No Place for Anything And Nothing In Its Non-Existent Place

Basically looks like a camping spot indoors

We have almost everything we need furniture wise...except tables, cabinets, storage units,etc. Those things are a bit too pricey to ship and I need to see them to determine if they are the right 'fit' for the house.  Hopefully, the next delivery will be my IKEA sofabed and two Poäng chairs. If funds allow I will be shopping like a fiend for end tables, night stands, credenza like side boards, and a big linen closet for next to the bathroom to store towels.  We have 12 towels that are always wet due to the humidity which leads me to my next need at the house a substantial clothes line that is not on the pool deck!

Everything thrown about...there
in the corner is the  plastic
side table for on the pool deck

We're using every chair inside and out to hold towels, so that we can use the sun shade lines as clothes lines. Still it's fun camping at the casa as we call it. Every time there are a few more luxuries. There's a working TV now, even a PS2, consistent water for flushing toilets and some fans to move around air.  The huge fan you see below uses about one fifth the amount of electricity as the floor fans.  It didn't blow air as hard as I wanted, but it serves to circulate the air and get the hot air down and out of the house

This contraption enabled Thomas
to install a 70" ceiling fan!

The ceiling fan (minus the ceiling cap...which needs
to be tailored to fit the apex of the ceiling) 17' up!

I got the fan from Amazon and then brought it down in its original box along with a 6 foot downrod to hang it from the 17 foot ceiling. The picture to right is the culmination of a 15 foot exension ladder, braced with an iron gate, supported by a 'Dominican' style ladder, extended by two slats from the king bedframe, all tied together with nylon straps...a good physics lesson. I kept a photo record for purposes of cashing life insurance policy on my husband!

I think that after the August visit we have concluded that A/C might be necessary during those extra hot summer months.  If the wind stops...WOOF! It's hot!  BUT A/C starts the dominoes tumbling.  A/C is an energy hog. Before we can run it we will need a battery back up system with and inverter and a green energy source.  We have opted for a wind turbine for starters.  First they are cheaper to start up than a bunch of solar panels.  And the biggest complaint we have heard is that maintenance in a tropical climate is more frequent, but my husband is very handy that way, so we feel it's an acceptable risk.

Rob had to pull one mattress down
off the bunkbed because he's 6'7"
and he just wouldn't fit!

The whole set up will cost about 4K, but will also enable us to rent out our house to friends of our neighbor who want to stay for 6 weeks in February/March of 2017.  That would pay for almost half of it.  Not to mention our electricity bills for one month are around $300 and that's without power for several hours during the day.  Anyting that off sets those costs will pay for itself within a year.

I will probably devote an entire post (at least one) to the discussion of living off grid.

I let my husband handle the mechanical stuff, while I continue to furnish the house.  If money were no object this would have been done already, but, alas money is an object...or obstacle in our dream of living out our quiet lives in a tropical, less hectic life in our casa mariposa in the Dominican Republic.

In the meantime, I will continue obsessing over our next visit to the DR over Christmas...as things get colder and grayer here in the Midwestern United States...*sigh*