Welcome to Mostly Musing - My Travel Blog

This blog is about our travels to Baja California, Mexico in our Classic 1976 GMC Motorhome. We have traveled there since 2005. I hope any readers enjoy the blog and I appreciate any comments.

This years travels to Baja begin from our Victoria driveway the end of October 23rd, 2013.










Saturday, January 28, 2012

Moving Right Along - Thursday January 19, 2012




Here is a view from the bedroom roof looking down at the workers preparing the roof of the garage/ storage room (also the floor of our offices).  They have laid the wire, formed the rebar forms for the cross beams, placed the styrofoam, and are now covering it all with wire.

The concrete crew from above.  There is Manuel again filling the buckets with rock.  Mario is on the mixers this time.


Here you can see the placement of the covering wire. Note the rebar cages that are standing up.  Concrete block will be placed between these for the walls and then these cages will be filled with concrete to make the castillos - the vertical beams.

The video shows the loading of the concrete into the bucket of the backhoe and then the backhoe taking the concrete to where the men are forming the support for a set of stairs off the deck outside the offices.  




A view of the men getting organized for the floor/ceiling pour in  the offices.












They first build a slide - later they put stairs on top.  Pollo is in charge of ensuring the concrete is the right thickness and floats it (smooths it out).

The shadows are getting longer, we thought they were going to pour the floor/ceiling Friday but no - they carried on, finishing at 8:15 - making for more than a 12 hour day for 15 men.  They had to string lights as sunset is about 6:30.  We picked up chicken and chips, beer and soft drinks for them to have when they were finished.  That certainly picked up their mood.  They were pretty weary by the time the day was done.

Most of the men took Friday off as they had to go up to La Paz for medical things.  This left a small crew for Friday.






Thursday, January 26, 2012

Roof Numero Uno January 13, 2012

Friday the 13th they poured the roof over the master bedroom and bathroom.  They had it all prepared and ready to go for first thing in the morning.  When they pour the roof they cannot stop or take a break of any kind until its done.  Once its done the tradition is that there is a party - food and beer for the workers.  They have worked very hard and fast for many hours and have a well deserved meal and a few beers.




The concrete is poured from the wheelbarrows and pushed into place.  The men all wear rubber boots and stomp into the concrete to "vibrate" it.  Pollo overseas the pour.






Below is a  video, hopefully it will come through.  I have not always been successful getting videos to work on my blog.  The video shows what a relay team these guys operate.  Manuel (68 years old) loads the buckets with gravel and dumps them into the mixer, Pepe pours in a bag of cement mix.  







Lorne is on top of the ladder having a look.  Below, Chapi is on the mixers and dumping the concrete into the bucket of the machine.  







The backhoe pours the concrete into the waiting wheelbarrows

The video below shows the men dumping the concrete while Pollo use his boots to move the concrete into the right places, and "vibrate" it.  




Pollo is the concrete maestro.  He is floating the final concrete.  Everyone else is cleaning up and waiting for him to finish so they can eat.  Carlos brought 150 beef burritos for the men plus some beer.  We also brought beer and coke.  These burritos were excellent - nothing like Taco Bell that's for sure.  They were the small corn tortillas rolled with a bit of pulled beef .  Salsa was added to taste.  They guys were finished work and eating by about 2:00.  Then they were off for the weekend.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Rapid Progress!


Its beginning to really look like a house now.  This is the front view.  Bedroom on the left, kitchen living room in the center and offices on the right (no walls as yet) with the garage/storage room underneath. 



Manuel is using his jig to make the wire supports that strap around the rebar cages.  There is a pile of his work visible on his left.




The walls of the master bedroom are up!











Lorne waves from the front door!






Mario passes Pollo a bucket of concrete from the wheel barrow wheeled over by Jerules.



Pollo pours the concrete into the blocks for the living room wall.


The rebar is put in place on the roof of the bedroom.






Sun sets on a day of work.


The storage room and small single car garage.  The water tank will be under the floor.



The plastic water tank will go inside the concrete retainer under the floor of the garage.


A new day brings the workers to the roof top of the bedroom.  Preparations are in earnest for the roof pour of this section of the house.



The day ends with only the electrician left doing his part to get the wiring in for the ceiling fixtures before the concrete.



The electrician.




The walls are up to roof height for the kitchen/living room.










The ceiling for the garage/storage area is started.


Looking from the kitchen through the non-existent walls to the offices over the garage/storage room.  The ceiling supports for the garage/storage room is almost totally in place.


Enjoying the view from the offices.


Looking the other way - from the offices back through the living room/kitchen to the bedroom.


Getting the foam blocks into place on the roof in preparation for pouring the roof over the bedroom.


The supports for the overhang over the terrace outside the bedroom.

The tractor has a "special" job tomorrow.


Side view of the garage under the offices.  There will be a terrace outside the offices too.  (no walls for the offices yet).


Foam blocks are in place for the roof poor tomorrow.  There will be a terrace on top of this roof,  this is the view to sunrise.


The view south to Los Barriles town and La Riberra.



The view to Gail and Jeff's house.



The tractor is building a ramp with the fill dirt in preparation for the big day tomorrow.

The men will have a hard day's work tomorrow.  They have to work quickly to pour the whole roof in one day.  It will all be done with the cement mixer and wheelbarrows and bucket of concrete.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

PRÓSPERO AÑO NUEVO!


Happy New Year!


Here is the crew - Foreman Poncho is in the center.  He is one of five brothers that are working on our house.  He is the second youngest but is recognized by all as the foreman.  







Its amazing how much these workers get accomplished in a very short period of time! We broke ground December 12, 2011.  By day 8 the footings are in and they are about to start on the walls


 Day 9 and the walls are sprouting.  You can see rebar cages, horizontal and vertical.  These are formed up and then filled with concrete.  They act like beams.  The amount of rebar they use is enormous.  This house will not fall over.

 You can see the forms around the rebar that will then be filled with concrete to make a beam.


The end of another day.

 These are footings for some internal walls.  This will be the master bathroom.
Growing ever higher - we are looking from the kitchen down towards our offices.
 This is the north wall of our master bedroom and bath.  We will put in some glass brick later but at the moment there will be no window.  This may change.  If so, its easy to knock out a window apparently.
Wrapping up the cement mixer at the end of another day.  Its almost sunset.  

 This is  Carlos, our contractor with the red hat talking to some of the crew.
 Over Christmas we have thought about it and decided to make some renovations..... we want to put a one-car garage under the office end of the house.  We met with Carlos after lunch on the 26th to talk to him about our idea.  By the time we met with him the fill was put in this area.  Why fill it if its usable space right?  If we can park the car under cover and have some storage for kayaks, quads and any other toys why spend a huge amount of money on building a separate garage?  Sounds good to me, all they have to do is knock down a wall, shovel out the fill...... and pour some new footings......easy.







Carlos and his son Frank talk over the new plan with Poncho the foreman.  As Carlos says, they can do anything, it just costs money.

 I think they have it all figured out.  It will cost much less than building a separate garage. Plus we will have a much smaller footprint.

 They pour the concrete from the mixer into the wheel barrows, fill up a bucket and pass it up over their heads to the worker above so he can pour it into the forms for the next beam.
 Looking out the windows of our bedroom
 Towards the sunset.
Towards the north east and the wind.
 View from our bedroom to the kitchen.
 Another day of hauling concrete in a bucket up over their head to the man pouring.
 The wall has been torn down, the fill removed and the water cistern formed up in the floor of the garage. This will have a plastic cistern placed inside it. The concrete ensures the plastic one is supported.


 These are very strong men.  They actually run with wheel barrows full of concrete to make sure there is no pause in the work flow.   The shadows are getting long as another day comes to a close.

This is the side of the house facing the road.  There will be a winter deck on this side, sheltered from the wind.  As you can see the house is built on a slope so the master bedroom end is at the highest point of the property and the offices are further down the slope.  Since this is a single level house this end of the house is built up, and the garage and storage area will be underneath.  There will be an over hang/deck where the scaffolding is.  Where you see a man standing is the front door.  We will have to bring more fill in for the front of the house.  
 Lorne is looking out the bedroom window at me.  (and the view of course)  Its the end of another day.
These are the footings for interior walls at the back of the garage and storage area.  

 A close up of the footing with the rebar cage.  They will form this up now and pour more concrete into it.  Well - I find it interesting.
This is the front door.  Yes, that is a pink house.  The owner says it is supposed to be Coral - that's her last name.

 Looking into the garage.  Lorne's office will be above it.
 Friends John and Janet from Victoria.