And we have a first floor!

After a bit of a difficult time convincing the builders to get a grip and work hard, (after having caught them pretty tipsy during work hours), things have been moving on well recently and we had 8 on the go for one day in order to finish the cement work of the first floor, including the little overhanging balcony in the main bedroom.

The street is still a no-go area with a vehicle, (because of drainage works), so the guys recently had to take over a ton of cement up the steep track on their backs... Not ideal, but pretty impressive.

You can see the leaves in the bathroom ceiling; the idea is to peel them off leaving what should be a nice, subtle effect.

There's a shot of el Maestro Saúl applying a light layer of cement in what will be the living room.

It's all looking much more like a house now, I'm sure you'll agree!

Filters are done!

Posting this a bit late, but we took these photos on the 3rd March 2011.

Hector and co have done a nice job of the filters, they're looking good and working fine, or so it would seem so far. There are some plants living in one of the sections too.

Meanwhile the strengthening metalwork is getting sorted ready to take the weight of the cement floor, and to reinforce the walls.

Walls fly up

It's pretty exciting to see how fast this part of the process is going - it feels like we've almost got a ground floor finished! In this pic, Horacio the architect is checking a few things over with the Maestro Hector.

Daisy and I have been spent the last couple of Saturdays working on the gently sloping paths that lead up behind the house, and it has already made the space feel much more accessible and useable. The idea that the paths with a 10% gradient will be used for walking, and the horizontal parts will be used for planting trees and other useful plants. Daisy has done most of the digging while Steve has been struggling to dig and axe out a monster of a tree trunk and its roots.

We have walls

It's all go at the mo, and doesn't it show, yo!

The builders are keeping to their word about the fact that the walls would fly up once they started on them. This week has seen pretty big changes!

We spent Tuesday morning measuring, marking and digging for the path at the back of the house; it has a 10% gradient all the way up to the top of the plot. Plenty of work before it's finished (and probably a few more blisters on the way), but it should all be work we can accomplish ourselves.

We're now getting a feeling for how tall the house will look from the front. Hopefully it won't look too imposing once our trees have grown.

Filters in the drizzle

Things look pretty good to us at the moment - all the underfloor goings-on are finished and some of the walls have come up a bit, although we halted their progress when there was some confusion on the size of one of the windows.

Also, there still is a bit of work to do on other parts of the land before the house can be fully focussed on, so the builders have been working hard on what will serve both as a little retention wall and the compartments of the filter for grey water.

We watched 10 mins progress and noticed how quickly skilled hands can create a good, smooth but solid cement base, as shown in the before and after photos here. It's good to know that when cement is drying it's actually good for there to be dampness and even drizzle in the air, as Xalapa's winter has finally decided to set in, at least for a few days. Bit of a shame that it coincided with some lethal shootings though!

On firm ground

While Steve was busy building sandcastles, Hector and the lads were working on bigger and better things...

15 x 4 metres of polythene were cut up to fit the respective rooms of the ground floor, and laid on their sand beds, before being covered in what will be the base of our floors. Then, with waterproof concrete used in the first two layers of bricks, the next step of our damproofing (essential in Xalapa) has almost been completed.

Things at the lower end of the plot now look slightly more natural, although we were recently alarmed to notice how many frogs had committed suicide in our drain next to the garage. (Photos not yet available).

Our house in the Caribbean

Frustrated at his lack of being able to help with the actual building, Steve dabbled in detailed sand "castle" making, instead! Where better to do it than a deserted beach in the Mexican Caribbean.

Here are the results. Giant tree reserve at back and tsunamis - optional.

Looking forward to moving in!

Time's the issue!

In an attempt to be good neighbours we agreed to let the builders work on Hugo's house on his request, which is two houses down. All good and well and it was easier on our pocket of course, but we have been pretty concerned about time recently and feel that everything possible should be done to make sure that by the time rainy season starts, (come mid-May or so), that the builders are able to work under the roof - so there's a lot to do!

Anyway, the retaining wall has been started, and we've decided to make it fairly high so that the hillside isn't too steep. Hopefully the wall will become mossy, green and covered in climbing plants as we're not keen on the idea of being surrounded by red brick.

On a good note - sub-zero temperatures don't seem to have done any damage; it's the first time we've seen things freeze in Xalapa. Is this what is to come!?

More retaining walls...

Before the guys go ahead and start with the ground floor, we all realised that the retention walls around the back of the house and to the left of the house should be finished first.

As well as being handy to keep the earth back, it'll also let air circulate round the back of the house.

The idea is that they'll be no higher than the windowsills, and in that way we should look out to see greenery rather than brick wall.

There's also a ramp from the front door up to the steep bit of the garden behind the house. At this point only the ditches for the foundations of the wall at the side have been dug; this will also be where some drainage pipes will be put in.

The first 'roof'!

It's already been a month since we last posted, and true to our word here's a shot of the water tanks, with a roof! That'll be the first 'finished' part of the house then.

There's a shot taken from just in front of what will hopefully be one of the nicest parts of the house - the alcove with two-storey-high windows pointing pretty much south east for maximum sun-intake!

The other shot shows how the place is looking from the other side - the earth is packed in nicely in each room, ready for a layer of sand and its plastic damp-proof covering. The big earth wall you can see is the next problem on our hands: we've got to figure out how to contain the earth while allowing for a view of greenery from the windows as well as a path which will hopefully lead up the hill from the front door.

Sunshine!

Rainy season finally seems to have come to some kind of an end, or at least a break! Sadly things aren't the same everywhere in Mexico and thousands are still homeless after Hurricanes Karl and Matthew caused havoc over the past couple of weeks.

The water tanks are done for the time being! Hopefully in about a month they'll even be roofed. The other shot shows the view from just below the top of our plot, with the water tanks on the right, Daisy in what will be the living/dining room, and Hector in the kitchen. We've been pretty pleased to notice that the house will get more sunlight than we'd originally thought.

Pablo's Pig Tails

A shot of our current favourite shop - "Pigtel" managed by the ever-friendly and helpful Pablo. It'll be interesting to see how much we'll have spent there by the end of this whole process.

Rosalino is rigorously rubbing down the right-hand-side tank and Leborio's labouring lovingly in the left!

Doing their best despite the rain

Rainy season got into its full flow just as the builders wanted to start lining the water tanks with concrete... Not good timing as it made the job impossible at least with their original method. So, as you can appreciate in the photos, planks were positioned and the concrete was poured down. There's also a photo of the whole plot taken from one side of the garage.

These photos are 10 days old or so now, and the tanks are fully lined. The next job is to add a think layer of concrete and polish it, to seal them. This week was a slow one, firstly due to 'bicentenario' celebrations and then Hurricane Karl threatened to do some damage so we gave the builders an extra day off.

It's already a year since we got planning permission which means we have to go and renew that on Monday.

Finished Foundations!

Getting exciting now - the foundations are now done and you can actually tell it's going to be a house! The water tanks are their full size and although they're yet to be finished they're already doing their job.

The guys needed some more wood so we decided it was best to take down one of the trees that would have been hanging dodgily over the house.

The spaces between the foundations are filled in too meaning that we can now walk around at the actual height that the ground floor will be at. There's a photo here taken from what will be the kitchen window, obviously the current cement mixing patch will turn into a vegetable patch, and flowers should line the path down towards the garage.

Water!

It shouldn't be too long before we can actually let the rain start filling up the water tank(s) now. We're soon to confirm what our water pump will be; the current plan is to use a conventional electic pump when necessary but more often than not, a bike-pedal pump!

There's also a pic of Steve standing exactly where the composting toilet heap will be... "Where he belongs!" says Daisy!