This is the fourth part of my ongoing story about converting the land I bought in Guatemala and settling into my new life here. You can catch up with Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you missed them.
It’s the weekend as I write this, and the house is wonderfully quiet with the construction workers off. It feels fantastic to just rest my back, stretch my legs, moisturize my hands, and do nothing. This week was exhausting, and both of us ended up completely burned out. It’s 6:30 PM, and my boyfriend has been fast asleep for over an hour—that’s how tired we are.
We said goodbye to the black plastic roof cover and crossed our fingers for no rain. Our car started making a weird noise, so we took it to the mechanic. Here, cars are fixed with a piece of plastic and a bit of rubber, which is pretty amazing. You have to be resourceful when the nearest car dealership is 300 miles away and shipments take weeks. The mechanic said the repair would take 30 minutes, but it ended up taking about four hours.
In the meantime, I went shopping for some plastic tiles for the roof and a couple of doors for future guest rooms. I managed to forget my checkbook at the store and didn’t realize it for a couple of days. Or, maybe one of the workers took it. I’ll go with the lost theory to avoid doubting everyone who came inside. This mistake cost me another trip to the bank and a few hours to learn that, thankfully, no checks had been used. However, we couldn’t withdraw money without a checkbook, even with our ID and fingerprints stored in the bank system. Since it’s a company account, we can’t use a debit card either, so we had to write personal checks to the workers, complicating the company’s accounting a bit more.
The work kicked off early this week to build a wall that will divide the living space into two guest rooms. Since half of that space is still our bedroom, we had to squeeze our living quarters into just slightly more than the size of the bed until the wall was up. The bathroom door had to be removed and a new hole created so it could be repositioned in the corridor.
With all the construction, there was inevitable noise and a tremendous amount of dust—more than you can imagine. From the deck, it looked like the house was chain-smoking cigarettes.
We hadn’t planned to change the roof yet, but a retired American expat expressed interest in buying our plastic roof cover. He had just moved into a house with a leaky roof and was in a rush, so we were happy to sell it to him, which covered about a third of the cost for the new plastic tiles.
As the thatched roof continued to rot in certain areas, it created a huge mess with falling dust and debris, making it a nightmare to clean the house. Those rotten parts also harbored insects and bats. We decided to get rid of the rotten sections, keep the healthy parts, and cover the rest with a plastic roof. It feels a bit like camping under the stars, which I enjoy. We did the roof work ourselves since five workers were already busy with the room construction and excavation project.
We also painted the house white with lime wash, which insects dislike, and dug a new septic tank because the old dry toilet had been removed to make room for the new area. It was an incredibly busy week, to say the least.
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned how happy I was with my deep freezer, which was stocked with a full lamb. Unfortunately, the lamb’s sharp bones had created a hole at the bottom of the freezer. When the temperature started rising, we knew something was wrong. The store told us it would take two weeks for a technician to come out, and there was no way I was going to let a lamb and about $200 worth of food spoil. We called in a local guy who said the bone hole had nothing to do with the leak—the freezer was faulty. Now we’re fighting with the store to get reimbursed for the repair, but they’re saying the warranty doesn’t cover the issue because of the bone hole.
There is some good news to share:
1. We managed to save the palm trees that were uprooted for the new room. They’re now planted on the beach and will mark the edge of our petanque (French bowls) field. The field is a nice addition and a great way to use all the excavated soil.
2. While excavating, we found remnants of Mayan clay artifacts.
3. Our hens have welcomed two new sisters, and we found a second egg! I thought they were traumatized and not laying, but it turns out they prefer laying eggs in the wild rather than in the nests we made for them. It now feels like an Easter egg hunt trying to find the eggs before other animals do. A hen makes a lot of noise before laying, so we know which one to watch.
4. I love the color of wet concrete and am exploring ways to keep the walls this way, perhaps by applying a coat of burned oil. Otherwise, the concrete will dry and look gray and sad.
5. The cutest news of the week: the very first little plant from our herb garden has started to sprout! It hasn’t even been a week. I’m quite impressed with the amazing quality of Guatemala’s soil and the ideal climate that makes things grow twice as fast. I just hope the hens won’t eat the plants!
I hope your week is going well! Have you written to Santa yet? Remember, you can win $100 in the giveaway that I’m co-hosting! This post was also featured on Mo Money Mo Houses. Thanks for reading!