Well I have been seriously neglecting this blog, haven’t I? No excuses.
In October and November we had a screened ‘porch’ added on to the back of the casita. I’m not sure porch is the right word, since it isn’t raised off the ground. Really it’s more of a covered and screened sandbox. Kind of brings the beach right to our doorstep…
The framework is of palm wood, with roof slats of a softer wood. Right now the roof is a plastic sheet that has been painted white on top — both to reduce the UV light, which causes the plastic to break-down, and to reflect the heat. We really should replace that with heavy duty canvas, but when we were looking for canvas we couldn’t find anyplace that sold it around here.
Watching the workmen construct the thing was great entertainment. Near as I can figure, there are three rules they follow:
- If anything needs cutting (including large posts) just use the machete.
- If anything needs attaching (including door hinges!) just use nails.
- Never measure or align anything, straight lines are ugly.
So we have a sturdy wood frame, covered with a plastic roof on wood slats spaced close enough together to support tejas (those red clay roof-tiles), with sides covered by screen and floored with sand. Not the prettiest thing you ever saw, but it works wonderfully, and only cost about $500 U.S.
Here’s a picture of Jorge on the roof attaching the main beams to the frame.
Jorge adds rafters to the framed porch area
When Isabel’s family visited in January, I had the opportunity to really see how well it worked, since I slept one night in my hammock there — no mosquitoes or flies bothered me all night. Good thing for my brother-in-law as he was snoring so much in the other hammock that the back-draft would have sucked in a flotilla of bugs, had there been any.
Here is another view, through the front door of the porch, showing the hammocks. The wooden table at left is where we eat most of our meals. We like to sit out at night, listening to the night-sounds of the village and various critters.
Inside of the porch from the door