Dos meses (two months) in paradise!

A week ago Sunday we put up our “instant screen” for the front door. The dogs love it – they can go in and out and Sierra particularly likes to sit on the front porch and be a watch dog. With the iron work around that area, we can now leave the front door open and get the breeze through the house – without the mosquitoes and other flying critters coming in. It’s great and sure does help keep the house cooler!

We had a nice dinner with Glenda & Al and another couple from the States, Bill and Allison from Vermont. Glenda has asked if we’d come up an hour or so early to help her with the prep, since they were going to be out for the afternoon and wouldn’t be able to do it until last minute. Of course we were happy to be the “sous chefs” – especially since they have invited us to meals and plied us with desserts and treats ever since we got here!

Monday started off with a not-so-nice surprise. We have an air bed (like a Sleep Number bed – but the brand is Comfortaire), which needs to be reinflated every once and a while, so I decided to do that while I was making the bed for the day. It’s not tough – merely a touch of a button to start the pump. I got Steve’s side started – and all was good. Then I went to my side and once his was done, pressed the button on my remote. The pump started making a HORRID grinding sound, so I ran over and quickly unplugged it. We checked the filter, we unhooked & unplugged, rehooked and replugged and tried it again – same problem. So I pulled out the warranty paperwork and found that it was still under warranty…but we couldn’t be 100% certain it hadn’t been damaged in the move – although it had worked when we set up the bed and one other “refresh” time since then.

I sent an email to the company’s customer service department – and settled back to wait (for up to 48 hours). Imagine my surprise when less than 3 hours later I had a response – and a good one at that. They had verified we were still under warranty and once we confirmed our model # and address, they would ship out a replacement at no charge! So I quickly responded and our new pump is on its way! Now that’s what I call great customer service!!!

Casita update: the forms from the interior of the roof were stripped. Luis left, alone, in the early afternoon – which is somewhat unusual – especially since he provides the transportation for both he and Raphael!

That evening, we had a potluck barbeque with the neighbors at Al & Glenda’s house. Al grilled burgers and each family brought a side dish or dessert. Earlier in the day, I had put together a draft response for the group to review & give feedback, so we spent a few minutes discussing, then we put it aside so we could visit about more interesting topics! The group dynamics are interesting: Al & Glenda are Canadian, Yannick & Martine are French, Tony & Linda are English and of course there is us. So depending on who is talking to whom, there are conversations in French, Spanish or English…or a combo of all! It was a fun evening.

Tuesday Raphael returned with a different helper, Johnny. We aren’t sure if he and Luis had a falling out, or if Luis had another job to go to. I was going to ask Raphael where Luis was, but then realized that I probably wouldn’t understand his answer anyway! Although we had rain on and off through the day, it didn’t interrupt the work since Raphael is now doing the pañete inside of the casita.

Wednesday: We’ve discovered we have a thief living in the neighborhood! Ok, it’s not as bad as it sounds…it’s Bamboo, the neighbor dog. I stopped by Yannick & Martine’s house and noticed two dog toys on their table that looked exactly like toys our dogs have. I thought “wow, how ironic that they would have the same toys for Bamboo as we do for Sierra and Dusty.” I came home and Bamboo followed me. As is typical, he came into the house to see our dogs and when I turned around, he was dragging one of their toys toward the door! Then it clicked – those toys at his house were our dog’s toys and had been in our backyard!! That little stinker must have dragged them out through the open gate and over to his house. And one of the toys is almost as big as him!

Now the dilemma is how to broach the subject of the stolen toys with Bamboo’s parents?? Or, do we just look the other way – given our dogs have plenty more toys and probably will never miss those two? We’ll likely do the latter, but will keep a closer eye on Mr. Bamboo when he comes to visit!

We went into town to run a couple of errands and stopped at the cigar shop. When we were house hunting, Steve had bought some cigars for a friend in Kansas there & we had met one of the owners, Kira, who is from California. She and her husband, Rod, moved to the DR about a year and a half ago & bought this little coffee/cigar shop. Pam & Dennis told us when we moved down that Kira & Rod had been in a motorcycle accident, with Kira getting the worst of it – a terrible head/face injury as well as her leg. Rod had several bumps and bruises. We had stopped by shortly after we moved down & met Rod, but hadn’t seen Kira since the first time we met her.

They were both at the shop – and Kira is doing well, although she still has a pretty good shiner under her right eye and her ankle is still wrapped – and it’s been almost 8 weeks since the accident! We visited with them for a while, and met a friend of theirs, Albert, who, it turns out, lives just up the road from us. Nice guy. We told them we’d come back when we could stay longer – and maybe we can get together for dinner in the near future. They are one of a very few couples here who are close to our ages…most everyone else is at least 10 years or more older (not that that is a bad thing!).

Thursday: Our reprieve from the hot, humid days is over…today started out sunny and bright – definitely the harbinger of a toasty day. Shortly after 8, I heard a moto outside and here was Johnny, Raphael’s new helper, with two grande bags of cemento…and no Raphael! He put them down in front of the house and took off – bringing 3 bags the next time, then off again to return with Raphael. It still amazes me how they can even ride with a load like that – and nothing holding it on!! They’ve made good progress on the casita, but found it was a little tough to clean up at the end of the day when we had no electricity – which means the water pump doesn’t run either! So buckets of pool water had to suffice.

They worked quite late today – leaving close to 7 p.m. – and missed their opportunity to get home before the rain. Raphael was feeling quite smug when he pulled the rain gear we lent him out of his bag and suited up…leaving Johnny to don a lovely trash bag poncho!
And to top off the outfits for both of them…a lovely bright yellow LaSirena plastic bag for a hat. Guess since it was getting dark, their hats could serve a dual purpose – keep their heads dry and for safety!


Friday: Those DR gods…guess we couldn’t expect them to keep smiling on us forever! First – our printer/copier/scanner decided that black ink wasn’t really necessary – and of course, it’s not under warranty any longer. Steve and I will mess with it a little to see if we can get it to work…heck, what’s the worst that can happen? It won’t work any worse than it does today!

Raphael & Johnny showed up early again today (7:30) and wrapped up around 5. We miss Luis. He was very conscientious about how he left the work area at the end of the day and even though he and Raphael talked a lot throughout the day, they worked while they were talking. For some reason, Raphael seems to be less focused when Johnny is around – and Johnny’s not nearly as particular in how he leaves our yard at the end of the day. Friday night he left the hose unrolled – and left the water on with the pressure nozzle still on the hose, but closed. When Steve noticed it on Saturday morning, it had a big bulge where the pressure had built up. Fortunately it hadn’t burst the hose and drained our cistern (water storage) tank overnight! But now our hose is in need of repair, and according to Al, we may not be able to get a repair end for it – which means we will have to buy a new hose. Not a huge deal, but frustrating that it could have been prevented. Oh well, what do you do??

Friday evening Raphael told us they wouldn’t be working on Saturday – since Sunday is Dominican mother’s day (more on that in a minute). Apparently they celebrate all weekend and honestly, we weren’t too disappointed as it gave us a day that we could enjoy our house, yard and pool without having workers here – oh, and to sleep in a little bit!!

The other interesting event of Friday night was the visit from a gentleman (term used loosely here) representing the security company. He is a colonel with the military here and was dressed in full fatigues. He also owns the security company that is used at our development. He went door to door to let us know that Century 21/Perdomo, who is the management company for our development, had told him that there would be no security guards on site beginning Tuesday. We are pretty certain this is in response to our letter to them telling them that we would not pay the excessive amount they requested for a maintenance fee – when there are a number of things in our development that have been neglected & need to be taken care of first. This visit spurred another neighborhood meeting on Saturday.

So Saturday morning we did sleep in a bit and then spent some time cleaning up the construction debris around the casita and getting the yard back into a little better shape. After we got it cleaned up, Dusty spent some time checking it out.

We got in a swim as did the dogs (Sierra took 3 small laps and almost a full lap in the pool; Dusty went just half a pool length and that was under duress!). We visited with Pam & Dennis who stopped by, then left for the neighborhood meeting at Al & Glenda’s. A plan was devised for Monday. (Monday isn’t a holiday here - Memorial Day in the States). We’ll see how that goes!

Oh – and an update on Bamboo, the toy thief. I had told Glenda about seeing the toys at Jannick’s house. She asked if I had told Jannick that Bamboo had heisted them. I hadn’t, but she suggested that I should, that he would get a kick out of it. So I shared the story with him and Martine and we all got a good laugh again. Later on Sunday, Jannick brought both toys back over – after they had been washed and dried!

The cantaloupe plants are doing incredibly well. Check out how big they are after only 7 days!!

It’s amazing to us that two months has already gone by. In many ways it feels like we just got here – and in others, it seems like we’ve been here much longer – but in a good way. Hopefully everyone back home had a good Memorial Day weekend! Take care and check back again soon for more updates.

S&K

Buenos Noches - Semana Siete Update from the DR

Well, week 7 started off with a fizzle. When Raphael left on Saturday, he told us they would be back on Lunes (Monday) to pour the roof on the casita. We had told him and Luis that we would provide lunch that day. Glenda suggested we give them a “traditional” Dominican meal of grilled chicken, rice and beans. She also provided the instructions and several of the ingredients needed to prepare the beans and I got them soaking Sunday night so they would be ready to cook Monday. We also took several pieces of chicken out of the freezer – enough for the four of us.

First thing on Monday morning, I put the beans together and on the stove to cook – to make sure they have plenty of time. (Remember, I’m used to cooking beans in Denver!) Typically the guys arrive around 8…sometimes shortly after that. Nine a.m. – no one. Ten a.m. – not a worker in sight. By 11, we’ve decided we either misunderstood or they had decided to blow us off! We knew that Monday was actually a holiday (until noon) for their national election that was held on Sunday, but since Raphael had told us they’d be there on Monday, we weren’t sure where the miscommunication happened, but needless to say, they didn’t work on Monday.

I can tell you that we are enjoying the fact that many things cook faster here at sea level (a phenomenon that you likely don’t appreciate until you’ve lived at least a mile high where it takes FOREVER for a pot of water to boil, let alone a large pot of beans to cook!). Monday night Steve went ahead and grilled the chicken and we put everything in the fridge for lunch the next day. We figured we were a couple steps ahead for Tuesday…with only the rice to cook and everything else just needing to be heated.

So…imagine our surprise on Tuesday when Raphael & Luis show up – with three other guys to help them! Needless to say, we hadn’t cooked enough for 5 men who would be working very hard, so we jumped to plan B. And I did my first solo drive into Sosua (and only my second driving experience here)! It actually wasn't too bad even though they drive like lunatics here (maybe we just fit in??).

There are several roadside stands where they cook whole chickens on an outdoor grill. So I went to one that our friends Pam & Dennis had recommended and got two whole chickens and a Styrofoam container with some yucca and fried bananas (it's a Dominican thing - we haven't tried it yet). I grabbed some 2-liter bottles of soda and we heated up the pot of beans. They ate every bit! Guess it wasn’t too bad – and Luis told me they really liked the beans so I owe Glenda a huge thanks for the pointers on those – and the ingredients!!

It was pretty interesting to watch how they poured the roof. Mind you – this is a 6 inch thick slab, so there is a LOT of concrete to pour. It went like this…one guy was out front mixing a batch by hand in the wheelbarrow. Another guy would bring it around to the back (the casita is in the far opposite corner of where they are mixing) and he would dump it out on a sheet of plywood. Luis was manning that area and he would shovel the concrete mixture up to a platform that they had built out of a sheet of plywood & several concrete blocks - about ½ way up the side of the casita wall. The guy on the platform then would shovel the concrete up onto the roof and Raphael would move it to the areas it was needed. The pictures below don’t really do it justice but will help you to visualize how it worked.




They started the actual mixing/pouring around 9 and were done by about 1:30 – including their lunch break! Pretty amazing!

With the roof needing some time to cure, Raphael told us they would be back on Thursday, so we took advantage of not having to be here to run to Santiago. There were a number of things we needed and could not get from the stores here. And since we were going anyway, we decided to go to a few furniture stores and see if perhaps we could find a table & chairs for our dining area. We mapped out our route and headed out early Thursday a.m.

It was definitely a lot easier this time – with Steve having more experience driving with the maniacs. We didn’t find a dining room set, but we were able to find about
95% of what was on our list - and several items that weren't, and poor Zuki was stuffed to the gills again. Hopefully we won't be going back to Santiago, or at least PriceSmart (it’s like Costco), for quite some time!! You know it’s bad when the PriceSmart people bring you a second cart because the one you have is so full! Here are a few pictures of some of the interesting sights along the way:





On Thursday, our neighbor Linda came over and asked if Dusty was ready for a haircut. She trims her dog Archie and had offered to do Dusty as well. He was getting pretty shaggy and since he’s already a warm blooded guy anyway, he was definitely in need of a trim so he would be cooler. I’m happy to say that although his “do” is not anywhere near what it would look like if we’d taken him to a professional, he doesn’t look anything like the first time I tried to groom our last dog, Coco!! Steve says that she looked like she had been through chemo because she had many bald spots where the clippers had decided to dive rather than glide! I won’t say that Dusty doesn’t have a few areas that are shorter than others, and maybe it’s because his hair is lighter that it’s not as noticeable, but I think he looks pretty darn good…considering! Poor guy was exhausted when I took this picture. Once we figured out the clippers weren’t going to do the trick, Linda ended up using scissors and it took about 2.5 hours to get him done!



While I was over at Linda’s, work continued on the casita. Not sure what the technique is called, but it’s basically flinging a very thin mixture of concrete on the walls – apparently a sort of priming for the finish, which we have been told is called pañete & is similar to stucco, but is smooth. Poor Raphael was covered with concrete after a day of flinging!! On Friday, they started applying the pañete, which is a mixture of 4 parts very fine sand (they actually have a screen that they sift the sand through) and 1 part concreto. It’s then applied with a trowel & leveled out. After it sets up a little, they go back over it almost like they are sanding it – but use a damp piece of foam similar to a sponge (kinda reminds me of grouting tile!). Saturday was more of the same…but they worked on the back side of the casita, so we cannot get good pictures of that. Here’s what it looked like at the end of the day.

On Friday afternoon…everyone in the neighborhood received a hand-delivered letter from developer’s agent with their proposal for a maintenance fee. Needless to say, that stirred everyone up again. So we’ve agreed to meet Monday evening for dinner at Al & Glenda’s and put together our response. We’ve done some comparisons with what other developments are paying & what services they receive…let’s just say that it’s like comparing apples and toadstools – not even close to the same. Should be interesting to see how this all turns out!

A few other miscellaneous items. We spent some time last weekend getting more unpacking done & furniture arranged. See…it’s actually starting to look more like a home. It will be much better once we have the casita for our tools – some of which are still sitting in the dining area! And I hope to get some pictures on the walls yet this weekend. I was also tickled that the bedspread that I had bought when we were staging our house in Denver works quite nicely with our “tangerine” bedroom walls!




We’ve also decided to try our hand at some gardening. Al & Glenda have told us you can pretty much put anything in the ground here and it will grow (keeping the insects from eating it after it starts…well, that’s another issue). So we saved some seeds from a cantaloupe and some jalapenos. Check out my little cantaloupe sprouts! This is only three days after I planted them. They had sprouted a little bit in the bag I had them in, but they have gone gangbusters since I put them in the cup of dirt!! I planted the jalapeno seeds today. They hadn’t begun to sprout yet, so not sure how they’ll do…but we’ll see! Next up – cucumbers!!

And finally, here are a couple of cool pictures. The first is a bowl of fresh fruit – typical of what you can find everywhere here.
The pineapples are luscious and we use limes by the dozens. The two yellowish-green things are mangos…starting to like them more even though they are a pain in the rear to cut up. And in the bottom left corner, an avocado. They are abundant here as well – and are huge compared to what we used to get in the States. The bowl they are in was a gift from Steve’s sister and her husband from Hawaii. It definitely fits our tropical motif!!

This is a flower that is commonly found here. It grows on a kind of shrub/vine – and we have some in our back yard as well as along the sides of the front yard. Don’t know what it’s called but they sure are pretty!


That’s it for now. I think Denver may have gotten as warm – or warmer than it was here today (Saturday)! I’ll bet we had more humidity though! It was MUGGY!! We were happy to see clouds move in this evening with some rain showers to cool it off. And yes, we get thunderstorms here, too! We had quite a lightening show tonight.

For those of you in Denver, hope you enjoyed your summer preview day…and wherever you are, we hope this note finds you to be well!

Hasta luego!!

S&K's Adventure: de seis samanas (week 6)

Week 6 started off with my first Mother’s Day away from family. Matt had surprised me with a call earlier in the week prior – wishing me happy Mother’s Day – since he was working on Sunday and knew he wouldn’t be able to call me then. Sure did make my day…heck, it made my week!!

It was a good day…but with one challenge. Our internet kept going down over the weekend, but luckily we were able to sneak in a quick call to our moms during the brief times it was up. Other than that, we enjoyed the day (and not having workers at the house) relaxing by and in the pool, taking a siesta, then going to a nice dinner with Al & Glenda. We went to a place called Ocean Village, which has a wonderful view of…yes…you guessed it, the ocean. And the food was very good as well. So a very nice day was capped off with a very nice dinner with our surrogate DR parents! : )

Overnight into Monday, the rain came. And it stayed, on and off, throughout the day…but at least our internet was up! Maybe that’s the DR god’s way of making sure we get out and enjoy the nice days???

Unfortunately, the rain meant that Raphael and Luis couldn’t work, so we have experienced our first setback on the casita. We were hoping it would clear overnight and they could start up again mañana. We were also supposed to get our cable installed on Monday. Well, we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the cable guys (just like back home – some things aren’t so different here!!). Hopefully mañana?! Heck, we’d gone this long without TV – what was another day or so?

Oh…and the guy who said he wanted our empty moving boxes…and would be here at 11:30 to get them…also a no show! Guess it wasn’t our day for smiling DR gods. But we’d rather save our good luck for the things that really matter. Can’t sweat the small stuff!!

Tuesday started out rainy – but cleared off nicely. The guys showed up to work on the casita mid-day and made great headway…including starting on the storage “shed” for our propane bottle off of the laundry room. Here’s what things looked like as of the end of day Wednesday.


Cable…well that’s another story. After they hadn’t shown up by 1 p.m., I called and was told they would send a guy around 3. We weren’t holding our breath that he’d actually show up then…or even that day. Well, we could have held our breath because he DID show up – on time!! It didn’t take long to get us set up and he was on his way. We went back to our office to do some work and hmm…no internet! I called the cable company (that’s who supplies our internet, too) and they said they would send someone out. In the meantime, we went out to where the cable comes into the house…and discovered the problem. Instead of using a splitter to connect the cable from the street to the cable going to the internet modem and another for cable box, he had merely disconnected the internet and hooked up the TV!!! Fortunately our neighbor had a splitter – and in less than 5 minutes, we were back in business – internet AND cable. Wow, we’re truly connected to the world now!!

Oh, and the tech they said they’d send? He showed up too! It was almost 6 p.m. so we truly didn’t expect to see anyone yet that day, but here he came! I explained what had happened & what we did. Asked if that was ok – and he said “si!” and off he went. Probably the easiest call he’d had all day!!

On Wednesday, I went to Puerto Plata with Glenda and Martine - who lives across the street from us. Martine is from France, so her native language is French. She speaks very little English, but her Spanish is actually very good. Luckily she speaks Spanish slowly, and even with my limited vocabulary, I was able to understand most of what she said. We even carried on a conversation while Glenda ran in to a store buy minutes for her cell phone – quite an accomplishment for two women who were conversing in a language that was foreign to both of them!!! We had a nice time shopping. We also bought some fruit from one of many fruit trucks that park on the side of the road with lots of yummy, super fresh things to pick from – like pineapples, cantaloupe, watermelon, mango, passionfruit, limes, bananas and guava. The mangos cost 10 pesos each – less than 30 cents US. And if the ones I got are even half as good as the sample the vendor gave us, I’ll be in heaven!! (Note: they WERE as good as the sample – YUMMY!!!!)

While I was out with the girls, Steve had doggy duty. Our neighbors, Linda & Tony, have had family in town from the UK and were going on a day trip. They asked if we would look in on their dog, Archie.
Steve went over and brought him to the house to play with our dogs for a while. After I got home, I did the same. They all roared around the yard – chasing and playing (and Sierra taking her second swim of the day), then they came in and plopped on the floor for a siesta.


Oh, and Bamboo, the other neighbor dog, made himself at home when we had the front door open for the cable guy to come in and out. We had our dogs barricaded with a gate – wonder if he thought they were in jail?! They all stood, nose to nose, tails wagging madly, until Bamboo decided it was time to go back outside. He’s actually Martine & Charles’ dog, but he does have the run of the neighborhood and visits everyone. He’s a cute little guy!

Thursday, yup, rain again, but the guys were able to do a little more work before getting rained out. That’s Raphael on the right and Luis on the left...and the rain pouring down!

Once they decided it was a hopeless cause, they still had to get home…on a motoconcho…and it was pouring! At first we fashioned them each a poncho out of a large trash bag – then they put grocery bags on their feet. We realized that we had brought our lightweight waterproof pants & Steve had a couple of his bike jackets, so we brought those out for them to borrow and they were STYLIN’!! Check them out:




The picture we didn’t get was them riding off on the moto…in their get-ups and a bright yellow & white umbrella we also lent them-darn!!



Later in the day, we joined the other homeowners in our little “village” for a meeting with the agent for the developer, Pablo. We currently don’t have a formal HOA, nor do we pay monthly fees, but that may change in the future. The meeting was quite interesting & got a little heated a few times. We’ll see where this all heads over the next few weeks. Hopefully it will end up being a win/win for everyone!

Friday started out with the Pablo showing a good faith effort by having some workers come out to trim some of the overgrowth from the lots without houses. Unfortunately, they also cut Tony’s internet cable (the lines are run over the ground – another gripe we have). The cable company came out & in the process of fixing Tony’s line, they wiped ours out! Luckily they were able to fix them both – although the lines are still running above ground.

As we were standing in the street chatting with Tony, our neighbor Charles came out looking for Bamboo. Something to keep in mind…Charles is a rather, shall we say, stout man from France and in the typical European style, favors a Speedo as his around the house attire. And, true to form, today was no different. He happens to look over at our villa and says, “You have the same problem I had” – pointing to a tree in our front yard. We’re looking and cannot figure out what the heck he’s talking about. Turns out there is a bird’s nest in the tree. And these aren’t just any bird…they are dive-bombing birds!

He proceeds to tell us that he had several of these nests in the trees around his house and the birds got so bad, that he and Martine couldn’t come in or out of their door without being attacked – and the birds would also dive-bomb Bamboo. Now…try to get a mental picture of this…he decides he’s going to knock the nests down in hopes that the birds will quit attacking. So he dons a helmet (what kind???) and goggles (swimming? safety?) and because the man rarely wears anything else, we can’t imagine that he’s off to take care of the nests in anything but the Speedo! Armed with a long stick, he braves the birds and de-nests the trees. Man…what we would have paid for a video of that!! Just the mental picture is pretty funny!!

So his advice was to get the nest out of the tree right away…I wish I’d have had the video camera when Steve went out with a long stick and knocked the nest down out of our tree!! You could tell he was bracing to be pecked the whole time he was out there. And just this morning, I witnessed one of the birds dive-bomb Bamboo…and he was just walking down the street! We’ve decided those birds are psycho…and, in the case of our rooster neighbor – confused!

Why confused, you ask? How many roosters do you know that crow at 2:30 in the morning? And continue to do so well into the day! Aren’t they at least supposed to wait until day break? Needless to say, we do not love that neighbor!

On Saturday, Raphael & Luis finished forming the roof for the casita. Here’s what it looks like now:


Monday they will mix all the concrete – by hand – and pour the roof, bucket by bucket! These guys certainly do earn their pay!! Oh – and keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain…that’s not good for a freshly poured concrete roof!!

Today we had a nice day…a little swimming and the dogs did some relaxing on their cots…then Dusty decided he wanted to share Sierra’s cot with her. Looks like those two have settled into their new home pretty well, huh?!








A bit later, we heard some crunching & cracking in the area past our back fence – and imagine the dog’s surprise when they came face to face with a herd of cows grazing back there! They had quite the time running back and forth to different places they could see through the foliage and barked and barked. The cows just looked at them and continued to munch.


That’s about it from here for the week…another busy one. Hope all is going well wherever you are! Take care and hasta luego!

Week 5-Another wild week in Sosua, DR…and another chapter in the S&K's great island adventure!!

The DR gods again were smiling upon us. Our container delivery was actually on time! There were 5 or 6 guys (I couldn’t keep track…you’ll see why in a minute). They were quickly unloading the truck, calling out the #s that the movers in Denver had put on them for tracking, in Spanish of course! I thought I had my Spanish numbers down pretty well, but it would take me a bit to mentally translate them, then flip through several pages to find the number on the list to check it off. I think they finally figured out I was a little slow in that area, so they moved a little less quickly and patiently waited while I figured out which # they had called out to me. Needless to say, my plan for having the office boxes go to the office, kitchen to kitchen, etc. went down the drain! It was all I could do to keep up with the steady flow coming in the house. Thank goodness we only had 137 boxes, cartons & other items!

And another plus…they were all present and accounted for. We spent the next 8 hours unpacking – we got about 75% done and so far everything has been intact – no breakage, no damage! Mind you, we haven’t taken the TVs out of their boxes, or our large computer monitors, but when the glass patio table arrived in one piece, I figure that is hopefully a good indicator that we’re likely to be in decent shape. We’ll find out over the next few days. Here’s what our living/dining room looked like after they unloaded the truck. Oh and check out that great ceiling fan!! : )



Tuesday – our iron work was installed. What iron work, you ask? Oh….well, we found out shortly after we arrived that our house had been broken into at least once (before we bought it)…perhaps due to the empty field behind it which gives easy access? Everyone has assured us that having the dogs here helps immensely…but we thought “what if we want to go somewhere and take the dogs”? Would we be leaving ourselves vulnerable? Plus we didn’t feel comfortable leaving any windows open at night, so we were closing up the house and running the A/C in the bedroom.

Our neighbors, Al & Glenda, had a contact, (the guy who did their house). He came out and gave us a great price. Now all of our windows are protected (so we can leave windows open at night and enjoy the evening cooldowns). We had the patio enclosed – with puertos (gates/doors) that open onto the pool area. We asked them to enclose the front porch as well – so we can leave the front door open to take advantage of the breeze that typically comes from that side of the house. Now we just need a screen for that door to keep the skeeters out!

The iron work looks really nice – it’s got some fancy stuff on it so it doesn’t look like jail bars! And since the houses are all concrete, you don’t have to be concerned about fires, so there’s no problem with the windows being covered. It’s pretty amazing the difference it makes temperature-wise in the house…it’s an easy 10 degrees cooler in here and we can take advantage of the nice breezes we get almost every day. There’s a picture of the patio a little bit further down so you can see what it looks like.

After the iron workers left, I went around to each window to vacuum up the dust from them drilling into the concrete to attach the iron work (yep, we brought the shop vac…good thing!). As I was pulling the shop vac into our bathroom, I heard a weird sound – looked around the corner and a little frog was in the tub! I think I scared it because it then crawled up the tile – almost to the window (which is about 6 feet off the ground), but fell back down when I opened the screen…in hopes it would jump out on its own. No such luck! So I got a plastic cup & covered it – then ever so gently slid it up the wall to the window. I lifted the edge of the cup to let it out…nothing! I KNEW I had captured it, so I turned the cup to look in it and the little guy jumped out and scared ME!

Then he took off toward the closet and I thought “Great, he’s going to get into my shoes…or worse, my clothes, and do who knows what?!” Luckily I was able to again cover him with the cup, but this time, I slid a piece of paper under it to use as a sort of lid. I took it outside and uncovered the cup…again, nothing! I carefully glanced in the cup and here he was, huddled at the bottom. So I laid the cup on its side and went back in the house. Next time I went out, he was gone. Silly frog – I have no idea how he got in, but hopefully he had hitchhiked on something vs. coming in somewhere I don’t know about!!

After going to Santo Domingo to do the customs inspection last week, we realized that we had brought a bit more “garage” stuff than we remembered…and unless we wanted to turn the spare bedroom/workout room into a workroom/shed, we needed think about alternatives. So last week we asked Raphael the “block” guy to give us an estimate for a casita (small house) which will basically be a 8x14 cinderblock building with 2 windows and a door that we’ll use as a tool shed, as well as a small storage area in which we can put the propane bottles & lock them up. We got the estimate – which is when we also learned that these things typically don’t include windows, a door, any electrical or iron work. Apparently here different people do the different parts. Also, you don’t buy premade windows. The building is built – THEN the window guy comes out and measures…then builds the windows to fit. Probably good since very little is square or plumb here!

Our friend, Pam, called Raphael to have him come back to the house & they were going to come over as well to help translate – to make sure that we knew exactly what was included in the estimate he had given us & proceed if all was good. He showed up shortly after 9 – with Pam & Dennis arriving about 30 minutes later! Mind you, Raphael doesn’t speak much English, so it was an interesting time making small talk with our limited Spanish, but with the help of our handy-dandy dictionary, we made it work. He’s really a nice guy and by the time Pan & Dennis arrived, we had agreed that he will help us with our Spanish and we will help him with his English while he’s here!

The rest of the day was a blur…running to the bank to get pesos for Raphael to buy the materials, working a little bit, rearranging things in the back yard to accommodate the delivery of the materials, etc. The first delivery came…it was a load of blocks, rebar and 40 large bags of cement. Another interesting thing we see here is that many people carry things on their head – baskets of laundry, boxes of bananas, buckets of water…and yes, the guys unloading the truck carried the 100# bags of cement on their heads!! We have no idea how they do that and don’t break their necks!!

After they left, Raphael told us that he was going home, but that the ferrartaria (do you remember what that is?) would be back with more materials,
namely the sand and aggregate for mixing the concrete – mas tarde (later). Well, mas tarde came and went and no mas materials arrived. Here’s a picture of the bags of cemento that the guys carried…and that new iron work we told you about.



Thursday morning…the beginning of the work on the casita! So far, everyone who has done work here has come around 9, so we figured that was the norm. You can imagine our surprise when Dusty and Sierra started barking madly shortly after 8…at Raphael and his helper, Luis. As we had guessed, Raphael wasn’t very happy to see that the rest of the materials hadn’t arrived, so he and Luis soon hopped back on their motoconcho (motorcycle) and headed into town…probably to chew someone out!!

It wasn’t too long after that when another truckload of cinderblocks arrived – 247 total – followed by a load of sand & then a big pile of gravel! Raphael and Luis returned and began working on the casita. Each day it has been fun to watch the walls go up – and to practice our Spanish. We’re very impressed with what hard workers and how conscientious both of these guys have been, especially with the stories we’ve heard. They are mixing the concrete by hand in the street in front of the house, then bringing it back using a wheelbarrow. Needless to say, they could be making a huge mess & tracking it through the yard, but they are very careful and each day when they are done, everything is cleaned & put away. They have also been vigilant to lock our gate when they leave to ensure our dogs don’t get out.

Here are some pictures of the casita in progress – day 1, 2 and 3. The footer on the left of the picture from day one was hand-dug with a pickaxe. It is about 3 feet deep!
Dave, we’ve included a picture you may want to use for those OSHA “things not to do on a jobsite” presentations! Gotta love the scaffolding!!



Thursday afternoon we headed into Puerto Plata to pick up a FedEx package and get groceries at La Sirena (they have a better selection than our little supermercado here in Sosua). And again, we got to experience another first…being pulled over for a “firearm” checkpoint! There were a number of federales (military police) in full camouflage fatigues with semi-automatics motioning for all cars to pull over. A guy came to our window and asked, “arma de fuego?” Well, I knew fuego was fire, but I couldn’t imagine what he’d be asking for…did we have a lighter? We shook our heads no – I said “no comprende” – and he pantomimed having a gun. We shook our heads no in earnest at that point. He indicated that he wanted to look in the car, which we allowed him to do. He poked his head in and did a cursory look, then sent us on our way. We were glad we hadn’t gotten the guy that had the car in front of us. He made everyone get out, open the trunk, and was proceeding to remove (and search?) the luggage in the back! We decided that “arma de fuego” would be a phrase we wouldn’t forget anytime soon!!

Yesterday, we decided to check out the Saturday market in Cabarete – the next little town to the east of us. It is also very much a tourist town with lots of shops and restaurants as well as a beautiful playa (beach). It caters to windsurfers, kite boarders, and of course, anyone wanting to enjoy the beach. The Saturday market is like a flea market, on a very small scale. We had hoped that perhaps we’d find a few furniture items we need, but there was much in that category. We didn’t find anything we just couldn’t live without – but we did find some organic produce, including jalapenos (which are difficult to find here) and yellow pear tomatoes – one of my favorites. We bought some and we’re going to see if we can grow our own from the seeds…who knows???

We decided to wander around town – and yes, FINALLY go to the beach (although it wasn’t really a plan to go to the beach and do beach stuff. But we did take a nice walk along the water, then stopped at one of the beachfront restaurants called Jose O’Shay’s and had a nice “lemonada frozen” while enjoying the scenery. The straw in Steve’s lemonade had little palm leaves and a monkey…check it out!


And a few pix of the beach and view from the restaurant.





Finally, we have made great progress unpacking boxes. We’ve gone through everything, except the big TV, and have only had 2 casualties – the glass in one picture frame was cracked and the second was caused by me. I dropped a small pitcher that was wrapped with a few other items, not knowing it was tucked in there. All in all, we have to say the DR gods have been very good to us!!

Here’s a picture after a couple of days of unpacking work…with Sierra obviously enjoying having the mess out of the way. She also has decided that her new post is right outside the gates off the patio...enjoying the cool breeze of the day.
















Oh…and our neighbor, Linda, brought us some very tasty treats…she was baking in preparation for company from the UK. First was a delicious chocolate & almond torte (Steve LOVED that one) and a luscious carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. We decided it’s a good thing she doesn’t have company all the time – we’d weigh about 800 pounds!!

That’s about it for this week…another busy one! We’ll keep you posted on the casita…and any other new DR developments. Hope all you moms out there have/had a great Mother’s Day!!

Buen dia – hasta luego!!

S&K's DR Adventure - Week 4

Bienvenidos (welcome) to bonita (beautiful) Sosua, DR!! Time for another update from your island gringos!

When we left you last time, we had decided to bite the bullet & pay the duties/taxes to get our stuff. Maria had given us a ballpark amount and we were just waiting for a final number so we could run to the bank & wire the money. Well, as we have discovered (and you along with us), nothing is that easy here!

Since we knew we wouldn’t be getting our things right away, we had called Michael, our German electrician, to come and install those ceiling fans we bought in Santiago & put in an outlet in our laundry room. We were so excited to get a washing machine – amazing the “little” things we take for granted! That was all fine and good, until we discovered that there was not an outlet in the laundry room! There were wires coming out of a box, but nothing to plug into. So we had to wait until we could find & buy a heavy duty extension cord (of course, we only sent a regular one when we came down). Luckily we found one a couple of days after the washer arrived and we were making do with the extension cord running out to the kitchen. Not optimal, but it was functional at least!
Oh, and check our DR dryer. Might as well take advantage of the sun and breeze, true?!






So here are Steve and I and the dogs are tucked away in the office while Michael is working on the fans. A something to keep in mind as you read this part of the story…our ceilings are about 20 feet high. We walk out into the living room to find Michael standing on the very top of his 14 foot A-frame ladder – wearing sandals – stretching to hook up the fan! Needless to say, OSHA is not even in the vocabulary here (sorry Dave – we didn’t get a picture for you!).

Luckily, Michael didn’t fall off the ladder & Maria got the info we needed to us shortly after noon. The kicker with making the payment to get our stuff out of hock, however, was that now Maria tells us that supposedly a wire wouldn’t be acknowledged by their bank for at least a day (?!). Instead Maria asked if we could deposit the funds into their account – which of course was at a different bank than what we use – and send her a copy of the receipt. Luckily there is a branch of their bank in Sosua, but we had less than 30 minutes to run into town, get the cash from our bank, go to their bank & deposit it, and get back to the house to let Michael back in since he had left for lunch and had no idea we needed to run out. Mind you…this is a country where most people are NOT in a hurry and it can take 30 minutes just to get cash at the bank (unless of course, it’s a payday, then it can take over an hour!).

But again, the DR gods were smiling on us. We got the whole transaction done and were back with about 5 minutes to spare! We also needed to scan the receipt…and we don’t have a scanner. I had been helping Al & Glenda with their computer a few days before & thought I remembered seeing one in their office, so fortunately we didn’t have to run back into town for that. Whew – email with a copy of the deposit was off to Maria by 1:30 on Wednesday. Next step…wait (and wait and wait) for confirmation of the delivery date.

We really have been trying to be patient, but by mid afternoon on Thursday when we had not heard a peep from Maria (not even confirming she got the email re. the deposit that was made), I called. She assured me that the funds were in the process of being sent to the Customs office and she would be able to tell us on Friday when the container would be delivered…which would most likely be on Monday. I asked her to send an email confirming the day and approximate time once she had the information.

Well, you guessed it…Friday 10:30 a.m….no email. We decide to drive into Puerto Plata (more on that later) and get back around 2:30…still no email! Here’s our dilemma – we are waiting to find out when the delivery is so we can schedule Michael to come back to put up the rest of our fans. He is only available Monday or Tuesday – then he leaves for a 3 week holiday back to Germany! And we don’t want the movers and him to be tripping all over each other.

Off goes an email to Maria, as well as our US moving coordinator, Crystal. Lo and behold…Maria had called HER to let her know the delivery was scheduled for Monday – but neither of them felt compelled to let us know?! Not sure who dropped the ball, but at least now we know (or think) our container will be here sometime today – YIPPEE!! What time? Who knows – or as they say here – manana! Maria said the truck would leave Santo Domingo at either 4 or 6 (a.m.? p.m.?) and should be here around 11…we’ll see! Keep your fingers crossed that everything safely makes the trip across the island and arrives in one piece!

So let’s see…what else happened since the last update? We met Peter the Plumber. He’s from Switzerland – been here 21 years after living in Minnesota for 15 years prior to that. He is quite the character! (Have you noticed there are a lot of those around here? We have!) He installed our tankless water heater which runs on propane (vs. the 40 gallon electric tank that came with the house). He also fixed the faucet in the kitchen & moved the hookups for the washing machine so that we could gain about 4 inches of space between it and the wall. He and his helper were here for 2 hours – and the cost, including parts - $33!!

We had a nice dinner with our neighbors, Al & Glenda, on Wed. night. They have asked Steve if he can give Al grilling lessons. We haven’t figured out why Al needs grilling lessons, but Steve is happy to give him pointers – and we do enjoy visiting with them!

We walked home from dinner a little before 11 and as we reached our house, the security guard who sits at our end of the development asked if he could ask us a question. Steve went on up to the door to go in and let the dogs out while I talked to the guard. When he opened the door, Dusty saw me & ran out…then he saw the guard and totally FREAKED out and tore off down the street barking and carrying on. Of course it was dark and I was scared to death that he’d keep running and get lost! But fortunately, he made a beeline to our neighbor, Linda’s, house. She is the neighbor who came and let them out while we were in Santo Domingo on Monday. She is also Archie’s “mom” (he’s a white West Highland terrier). Dusty has been over there a couple of times to play with Archie and he has decided that Linda is his new girlfriend (she calls him up on her lap & makes a big fuss over him – which he just eats up!). So apparently he felt like their house was a safe haven. I ran after him & and fortunately he ran back to me so I was able to pick him up and carry him back to the house. Boy, were we relieved!! And luckily Linda and her husband, Tony, were out that evening and weren’t awoken by all of the racket we (and Archie) had made!

As I mentioned, we made another trek into Puerto Plata on Friday. Since there were a few things we had not been able to find there or in Santo Domingo, we had ordered them online – and our packages were in. Even though we had ordered a few things from about 4 places, for some reason, every item was shipped separately. I think the shipping place was happy that we got our 11 boxes (most of them small!) and Pam & Dennis’ 3 out of there! It was like Christmas!

We also bought ceiling fans for the office and spare bedroom, a grande (100#) propane tank for the hot water heater, and found some great patio lounge chairs for when we finally get truly settled in and can relax by the pool! We decided to get the propane tank filled ourselves this time – vs. having one of the propane “delivery” guys come out to the house.








On Friday night just before we went to bed, the dogs were staring intently at something in the pool. I went out to see what it was…and discovered a frog that had apparently swum across the pool and was clinging to the edge! So I called the pups in for the night, thinking the frog would get out after they came in. Well it seems that he hung on (or swam?) all night, but was unable to get out for some reason, so the next morning, Steve did a frog rescue and set him free. He said it didn’t take long for that frog to hightail it away from the pool when he set it and the pool net down on the ground!

On Saturday, Steve experienced his first DR haircut. We had asked a couple of the neighbor guys where they went and following their lead, we stopped at Jose’s barber shop in town. Jose doesn’t speak too much English, but between he and Steve, they were able to agree that Steve wanted a trim. Jose quickly went to work with the clippers. Let’s just say that Steve does like his hair short…but perhaps not as short as Jose cut it! The look on Steve’s face as the hair was falling was classic! But you’ll have to admit, it doesn’t look bad – and I’m sure it will be nice and cool. Plus, it’s only hair and it will grow back, right? Note: I’m not going to visit Jose for my haircuts! : )

Since we were out running around, we also stopped by a vivera (plant nursery) to look at the various types of flowers and plants we can put in our yard. It was like walking through the Botanical Gardens – lush, green, beautiful! Glenda tells us that you can pretty much pop anything in the ground here and it will grow...we’ll see! Here are just a few of the plants & flowers we saw. Oh, and check out the tres gatos (three cats) that were lounging out on a table in front!















Finally, remember…life is a beach – just don’t go on the weekends here! If you drive through Sosua on a Saturday or Sunday, there is literally bus after bus after bus parked along the road. What we’ve discovered is that these buses bring Dominicans in from inland towns like Santiago to spend the day at the beach! This is what it looks like (and this is just two of 4 pictures I took to get all of the buses last Saturday). Notice in the first picture...follow the road as far as you can see - yep, that's the last bus in the line!












I can’t imagine what it is like down by the water – but it’s got to be wall to wall bodies…not my idea of a nice day at the beach, for sure! Maybe one of these days we’ll venture down and take some pictures to send. In the meantime, we’ll stay home on the weekends and enjoy the pool with the pups!

That’s about it for this samana (week). Stay tuned for the next update – which will (hopefully?) include the saga of our container arrival!! Have a great week – and be well!