Just a quick update about the house. The big construction is done, but there is a fair amount of detail work now. We’ve decided to use roughly the same design for the mosquito screens that we did for the acrylic windows. (Wooden frame sandwiching the screen material.) Stylistically, it goes well with the wooden house. Here are a few pictures:

The door screens will slide like the doors, and the window screens will open inwards on hinges (while the windows open outwards using “K-ton” window openers so we don’t need to open the screen).

We’ve also gone with a very light and simple railing design:

There will be 2 sling wire cables running horizontally between floor and rail to provide a bit more safety from objects slipping under the rail. We liked the lighter look of it rather than adding more wood.

As a side note, you can also see the sand we added under the house. During the rains, water was puddling under there, so we decided to fill it up with sand to prevent mosquitoes. We are designing an underground sand channel so water can flow (albeit slowly) from under the house out to the canal through the sand. Currently, the soil is clay, so it is basically holds water like a bowl. By digging a channel into the clay that slopes downward towards the canal and then filling it in with sand, it ought to allow water to drain out from under the house over time.