Interesting times and the Brazil house update

 This is a good time for me to be able to put my head down and keep my eyes in the boat, focus on the things within arms' reach.

     The world's gone pretty wild of late. I do wish I wasn't working NY harbor, this place being both awful to be in and also a target for trouble, but so it goes.  Barring TEOTWAWKI, I'm just trying to keep my blood pressure down. Taking care of the things within my own hull, and leaving the rest of the world to those more submerged in it. 

     So, the Brazil house we're building/rebuilding.   Here's a photo of the state of things as of 1/1/25:

         We've got a lawyer on the job, a new architectural engineer and have hired a stonemason. Some serious negligence was going on- the house being brick, and mortar with non-loadbearing walls made of cast hollow brick overcoated with mortar, and load-bearing walls with brick, rebar and concrete, we discovered that not only had the contractor NOT run electrical service to the house past the front gate at the street, he allowed the pool to be built without being plumbed, and the well to be dug without performing soil testing- we are VERY fortunate that the well didn't destabilize the soil in the yard, AND that the soil testing he didn't do, turns out to be adequate for bearing construction. Since no plans, permits or engineering drawings were submitted to city hallf, we have to deal with that, which the local sherriff says is manageable given that we're filing suit for it, and is a bit of a smoking gun, as I wired a shit ton of money for permitting and engineering seperately to fhe builder, which he obviously pocketed.

              There's more for sure; not worth dwelling on.  The architectural engineer did all the testing, new drawings and site plan, and an assessment of construction carried out, the cost of unfucking the mistakes, and a report summarizing everything for the lawyer. 

   We're in the 6 figures in US dollar terms of sheer loss. Might get some back. Inappropriately Hot Foreign wife and I agree that even if a lawsuit is a Pyrrhic victory, we're gonna pursue it.

     In the meanwhile, the stonemason is starting the unfucking, and working with the architect and electrician to wire the house and make it weathertight. After that construction will continue at a very slow pace.