Our Building Project!

Part 1

Before I start the pictures of the actual building progress I wanted to add a picture so that you can have a better appreciation of these beautiful trees. If you click on the picture you can see Andrew on the very right. Yes, that little speck of white is his T-shirt. Magnificent! Isn't it?
OK, since this is the most panoramic view of the property I will use it to get you a little oriented with where we are placing the guest house. We are starting off with the smaller building for a variety of reasons, but for now suffice it to say that I am glad we did. You learn so much as you go! By the time that we finish this small one we will indeed be ready to tackle the big one. (and I still have my fingers crossed. HA!)
So for orientation, the palm trees on the very left; the little ones that seem to be under the second fig tree, is where we are placing the small house.

Here we are with day 1.

The workers are ready to start digging the trench for the foundation. The dirt that we used to fill in the land got so compact that it was too hard for them to dig so....


We had to hire a backhoe loader to do the excavation. Here you can see the boys watching!

Here you can see Andrew personally directing the excavation of the trench for the Wall that we are putting around the entire perimeter of the land. The conductor was new or inexperienced, one or the other, possibly both, and did a horrible job. Instead of a nice straight trench it turned out looking like the trail left by some massive snake. we had to have him go over it a few times till we were slightly pleased. the poor guy that is building the wall for us lost two building days because he had to correct the job this guy did.End of day 1.

We Got Our Land!!!

Once upon a time there were two boys, three girls and their very close friends! They had a dream! A dream that seemed just out of their reach. Then something happened the enemy did not intend: A Lord of great power decided that the time was indeed right for the dream to be fulfilled. So, when these children were at the right spot, at the right time, with the right motives of heart, He granted them their wish and made it come true! "But", said He, "For your wish to be entirely fulfilled you must do your part to ensure that you work hard at your dream, doing what you can do so that the work be completed. What you cannot do, I will do, but, what you can do for yourselves, this you must accomplish to the best of your ability."
And so it was that on the 10th of April, 2008, in Veracruz, Mexico; these folks decided to purchase a plot of land to call their own where they might build, in honor of the Lord and His great commission to them, a home and center.
For those of you that know the story, will know that it was a slight bit more complicated then that, but hey, we wont bore you with details. The Lord did it and we have already started building! Yes, we find it hard to believe ourselves that we have actually started this venture!

Here is a picture of part of our land at its very early stages. Rough, wild, and untamed, but full of possibility!
In order for us to start the building project we would need to start filling in the land as it was a bit lower then the areas around and since it's close to a river we wanted to make sure that we would not, in some future catastrophe, get washed away. So in the next picture you can see how we began to do just that.


Here you can see how we had to fill it in about a meter. One of the reasons we settled on this piece of land were two very beautiful, very old, and very large fig trees. I had never seen this particular kind of fig tree but we fell in love with them and had to have them. Ha! You can see the dump trucks a distance away. The tree is not that big in comparison, but if the trucks were right underneath they would just fit between the floor and the first branches.
And, so it starts, Our Building Project!