The new, improved construction plan

of

With the floor poured on Wednesday, we had Thursday to settle some affairs, decide what things we could leave in Puerto (Derek offered some temporary storage room, and to haul stuff over to my Bodega when it is ready and lockable), and to get everything else ready to load into the car. We decided to take the Tompkins, and Rosa Maria and Alejandro out to a nice dinner to celebrate the progress on the casa. I dropped the car off for a 40-peso all-over cleaning, and we met at Charlie's Bar on Zicatela for a very good just-after-sunset meal. It was good to forge a bit more of a relationship with Rosa Maria (my lawyer) and Alejandro who has been, and will be, essential to getting utilities established at the house. They are both great people with a lot on the ball and good spirits. I wish my Spanish was anywhere near as good as their English.

After dinner we picked up the shiny new 1996 Sentra, and headed back to Casa Amarillo (Derek & Christine's) for a last night at 'home'. Waking up at there, listening to the waves, the tortilla-selling jingles, and the birds, has become our morning of choice. One of our jokes is that Casa Den just has to rent for enough that we can afford to stay at their house.

Much of the affair-settling we had to do on Thursday had to do with a decision made the week before -- work wouldn't stop for the year when we left. When we were tossing around the idea of using colored stucco, it became clear that it is unworkable to use color below, then continue building above with regular gray concrete, as the drips from above will stain the work below. That reopened the discussion of how much to build this year, and a request to Lencho for a bid on finishing all the 'obra negra' (the concrete beams, columns, stairs, block walls), and the same question to Alvaro for the electrical and plumbing. There is a little savings from not doing the stucco on the first floor and bodega, and more from not doing the windows or doors this year, so in the end we decided to go for it. What's another US$12,000 or so, at the start of a great depression?

Under Derek's supervision, work has continued, with walls going up, conduits and pipes in, and the third (last) floor to be poured about January 31. After that, the full south wall, the inside bath walls, and the half-walls on the other three sides have to go up for the third floor, with the appropriate plumbing, plus the concrete columns and beams that will hold up the eventual palapa (palm-thatched) roof. All that should be done by about mid-February if all goes well. The building will be less occupant-ready than had been planned (for the first floor) but overall will be much closer to fininshed, and ready, among other things, for landscaping or plantings. One hope is to be able to get the top level up to comfortable-camping sort of condition quickly next fall so we can live there while work progresses from there down

images above are of the progress made since we left (thanks for pics, Derek). You can see the stairs being built up the east wall to the second floor, and the second floor walls going in. Those stairs wind around the corner and will continue up the south side to the entry for the palapa level. We'll see how it goes from here, by long distance.