Well, we took a well deserved break….. At the moment we are in Curacao, a nice little island in the caribbean. We have been here before and are staying now at Jan Thiel in Morena resort. Supposedly a eco and child friendly place but with both concepts they have some learning to do. Lots of birds around the house though and nice and private. Pool close by and the beach also just a stroll away.

So that is what we do, relax, sit a the pool, go to the beach and eat spare ribs……

Yesterday we were very active and went with the kids and my mum, who is with us here on the island, to Boca Tabla. The northern side of the island where the waves beat the coast in a nice display. The kids were not too much impressed but did enjoy driving the car…..

We had lunch at the (in)famous Jaanchi’s. You can still here the story of Mr Jaanchi about the chicken with little flight hours and the leguano stew for vitamin L of Love. But what was different was that the food arrived within 10 minutes! Food was nice and the kids got an icecream as a treat from Mr Jaanchi. After that we drove on the south side of the island. The rain lulled the kids to sleep and we decided to go to Santa Martha, Coral Cliff. But what a sad experience. It is still a magical spot but the hotel has gone bankrupt and it has been looted so the whole place is rather desolate. The beach is still there but it is disappearing. We had a good look around and collected some samples of cora (Niene did mostly)

Today we were supposed to have a dolphin encounter at 11. Well planned just before Caspian’s afternoon nap. But unfortunately after a lot of waiting we were told the dolphins would not be ready before 12.15. It was around 1 pm we were finally going in the water. It was really a lot of fun. Allowed to pet them give them a kiss and hug them. Both kids really liked it and it was worth the wait.

The building has really begun. The men of Renster Venster have delivered all the new dubble glaze windows for the front, one for the back and two on the top floor. They work really quick and now (the 30th) almost all the work is done on the windows.

Andrew has demolished the old chimney so the stove can go under it and together with Pieter they also took out the old build in cubboard in the future guest room.

Today Folkert, Michiel, Pieter and Andrew are going to put the new electrical wiring in. The neighbours will be a bit happier with that because ofcourse it is not really quiet at a time between Christmas and New Year

We are still struggling with the design for the kitchen. We want it to be a central part of the house as it is always the place where people seem to gather. But as it is an old house we would also want it to fit the old place with the high ceilings etc.

 A few more photos will be posted as we are already a bit further again….but somehow our hosting company does not like the new wordpress photo upload tool……..

Last weekend was not really a big success. We had a gastro virus running through the family and basically everywhere where Capsian went…… But we managed to get a lot of the old wall paper off and and very old windshield (glass) outside. I think it is time we start building.

We wanted to take out the fireplace and chimney where the new stove will be but it seems that this is the most solid wall of the whole building  

The big crack in the wall has been filled

So after taking off all the black marble and having it stored in the cellar we decided that the contractor can cut of a piece of the chimney so the new stove can be placed under it.

The walls in the new bathroom seem to be the original walls (inner dividing walls) but these are actually made out of a very light frame of small pieces of wood and straw and plaster. So not really good material to put up the bathroom equipment. Luckily the contractor knows these type of old houses and he has a solution for it.