Week Seventeen

Here are some pictures from the last week. Hope you enjoy them!

July 16, 2008. These guys are attaching a sort of runner that covers the seams in the roof.

Demonstration of how they level the floor. Using the cement guides on the ground, they use a big piece of metal (by now covered in cement, too) to make things straight and even.

July 18, 2008: Angela giving orders.

The poured floors in the living room (foreground) and kitchen / dining room (back). To the right there'll be a step down from the entry hall.

Another view of the living room.

The laundry room, which we converted into a TV room. We just decided we'll do laundry in the garage.

A lot of tubes and pipes in our bathroom.

This looks a lot more complicated than it may be. It's basically all the tubes and wiring for electricity, telephone, and cable, if they ever have cable in Berlín. If not, it'll just have a regular antenna.

We've started looking at sinks and stuff.

Some toilets.

Angela with a basin she liked.

We're gonna have a bathtub, so we're hoping to get something like this.

So, that's it for this week. Keep tuned for more pictures, coming soon!

Week Sixteen

Here are some pictures from week sixteen. I hope that we don't get to the 19th week, because I'm not sure how to spell that...

July 8, 2008.

July 13, 2008. Roof done, thank God.

Windows would be creepier if they all looked like this.

The front bedroom, demonstrating how they pour and level the cement. After laying out some string to make a flat surface, they pour these concrete guides. That's the level that the floor will come to. Underneath is the iron curtain, if you will, which is just a steel reinforcement for the poured concrete.

OK, I have to admit that I was definitely skeptical when my father-in-law Honorio and I planted sticks in the ground (see Week Ten). But sure enough, the damn things started to sprout like crazy, and seemingly out of nowhere! Now they're covered in these little spines, which will presumably become branches.
So, I'll get you some more pictures next week. Thanks for looking!

Week Fifteen

Recently, the house construction slowed down a bit due to bad weather, labor and insurance issues, and also a shortage of sand. The last thing especially concerns me, considering that we're in a very small country that is literally surrounded by beaches. So we were waiting for sand deliveries for about a week, and that meant that we couldn't do any cement work. Anyhow, I still took a few pictures for you to enjoy!

The almost-finished roof, unfinished again. A row of panels had been ordered extra, and they turned out to be the wrong color. The dumbass that attached them noticed it then, but didn't say anything till it was quite late. So, we took that row out and replaced it with the correct color (red, not burgundy). In any case, in this picture the house reminds me of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi...you know, the half-completed one? I guess we should send the emperor to be our subcontractor. He'd start force-choking some necks and get us back on schedule.

The concrete walkways that will go around our house. This is just the first, rough pour. I'd never seen this before, but I guess it's good here to help keep out humidity.

The back of our house, where a deck will go. They took off some of the old roof panels from the crappy casita to hold the floor.

I guess it'll be a big deck/patio/porch.

A view from the dining room.

The intrepid Harvey, putting new tin roof panels on the crappy casita.

July 3, 2008: At least it's getting there.

Week Fourteen

June 24, 2008. Getting further on the roof.

June 24, from the other side.

So that´s how they put in the electricity!

The front room, getting ready for the poured-cement floor.

June 25, 2008.

June 29, 2008.

The roof is about 90% complete. I'll have to start taking more inside pics, since the changes in the front won't be as dramatic from now on. But for now, I hope you enjoyed these pics. I'll have some more in a week or two!

Week Thirteen

Hi everyone. It's been a busy few weeks, but here are some more pictures for you!

June 17, 2008

A nice, sunny day, perfect for attaching a roof, right? June 21, 2008.

Some of the panels being screwed in for the roof. Houses are different here.

The corner of our future bedroom.