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.










Thursday, February 23, 2012

Week Ending February 3, 2010 Office Roofs

I know, I have not been keeping up to date posting pictures of the progress on the house.... as you can see though I have been taking pictures....


The walls on the offices are up and ready for the roof.  Lorne is standing in his office watering the concrete.


The crew is ready to pour the roof.  Once again it will be a non-stop activity but this time there is no machine to help lift the concrete up to the roof.  Other than the electric concrete mixers it will all be done by hand.


One man brings the concrete soup in a wheel barrow from the mixers to the men on the scaffolding.  It is a very loose mix they use.  I don't think it has any "slump" at all.  When we built our house in Canada the concrete was so dense that when it was poured it pretty much stayed in the same position that it was poured in.  How much concrete spreads out is the measure of slump.  Buckets scoop the soup and are lifted by hand up to the men on the scaffolding who in turn lift the buckets up to the roof and are then poured into a wheel barrow on the top of the roof.




Louis (seated) is completely covered in concrete dust.  I had to be subtle about taking the picture because he didn't look like he was in a great mood about it all.... actually he is generally a very happy man but I think he had been working very hard and was quite tired.


Here they are loading the wheelbarrow.



Arrachera time!  Carlos preps the beef for the well deserved BBQ on Friday afternoon.  He raises beef on his ranch up in San Bartolo - the crew are all from San Bartolo too.


Duke's pretty interested in that arrachera too!


This is the weekend clean up crew......


These cows eat the most unusual un-cow like things...


Concrete bags for example....


Paper....


What?  You have a problem with that?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

And the Walls Go Up.....

The view out my office window - on each side of the window are the wood forms they put around the rebar cages - these are then filled with concrete to become the castillos - like the main posts in a post and beam house.  The concrete bricks between are not the important structural pieces.



More wood forms for the castillos for the doorway between Lorne's office and mine.


The other view from another widow in my office, the wooden forms have been removed from the poured castillo to the right of the window.

View from my office to the living room/ kitchen.  The rebar form for the castillo is visible here.  Yes, that is a dirt floor.  We will eventually have a floor.  The only reason there is a concrete floor in the offices is that it is also the roof over the bodega/garage.
A view into the guest bathroom (it will have a wall, counter, sink, floor, ect....)  note the rebar for the vertical castillo on the far wall.  There is a window being formed on that wall with a horizontal beam above it (a lintel) that is a continuation of the one in the kitchen/living room.  The horizontal castillos (I-beams) have a different name in Spanish.... don't know what it is - its long, complicated, and hard to say.... never mind figuring out how to spell it.


More castillos.....


View from the terrace outside Lorne's office to the main terrace.


Well, I think these floating stairs are cool.




Front face.



Cut out in the wall for the stairway up the side of the master bedroom to the roof terrace, you can see the entry to the roof.


The footings poured for the staircase to the roof - the cows visited and left their hoofprints.


Getting things organized to pour the roof over the offices.


Yes that is a dog.  He is a Great Dane, his name is Duke.  We are dog and house sitting a house named Casa Lion.  There are other things going on besides building a house..... will fill you in sometime....


Lorne and Duke watering the footings for the main terrace.


The concrete vertical castillos and horizontal concrete I-beam are visible in the kitchen living room area.


Lorne and Duke checking out the construction.


The view from Lorne's office out the sliding glass door and the window.


The view out my office window to the mountains and the arroyo.