WE'RE SEEING PROGRESS!

First of all, this week was big for us because we finally succumbed and rented a motorbike. In all the years we've been coming here we've walked everywhere and gotten a car & driver when we needed to go out of Ubud or up to our house on the north Coast.  We like walking--it's the only way to really see life in the villages and all the street activity.  But we are busier now than ever before and have to run into town for one thing or another often.  It's a small Honda Vario and we park in the supermarket parking lot which is a five minute walk from our house.  We're going to have to share it, because neither of us want to ride on the back as the other drives, so when we both need to go into town, like we do often for dinner, we still walk.

Foundation for the Outside Wall

Residence for 7 Workers and Land

Worker's Abode

Back to the business at hand.  The workers have been arriving at the site a few at a time and we are up to eight right now.  They have erected a plywood shack to live in during construction, with electricity, a gas burner and of course, a water dispenser.  All eight are sleeping there and with another four or five arriving shortly we don't know just how many will sleep on the site, and how many will sleep elsewhere.  Trenches have been dug, and cement is being poured into the trenches.  These cement-filled trenches will form the base of the foundation which will be raised about 2 feet above ground level. [I have been learning to work with the metric measuring system and I'm getting pretty comfortable with it.]


 As the foundation is being laid work has started on the guest bungalow, and soon the digging will commence for the swimming pool.  I built a house in Marin County in 1977 and I tell you construction techniques here are quite a bit different than in the States.  The biggest factor affecting the build is the fact that vehicles have no access to the house.  All materials--sand, cement, cinder blocks, rocks large and small, pipes, rebar, et al. are brought up a steep set of stairs, than go on a five minute walk on the heads of women--always women.  Why?  I wish I had the answer. It is literally back-breaking work and I'm sure their husbands don't say "...but look how good it is for your posture."

We have been looking at plumbing fixtures and furniture, but I'll let Barbara write about that--it's her thing.