Work goes on in the kitchen area. Alex and Jose (hidden) are doing some touch-up paint work.

17-31 July. While Christa and I were sailing the high seas, work continued on the house. One of the main projects was to begin putting down baseboard trim. Using the garage as a staging area, the trim is layed out and sray painted with gloss white oil paint. Other things going on are finish work on the rock designs outside, Jet Welding continues work on the barrell vaults, color STO begins to be apllied, and electrics are to begin getting connected. More work on the cabinets are to take place as well. Water heater and bath plumbing get installed within the next week or so.

A nearly completed shower stall by Jack, our tile man. He did a fantastic job and the pictures do not do justice here.

With the walls having round corners, innovative cuts to the trim have to be made to follow the curve around.

Various materials are used to hold the baseboards to the walls because they are glued in place. The walls being concrete of course have to use glue.

Alex preps the rocks for STO application. Small details like this are making the house shine.

Jason and crew from Bexar Electric get busy hooking up the electrics. Hey guys, move a bit faster and you can have some A/C. They came in like gangbusters, but it is a latge project and will take several days.

Ralph installs trim to the walls.

17-31 July. Where the color STO meets the rock. The process of applying the color STO layer to the exterior is a time critical effort. To keep the pattern consistant, once you begin to apply the STO, the process can't be stopped lest a breakline in the pattern show up. For this reason, Conrad and team start by doing one whole wall at a time. A couple of these walls are fairly large so they have to get going, especially in this heat where the STO dries quickly. Tying the STO into the rock required some cleverness, but the result was very neat.

17-23 July. This week is the 25th anniversary for Christa and I. SO, we took off for a temporary break from the house build and took a cruise to the Western Carribean, Cozumel and Calica to be exact. Both are in Mexico and reportedly two of the finest ports for short get aways. We left Mobile Al, on the MS Holiday pictured here. An older vessel, but remarkably clean, well taken care of, and - well, cozy for lack of a better term. Kind of a spur of the moment kind of thing and more than we really wanted to spend considering the house build. But - a 25th anniversary usually only comes around once, so we went for it. We left our home build to my Mom to watch over and the capable hands of our builder, Ralph. We will catch up on the house when we have returned.

One of the several lounge ares onboard. We haven't even left port yet and people are testing the areas they want to try first.

Once safely on board, we headed above decks to the lounge areas and quickly began the process of relaxing. Being our 25th anniversary we were determined to enjoy this cruise, no matter how tough the sailing became. Here, Christa has to endure holding this drink left to us. Oddly enough, she felt the glass became easier to hold the longer she held it.

A nice tile map of Cozumel Island.

Shot along the wharf shops in Cozumel, colorful and inviting, visitors wander in and out of shops and eateries.

There are many tours and activities in Cozumel, most include the beach or ocean. Swimming, snorkeling, SCUBA, jeep explorations of beaches and everything in between. We opted for a ride in a submarine, the Atlantis. We were able to dive to 108 ft along the reef system right along a shelf that drops off to about 2800 feet. The ride did not feel close, rough, or scary. The ships crew kept everyone lose with cheerful banter and facts of the reef. Making our approach, you can see the sub and the tender that takes care of the subs needs. The sub is electric and has enough juice to run for 24 hours. Rated by the manufacturer to dive as deep as 800 feet, the sub is allowed to carry civilian passengers to 150 feet, but normally just 100 feet. I think this for 2 reasons. First is that the reef around the island is only about 100 ft deep give or take a few. Second if you meander out past the shelf, you encounter that 2800 ft drop. I do not think they wish to take passengers out over the shelf as this would be quite the thrilling (albeit short) ride before you could come to a full stop. Of course you never feel the bump of hitting bottom. At least over the inside shelf, the sub would be in easy range for a rescue - should something happen - of course. Seriously though, we never felt any anxiety over course of the dive.

Taken in the sub towards the bow, this picture depicts everyone looking out the glass portals to view the reef. All the way forward is the comm officer and the skipper. The skipper really has the view, I would've paid a couple more bucks if I had his seat.

The the ships guide called out the names of the beauties, but I have forgotten them. They are about 2 feet in length, and plentiful.

Leaving the sub, Atlantis, I was afforded a good shot of the craft. Seems small for the 4.5 million cost for each. The owner of the company owns 15 of these babies. Worth the money at roughly $100US for 45 minutes of dive time.

Dining in Cozumel was very pleasant despite heat and the obvious wreckage still apparent from Hurricane Wilma. Service and food were great at Panchos Restaurant in the main shopping area next to the piers.

At night the stewards turned down our beds, put out mints, and placed the cute towel animals out. We had an ocean view stateroom, very comfortable.

This shot is of the Carnival pier. I am out of sequence here, this should be a couple shots down.

When hurricane Wilma came through doing so much damage to the gulf coast regions, many other countries were affected as bad or worse than the US. Cozumel fit into that category suffering great damage to public buildings, infrastructure, and private homes and property. One of the proprties to suffer real heavy damage was a Carnival Line pier at Cozumel. The whole pier, apparently with shops and eateries, was wiped away. The result is that we had to anchor out and use water taxis to get back and forth to the beach. Not that bad really, and we thought of it as part of the adventure. Here the water taxi (a good sized craft in itself, is alongside the Holiday. We are already seated and ready to get to shore.

Our tour guide from Calica to Tulum, Ruben was well informed and a real gem on the tour. The one thing that he emphasized was that the Mayan's have not dissappeared, just there knowledge. Most all books from the time were destroyed by european explorers, so the extent of their learning can only be assumed from the remaining buildings and stone carvings. Their written language is estimated to date back 3000 years B.C.

Some of the shops in the Tulum visitor/shopping area. A lot of neat little trinkets on sale that were created by the local Mayan peoples.

A relief model of the ruins Tulum. Of note is the port location of this city. The ruins are not as grand as are those at other locations, but the importance of this city cannot be under-emphasized. A major trading point for the Mayans with the rest of their known world.

The main buildings of the ruins, partly religious and partly adminstrative. The larger building was used for the king when he visited the area. Of importance is that in this walled city, the wealthy and important persons lived inside the wall, while the regular folks lived outside. Even the type of house was (I.E. the architecture) was based on your importance. Many of the houses inside of the wall also served as the burial sites.

I just loved the look of this particular building, probably used as a place for worship, but could've just as likely been an administrative place as well knowing the importance of this port city to the Mayan civilization which controlled most of the Yuccatan penninsula.

The other visitors took pleasure and helping the locals will sustenance. Seems like he got a lot of help, as he is a big fella.

One of the full time residents of the ruins, this guy keeps a pretty close eye on all who come to visit.

The day was very hot and I wished I had thought to bring a bathing suit, because I would've been in that water had I known the proximity of the water to the ruins. What a beautiful beach and location for a swim. Fantastic backdrop.

The day was very hot and I wished I had thought to bring a bathing suit, because I would've been in that water had I known the proximity of the water to the ruins. What a beautiful beach and location for a swim. Fantastic backdrop.

The ruins of Tulum are a terrific contrast to the surrounding waters of the Western Carribbean.

Just to show that I do show up in some of these pictures, Christa took this shot. I can't say that it helps the ruins out any, but I totally enjoyed the day.

This is the tram that you can ride (for a buck) from the visitor center to the ruins proper. We opted to walk (which turned out to be faster as they would wait for the tram tom fill.

One of the most enjoyable features of the cruise was the pampering you receive from the stewards. Nightly preparing of the beds, mints on the pillows, and a new towel animal every night of the cruise. Here, Christa looks on the hanging monkey that greeted us when we returned to our stateroom after a day of activities.

The MACK (mast/stack) of the MS Holiday, a ship of the Carnival Cruise line. An older ship, but fun and enjoyable, packed with activities for all ages.

17-23 July. End of a week and end of the cruise as well. Pulling back into port at Mobile, AL, everyone is relaxed and maybe not ready to return to the real world. Next week, we're back to the house rejoining everyone working to getting it finished. But, we are relaxed and ready to dive back in for the finish.

9-14 Jul. CABINETS!!! Do we need to say more. Yep - Christa is liking the style of these babies. This one is in the guest bath, but the same style is going into the master and half baths. They look a bit plain against white walls, but that should change next week. In addition to the cabinets, this week will saw progress in getting STO applied to the exterior. Conrad, Jose, and Alex worked this end. Inside, Ralph and Ruben continue to skim and smooth my Mom's suite. Sorry about being skimpy with the pics, it's been a busy week for all. Ralph and I formed up and poured a slab by the RV pad. Ralph did most the screeing, it turned out real nice. No more muddy trips to the utility area.

In the kitchen, Christa surveys the cabinet install. A few hiccups, but nothing to stop the rolling progress.

Christa is ecstatic, the bath cabinets are just what she was hoping for in the finishing of this room. All we need now are lights, sinks, faucets, shower tiling, commode and some color. Yeah, that's not much - right?.

9-14 Jul. The garage side retaining wall forms were set up and concrete applied to finish up the this end of the house (with the exception of the garage driveway). Ralph and Ruben got with the program and Ralph is pictured here filling in the retaining wall with fill dirt to bring the earth level up on this side. Next week, painting begins, rockwork sees some finishing, barrel vaults get flashed to the walls, and interior tiling begins.

3-7 Jul. This week we see some great happenings with the house. The exterior starts receiving attention once again. Cabinets and appliances are to be delivered. Work begins on the stained flooring by Details Stained Flooring, Inc., and work picks up on my Mom's end of the house. Here, Jose and Coras are working on apllying STO sheets to the house and mudding a securing net to hold it all to the wall.

Note the close work of how Conrad and company cut in the STO material to follow the rock line. This will provide a clean look when Caprock Masonry returns to finish motaring the rock wall to the STO wall.

Well, on July 4th we finally received some much needed rain. 2-3 inches in our area over night. As a result we are actually able to see some real water in our pond. A real relief is that the pond seems to be holding the water, meaning that a good bottom is present. Walking the basin, I discovered raccoon prints and the track of a good sized buck. Good deal, this means the wildlife understand there is a new drinking whole in the area. I hope to attract a lot of the natural fauna back to the area.

A shot from the opposite side of the pond looking back at the house. Going to need a lot more rain to fill this baby up.

A shot from below the house towards the road. I like this angle as a lone tree gives a little depth aspect to the picture. Still hard to make out the house due to all the equipment and trailers, but its coming along nicely. Retaining walls will be complete soon on this side to hold back the mountain from spilling into the garage drive.

Although I really loved getting the rain, it did not come without consequence. The heavy deluge cut down the front side of the house along the lead concrete retaining wall exposing water lines and insulating materials. I will have to engineer a fix soon for this problem.

another shot of what the heavy rains did to the roof area. These deep cuts exposed the in-ground sprinkler system towards the back of the house. I'm afraid that I will be dealing with this until I can get some grass planted.

This fuzzy shot is of John at Details Flooring. He is scoring lines into the concrete floor that will give the appearance of a wood deck floor.

This an engraved compass rose at the main entrance to the house. Dave at Details Flooring worked diligently to carve this image into the already stained floor. When sealant is added, the floor will become much darker making the light areas of the compass pop. This is aligned with magnetic north in case you were wondering, a salute to my navy days.