Shower Project - Part 2

The 2 tile installers were experienced and were doing a good job at laying the tiles.

Having tiles on the walls and floor will help in keeping the shower cleaner.

We rely on Loutese at finding good laborers when we don't have teams here at Coram Deo.

The tile worker enjoys his jobs and the compliments we gave him in doing a good job :)

The tile installation was done over 2 days.

Here is the finished product! the floor tiles have a rough texture so that people won't slip when there is water on the floor.

This stool is the water bucket holder so that people don't have to bend down as much to scoop out water when bathing.

Calens did a good job at supervising :) Here he is helping to sweep up.

Erol is a good painter and he got to work at priming the walls of the shower change room.

2 coats of white paint and the walls were ready for the finishing coat.

Pastor Pierre attended an earthquake building course and learned a technique in making concrete benches.

Manu is inspecting the shower.

The finish coat of paint was a "peche" color that blended in well with the tile colors.

When Erol was finished at painting the inside of the shower room he started on the outside walls.

The outside color is "terre cuite".

Erol repainted the entire dorm walls. The shower room fits in well with the dormitory. Here is the finished product :)

Pastor Pierre got to work at cutting the rebar for the cement bench frame.

The cement pour will form the bench.

Here is the bench seat taking form.

Cement blocks were used as the legs of the bench. when Pastor Pierre knocked some holes in the wall I didn't understand but he said that he would anchor the bench to the wall.

Once the anchors were created the holes were filled in.

Here is what the bench looks from a distance.

The cement boss and Pastor Pierre got to work at parging the finish coat on the floor.

The front corner of the yard is shaping up with the final ground parge.

After the front corner was done the guys went to the other side of the yard to build some more cement benches.

The trees provide shade for people sitting in this back section of the yard.

Time made a visit to Haiti and helped out with taking down the old shower and pitched in to carry the bench seats.

As you can see the benches are heavy!

3 benches were created in the back corner of the yard near the outside kitchen.

The national flower of Haiti is the hibiscus. We have one large hibiscus bush and are planting more plants to form a hibiscus hedge. We'll see in a couple of years how the hedge takes form :)

Shower Project - Part 1

Things have been very busy around here. Lots of exciting things happening. Now that I have some more time I want to start with the shower project so that my dad and Rick Boer can see how things have progressed since they were here in Haiti at the beginning of this building project.

Pastor Pierre and the cement boss finished putting up the blocking and then the tin roof quickly.

Here are the cement boss and Pastor Pierre. Next stage is the parging of the interior and exterior.

The rough parge is done first. Ysmaille and his workers built a steel door and the cement boss and Pastor Pierre quickly installed it.

Once the door was on and the rough parging done, the fine parge was started.

The fine parge provides a smooth coat which can be painted on.

It took 2 days to do the fine parge work on the shower walls.

The fine parge is almost done!

Pastr Pierre is preparing the mortar for the last part of the fine parge.

Once the fine parge was completed the ground was leveled and prepared for cementing.

The dirt was moved to the flower box. We have a better idea for it now.

Gravel was laid in preparation for adding the rebar.

The cement boss got busy measuring and cutting the rebar to size.

The large boulder remains in place. It makes a natural stool :)

This portion of the yard is muddy during the rainy season and things will be a whole lot cleaner with this section cemented.

Everybody helped in mixing the mortar for the cement boss and Pastor Pierre.

The guys worked well together.

... and the cement pour for the ground went quickly.

The cement boss was under a time constraint. They had 2 days to get the work done before the tile installers would arrive.

With extra help they were able to meet their goal :)

Yvens eagerly helps out with work projects here at Coram Deo and also at the mission school that he attends... Adoration Christian School.

Here the guys are pausing for a break while the cement boss finishes leveling off a section of poured cement.

Stage 2 of the project will be done hopefully at the end of January when my cousin Jeff comes to Haiti to build a school shelter along the front wall. The portion of ground you see here will be cemented. Grass doesn't grow because of the shade from the trees. We are maximizing the space of our yard.

Another project will be removing the drain channel across the yard. We want to naturally slope the yard to create a natural drainage rather than forcing a drain like we currently do.

The wall that the Canadian military replaced had a crack running down it. Pastor Pierre and the cement boss patched the crack and reinforced the top of the wall by placing a rebar "spine" along the top for extra strength.

They did a good job at finishing cementing the ground just in time for the arrival of the tile installers.

This is the last section of the "cement spine".

We got a good deal on tile at Mossaiques Gardere. The floor tile is a rougher texture so people won't slip while in the shower.

The guys built a cement box to hold the buckets of water used for bathing. We bought a lighter color tile that is smaller for the side walls of the shower.

Loutese and his guys sure make tiling look easy. First the walls were tiled