Money Pit Opens

Puerto Escondido. Oaxaca, November 24, 2008

There's a hole in the dirt in southern Mexico with my name on it. Construction 'started' today (actually Lencho the contractor has been assembling rebar for beams and columns for a few days, back at his shop) with a lot of measuring and thinking and plan-changing in the morning, and the backhoe arriving in the afternoon to move dirt and rocks around. But let's take up where we left off.

Sunday, Derek, (Architect, landlord, all around good man) and I went over to the site and started to mark off the planned position of the house and compare it to the reality on the ground. I had insisted on putting the upper corner of the house 3 meters below the boundary fence to allow parking out of sight above the house, though he had recommended building up as far as possible. He finally got me to understand his idea: the parking could be below the house, both in the sense of further down the hill but also down below a slab!

Also, Sunday, we made our first visit to the new Super-Che (Chedraui) market we saw being build downtown last year. Puerto now has an actual supermarket, where you can go most anytime and buy bread or milk or t-shirts or lots of other stuff. This is a new thing here, as the former market couldn't seem to keep even staples in stock. We loaded up on things to fill our empty fridge. We got settled in and started getting things like internet and communications going. My new HP Vista computer wouldn't connect at first (now it finally will, hence the blog posts). The Sun went down beautifully, and we took the Tompkins clan out for Tlayudas (Oaxacan specialty, sort of a crisp burrito).

I pondered the building changes overnight. Monday morning we met Lencho (the builder) and figured out a new, improved plan (I have to wonder how many times I will be writing that phrase.) By extending the excavation for the footings a bit, pouring a parking slab at footing level (about 2.2M below the level of the first floor) and making a deck instead of a patio outside the north side of the 1st floor, we solved several problems.

First, the house can move up the lot a bit (only 1 meter it turned out). Secondly, we created room below the first floor where we could economically and conveniently create a 'basement' (open on one side) bodega (storage room) and also room for the water tank. Thirdly, we could locate the 'fosa septica' below the parking slab (reusing that bit of concrete). The terrain drops off faster than I had thought, and the height of the footings (from the bottom, 1 meter below grade at the lowest point, to the level of the first-floor slab), turns out to be over 2 meters. The first floor slab actually is to be about 3 meters above the original grade, which lifts even that level enough to get a decent sea view, over the neighbors not-so-lovely house. All this will cost more than the original quote, but less extra than the separate outbuilding previously contemplated for the cistern and bodega.

All this was figured out by 10 AM and we were to reconvene at noon when the backhoe showed up. We got the word he was there after 2 PM, and by the time we got over there he was well underway, hauling granite plus other, less-sturdy rocks, and somewhat sandy soil out of a growing hole in the corner of the lot. That went on for the next hours. He seemed mostly done by the time I left at 3:45. We'll see in the morning. It's pretty much a committment at this point. Maybe the building permit will even come soon.

Why did we move the house only 1 meter? We could have gone up 2M but this is Mexico and not everything is perfect. Surveying is a case in point. The 'Acta de Posesion' document that defines the property says it is 44.4 meters along one (10-Meter wide) street, and 20 Meters wide. Measurements on the ground don't really support the drawing. The 15M lot above mine, and the 10 M street above that, both need to fit in the 24M below the fenceline above (if that fenceline is "right".) Also the building has to be 1M back from the line if you want any windows on that side, so it seemed the best course to give up a meter, though Lench and Derek agree that if the Acta doesn't match the reality, too bad for the Acta. If the neighbor's 15 meters shrink to 14, that's his problem, not mine. Later we measured the whole east edge and got 46.5 meters so maybe I get a meter of slop on both ends. Whatever.

After leaving the site I went to load a cooler and have a quick swim at rhe Point beach with Liz and watch the sunset. Lovely as ever, with surfers, kids, and some dolfins (or maybe sailfish) leaping far out to sea. We got a grilled chicken for dinner and are calling it a day.