Latest Construction News

What a pleasure to see the second phase of the walls going up. We began with the living room on the west side, then moved on to the south side with its arch window. Thus far, all my plans and measurements had worked well. However, when it came to the arch window, I had not taken into account the cadena over all the walls that would measure 23 cm high. So I lowered the size of the arch window by 20 cm and it looks ok.
Here is the wall on the west side of the living room with two side by side windows above the floor to come by only 60cm (a tad over 23in.) and 1.2cm tall (almost 4ft tall). Their width is also 60cm. Please refer to my previous post for the south and east plans for the living room.

Over each window and door a cadena is built as a support for the weight above the each. Here the castillo between the two windows anchors the wall into the bottom cadena. Once all walls are erected, another armed cadena will go up to support the roof of each room.
The window across the room is the living room window on the east side.
Now, here’s my pride and joy. My arch window on the south side of the living room. This photo shows how Demetrio first built a base in wood, levelled, over which he used blocks and small bricks to make the form for the arch. Over that he put a coat of smooth mezcla or cement with a high content of lime. He then built another form to cover both front and back sides of the arch and poured cement into it.


And now is the finished arch. In my opinion, a work of art. The top part is also a cadena that forms a complete support UNDER the cadena for the roof to come. The cadena above the arch is poured together with the castillo to form a whole support and anchoring system.


The black part at the bottom is waterproofing of the bottom cadena. The last stage of building will be the filling of the bottom part of all the rooms of the house with tepetate over which  wire mesh and concrete will be poured.
The green vine on the cement fence is llamarada, with bright orange blooms that will attract hummingbirds and bees. The photo below is the view from the outside.


The photo on the right below is the east side of the kitchen. The window will be above the double sink. The PVC tube is already in place to dispose of the grey water in a below ground system. The septic tank will receive only the sewage from the toilet.







Here were the expenses

Description	Cost
Cement 7 bags	784.
100 cement blocks	500.
New hose and faucet	91.
400 red bricks	720.
100 cement blocks + 7 bags cement	1284.
150 cement blocks + 1 cement bag	862.
Labour for two weeks – mason and helper	5100.
5 kg metal wire	100.
PVC tubes for later use	355.
Lot clean up by Ruben and waterproofing cadena	250.
Total for two weeks	$10,046.

Made a mistake and showed $5100. twice. It should have been labour for two weeks.

Too many things on my mind...