Blood, sweat, and tears..

You haven't seen a blog because we've put in some long days basically working on the walls.

This week alone we've experienced blood, sweat, tears, laughter, singing, and maybe some yelling in the new house.

Thanks for your prayers because without them we know that the stress levels of building a house would be even greater!


Up, get ready, eat breakfast, out the door, go over to the house.

On Monday we started to chip away mortar. In many places it is above the level of the rocks and we want it lower.

A temporary ramp was made to help get in the front door.

Two man joined us: 2 hammers, 2 chisels, a small crowbar, at least one hard rock to pound with, maybe a piece of rebar.

Late in the day Cory and Anna worked on putting up the first 'lats' on the roof.

Cory decided that the job would be easier with a bigger drill that ais still in Fauche. Tomorrow he and Anna will head down the mountain to Port-au-Prince for some shopping.

On Saturday Anna will take her SAT exam, after which they will head north.

They plan to return on Tuesday.

On Tuesday we attempted to figure out how to plaster between the rocks.

We hoped to show a local worker to take over once we were happy with our own work.

Lets just leave it at....we will be hiring someone to complete the job.

Using a heavy ziplock bag one can pipe [like frosting] thin morter into deep holes, as well as stick thin rocks on gaps in the wall.

So the rest of the week...continued with chipping away excess mortar to perpare for the plastering, mostly by our two helpers.

I've continued to pipe and add smaller rocks.

Today I noticed this straight line in Anna's room (last photo) and took care of it with some chipping, piping, and addition of rocks.

Sorry I forgot to take an after picture-so you'll have to check again.

Plan to fill in  more holes tomorrow and then take the weekend off of house stuff to rest up and clean.

Due to the long drive from Fauche I doubt that Cory and Anna will get back in time to do any work on the house on Tuesday.

But starting Wednesday, the work will start again in earnest on the walls and roof.

One of the masons that worked on the walls lives down in the village near the other day-workers, so we  hope he can do well plastering next week.