Allen's Projects

 Allen has a lot of projects at our home in Lakebay and I knew it would not take long for him to find projects needing his attention during our year in Honduras. In addition to his regular maintenance job on the ranch, Allen has been fixing a lot of things in our volunteer house San Vicente. One of the first things he did was replace our showerhead which was spraying water everywhere but down. First he tried to clean it, but when that didn’t work, he replaced it. He bought two additional shower heads and two other lucky volunteer rooms got theirs replaced also. It is likely that he will purchase five more before the year is up so that all eight of the rooms used for the long-term volunteers will be replaced.

 

New Shower Faucet

He has also fixed many doors that were sticking or not hanging straight. He fixed one of the outside doors so well that it now swings shut with the wind which is great for security but not desirable when we actually want to leave it open temporarily like when we are getting breakfast from the ranch kitchen.  

He also enjoys making the house more comfortable and inviting. He bought five new chair hammocks (there were already a couple) and hung them in various locations adding color as well as comfort to the house. He added some decorative lights to our rooftop piazza and moved some large benches and tables up there so there would be a good venue for the volunteer dinners which are being held monthly.

 

New Hammocks

Enjoying the Rooftop Venue

All of the bedrooms in San Vicente are open to a courtyard so mosquito nets with a magnetic closure were previously installed on the doors to reduce the quantity of bugs in the rooms. Unfortunately, the mosquito nets are now in tatters. Allen ordered three new ones to be delivered to our house in Lakebay so that we could pick them up when we visited home in December. He installed one on our door before Christmas and is now in a quandry about which room gets the other two. In fact he recently ordered five more so that he doesn’t have to play favorites with the volunteers and can redo all eight rooms. The new nets will be brought by family that are going to be visiting soon.

 

Old Door Net

New Door Net

Some volunteers also have netting around their beds. Allen found a couple of large nets in one of the storage cabinets in the common area. The nets appear to be left over from previous volunteers so he purchased some PVC pipe and supplies to make a frame from which our new net is held above the bed. We use the frame to hold the net up during the day and drop it down over our bed an night. This, in combination with a UV bug light, I think helps us keep from getting a lot of bug bites at night.

 

Net Wrapped on PVC Frame Hung from the Ceiling

 In addition to the 8 rooms used by the long term volunteers, there are an additional two rooms used temporarily when the volunteers first arrive. One of these two temporary rooms was recently treated to a new coat of paint by Christine, our volunteer coordinator, and Allen. They put on several coats to finish the job before new volunteers needed to use the room last week.

 The floor tile in our house has also seen a lot of wear and tear with many chips and cracks. Since Allen has been repairing or even replacing tiles elsewhere on the ranch, he bought the materials and supplies and filled the holes in our floor. He also sanded and is ready to put a tint on it to make the sealed areas blend more with the red tiles. He also caulked to fill cracks in the walls and hope that will also keep the bugs from coming in. 

Cracks in Tiles Filled in.

San Vicente has a central courtyard which seems to be continuously over-grown. Allen cleared out the rain gutters to help drainage during the rainy season and has been trying to grow some vegetables. He harvested a few squash, but has plans to put in a raised bed with better dirt from the farm on the ranch and try again with better conditions. I have no doubt that he will have a superb garden before our term is up.

Our Courtyard - Recently Trimmed!

 Although I often give Allen a hard time about his many projects because they seem excessive and unnecessary at the time, I sure enjoy them afterwards as do the other people that benefit!