Costa Rica...the who's, what's and when's

Traveling companions:
G'ma & G'pa S.
Travis, Nancy, Walker (7) & Mason (4)
Alex, Stacey & Tristan (7) - Friends of the Family have vacayed w/them before
G'ma Jan - mother of Alex, G'ma to Tristan

Why? Why not...Alex, G'ma S. & Nancy did most of the planning, we were along for the ride. As I type this, the rest of the crew is still down there and from what I understand not letting us down. The C. family only planned on the first week.

I wasn't sure how I was going to post the million pictures I took so I've laid it out as such:
Critters
Vegetation
Adventure
Lounging
I figured this way I wouldn't have to keep things chronological...as they say down there it's tranquilo!
You'll have to be patient with me, it will probably take a week to post it all...and a week later more pictures from our companions.

Grandma NOW!

Private swim lessons from G'ma S.

What could be better?

Doing it in Costa Rica!!!

At least some part of each day was spent like this,

sometimes bigger parts than others.

(for whatever reason blogger keeps flipping this....)

Noah lived in his life vest and got rather good at maneuvering around the pool unassisted however always closely watched.

We had a lot of great adventures but we always came back to the pool.

What we did Saturday..

And most of Friday! We left FB at 2:45 PM and traveled for the next 26 hours to Dominical, Costa Rica!!!

What fun we're having!!
I would say in traditional Central America form

Little guy did amazing! We feared the travel day, but it turned out better than we could have imagined. We're ready to conquer the world!

The view from our Casa

Our first wildlife encounter
Travis thought it was a Bat...

But no....

Our chef & Security w/Alex (a friend)

G'pa chatting w/Great G'pa on the computer

More to come!

Nearly complete

Thanks to this little fella...and yes that is construction dirt all over his face!

So close yet so far from being done

Some trim, finishing touches,

then paint...

But it all has to wait-

Until we get back!

More progress

All skylights are in and now I'm questioning our choice of the number and size. These pictures were taken early this morning -we have grey cover and rain - no lights on in the space. I would say we're going to get plenty of Vitamin D!

The lid gets started today!
Boxes are in...

The worlds cutes helper ever!!

He love to go upstairs and see all the sharps (tools he can't touch)

We're getting there!

Upward Progress

You may be saying to yourself - "That doesn't look anything like G'pa S."...well, you're correct. G'pa S. is so good at what he does he doesn't have time to always do for us. Now I'm sure he would have squeezed in a day here and a day there however it would then have taken 6 months to complete this project, as it is these 4 weeks are killing us! So who, you ask is this? This is Dave. Dave is a loyal glass shop customer and turning out to be a fairly decent choice for this project.

We're so close yet so far away from being done. We're having these "built-in" boxes added for storage - they're not much now but with a little imagination and some elbow grease on my part they will be very handy and chic additions.

I realize now that the walls are going back up it's not looking all that different than it did before. That is, actually the point. We didn't want this space to look all modern and out of place so we're re-using as much of the previous building material (sans the book style shim) as possible.

Insulation is near complete which I think will make a big difference both up and downstairs.

Below is where we'll be having a bank of those built-in boxes. The possibilities are near endless...

To door or not to door?

Shelf or not to shelf?

Dowel or not to dowel?

See what I'm saying?

There you have it for now. Don't the skylights add a lovely natural light? Two more to go!

SKYLIGHTS!!! Yahoo!!

Our dark attic is slowly but surely becoming a beautifully sunny get-a-way!

It's amazing what one hole has made, I can't wait to see what 4 does - can there be too much sunshine?

Our ocean view if we really work at it :)

I want to be home helping - this working thing is killing me!