One Floor Up

December 27, 2008

Yesterday was the big day for the 1st floor pour. The crew had been framing it up and placing rebar for days (including two fellows working on Christmas). They used some planks and lots of plywood supported from below with rough-cut 2x4s and some small tree trucks as the horizontal surface, and wove in the criss-crossed rebar, tied into columns and previously-poured beams, and Alvaro the plumber/electrician placed the ceiling light boxes and related conduits.

Yesterday morning they worked on framing up the edges and the part of the terrace that overhangs the beams. That portion includes the steel for the round concrete posts for the railing, so I had to assure that one strategic post would be strong enough to support a hammock someday. There was a crew of about 12 working, double the usual. I went home to lunch with the intention to return to watch the pour.

It is a bit traditional to feed the crew after the pour, so I put off returning until after 3 PM, and made my way downtown to buy seven roasted chickens, 7.5 liters of pepsi, and 2 kilos of tortillas before heading back up. The crew had grown to about 18. It was like watching a machine, or a dance of hard labor. Five guys worked continuously loading up the gas-powered small mixer. #1 dumped it, turned it back and threw in a bucket of water. #2 swung a bucket of sand up onto his shoulder, carried it over and threw it in, then repeated this 4 more times. #2 and #3 filled buckets with round river gravel, lifted them and dumped them in, while #1 was adding the bag of cement it 2 halves, another 1/2 bucket and a bit more water, cutting open the next bag of cement, and watching the mix. #5 was bringing up water from the storage tank (tinaco) for the barrel #1 was emptying. #1 would crank the turning mixed up and over and dump it on the ground on the other side, and the process would start again. They used 40 bags of concrete.

On the other side of the mixer, two workers with square-front shovels continuously lifted mud into buckets, and five or six more guys swung them up on their shoulders and carried them over to the growing edge of the slab pour. Two masons plus Alvaro worked there, throwing water on the forms, rodding around with bits of rebar to work the mud into the columns, etc., and roughly working the slab surface flat. that only adds up to about 16 guys, but nobody was NOT working hard except me. All of this was done with virtually no discussion or orders. I'm sure there was some of that before I got there, but when I was watching everybody knew their job, and simply did it over and over without comment or complaint. Lencho wasn't even around most of the time, as he had to go get another load of water, and then one more. The only time the crew took a 15 minute break was when the water ran out and they HAD to wait.

They all use what appear to be normal 5 gallon buckets, but have been modified with a single dowel spanning a chord across about a third of the mouth. Using the dowel they can swing one up onto their shoulders in a single practiced motion, which looks efficient but lifting 20+ kilos to shoulder height is a lot of work no matter how efficient you get. One had leather shoes or boots, one had running shoes, and the rest had standard Mexican Construction footwear -- fully protective flip-flops. Nobody has gloves.

I think the slab weighs about 15 tons, and every ounce of it got lifted three times: on the way to the mixer, off the ground to the buckets, and again on the way to the pour. it sure seems like the local cement truck (there is one in town now) would be able to displace a dozen or so laborers cost-efficiently but maybe not, and what's the harm of providing jobs?

I assume the pour started about 2 PM and most of the work was done by 5:15, and I broke out the chicken and such. Since the crew had grown from the morning, I should have had a few more chickens but they were appreciated anyway. The masons did a rough troweling, to leave the floor fairly flat but rough enough to accept tiles (if it is too smooth they will chip it away later so the tile mortar can grip). They finished up and last of us left at about sunset. I have a floor, and the walls will start growing fast now.

It's been a while since I put in this link to pictures of the process so here it is again: http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/djlandwehr/Mexico%202008-9/

Christmas time in Puerto Escondido

December 24, 2008

Yesterday we and Dan took a trip to the beach communities south (mostly east) of here: Ventanilla, Mazunte, San Augustinillo, Zipolite, and Puerto Angel. At the first we took a beach walk with Sophie and then a longer beach walk also with Sophie to a boat tour through a mangrove swamp to see crocodiles (3), birds, and the vegitation. A great 1+ hour trip for 35 pesos each. Sophie wasn't allowed on the boat, as crocodile bait, so she had to wait on shore. On our return, I had to unhook her to free the leash so she promptly took off down to drink from the mangrove swamp, causing a bit of a panic as the tour operators worried she was about to become crock chow but we did not see a fourth crocodile.

After that we hung quite a long time on the beach at San Augustinillo, a beautiful beach and an exploding community. Actually all of these places have grown dramatically in the last few years, despite the rugged topography of all of them except Zipolite. Later we went to a good snorkeling beach at the far end of Puerto Angel, had a cerveza in town, and drove the highway back to Puerto Escondido, arriving home before the last light of the unusually lingering sunset faded out.

While I was out Derek had to handle the day's building events, putting up 820 pesos for more plumbing and electric parts, and catching a mistake in the afternoon related to the placement of the driveway. I will learn more about that when we meet Lencho at noon over there. When we went by on the way out of town yesterday morning the crew was framing up the slab pour for what will be the 1st floor terrace. It now looks like the first floor slab won't be poured until Saturday. It makes one wonder just how much will get done before we leave in just a couple more weeks or so.

On Monday we looked into some more lodging options for the week we need to be out of here, from next Monday to the following one. We found several workable options, but the best for us turns out to be the closest -- one of the nearest neighbors here is the Hotel Teranova, and they finally happened to have a door as we passed by. The very genial young son of the proprietor showed us the downstairs room for 1000 pesos per night and the smaller upstairs room for 700, which we now intend to take. The same day we saw a small hotel near the lighthouse with a 500 peso room with a kitchen which seems perfect for Dan (who needs 3 more days than we) so it seems we have all found what we need, just not together.

Monday we got down to Bacocho beach for the late afternoon sun/sunset swim and watch, which allowed Sophie to tag along and get in her first ocean swim of the trip. She needs help catching crabs now, as her head and front half commit to the chase but her hindquarters can't really keep up anymore. She did catch and eat one at Ventanilla with a little help from us and a suicidally foolish crab.

Monday and yesterday were both more enjoyable than the weekend, as Liz was sick Saturday, and with my superior immune system I wasn't sick until Sunday, each of us de-energized in turn with some digestive distress, catching up on our read/sleeping. Being sick here is no fun, but might have been preferable to being in Ontario or Oregon or Minnesota this week as winter hit all enthusiastically in recent days. That has to be fun with Christmas shopping and travel, too. For the record it had been perfectly sunny and warm here every day.

There have been a lot of parties, some loud, most nights, but last night was notably still, as tonight and tomorrow night, and then the weekend, will all be most joyous. It appears that the song "Silent Night" refers to the night of the 23rd.

The other evening, when Liz was sick, there were no sunset cervezas, so I went over to the Casa Den site to see exactly where the sunset view would be from the house. It was a bit of a shock to drive up the the road, approaching from the east, and see the sun setting LEFT of the road. It shouldn't have been a shock, looking at the map, and knowing the sun sets south of west at the solistice, but it was, since I am used to looking at it from Derek's lofty view, where the roads are pretty much 45 degrees off of true N-S-E-W, while they are pretty much 'normal' in my neighborhood. So it looks like we will need to go to at least the second floor for a sunset view, but at least the neighbor's house (where it sits now) won't ever block the winter sunset.

Decisions and Details

Decisions and details...

As Alyano, my plumber/electrician has begun work, it is now time to start worrying about some details. Some are not so small, like where the 2nd floor kitchen sink will be. Others are numerous and picky, like exactly where to put light switches and outlets. I'm afraid I won't be asket those and if I feel strongly enough to make changes to the assumptions Alyano makes it will probably require him to do it wrong first. As for the sink, that has been a struggle. The original plan was for that kitchen to be (eventually, not this year) in the NW corner, as it is on the 1st floor, with the bath again in the SW corner. The door to the 2nd floor is along the south part of the east wall, which brings foot traffic across the original bedroom, and the kitchen in the middle of the best views, which seems a waste, both since we aren't in the kitchen all that much and since the view windows then have to be higher, above the counters and appliances. We looked at packing the kitchen into the SE corner instead of the bedroom, but it really is a squeeze. We looked at making it along the bathroom wall, maybe moving the bath door to the other wall to make a L-shaped kitchen (also eliminating the west door to the deck.) Or we could make it a straight-line kitchen along the west wall, also losing the west door, and moving the big slider door to the deck to the west, so the best views would be unobstructed and the kitchen sink window would have a view too. That is looking like the best plan now, though there will still be the bath plumbing nearby if I change my mind again.

Part of the problem is that I don't really know how we will use the space. It is being built to be possible to rent out the three levels as three separate and self-sufficient little apartments, each with a bath and kitchen, but as a house for one family it obviously does not need 3 kitchens, so one or more levels should also be divisible into bedrooms, offices, studio space, etc. If I was to put the kitchen on the south wall, near the door, it could more easily have two (smallish) bedrooms which both have nice views and access to the kitchen, bath, and deck. Maybe I should have him put the pipes back there too, just in case.

He is doing some other extra plumbing already. I've got this idea to put some tubing in one of the slabs on the south wall as a sort of solar collector, with the water headed for the gas water heater routed through that slab first, hopefully getting warmed enough along the way that it takes little or no gas to bring it up to hot-shower temperatures. That requires some extra pipe and valving. Also I have asked for two sets of drain pipes, one for the toilets and another for the bath, kitchen, and laundry sinks, so this gray water can be sent not to the fosa septica but directly to irrigate some of the plantings. Some of this is probably why he needed 600 pesos more in materials yesterday.

Derek and I have also been making changes to the concrete plans this week. We were looking at the level of the parking slab, which is also the lid of the fosa septica, and the level of the planned beam holding up the slab above it (the terrace outside the first floor), and the contours of the street, and realized that the entry to the parking area might too steep, and the beam too low, to get even a small pickup or tall car under the beam on the way in to park. The plan now is to shrink the terrace a bit to increase that clearance, though it will mean only a small car will fit completely under the terrace. We also made some changes to the stairway up to the terrace from the parking area, and added a few steps down the other side to grade level on the west.

December 19 AM update: We went over to the site yesterday to meet with Lencho to review things, pay him, and to make the decision about the upstairs kitchen known to the plumber. In the moment, I reversed myself and decided to put the 2nd floor kitchen on the south wall rather than the west, thinking that if that level got re-purposed into bedrooms or something it could easily be divided in half, east and west, with the bath, kitchen and entry as shared space. We'll see... Well at least the pipes will be there if we stick with this plan.

PM. Liz and I went over this morning. The plumber wasn't there but the crew had already poured the three round columns that will hold up the 1st floor terrace over the septic tank and the parking area. They were starting to build the rebar reinforcement and the forms for the large beams that will span the columns and the the space to the 1st floor floor beams. The picture above is that work.

Good times and good money spent

Dec 15, 2008,

Good times and good money.

Both are going by quickly at this point. The building project continues, though nothing looks dramatically different than a week ago. Much work has gone down the toilet, so to speak, as the excavation for the septic tank has become a huge effort. I wrote about the backhoe scraping over rocks as it excavated in my last post; it turned out that that one huge rock never moved and took up much of the floor of the intended fosa septica, which is basically a concrete box, open to the soil at the bottom, which doubles as a septic tank and leach field in local practice. The large rock down there will essentially plug part of the 'drainfield' but the thinking is there will still be plenty of drain for a small house. As a backup plan we are putting in a pipe outlet for a real drainfield which will be capped for now but available if it is ever needed.

Aside from that big hole and the continued covering of the outside below-grade walls with fine (cement + water only) stucco, the biggest changes to report are the start of the plumber's work and the connection to the water pipe in the street that happened this morning. That has been a long process, involving Alejandro and Rosa Maria having to get a contract in place ($2200), a trip to determine the needed hardware ($500+), digging a trench to the pipe in the street, and meeting Alejandro and the water guy this morning to do the connection ($550). All that for water service 3 times aweek for a few hours (hence the need for a cistern) and which apparently cost all of $50 a month (all figures pesos, divided by about 10 for $Can or 13 for $US). Also this morning the plumber realized he needed more fittings so I took him to the hardware store for another $80 of stuff.

At least he is working today. On Saturday he gave Derek and I a list of what he needed, and we took that to the hardware store. Just ordering it all took 45 minutes and then they would deliver it in an hour. Well that became about 2 1/2 hours, so it got there after everyone had left for the week Saturday afternoon. The plumber wss going to work Sunday so I took the bag of fittings I hadn't wanted to leave sitting around over there but they were not touched until today.

To route a pipe in a block wall the plumber just chips blocks and mortar out of the way. I saw today he did have an electric tool, the first seen on site, and that he ran an extension cord over to the neighbors to run it. It is just a heater to do the pipe connections, nothing like a drill, saw, or grinder to actually make cutting channels for pipes easier.

Aside from house stuff, we've had a nice few days. Last night we went to the traveling circus. There was terror and balancing and flashing lights aplenty, and that was just in the stands. We were in the 50-peso cheap seats, which were 1x8 planks held up on steel frameworks, with wide gaps between planks so it was easy to imagine small kids falling through the cracks. The start was delayed 20 minutes to bore kids and goad their parents into buying various flashing LED toys to whirl around in the dark tent. When it got going there was a juggler, a balancing act, various unfortunate animals (Camel, primates, lions, llamas, ponies, huge horses), fairly lame clown acts, and motorcycles spinning around in a 12-foot spherical cage, all with loud piped music and a crown of cheering kids and their parents. Not exactly Barnum & Bailey but fun was had by all.

Up and down

December 10, 2008

Up with the walls, and today (hopefully) down with the excavation of the septic chamber. Work keeps going on, six days a week, and the lower part of the place is taking shape. At this point the block for the foundation, cistern, and bodega level is all laid, and some of the upper cadenas are poured, while others have the steel in place but will be poured with the slab.

The backhoe was planned to be digging the fosa septica today but when I went over at 9:00 neither Lencho nor the machine was around. He needs 15,000 pesos from me today so I expect he will find or call me before too long.

The crew yesterday and today are putting a layer of stucco made of cement and water only to the outside layer of the foundation walls for waterproofing. The same treatment will be used on the walls of the cistern to hold water in. Another worker, low man on the crew, had the task of shoveling dirt from the bodega chamber over the wall to the SE chamber of the foundation structure. Also, they have dug out to the water pipe in the street, which I was pleased to see is a nice 4-inch PVC pipe which hopefully will have plenty of capacity.

Business-wise, we got the quote yesterday for the extra work needed for the modified plan. The labor and materials worked out to 55,000 Pesos for a Lencho total of about 220,000 Pesos for completion of the concrete construction of the first floor and ceiling. That works out to about $16,500 USD. When I added in some guestimates for plumbing, electrical, windows, doors, utilities, and Derek's services, the total worked out to 29,990.60 which leaves almost $10 worth of headroom under my construction budget of $30K. It might well work out that I will spend less than that this year, leaving out the windows, doors, plumbing fixtures, and electrical hardware so as to be able to leave the place unsecured this year without much possibility of theft.
Then I could send Derek a healthy sum in the early fall and have the place sort-of ready for occupancy/finish construction next winter. There would still be tile, appliances, fixtures, and lts of other stuff to do but we could live/camp there while that was underway. If I have a good year for work, maybe we could even get construction of the two upper levels going before we get here.

While all the real work has been going on we have managed to have a vacation, too. Afternoon at the beach started a bit late yesterday when we picked up Dan about 4 pm and went to Carizalillo, then walked up from there to Tugas restaurant at Villas Carizalillo for beers and apetizers during sunset and beyond. It is one of the nicer places in town, with beer, for example, double the going rate, 30 pesos (over $2US, almost $3CAD)!

Dan got me over to Brad's Split Coconut (again in Rinconada this year) for horseshoes with the old gringos last Thursday and wants to go again tomorrow. Friday he's got us (not Liz) going to Manialtepec lagoon for fishing, birdwatching, and a surf lesson (lunch, too, I hope). We went to the market yesterday and hauled back about 40 pounds of fresh fruit and veggies for 120 pesos ($10 US), and to Super-Che this mornign to hit the ATM and resupply the staples like bread, pepsi, meat, wine, and cereal. I learned again that salchicha is not sliced lunch sausage when she filled my order with a bunch of hot dogs. I'll work through those with Sophie's help.

She's doing OK, by the way, in a old-dog sort of way. She had us up for a trip out again last night, and is enjoying the feeling of the tablecloth or large plant leaves across her now-shorn fur, much like she used to like Betty's skirts flowing over her back. The haircut reveals her many warts and few fat lumps, two of which are getting pretty big, but they don't seem to bother her much. She's having good golden dog-years.

We are staying here through December 28 and then again from Jan 4 to 15, when we have to be out and Liz wants us on the road home. New year's week we are probably staying four nights on the way to or in Oaxaca, and three in a Puerto Angel hotel, all with Dan, and Sophie, either above board or not.

3 PM update.

The machine (a similar, but different one from before, with a different operator) and Lencho were at the site later in the morning, and Liz and I went there about noon to look things over and deliver another 15,000 pesos. The fosa septica hole was growing as the backhoe noisily scraped over buried rocks to make the roughtly 2.5 meter-sided cube of a hole. More footings, columns, blocks, and cadenas (beams) will be going onto and above that to make the septic tank, the parking slab it is part of, and to hold up the eventual terrace above, off of the 1st floor.

As we were watching, one of the workers had the job again of shoveling dirt over the wall from what will be the bodega room into the foundation chamber under the 1st floor bedroom. It seems such a waste, having this big room, just filled with dirt. Surely it can be used for something. I got to asking Lencho what it would cost to reinforce the slab over that room, and have the extra space for something...more storage? Shop? Home theater (it will be windowless and low-ceilinged)? We hemmed and hawed, discussed, consulted Derek, and I eventually decided 5000 pesos ($400 US) was well gambled that the extra room would be worth having someday. So the foundation level has officially become more like the basement that happens to have a cistern in it. For now that room won't have finished walls or a floor slab, but will have a doorway, which will be needed to make the forms for the ceiling slab and to remove said forms after the pour. Plans change. The guys that have been shoveling dirt over the wall will have to cut a doorway and start shoveling that dirt, and more, back out. I'm told they won't mind (and judging from the two forward, one or two back progress of the local road projects, they won't even find it odd).

Derek and I stopped at the local hardware the other day to look at the better-than-pvc plastic alternative to copper supply pipes. Having yet to get a plumber lined up, and needing one, we asked the seller if he knew any plumbers who knew the technology and were looking for work. The next day a fellow showed up at the gate here, and we explained the project. Now we have a plumber, and electrician too. His bid was lower than we expected, but we'll see in the end. There should be some savings vs. the copper pipe, and I think the plastic is now better, certainly for corrosion resistance. The drains were going to be plastic anyway.

We're not off to the beach today as we've asked Derek & Christine & kids for dinner, some chicken / tofu curry Liz will whip up shortly, after a pool swim. There is much drama to the north, between US politics, the global economics, Canadian politics (Harper suspending parliament, Ignatief suddenly the new liberal leader), and family (as always), but at times like these it's not the worst thing to be away from it all, wondering if the tides or waves will be right for whatever fun one has planned today.

Walls & Columns

My hole in the ground is rapidy filling up, with the structure slowly emerging above the dirt piles in places, one row of blocks at a time. The expenses continue as well; I thought I might have one day's 5000 peso allowance to spend but with 2000 to Liz for her last two short-term loans, 2200 to Alejandro for the water contract (and more to follow), dinner at Mango's last night (very good cheeseburger, best so far this trip), and a tank of Pemex Magna Sin this morning I'm back to broke, with today and tomorrow's withdrawals already committed to Lencho on Saturday. My replacement Oregon bank card is now in FedEx's hands so maybe the cash flow problem will ease (in that I can double the flow!) next week.

Tuesday afternoon we stopped by the site and noticed that one wall of the cistern chamber seemed not to be in the right place, and further investigation yesterday revealed that the column defining the inboard corner of the cistern was 23 cm (11 inches) too far south. Of course the footing for that wall was also placed 'wrong', but none of it is a big problem (my cistern will hold a bit less) except that misplaced column also defined the outside corner of the closet on the 1st floor. Calls to Lencho and Derek ensued, and the solution will be to end that column at the 1st floor slab, and start another in the right place 23 cm further along that beam. Problem solved.

Today, as the photo shows, the crew is still laying block and also building forms around some of the columns (castillos) to start pouring that concrete today. It appears they will probably start framing the beams (cadenas) shortly too. I probably need to get with Lencho and Derek (the Tompkins return from Oaxaca tomorrow night) to figure out where we are with obtaining a plumber or electrician, and if we should make any provisions for pipes or wire routes before the castillos and cadenas are all set in concrete.

We have been enjoying our time too, with Liz working on a new large curtain with different (quite simple) technology, reading, running for me most days, and daily afternoon beach time as well. Yesterday was our first visit this year to Carizalillo, her favorite swimming spot, and the day before we took Dan over to Playa Coral, the best snorkeling spot in town. We are also going through the books we brought, already wishing we had more or better selections. I just read a silly thriller sort of thing, a cross between "Indiana Jones" and "Da Vinchi Code", written in 1980. That doesn't seem that long ago, but I was constantly thinking "Use your cell phone, stupid!" or "Just look it up on Google!" Times change.

Puerto, 2008

December 2, 2008

Work continues on the house apace; this morning I went over to see Lencho at 8:00 AM and the crew was already at work, laying the block for what will be the water tank, mixing mortar in a depression on the ground above the house -- on the land of the neighbor I've never met. People tend to be tolerant but I'd prefer they mixed on the street, but the street isn't level. There are also piles of 3/8" and 1/2" rebar around, and a pile of blocks, grey solid rectangles. I gave Lencho another 11,000 pesos and might not need to provide more till Saturday, though I had better keep withdrawing 5,000 a day for a while.

With only that little to report about the house, maybe the time has come to discuss Puerto Escondido this year. It is the year of the road project. Apparently the Governor of Oaxaca came by in July to kick off three projects: 1) the expansion of the coast highway to four lanes from the bridge near downtown to the east end (including past zicatela beach, our lodging here at Derek's, and past my property), 2) Calle Del Morro along the town end of Zicatela including the biggest surf area, and 3) repaveing of the Adoquin pedestrian walkway. These happen to be the three main roadways for tourists (and in the case of the highway, for trucks, busses, and everyone else). At this point none of the projects is finished, though they seem close enough on Del Morro that it might open any day, and should before the main holiday rush, and we have heard the Adoquin is near completion also.

The highway is another story. It is a huge mess/obstacle course. For much of the route to town they have removed a couple feet of material right up to the side of the old roadway, which is still in use, so if you happen to drift a bit to the right you will drive off a cliff. In places one lane or the other is diverted to the lower surface over badly made and mostly unmarked dirt ramps, one of them abrupt and steep enough that we have see two tractor-trailer trucks stuck trying to climb up to the roadway in the last week, blocking westbound traffic. As the edges of the roadway collapse in places the road gets narrower, leading to minor games of chicken at the pinch points. There's sand and dust everywhere, and no reduction on overall traffic as there is no other route for long-distance traffic on the coast. At night there is scant lighting (some flaming cans of oil mark one of the diversions down) and no other markings. One wonders how much safer it could be with, say, $100 worth of little red reflectors carefully placed. Last night I was taking Dan back to Zicatela after dinner at our house and there was a vender wheeling a unlit food cart up on the edge of the highway; if a east-and west-bound bus and truck happened to meet near him he was going to lose at least his lunch.

Other than the roads, there is a bit of new building going on, though not so much as some years. the new Super-Che (Chedraui, a chain grocery/clothes/housewares/everything store) is open near downtown which is a big improvement but still not exactly a northern super-center. It has been cloudier than we remember from years past, or is it just selective memory? Not much else has changed too much. The stronger US dollar is helping me out with the Peso prices mostly unchanged. Gas is cheaper than in Canada but more than the $1.80 a gallon we were seeing in the US, which is simply too cheap. There are the usual roosters, dogs, construction sounds, fireworks, and car-roof distorted-loudspeakers touring the roads blaring about tortillas or fruit. We have seen some hummingbirds and a whale, leaping rays and fish, plus mosquitoes, dragonflies, and a scorpion or two. Derek's getting bananas from his trees, though no papaya lately, and the many flowers are seemingly always in bloom.

The gringo permanent and snowbird population seems typical, and it has proven difficult to get lodging during new year's week, though some hoteliers are worried that some clients will fail to show up with the state of the economy. The economy here seems less affected. Maybe there is something to be said for not having mortgages in the first place, let alone sub-prime ones. It goes without saying that the typical Mexican family has lost nothing in the stock market this year.

That's not so true for us; looking at my retirement funds makes building a house here seem cheap; also makes it look like we will need to raise enough fruit and vegetables on my fifth-of-an-acre here to feed ourselves in retirement. But it's hard to get too worried, sitting here in the shade by the pool. And the federal police below have finally run out of last nights' confiscated fireworks to blow up so the dogs have settled down for a nap.