Mike came over for a progress report and helped us make plans for paying each company as appropriate so the orders will be filled. There was a bid from the cabinetmaker, Otto. It was the first thing that was over budget, but it looked like that was because of a measuring discrepancy, which we will be able to straighten out soon.

Mike’s office assistant, Luis, went with us to the banks and helped us make out withdrawal and transfer slips as necessary. The granite company banks at the same bank we do, so all we had to do was transfer the money from our account to theirs. But the other two had accounts at a different bank. We had to withdraw a large sum and we were pretty nervous about that, would have been in the states too, but we have heard stories of people getting robbed on their way out of the bank. Fortunately, the other bank was only a couple blocks away and Luis walked us over there and put us in the appropriate line.

Lines! There are never lines anywhere as long as the lines here in the banks. Makes you want to keep your money under the mattress.

The Neptuno was very busy again today. Hauling, hauling, hauling. Carrying those heavy bags of rubble downstairs was something, but the ceramic tiles were all delivered today, along with 50-some bags of Bondex. Carrying all of that UP 8 flights was back-breaking, breath-taking work. Maybe the elevator will be working tomorrow.

The walls and ceilings were sanded today and they should be ready for a first coat of paint.

Javier has replaced all of the water lines throughout the condo. We are planning to prep an area in the back room to be the lavadora (laundry room)

The window in the main bath was finished and, look at the view!

The window in the master bath isn’t quite finished. Julio said that we couldn’t make it as big as we wanted, because windows on the other floors aren’t that big.

We each picked up a box of wall tiles and carried them up. The workers looked at us funny, so when we got upstairs, I put the box on the stack, flexed my arm and pointed to my muscles. That got a lot of laughs. Mike explained later that the culture is such that if you do someone’s work for them, it’s an insult, like saying they aren’t doing it good enough. We also found out that after the first day of carrying bags of rubble down 8 flights, one worker quit.

Since this was Thursday, we went to Big Ralph's for the braised beef. It was excellent and was only $8 which included red cabbage and garlic mashed potatoes. The best beef we've had in Ecuador!