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.