It's now been over a month since that sad day we left Puerto Escondido, but Derek, Lencho, and my money have been working away. As you see from the photos (thanks, Derek) there are now a lot of railings around the stairs and terrace and deck. Soon the driveway will be poured and that will be about it for the moment. If I can find the cash later this spring, the palapa roof roof (and lower-level roof/shade extensions) will go on, and if I can make a lot of money this summer I might be able to get the third floor more ready for occupancy this fall, so it will be ready for us in November or so. I was just out in Oregon for two weeks and it appears there might be several projects going on so it could even happen that way. It could also happen that there is so much work I can't run away for the winter but that prospect is too sad to contemplate.
On about the 30th of January they poured the third floor and started up from there with the columns on the full south wall, the other bathroom walls, and the partial other walls. Derek had modified (improved) the design a bit by first pulling the east end of the palapa-level north wall back a bit so there is a right angle corner instead of an acute angle there as on the lower levels, and then had the inspiration to make the beam across the to of the north side,which will support the palapa roof, curved instead of in two straight segments. You can see it in the pictures, and it looks great. The things sticking out of that and other upper beams at an angle are bits of threaded rod which will hold down the wood rafters of the palapa.
After those walls were up it some other details were attended to....they put a coat of yellow stucco on the bodega-level north wall so the steel-door guy could measure and fabricate the double-locked bodega door (we'll see if it remains inviolate for the summer, as the stuff we left with Derek is in there now). The plumbing and electric continued along, though there was some trouble and negotiation needed with Alvaro as to just how much we had agreed to pay him. I think he did very well, though he wanted to do absurdly well for a while there. The stairs downstairs got fixed and, as is obvious from the photos, they have railings installed on the stairways and (by now) all of the terrace and deck. The railings are a rectangular galvanized beam impaled in round poured reinforced concrete posts. They aren't the fanciest look but should be sturdy and, with the galvanized steel (which will get painted too, I guess) fairly low-maintenance.
We've added a bit of detail in the driveway slab, with the area subdivided by rows and columns of foot-wide lines with exposed round rocks in the concrete to allow better traction and a nicer look. The slanted part of the drive will also have deep horizontal groves made by pulling a piece of rebar out of the surface of the slab every few inches for traction. I think they are getting to that pour about now, as I write this on February 19.
We are getting used to northern life again but in addition to the warmth we are missing Derek, Christine and the kids. We missed a particularly spectacular sunset two weeks ago, and Christine reported that Heather said, "I wish Liz were here so that we could draw it together." Well she went ahead without coaching so we have the artwork above, on the web for the first time. Thanks, Heather.
There are many more photos, by the way, at
http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/djlandwehr/Mexico%202008-9/
which I haven't mentioned for a while.
