Media Center Debut

Last month I blogged about some other projects we have in various stages of development, including a veggie garden, a possible pool, and a media center.

Well after weeks of hard work out in his shop, David had the media center completed. Before showing you what he created, let's take a short trip down memory lane. Here's what our entertainment area looked like before:

We used a table that came with the house for the TV, reciever, speakers, and miscellaneous stuff. Underneath, we put the DVD and CD player on a coffee table we brought with us. Under that, we stacked our DVDs, CDs, and large speaker. While it certainly was a workable solution, we wanted something a bit more in keeping with the open, airy look we wanted for the living area.

Here's what my man built as a solution:

David put together a design that had custom made slots for all our electronics, as well as all our DVDs and CDs (with some room to spare). He even made his own moulding (no easy task when working with rock hard mahogany) to give the piece a finished touch. Pretty cool, huh? Boy, I am one lucky girl to have a guy who knows how to do wood working stuff, not to mention stained glass, plumbing, you name it.

So with this project checked off the list, we can turn our attention back to getting the kitchen finished. We received word over the weekend that our cabinets and counters will be delivered on Friday, November 30. I am so excited and can't wait to have space to store and prep stuff.

I'll be documenting the steps we need to take prior to delivery. Namely, we need to rip out the existing sink cabinet, rework the plumbing, and fill in the tile voids with cement. But by this time next week, we should have everything -- cabinets, counters, island, plumbing -- all in place. YEA!!!!!!

Other Projects: Pool Time

When we made the decision to move to Belize, we knew we would be dealing with hot weather. At least, mentally we knew that, because we would be in the tropics…duh! What we didn’t expect was how it would affect us physically. Back in the States, we would frequently start whatever projects we were working on, including home remodeling, first thing in the morning and keep at it for several hours. Sure we took breaks, and we often felt tired at the end of the day. But after a decent sleep, we would be back at it the next day, full of energy.

Here we’ve had to learn a completely different pace, which is called s-l-o-w. Without a word of a lie, there have been days that by 7:30 a.m., we’re both drenched in sweat. I mean, you wouldn’t think you would be dripping wet from just sweeping the floor or puttering in the workshop, but it happens…often. We learned the hard way that it’s critical to take lots of breaks, drink lots of fluids, and not be overly maniacal to try and finish whatever we’re working on that very same day. We felt like such wussie babies at first, but realized that unless we wanted to keel over from heat stroke we needed to adjust.

We also learned that if you have friends, like Dave and Dianna Rider, who have a pool and are incredibly generous for how many times they invite you over for a dip, well, it’s a godsend. It’s not like any of us who go in their pool are doing laps, mostly we all just bob around trying to get our body temperatures back down to normal.

After realizing what a measure of sanity cool(ish) water is for your mental and physical well-being, we started to think about having a pool of our own. We didn’t want anything overly big and it didn’t have to be in the ground. We checked out our options at A & R, which is a great store that carries a little bit of everything, including above ground pools. The models they happened to have in stock were either too small or too large. 

After brainstorming things for a bit, we realized what we really wanted was something like big hot tub, except without the heated water and jets. We checked online for what might be available, but nothing struck our fancy. Then one day we were sitting on our porch and looked out at the palapa in the side yard and it dawned on us…

…Why not have something built above ground and have it on the pad under the palapa? No digging would be involved and the water would stay cool in the shaded area. Hmmm, maybe…

So David, using his trusty laptop, came up with this preliminary design:

Overhead and side view of possible pool design

The length of the pool would be about 10 feet, be about six feet wide, and around 4 feet deep. With a built-in bench around the perimeter, we could sit with water up to our shoulders. It would be long enough and wide enough that if wanted to bob around in a floaty thing, we could do that too. 

Now all of these ideas and plans are still on the drawing board. We need to find a contractor, figure out what it would cost, see if the cement pad under the palapa can handle the load, not to mention relocating all the wood shavings and sand that currently reside under the palapa to even begin the project. 

But knowing there’s the possibility of liquid sanity down the road (other than cold beer and vodka & tonics) makes coping with the heat a bit easier, especially on those days that even your eyeballs sweat. We’ll be sure to post updates as this project unfolds. In the meantime, we plan to do whatever we can to stay in Dave and Dianna’s good graces ;)

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• Other Projects: Media Center
• Other Projects: Veggie/Herb Garden
• Kitchen Remodel

Other Projects: Veggie/Herb Garden

At first glance, one might think this looks nothing more than a pile of rubble, a cement slab, and a patch of black dirt.

But, if you squint your eyes a tiny bit and use a bit of imagination, you can almost see its potential as a veggie and herb garden. 

Under that pile of rubble to the right is some more black dirt, highly prized in these parts, which was spread on top of the dirt that’s already there in the foreground. The remaining limestone will probably be spread in our lane and used in other spots to fill in ruts and holes, of which there are plenty.That cement slab is the top of our septic tank. 

Let me pause for a bit to talk about the black dirt we have here. As I mentioned, it's coveted by those folks who have predominately limestone, which is clearly not conducive to growing much of anything. But this dirt is unlike anything we've ever encountered. Imagine tar that got mixed with glue and you have some idea of what we're dealing with. This stuff sticks to everything, including shovels, shoes, pickaxes, and whatever else it comes in contact with. It packs down so much that it almost has a consistency of concrete when it's dry. You really need to find something to help fluff it up a bit, especially if you're trying to grow plants from seeds, which is about the only way you can grow things here.

Normally, we would buy something like peat moss or vermiculite to mix in with the dirt. But good luck finding anything like that down here. What we used instead were the wood shavings we had delivered just last week, along with some sand we had left over from the installation of the new septic tank.

 

Once that was all mixed in, it was time for planting.

One of the things I really, really want to grow is tomatoes. We love them and use them on a daily basis. With enough of a crop, I can make roasted tomato sauce, tons of salsa, and who knows what else. But try as I might to try growing tomatoes from seed, I couldn't get them to take. So I went to our gardening guru, Fernando, to see what solutions he might have.

Turns out that his brother, Raphino, grows tomatoes from seeds all the time. And he had a bunch of seedlings he was happy to give to us. Next thing I know, Fernando brought over six plants and put them in the ground.

As you can imagine, I was a very happy camper. Six plants! This should produce quite the bounty when they mature. But then it got even better when Fernando appeared again with EIGHT more plants! Holy cow! We'll be in tomato heaven!

Quite frankly, I'm not sure who is more jazzed about this whole garden plot, me or Fernando. He has designs on planting peppers and has been hinting at maybe some black beans or corn. Plus he wants to build a structure with sticks and palm leaves to provide some shade. While there's still room, I've gone ahead and planted some cilantro and seeds for romaine lettuce. We have two small basil plants coming up in our raised garden bed, which may end up moving back to this plot, unless we run out of room.

While all that's going on, we also want to build a composting area on top of the cement slab. Fernando wasn't familiar with the whole composting concept, but once we explained it he got on board that train really fast. For one thing, all those grass clippings that he has had to cart outside the fence could be put in the compost pile. Saves him a bunch of trips going in and out of the gate. Add all our vegetable parings, eggshells, and what have you and we could produce some very nice fertilizer down the road.

But for now, I'm out there most mornings giving all the plants and seeds a healthy drink, watching their progress, and looking for the first flowers on the tomato plants to make their debut.

Next up: Pool possibilities

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• Other Projects: Media Center

• Kitchen Remodel
  

Other Projects: "Media Center"

Because remodeling our kitchen isn’t enough fun, because being multi-taskers we can’t ever just sit still for any length of time, and because we’re essentially gluttons for punishment, here are a few other projects we have in various stages of development:

“Media Center”

On a recent episode of House Hunters, airing on HGTV, a couple with a teeny, tiny budget was featured who would not even consider a house for sale if it didn’t have a room dedicated as a media center. Hey, whatever floats your boat.

Of course, we could boast that we have a dedicated media center here in our Belize house:

It just happens that this area is also dedicated to our kitchen...

...and living room. 

It's all a matter of perspective.

Now that being said, we decided that as nice as the table is that our TV is currently sitting upon, and how lovely it is that one of our coffee tables can accommodate some of our other electronics, maybe we should consider something a bit more in keeping with the open look and feel we’re trying to achieve for the space. Perhaps something with some flair. David went to work (again) on his laptop designing a media cabinet that would fit all our needs, and here’s what he came up with:

Views from above, side, and straight on

Not only will all of our electronic pieces have their very own slots, we’ll also have room for storing our CDs and DVDs, along with space for a knick knack or two. 

David bought the wood for the project at the Cemento Mayo store here in town. What? You don't buy your lumber at a cement store? Anyway, the plywood sheets were too big to fit in our car, and the cement store didn't have any tools to cut the sheets. The solution? The guys at the store said they would load the sheets in the back of their panel truck and deliver them to our house...for free that very same afternoon.

So when not chipping tiles in the kitchen or fretting about the sink plumbing, David can spend quality time in his shop. The great thing is that there is no rush to get this project done. He can measure, cut, nail, stain, and varnish whenever the mood strikes. 

Next project: Our new backyard veggie/herb garden.