Palapa- our first "house", built 1995. While we slept in tents, we used it as "kitchen" and for storage. We had 5 big garbage cans that we used for safe keeping our items, including a rubber boat. We buried them 1 foot below the sand floor before we returned to the US. They were never detected by would-be thieves, despite we left the door to the palpa open. In 2005 this palapa became a victim of high waves from hurricane Wilma (which hit Cozumel).
Our second "house" build in 1995. This palapa was used as "bedroom". It disappeared without a trace during hurricane Dean in 2007.
Our "second" palapa- picture taken after Hurrican Wilma in 2005. This palapa disappeared with out a trace during Hurricane Dean in August 2007. Our "first" palapa was destroyed during Wilma.
1999- construction has begun. At this time, materials had to be brought in from Merida! We made an attempt to leave all vegetation intact (except for the building site itself)
unfinished bedroom upstairs
view from "bedroom" to sea and palapa 2
view of sea from roof
view into jungle backyard
inside of unfinished kitchen- dining area downstairs
view of back of house
future staircase for spiral stair
sea view from second bedroom upstairs
beachview from unfinished roof
jungle view from unfinished roof. Flat roof for capturing the rain water.
cistern for captured rain water finished
Onofre, carpenter in Chacchoben with one of the Mahahgony doors he made for the house. He is an excellent carpenter, but also a very good arisan making wood sculptures, bowls and other household items. Today he president of the carpenter cooperative "Tsalam". The machinery in the workshop of the cooperaive is outstandig, allowing precision work with hard wood. He speaks fairly good English because he lived in his youth in the US.
other examples of half-finished doors for the house. Note the interior doors with black Ziricote wood inserts. A very hard wood and difficult to work.
Main entry door. All doors and windows were made with Mahagony (Kaoba). Besides of being beautiful, its the perfect wood for coastal environments, because it does not "work" due to moisture fluctuations.
House with first (wooden) balcony; finished in 2000 replaced with new balcony in 2006
grill on beach is build
Caretaker Casita build in 2004
new balcony 2006
Guano palm fronds for Palapa over balcony
tiling and railing for balcony
building new tiled porch on top of cistern and below front balcony
new front porch nearly finished
new balcony finished
Ranulfo's work crew
extending kitchen table (for drop in LP gas fridge)
remaking build-in bench
after hurricane Dean 2007: building a beach palapa for shade
Ranulfo (center) with some of his workers- just finished tiling of roof terrace (2009)
Guano palm leafs for repair of balcony roof
building new freswater garden pond to revive tree frog populations after Dean
We had to replace a leaking pipe in the upstairs bath room and several wall tiles had to be removed for this repair. We did not have sufficient replacement tiles- so Larissa designed a shell inlet to cover the wall area.
Making our own tables. First a round concrete slab is poured and then Larissa decorates it with a tile mosaic.
Pattern of self-made table on balcony. So far we finished 3 tables. One for the ground-level terrace, one for the balcony and one for the roof terrace. A fourth table for the seating area behind the house is in progress.
self- made table with ceramic tile mosaic
building a beachtable from stone plates and old Seagrape roots
Destructive waves during strong storm have been a problem for establishing new palms close to the waterline after all palms in this area were washed out during hurricane Dean in 2007. We have therefore started to build a "sea wall" using trunks from drift wood as a protective measure.
Jan 2011- new garage at caretaker casita finished
Our "seawall" has been holding up well during a number of storms. Protected palms grow much more vigerously when they are not innundated occasionally by sea water.
In Feb 2011 the beachroad was moved to behind our properties (about 300 feet to the west). However, it took until Dec to close the old road to all traffic. We immediatly started to make deep holes (shown here) and planted palm trees and later built lateral fences.
Digging holes in the closed old road for palm trees: The road material is Sascab (limestone rubble), which is almost as hard as cement and no plants can grow on it. It took about 2 hours to dig one hole through the about 70 cm of sascab. The holes were then filled with Sargasso weeds (shown here) and sand to provide a plant growing substrate.
Guano palm leaves for roof repair can be purchased in Limones, in about 60 km distance from the coast.
Locals use Guano palm leaves traditionally as roofing material (also called palapa roof).
We decided to make a seating area behind the house to use on windy days and hired ranulfo to make us a cement- poured table, which we would later decorate with a mosaic. The molding (shown here) for such a table is quite simple.
The table plate is being poured.
After attaching legs (poured using plastic tubes), the hardened, very heavy table has to be turned.
Thr hole in the middle is for a shade-spending tree and the surface will be a mosaic meade with ceramic tile cuttings.
