanne was busy filling the crevasses between the rocks Paul had positioned with moss and other plants - We don't know what type of orchid this is, but are looking forward to seeing it bloom.