It is on!

We are back from the first week of renovations and I am amazed at the progress so far. The crew arrived at 8:AM and by 10:00 we had deconstructed and removed everything from under the house, laid out the grid for the new columns, did all the measuring, and began digging the holes for the columns. Then it got hot and things slowed down. The next three days things continued at a predictable pace; heavy in the morning and methodical for the rest of the day with frequent conversation breaks. Or maybe they were safety meetings; no one works, no one gets hurt right?. It is not quite the way things are done in the west, but no one is making western wages here either. I think the extra guys the builder brought in are making about five bucks a day. We expect that by the time we return on Wednesday, we will see that some cement has already been poured and that is good enough for us.

We are not concerned about the pace because we have been given a price for the completed work. So it is up to them to be efficient with their time. We have about ten weeks before we head to Canada, and we will be happy if the place is walled in and secure before we leave. I think we will be at that stage (what we call phase one) by early August.

Anchalee and I find the builders are very easy to work with and our communication is going well. One reason for the clarity is the whole house is already laid out in Google Sketchup and any time we want to discuss something specific, we just go to the laptop and check out the 3D version, complete with measurements. This is the first time these guys have been able to work from a computer and they appreciate it. Sketchup also helps for estimating materials because the program works it out by the square meter.

There have been a few snags however. When we made the plan there were some things we couldn't price out before we had discussed them with the builder. It turns out we were optimistic about how far our budget would go, so now we are trimming some fat from the project. We had underestimated the amount of re-bar that was needed, and also the cost of wood. So now we are working on alternatives like second hand wood and non wood items like cement board for siding.

The hardest part so far has been leaving the kids at home with Ying, Pat, and the extra helpers. We aren't used to being without them and I was surprised at how badly I missed having them around. Hopefully we can make the building site a little safer and then we can have Genesis and Gideon join us for a few days. Shiloh we could bring any time because she is world's most sleepingest non-crying baby ever, and if she is wrapped up tight, she is happy anywhere.

That's all for now, look for our next blog which will be in a couple of weeks. Please visit our site