Progress Will Not Appear To Be So Rapid Now March 23, 2012

They have started the facing on the center roof.  The center roof overhangs  the roof terrace.  Underneath this overhang are opening windows and an extruder fan for extra ventilation for the kitchen/living room.

Street view, the winter patio now has pony walls.

This is a distortion of the overhang on my office, it really is square.  

Front view minus the supports for the overhangs.

They are smoothing the facing on the overhangs.

This looks promising!  The cistern is in and the floor of the garage/storage/laundry room has been poured!

It looks sort of cave-like as the ceiling is so low.  It is just over six feet high.  The things on the walls are supports that were nailed in for planks to be laid across while they poured the floor - by the bucket.

Looking from where the car will go to the laundry/storage area.  It looks larger than it really is.

Now for the sad part:  When we spoke to the contractor the day before the floor pour Lorne was very explicit when he asked that he ensure the floor slopped to the outside so that any water would flow towards the doorway...... Well guess where it flows? That's right - towards the back wall.  This is not good.  It doesn't rain often here but when it does it pours sideways as much as 30 inches in a matter of hours.  The back of this space is where there will be storage shelves.....  I guess we will have to have a "conversation" with the contractor on Monday.....

The winter patio and the windows to the master bedroom.  The dirt has been removed from the hot tub site.

Staircase to the roof terrace showing the storage areas underneath the stairs.

 The north wall of the winter terrace shelters from the wind.

The winter terrace.

The Third and Last Roof Pour March 9, 2012

Getting organized for the middle roof pour... This is the street side of the house.  The pile of dirt you see will be tamped down for the floor of the winter patio.

This is the Sea side of the house with a load of dirt to be tamped down for the floor of the summer patio.

Foreground:  Lorne and Duke the Great Dane.
Background:  the crew doing the roof pour.

Hand troweling the concrete, paying special attention to an important castillo to help ensure a consistent height.

He's been hauling cement for hours and still smiling!  Must be the coke and chocolate brownies we delivered....

The crew on the scaffolding bringing up the cement in big buckets, handing the buckets up to the man above.

The cement is poured from the buckets into the wheel barrows and then taken to where its needed on the roof.  Note Chapi's special white concrete stomping boots.

The cement bucket brigade.

The brigade at work with a side view of the staircase to the roof over the master bedroom.

They use a metal bar to make sure the cement is level and to `float the concrete`.

 A view from above of the bucket brigade.

Leveling.

The garage below and Lorne`s office above.  The storage/laundry room is below my office.

Lorne's office and the summer terrace with one of the guys working on the roof.

Sea side view.

View of the crew from the roof of our neighbor's house.

The cistern will soon be placed in the floor of the garage.

View of Lorne and Duke and towards the setting sun from the roof-top terrace.

And the Beat Goes On February 11 - 16

 Looking from the front door into the kitchen and through to the summer terrace (calm no wind day).  The doorway is the entrance to the bedroom.

Looking from the living room to the kitchen with the door to the bedroom and the large window/pass-through to the winter terrace (protection from the wind).

The far wall will have a rammed earth/propane fire place.  Sliding doors go to the summer terrace. The kitchen window will also be a pass through to this terrace.

View from the kitchen to the front door and the entry to the offices.

Lorne's office, looking into my office.
The roof supports have to stay in place for a few weeks.

Lorne's office with sliding glass doors looking out to the Sea of Cortez.

 View from my office looking into guest bathroom center, into Lorne's office on the right and into the LR/Kitchen on the left.

Stairway to the roof.

You can see the styrofoam blocks in the spaces between the rebar beams on the underside of the roof.

This is the summer terrace height.  You can see the two roofs have been poured with the center - LR/Kitchen sloping roof yet to be completed.

Face on view of the summer terrace and the Sea of Cortez side of the house.

The supports remain on the overhang to the offices.

That large plastic thing goes into the floor of the garage for the water to be stored, similar to our house up north.  Here we are on city water but it is frequently turned off for any variety of reasons - mostly unknown - so its handy to always have a water supply available.

Lorne and Carlos discussing the finer points of......

Manuel is slapping on the surface coating of concrete.