Oct. 1 Chalo and Zairo begin the work shed.
Oct. 2 Zairo digs into the huge anthill (thankfully inactive!)...
and uncovers the cavity... which we'll use for concrete waste.
We begin the layout of things to come.
Oct. 10 Heyler tying foundation steel.
Laying out the house...
German digging in the drain field.
Oct. 21 Foundation trenches...
We get our water meter.
Oct. 23 Jeff and Chalo setting up the cement mixer.
And we have electricity.
Oct. 27 Making mud...
Oct. 30 The wall goes up...
The septic tank goes down...
And we don our rain gear.
Nov. 6 The wall...
the secret garden...
and the lid on the septic tank.
Nov. 10 A ton of rebar goes in the ground...
Nov. 12 We pour footings...
build gate posts...
set the first foundation blocks...
and we see what it is to live in the cloudforest.
Nov. 13 A neighbor helps extract the boulder from the entry.
Cutting the prefab concrete wall sections for beside the gate.
We have a little better access...
and Stormy loves the sandpile.
Nov. 21 We pour more footings...
and set more foundation block. It rained a lot in November.
The oncoming traffic on the way back to town.
Nov 29. We begin to emerge from the mud...
and we hang the gate.
Dec. 11 At last our transformer arrives.
On to the pulley... and up it goes.
Hold it right there!
Dec. 17 The first block "escarpado"...
and the house begins to have shape.
This is where we stopped for Christmas break.
Jan. 7 The sanitary services are finally installed (good thing we didn't get caught.)
Growing walls...
and conduit.
Jan. 21 Still growing...
some plumbing...
and some steel posts.
Jan. 30. We get to the top of some walls..
and some more steel.
Janie likes the front door...
and Stormy is at home in the living room.
26 centimeters, right?
The carport begins.
The kitchen is already a mess...
Feb. 2 Steel in the air...
Feb. 9 More beams...
more kitchen (cleaner)...
and more growing walls.
Feb 11 To the top of the kitchen wall...
and some roof framing.
Feb. 13 Now some roofing too.
Feb. 16 The carport has a roof...
and the guest rooms are getting theirs...
and the other end of the house keeps growing.
Feb 17 Almost to the top of the bedroom walls...
and the overhang of the guestroom.
Feb 19 The pantry gets its roof framing...
and the guestroom gets some stucco.
Feb 23 The block walls are done...
the living room has base rock and more stucco.
Mar 11 We pour some floor...
build window frames...
and place more roofing.
Mar 12 The big beam...
goes up...
and up...
and up.
Some more floor...
and the afternoon shadows give us a nice graphic effect.
Our neighbors: Aliens? No, natives...
A White Face monkey that hung around a while...
butress roots of a giant fig...
the HUGE philodendron flower...
Anybody seen my mom?
Mar 13 Flooring continues...
Mar 16 ...and continues...
and some rafters go up in the living room.
Mar 17 The livingroom roof begins...
Mar 18 and grows...
with a sculptural effect.
It's going to go like this...
with the blessing of the Roof Pope (aka Chalo.)
German and Fulvio at the mixer... we do this a lot!
Mar 19 The entry takes shape...
and we lay out the terrace.
Mar 23 Little by little...
it comes along.
Mar 27 We place the joists...
Apr 1 Heyler and German install the reinforcing mesh...
and it's ready to pour.
Here comes the mud...
Apr 2 Terrace completed...
all the floors are in place!
Apr 6 Framing the interior partitions...
putting on more roofing...
and some wall board.
Apr 8 The kitchen under roof.
Apr 10 The house starts to look like one...
with some architectural detail.
It's enough of a house that we spend the weekend...
Apr 19 The bathroom and closet have walls.
Apr 20 The guest bath gets stucco...
the master bedroom gets window frames.
Quinta Quetzal from the hill across the road.
Apr 22 The bathtubs...
Apr 24 German the Stuccomaster in the closet.
May 2 The master bath has some shape...
we frame the guest bath counter...
the electric system nears sophistication.
May 5 Counters in the kitchen...
The guest bath.
A happy dog.
And the tile arrives!
May 6 The counters are built...
and we start tiling.
May 7 The tile spreads.
May 11 From one room...
to another...
and another...
and out to the terrace...
keeping the square.
Is lunch ready yet?
May 12 Mud in the closet.
Heyler and the laser.
Some visitors.
May 15 The terrace tiled.
What a difference it made to have the whole floor tiled!
And a new floor in the carport too.
May 28 The kitchen shelf is framed...
and at last, doors.
Won't you come in?
The serious mess of grout.
June 3 Neighborhood kids on their way to school...
June 4 Grouting the terrace...
The sattelite dish is installed.
Nailers for the ceiling.
June 12 Finish tile goes in the baths...
And Phil is back...
June 19 Ceilings of Laurel...
the only major part of the house made of wood.
The master bath's blue tile...
the tub has a face...
and a brain... how does this work?
June 22 Finish tile work continues...
and and we start to paint.
July 1 Heyler sticks all those tiny tiles.
The house starts to have colors...
There is still a lot of ceiling to cover.
July 6 The guest bath gets its finish.
Ceiling in the entry...
and more color.
July 16 Humberto grades the driveway, and we say a glad goodbye to the concrete mess.
There's tile in the kitchen...
a sink in the master bath...
finishing touches of paint...
and... glass!
July 22 There's a light in the kitchen...
a new blue pooper...
the doors are being varnished...
more glass in the windows...
and the entry looks welcoming.
July 23 Some plants and the neighbor's dogs make it even more so...
and the cool star lights in the master bedroom make one festive.
We have some pretty visitors.
Transparent designs in the wings... wow!
August 1 Moved in...
The girls in bed.
October: Copernicus in the kitchen...
Princess Topaz on the sofa.
The eaves with ceilings...
and a railing on the terrace.
November: Flowers from the farmer's market...
Stormy likes the rug better than she did the cement...
another pretty visitor.
December: Ahhh... it's so cozy here.
