Lots of Rain, We Have an Architect, and I Have a Job!

This week has seen a LOT of rain, with small breaks of sunshine. Surprisingly, the King Tide has not been a factor so far this month, it was projected to start on the 16th. I'd prefer it stay away as we are forecast up to 10" of rain with the tropical depression currently southeast of Belize. 

Tuesday I completed the grocery shop circuit, only missing a few items from my list. I'm getting better at the constant seek-and-find that is grocery shopping on an island. 

We also committed to an architect, Alex Mark Vanzie with Vea Resources. The company is newer, so we are a bit of guinea pigs, however Alex has been an architect for over 10 years, with a Master's in Sustainable Architecture. In Belize, you can use an architect from anywhere in the world - but you will have to have a Belizean Engineer sign off (which I am certain will involve an official stamp, they do love their stamp pads!) before you can apply for a building permit. Alex's firm can do this all in-house. That's a BIG step forward for us! I sent a 50% deposit over and my floor plan ideas I've been doodling up for a few years now.

Wednesday I was still in pajamas around 9:30, picking up around the house, when we had a knock at the door. Not expecting anyone, Nathan answered it - it was Irving, sent by Contractor #3, Alex - Irving is his A/C guy. Okay, well at least Alex is putting effort into his quote for the villa repairs! I walked Irving around and he took measurements, came up with a game plan, and will send over pricing for his portion of the work. Still nothing from Alex on the other items (rebuilding our front porch roof, resealing the roof, and exterior paint).

Thursday I was back in town to complete my grocery shopping and find Nathan a mouse pad. I considered adding one to an inbound Amazon order, but in the event it didn't make it in time to consolidate in, we'd be paying $30 to ship a mouse pad. I tried RVS, Caye Supplies, my favorite print shop on Front Street (no idea what it's called, sorry! Next to the ice cream parlor), and they suggested G-S.com, which is a physical store located between two of my favorite places to eat: Big Taste, and Charmaine's Cafe. $3.95BZ for a mouse pad? I doubt I would find anything cheaper on Amazon!

Back in Arizona, my Godmother/Aunt is not doing well; one thing is leading to another, infections, surgeries...not that I could do anything if I were there, other than support my Uncle. It's still tough. We knew with family getting older, things would come up; we were not expecting major health issues in our first 90 days.

Today, Alex (our architect) came over from Belmopan on the mainland - we picked him up and took him out to our lot. When we got up, it was pouring rain, and we were worried about the road conditions and taking this poor guy out in the rain. We received a small break for the majority of the time we were with him; it did start to drizzle toward the end of our time at Secret Beach. He had some great suggestions on our floor plan, and meeting in person allowed us to really talk through the hows and whys.

I also signed a contract for freelance writing! I'm calling this, "a job", as the pay per article is more than I have been making on my occasional assignments and marketing, and they are interested in me doing larger projects on top of the 1,000-word articles. I've sent them two articles for review, and they want them both, no revisions. Once they are published, I'll be sure to link them here! It by no means replaces my Arizona income, but as we see the numbers tally up out here, I'm excited to start bringing in a little more money.

It seems like the storm brewing is going to border on a tropical depression (38 mph winds and under) and tropical storm (39-73 mph winds), here is the latest advisory:

Ambergris Caye, our island, is in the northern portion of that "cone of uncertainty". It looks like we will have a very wet night and Saturday - hoping it moves quickly west and away! Based on this forecast, I'm not sure if we'll do anything this weekend...hopefully it clears up Sunday so we can have a proper "beach day"!