It’s been a busy week, on the jobsite and off, so it past time for an update. As I write the first floor walls are mostly up and the crew is working to set up the forms for the remaining beams (to hold up the ceiling and walls above). Soon they will start building the plywood forms for the big ceiling & deck pour, which looks like it might happen on Wednesday, the day we were supposed to drive north. It may be necessary to stay another day or two, or the option still exists to buy Liz a plane ticket home and for me to follow later with Sophie and the car.
I have now had a chance to climb up on what will be the 2nd floor level to see the view, and it looks great. One of the photos above is from about the second floor level looking SW, where the winter sunset will be. The other is from the pile of bricks next door, looking over at the crew forming up the beams, and beyond to Zicatela beach.
There has been a lot of deciding going on, with window heights, door locations, electrical and plumbing details, stairways, and walls all negotiable and negotiated. It is a challenge to try to stay a step or two ahead of the crew to hopefully minimize the amount of concrete that needs to be chipped away and poured twice for one reason or another. Luckily Alvaro is watching them along with Derek and I on our visits to try and assure the pipes and conduits go in before the concrete.
One issue has been the stairs that were being poured last time I wrote. The flight up from the parking level to the 1st floor has 5 steps up to a landing and six more up to the terrace. It is 11 steps for 220 cm of height so about 20 cm per step, but somehow they got the landing about 5 cm too high. They adjusted the step height for the upper steps to abut 19 cm to make them consistent, but then kept the 19 number for the lower steps too, leaving the bottom step about 27 cm up from the parking slab. This won’t work very well, so Derek is having Lencho chip off the offending steps and redo them to a consistent rise, though the lower ones will be taller steps than the upper ones.
Other changes included raising the window openings on one wall by one brick while lowering those on the next wall by a brick. Too bad Alvaro had already placed a switch box in the block that will be removed, but he has already chipped it out and reset it. It has taken much thought to (we hope) make sure the plumbing and electrical needs of the upper floors can be met without destroying any concrete below. The bathrooms need double ceilings, both concrete, with the space between needed for drain and supply pipes for the bath fixtures. There is also the plan to have some tubing on or in the slab on the south to preheat water before the water heater to save some gas. Derek and the builders don't want to put the tubing in the slab. Maybe I should just coil up a black garden hose on the walkway.
Besides all that there has been a social life. On Wednesday we took Dan to the Huatulco airport to fly back to Oregon, and picked up Angie, Derek, and Jeremy from Ontario, who had booked a two-week stay in the Crown Pacific All-Inclusive resort and then learned we were not far away. We had a great time snorkeling at Bhia San Augustin and eating with them at san Augustinillo along the way back to Puerto for just-after-sunset margaritas. We got them checked them in to the Terranova Hotel next door, and went to the Puerto Blues Festival opening night to see the music. The music was good but the sound crew was having problems (and that doesn't count the 5-minute break when all sound and lighting power was lost, apparently to a blown breaker or fuse. All that was great, with them insisting on buying everything.
We went to Dan’s café for breakfast, then showed off the Casa Den site for a while, got them bus tickets back, and had a drink at Los Tios before they had to get to the bus. At Tios they bought a hammock and paid for three mariachi songs, at which point an all-vendor alert seems to have gone out to blackberries and iphones all over the beach to get to Tios to sell to the loose-money gringos. Luckily we had to get to the bus before their pesos ran out.
Now we are trying to put another of my dreams into concrete: a house that doesn’t need paint. The plan is to mix sand, cement (white or maybe gray) and some powdered colorant together to tint the outer, fine stucco layer on the outside and maybe the inside of the casa. If we can get this color right and fairly consistent, the thought is that the color is embedded in the surface and it won’t ever need paint. Nice dream, eh? We will see; right now Liz is mixing some samples with various concentrations of color and both types of cement.
The truly sad thing is that time is getting short with our departure so imminent. There is no way all the work can be done before next Wednesday, so the choices become whether to leave more undone, send Liz away alone, or entrust more to Derek’s care. We will see. And write.
No comments:
Post a Comment