Four months after our “original general contractor” said our house would be finished, our new General Contractor / Builder / Home Designer is repairing and finishing our house. The “ugly” is finally getting “good”.

No matter what “bad or ugly” happens during your building in Belize, there is always some “Good” bringing you “back to center”.

We appear to be in the final home stretch with our new home build here in Belize, Central America. If you have been following my blog, you already know about the multiple things that were ordered incorrectly, installed incorrectly, or just not functioning when we moved into our home.

Nelson Montalvo and his crew are one of the very best builders here in Belize. Nelson exceeds because he is also an Architect. Nelson also has a high-quality crew that has worked for him for many years and all take pride in their workmanship. I have learned over the past few months that I made the mistake of many others, by not hiring from the beginning, a Belizean Builder with years of actual experience building homes here in Belize. Not only do they have the experience, but also all the right contacts to get supplies and services. Also, choosing a Belizean Builder / Contractor / Home Designer can save you tons of money, but more on that in “Chapter 1” of my upcoming new book.

Putting everything totally into the hands of our actual Contractor / Builder Nelson Montalvo, a local Belizean builder here in Maya Beach, and eliminating our original “general contractor” has been a blessing. 

The guys “flipping” the large doors originally installed backward, around to open correctly outward. Even though it cost us an extra $2000 to have Benny’s guys do this, it was worth it to get it right, finally.

Every week we correct and replace the faulty items, and in some cases upgrade to new which should have been installed originally. When we last talked about this, the large four-panel folding doors between the great room and outside deck, were turned around so they finally opened outward like the architect had in the approved plans. That being said, this procedure tore up all around the outside of the door and needed to be patched and re-finished.

Nelson Montalvo’s guys patching and finishing around the now correctly installed four-panel folding door.

We had also located a glass company here in Belize (instead of Guatemala), who actually could order the correct six-panel Cat-5 folding window system for between kitchen sink and outdoor cook center, that folded outward. As you might remember, our original GC ordered the incorrect window, as only three panels, and not hurricane proof glass from Guatemala. After numerous attempts to contact this supplier without success, and of course, paying a large number of funds, we had to order and pay a second time out of pocket, here locally, for the correct windows. The catch is it is taking three months to get them and have installed, and the “bad” is having to pay for the same expensive window, twice!

The incorrect three-panel kitchen window that can’t be opened because it opens inward and would take out hanging lights and sink faucet!

Another issue is the “instant hot water system” which was not correctly ordered originally and is not large enough for our house needs. We have been working with Nelsons plumber Freddie making adjustments to try to get a continuous flow of hot water. It seems to be getting better, but if we can’t get to work consistently, we will have to buy a larger insta-hot gas system, and maybe a “name brand’ this time?

“Instant hot water”? really?

On a good note, our decision to build a concrete single car garage under the house is working out wonderfully. Nelson Montalvo’s crew that he was working on it are done and we are only waiting for the “hurricane class” heavy duty metal garage door unit and it will be complete.

Large garage under house almost complete.

Wife Marsha is very happy to park “her new truck” inside. If you are planning on building in Belize near the sea, you might plan for this, especially if you will have new wheels. Parking outside you will find a coating of salt on everything metal, every morning unless covered or contained.

The new “Palapa Entry” from the beach still has that “I just woke up hairstyle” 😉 Will settle down soon, we hope. If not, will be “updated”

Finally, our 20-foot shipping container, which was supposed to arrive a couple months ago, is now slated to arrive next Wednesday. It was diverted to Jamaica after passing through the Panama Canal, instead of directly to Belize City, but don’t ask me why. Maybe they will stick some good dark Jamaica rum in it for us?

Once the crate arrives, and we unpack it, we should be pretty close to finished with the building and moving into our new home here in Maya Beach, Belize. At that point, I will be working on some “edits” to all my blog posts about building and moving to Belize and transforming it into my third book about Belize.

“Building your new home in Belize, Central America, the Good, Bad and yes Ugly that can and will happen”.

Watch for its release later this year as an “e-Book” and hard copy on Amazon.com.

Till next time,

Cheers,

The Pirate….Gary