Friday 28 April 2017

2nd floor building starts, cistern, and scratch coat on first floor walls

It's been a while since I posted pics- My dad is back home now in Canada, so we're reliant on our builder to send us pictures. But I got some today.

Second floor construction looking east



Second floor front looking southeast

The cistern that will be underneath the front stairwell. Town water will flow (or trickle) in here before being pumped up to the cisterns on the rooftop.

Base coat plaster has begun. Here is the kitchen and living room area, looking southwards down the main hall past the bathrooms and bedrooms towards the front door.

Living room, looking northwards out the back doors. Scratch coat here is complete.

Second floor starts. These are the bathrooms and bedrooms, looking towards the street.

Plastering continues

Yet more plaster. This is the window looking into the light well.

Second floor construction. This guy is forming out one of the support walls that separate the living area from the bathroom

Second floor at the rear of the house. This lip was a late addition.

Second floor walls going up

View of the eat side of the property

Second floor construction continues. The 'pit' is where the bathroom is. All plumbing is sunk down in order to eliminate 'stub steps' at bathrooms.

Rear doorway looking in towards living room and kitchen, with hallway to front door in the middle.




Saturday 22 April 2017

Rear stairwell and pour on top of the 1st level

Here are some pictures from the last week, along with some missing pictures from when the foundation was poured.

Here's where the plumbing heads towards the street. This is a picture from March.

Foundation build picture from March.





Here's the rebar going in for the foundation pour. A lot of steel. A lot of concrete.


Cement pumper truck onsite for the foundation pour





The footers being poured.

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Hand pour of concrete on the first level. The top of the boveda ceiling is visible below.

Hand pour of the concrete fill above the boveda ceiling. The lighter colour fill is actually a soundproofing - its a porous rock that absorbs sound. It goes in-between the boveda and the cement pour.

Forms for the rear stair. 

Another shot of the first floor roof pour. The plumbing sticking up is where the second floor bathrooms are.

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Hand pour of the rear stairway



Thursday 13 April 2017

more first floor ceiling, main hallway, and more plumbing

Things continue to move right along.

So the boveda ceiling is coming right along. This is the west bedroom, where the beams run east-west.

Workers building the ceiling. Their jig holds the bricks perfectly spaced so that they can fill in the mortar afterwards.

This is the sewer transfer box. Sewer goes in here before it leaves to the town septic system. It's standard design, which provides a buffer against surges and back flows.

Grand central station. Here we have the meeting of the septic collectors from the east and west sides of the house just before it goes to the street. Far left is stormwater in the small pipe, along with a bonus run that goes to the rear lot behind us.


the main hallway gets a special arch that spans the full width.

Tuesday 11 April 2017

first floor ceiling comes together in a hurry

Ok, so I haven't had any pictures to post in a few days- Semana Santa is always a brutal time for internet in Lo de Marcos. But mom was finally able to connect and get some out. The big push right now is to complete the first floor before the workers head off on a week of partying with family.

View from the garden towards the house. The first area is the patio and outdoor kitchen, past that is the doors into the living room.

Bodega corner- to the left is the bathroom. Here you can see the channelling for electrical.

The ceiling is coming together. This is in one of the bedrooms, I think.



A shot of how the ceiling comes together. You can see the metal formwork that supports each course of bricks as they get laid between the steel beams.

Another shot of boveda ceiling construction. This looks to be bedroom #1.


And yet more boveda. It looks pretty good.






Plumbing tie-in where it leaves to the street, I think. The smaller PEX piping is stormwater.

Front courtyard area, what we've started calling the golf cart parking.

Boveda ceiling in the bedroom.

And one more shot of the boveda construction technique. Can you tell that this is a bit of a novelty for us?

The Reveal

My wife's favourite part of any HGTV construction show is the reveal. So in a nod to that, I thought I better make it a good one. This p...