Life on the beach . . .

I awake slowly to the sound of crashing breakers on the nearby beach. Their rhythmic crashing and booming gains more of my attention, some of the booms are quite loud. I hear a rooster calling in the distance; then I hear two, three roosters crowing from Tenacatita. I flutter my eyes open and they are greeted to the soft dawn light. Oh yes, now I remember, I'm in a trailer on a beach in Mexico!

I get up and dress in swim shorts, t-shirt, and long-sleeve shirt. It's a cool 60 degrees (F). I say to Sharon, "I'm going fishing." She softly, in a sleepy voice, wishes me luck, and to be careful. I walk out of the trailer and as I round the corner and start the short walk to the ocean, I get a most beautiful view of the full moon rising over the palms.

Saved by Michael & Sylvia

Here we are having to camp out for several months, but without a toilet! After several days of roughing-it, Sharon was ready to Head back to Portland and I was not that far behind. Camping for a couple of months we could deal with, we were well prepared; but using the outdoors for a toilet for two months was not going to work. On December 24th Sharon and I woke up and immediately decided we had to get a porta-potty. I looked in the English-Spanish dictionary, found porta-potty in Spanish, and as soon as the crew came I began questioning them. They all had a questioning look on their face and I know they want to ask "Why do you need a porta-potty, we've been using the the area behind the bushes for months." But they only said I should wait for Arturo.

We felt a little better because soon we would have a toilet. But it was Christmas eve, so we knew it would be days before we could get a porta-potty. There was nothing we could do. So we chilled and enjoyed where we were - camping on an ocean beach in Mexico. We sat and watched the surf, looked for whales, and sipped on a couple of Coronas. We were disturbed from our relaxation by the cell phone ringing. This was unusual, no one calls us in Mexico. It was friends Michael and Sylvia telling us they are driving down from PV on Christmas day and want to park their 30' trailer on our property. It turns out the trailer won't fit in front of their rental house in La Manzanilla. Life changed for the better after arrival of the trailer. Good karma! Great Friends!

The House Will Be Done . . .

"So the house will be done by time we get there on December 22?", I ask once again. I've been asking this same question at least 10 times over the last month. "It should be pretty much done.", responded the voice on the phone. I ask, "We will be able to move in when we get down there on December 22?" The voice responds convincingly, "Sure, oh yes." I have my doubts yet I want to be hopeful; Sharon doesn't believe a word and is convinced the house will not be done.

Dec. 20, we arrive in Puerto Vallarta and spend the next two days at an all-inclusive hotel; wow, did we overdo everything! We also got our car out of storage and shopped around for food and other necessities. We did most of our shopping at Walmart, and since Sam's Club is next door, Sharon suggested we walk over to buy a tent, flashlight, and other camping stuff, just in case the house is not done. Also, our friend Rowan was in Vallarta, so we picked him up and he spent a night with us at the all-inclusive; he on spending a week with us in Tenacatita.

December 22, Sharon, Rowan and I begin the drive through Puerto Vallarta and south on Mexico Hwy 200. The weather is warm, the sky is bright blue and filled with soaring vultures. It was a fun ride through mountainous terrain covered with deciduous forests, and through lush, green agricultural valleys filled with banana plantations, and coconut palms. At our rest stops we saw colorful song birds, hummingbirds and hawks. A tarantula crossed the road in front of us, but not all were in agreement it was a tarantula, Rowan thought it was a crab. Four hours later we round the last few curves on Tenacatita road and we catch a glimpse of our house.

For Sharon and me a completed house is the culmination of a long, difficult project; more importantly, we plan on spending 2 1/2 months living in our beach house, so no house means camping, or a stay in the small local hotel. Rowan is planning on spending a week with us and has not planned on a week stay at the local hotel. Also, the three of us had planned on hanging out in our beach house, fishing, and visiting. Anyway, we slowly approach our driveway, and in unison we groan and say, "It's not done!". There were no walls, we could see through the house to the ocean. The house was framed, it even had a roof, and a concrete floor, but that's all it had! There were no walls, no toilets, no water and no electricity. Only an empty shell of a beach house. Oh this was bad! Really bad!

Building Technique

Casa Lirio was constructed in a style much different than is typical of our part of Mexico. A typical house in this part of Mexico is constructed of concrete, does not have any insulation, and has concrete interior walls. These houses get very hot during the summer months because they heat up during the day and release their heat during the night.

However we had a galvanized metal frame house built right on the beach. The outside is stucco, but the inside has fiberglass insulation and sheetrock just like in a U.S. house. This building style we think will provide a cooler home, and will be easier to keep cool with our small air conditioner. We decided to build in this way because our contractor spent a long time in California and Hawaii where he learned to construct metal framed homes and buildings. So, we thought we'd go this route. Is this better than typical building techniques? Only time will tell . . .

Of course the interior walls of the beach house been painted beautiful, bright colors.

Building Our Beach Bungalow in Tenacatita, Mexico

A few years ago, Sharon and I fell in love with this cool place in Mexico. The place is Tenacatita in the state of Jalisco. We loved it, so much we bought a beach lot and soon after began to build our beach bungalow, Casa Lirio Azul. It is almost finished, but we've been assured it would be done by time we get back in June (ha! ha! I don't believe it). The house is basically done, only needing insect and security screen around the patio.

Wow! Building this small house in many ways was typical of experiences people all over the world have when contracting construction jobs. Let's see, delays, and more delays; crew doesn't show, subs don't show, and builder doesn't show and his cell phone immediately goes to voice mail. After all, we've all experienced these problems during building projects, or heard from friends about their building ordeals. Yet, building Casa Lirio Azul, reached new heights in delays. It took 10 months to build our 600 sf bungalow; the crew broke ground in June 2006 and finished April 2007. That's 60 sf/month, or 2 sf/day! Get the idea?

I don't want to entirely blame the contractor and crew for delays because I was responsible for some of the delays. Joining in, or my encouraging a fiesta or two, I must admit, led to some lost afternoons in drinking beer and tequila; barbecuing fish and carne; male camaraderie; and then stumbling home in giggles.