it continues…

day 3, pool empty & planters growing

We are at the end of day 10 of construction, it is taking longer than I hoped.  Well, of course it is.  I’d hoped it would be a couple days and then everyone would leave and I’d get to start picking plants.  Um… not.  I started out taking lots of pics every day, then I realized that day 6 did not look much different than day 7 and I just took one pic a day.   They are doing a lot, there are delays waiting for the concrete, or the electrician or the plumber but work has been steady.  I can’t believe the long days, the workers get here before 8am, if I open the door at 7:30 or 7:45, they are outside waiting.  They don’t leave until 5pm and they don’t take much of a lunch.

day 5, 3 planters built and 1 more to go

I’m sure most of you know by now that I’ve never been considered a “morning person” so did you notice that line up there about opening the door before 8am?  For like, 10 days and counting?   Mimi and I have started splitting the morning detail so every morning one of us gets to sleep in until 9am or so.  Bleh!   I don’t know what to do with myself at 8am, I wander around in a daze, I can’t even make coffee without spilling everything I touch.    Plus, the animals are getting crazy from being locked up for a couple weeks, Mimi and I are too because we feel that one of us should be here all day.   Then there is the fine dust everywhere, some of it is from the renovation being done on the house next door but most of it is ours.  I can not imagine how horrible it would be to live in a house through an entire remodel, my hat is off to those of you who have done it.

day 7, planters built and electric and water lines installed.

They put in the first concrete patio section today.  I would say ‘poured’ the first section but really, they carried it from the dirt where it was mixed in a 5 gal bucket and dumped it in the forms.   I’m hoping they will finish the concrete this week, then the bamboo wall extension can start.  Also, then we can put water back in the pool.  Warmth has returned to Mérida, it was about 100F today, not bad inside the house but it would be better with a pool.

day 10, bender boards and half pipe for bull nose on bench in place

I’m a bit anxious about the garden design.  This is a blank slate, I need to have a plan of some sort or a mental image of the layers and colors I want to plant.  It’s a bit intimidating right now.  I’ve considered getting a landscape designer but then I feel like a wuss.  It is the part I’ve been looking forward to for a year, I can do this.

end of day 10, one section of concrete is in.

I’ve had to change many of my original plans for planting. The planter bed by the pool hit solid rock a couple feet down. I shouldn’t be surprised, it took weeks to jackhammer out the pool and pond. I had the option of getting the jackhammer back and making it as deep as I wanted. I don’t want to spend that much money for one thing and I just couldn’t take it for another.

except those 3 holes, it's solid rock and the holes are only a foot or so deep.

It doesn’t drain well because of the rock so I asked them to break a hole from the bottom of the planter into the well next to it so water will drain directly into the well. It’s not the well we use for water, runoff from the back half of the house goes to it. Anyway, cancel most of the trees I was considering, I need something with shallow roots. I’m now pretty set on fish tail palm, I’ll let 2 or 3 pups grow out and keep the rest cut back. I can keep the bottom fronds cut and the trunk is rough so I think orchids and bromeliads will attach to it. Same problem over between the outside shower and the pond, I wanted some more timber bamboo but it’s solid rock about a foot below the surface. I haven’t got that one figured out yet but hibiscus has wide and shallow roots so that might be a solution.

Once the hardscape is in, I’ll take you along on some trips to nurseries in the area.