3 new Neem trees on Pinal Villa Plaza

These are two of the 3 new Neem trees I've been planting on the plaza.  My Neem had about 10 babies this spring and I put them all in buckets.   3 neighbors have them in their yards and I still have three more ready to plant.   Someone even cut the grass yesterday and with all the rain we've been having it looking real nice.

The store owner on the corner wants to cut down the only tree there because it split in a wind storm but it's the only shade around.   Hopefully in 6 months these will be shade trees.   Mine that is about 2 years old is over 20 feet.

6 months later finishing up

Finally ... only one more week. There's one more inside (the property) wall next to the house that they will stucco next week, along with a few corners and the finishing the entrance gates and YA! A little more finish work on the stairs that I've sealed.

After next week the maestro goes but I'll keep my neighbor who's been the helper. He'll do preparing the garden work, sealing grout lines (whole house) and little odds and ends we find over the next few weeks.  He may even make the pavers for a driveway that Elke says she has forms for, sounds interesting. I'll continue painting, cleaning and using sealer on various places before the rains.

A welcome relief and rest are coming

Joke is, it's the Centro de Salud of Pinal Villa 

Kitchen, dining and entrance

Last bedroom, extra tile and Tomas the cat

Tecata tiles are here

The tecata tiles arrived sooner than expected and late enough in the day that we had to leave then in front of the house over night. We also had to get a pulley and large rope used to pull them up the wall bucket by bucket.

Hugo pulling from below, Oscar handling the buckets at the top ... and me stacking them. From 9am to 1pm and 3000 tiles later they are up on the roof where they will be used

Pinal Villa, Melaque, Mexico

Grey water and sewer

The last couple of days has been connecting the grey water from the upstairs laundry to a new fosa (septic) and registro (connection box). Since we don't have sewer in Pinal Villa everyone has septic tanks and it's not a good idea to mix laundry water with bathroom drainage. Also the house is 20 meters long and roof drainage may be an issue next summer. I may install an extra downspout beside the 3 roof drains in front.

Since we may have city sewer some day, the connection box will be used to redirect water to the street. The normal house drainage also has it's own connection box that can be directed to either the street or a separate septic. Both of these systems will meet next to the street in another connection box that the city will hook up to. A bit complicated but it should work well and I shouldn't have to re-engineer anything.

Six guys working on the house today kept me running!

Grey water fosa and registro

Putting a top on it

Grey water and black water will meet in a registro here and be connected to city sewer

Finally on the Map with newer Google fotos

Google Maps has updated their fotos of the area sometime last year so the project now shows on the map. I guess last year (summer '09) because last winter my neighbors build a garage behind me and it does not show in this view. Zoom in to get a closer look.

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Google Maps of Pinal Villa and Melaque

New interest in the property

Well my interest is somewhat renewed in the property as well as that of a local store owner. He's going to be looking with family when they get here. My interest was peaked when we found the 3 meter walls would move towards the top when they had only standard width columns (castillos). For that reason they're putting in 5 new castillos next to the existing ones that will act like buttresses. I did not want to get a call that one of the walls collapsed in the next earthquake.

So I spent the last week working on the place and enjoyed it once again. They are also finishing the third meter of the walls that was only 1/4 completed. If they have time they'll paint the rebar. They have all the material and wages for two more weeks work. The lot is cleaned and leveled once again after the rains so should be good for at least 4-5 months before the growth starts.

The bottom foto is of the Canadian neighbors place over my back wall. Really coming along nicely with all the conveniences of home even though they live in their garage. They started the year (November) camping in a tent but now have a real bathroom, electricity, water and a nice garden.

New interest in Pinal Villa property - price went up!

Pinal Villa on Google Maps

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Weed wacked the lots

After a week in San Miguel and 3 weeks up north I came back to grass (wild) and weeds almost 3 feet tall. Two days with my Ryobi weed wacker in this heat got most of it. Still have two rooms to go since they have no floors.

Double lot forsale in Pinal Villa - Just outside Melaque

Cistern patio and walls - Week seventeen

The top of the cistern would have made a huge table but at only knee high we would have had to excavate for seating. Nope wasn't gonna work so I asked them to make a rectangle we could use it as a small patio - covered someday. Here they are blending the rectangle top with the circular one.

The bottom foto is the foundation for the lot sidewall. Just ordered another 1000 blocks for the front wall foundation and the septic tank.

Cistern patio from the corner of the lot

Sidewall foundation

Construction of small house in Pinal Villa, Costalegre

Week Fifteen - starting the front yard wall

The new project is the front yard wall with gate opening and space for air flow with security bars. Also installing drain pipes through the wall so rain water has a place to go without forming a lake. The driveway and gate on the second lot will have a low level entrance that will allow water to escape but don't want it collecting near the house. Yes, when it rains here it pours.

The stairs are finished in basic form so I've been studying finished steps in the area to see what we can do. The cover coat will be pure cement with a little sand for traction. You can make a 'bull nose' extension off the lip of the step formed with plastic pipe that looks very nice but may be trickier than I think.

Some second floor views and my neighbors progress on property walls.

Latest project is front wall and rain water drainage

Finished steps (basic form)

From top of steps looking towards the ocean and Melaque

Canadian neighbors progress - just walls this year

Pinal Villa house

Week Fourteen - the Stairs

The stairs took a little over a week and are finally usable. I left the run and rise up to Chui and I would have been happier with a higher step and more foot room. Not sure if that could be done with one less step and make them all a little larger or if it's trickier than that. The next set of steps will be 12 inches wide at least. Going up is fine but coming down is when you need more foot space.

So anyway you see the 'ditch' cut in the brick for the bed of cement to sit on and the beginning of the forms. Next is the bed of cement. When putting in the steps, he starts at the top because he can't work on newly set bricks

Beginning of support forms

Cement bed to set the stairs

Stairs started from the top and small bodega below

Mexican stair construction in Pinal Villa

Semana Diez para la Casa

Updates may be every two weeks but we will see. Putting up walls is only so interesting. Last week we finished the walls to roof level and installed a support beam across the larger front room. This week we've started on the second stage of walling off the back of both lots, stairs and a wash-utility-storage area. I have no exact measurements for this utility area so we will wait for walls and when the dirt is removed, mark it out. The jog that you can almost see in the second foto is because both lots are not the same size

Roof support beam for the large room

Second stage foundation

Second stage from roof level

Retired and building a small house in Villa Pinal, Costalegre, Jalisco Mexico

Week Eight - Walls up to three meters

This week we are starting on the top level of the walls up to the future roof level. The wall on the left is about 12 centimeters higher than the wall on the right for water runoff. You can't allow water to drain into your neighbors yard if you are on the lot line - and we are on the lot line on two sides.

We had to build an A-frame scaffold for solid support when working 3 meters up. I also bought a 2x10 by 10 feet to use as a platform. The thin 1x8 palm boards used for cement forms were not stable enough.

View from back neighbors lot

View of one bedroom - A-Frame scaffold partly shown

Building a small house in Pinal Villa, Costalegre

The roof maze

This is the maze we are going to deal with someday when we put on the roof. The foto below is of a soon to be multi-story so we'll have no plumbing extending up - but all the electric will be in the ceiling. Most plumbing in Mexico is also on the roof because that is where your water storage tank is unless you have a pressure system. The foam is both to lighten the load and to better insulate from the sun. The orange tubing is where the electrical wires are run - after

Building a house in Pinal Villa, Costalegre, Jalisco

Putting up more walls - Week Five

This week we are finishing up the walls of two rooms of the four and putting up half walls of the last two. The half walls you see are one meter and they stop there so as to not put too much weight on the wet mortar

The second foto shows how the wooden forms are held in place for the castillos. They push a stick through the wet mortar as they lay brick (rather than drilling holes later) and use wire to attach the boards. The brick and smaller board make a lever to hold the forms close.

The bottom foto is how one of the neighbors brings out water from his place because the street water has been shut off for two days. Like siphoning gas out of a car, we suck on the hose and get 55 gallons mas o menos.

A couple of windows in front and more second level walls


Forms for the castillos (upright beams)


The neighbor brings water needed to mix mortar
House building in Pinal Villa, Costalegre, Mexico

Week Four - Starting on the walls

We finally got some clay brick but started with cement block just so they could go to work. Both bricks are nearly the same size. There is a regular brick and an over-sized. We're using the larger which will use less cement and go up faster - the problem is they are not as easily found and do cost more. The first section laid is a meter high so the weight does not compress the wall. One meter is also the standard window height

The bottom foto shows how when working with block, they insert a few rows of clay brick because clay is more flexible and will relieve earthquake stress on the walls.

From lot next door

Mixing the bricks

Example from other construction - A few rows of clay brick for stress relief

Building a house in Pinal Villa, Costalegre, Jalisco

Building the foundation - Week Three

Week three. They finished up the dalas and added foundation walls and dalas for three bathrooms. We then needed fill inside the foundation to put the slab on. They couldn't find anyone they knew that would deliver so I went out yesterday and talked to a guy on the carretera. He was a little vague at first when he could do it but showed up an hour later with his 'tractor'. He leveled out and moved what dirt we had into the house and a half hour later the BIG truck showed up - three loads total.

The dirt (arena) is from Aguacate and looks like sand but has clay in it that compacts well. There are a few large pieces in it that are cement stone like but break up easily. This stuff is what is normally used below a slab. We ended up with about a 1/2 truck extra and will have to use it elsewhere.

Can't spread it out over the yard as it will make terrible soil for a garden. 3 truck loads and the tractor for half a day was $2500 pesos.

Double load

The tractor

Foundation is full - with watering or rain it will compact

Pinal Villa, Costalegre, Jalisco

Building the foundation - Week Two

Our first albaniel turned out to be fast but very little thought was going into what he was doing. There were not enough support columns (castillos) for our spans and bathrooms were not planned. We added 7 new columns - 5 down the middle and two on either side of the large front room.

The bottom foto is of the reinforced 'header' (dala) that goes above the block, the top of which will be the floor level. I rented the wood for forms but will buy some next time as we'll use them multiple times.

Adding the extra castillos

The dala - header

Building a house in Pinal Villa, Costalegre, Jalisco

Our lots in Pinal Villa, Melaque

These are fotos of our lots in Pinal Villa about a mile back from the beach and directly behind Melaque. I looked for lots for over a year and was about 2-3 years late to find real bargains. Prices closer to the beach doubled and tripled in that amount of time. Even though there were a number of lots in our price range back from the beach, many didn't have water or electricity. Pinal Villa still does not have Telmex (phone) services.

I found the lot in the first foto last winter but the family member of the adjoining lot didn't want to sell at the time. He later called us to see if we were still interested.

The two people sitting in the back of the first foto are Canadians who own three lots behind us and are building two casitas. They only plan to work on their place during the winter and I'm not sure they will finish this year.

The lots last winter with Canadians sitting on lot behind

Costalegre, Jalicso, Mexico

Building a house in Mexico

Building a house in Mexico
A small place in Pinal Villa, Costalegre

Pinal Villa is a small community about a mile behind Melaque, Jalisco on the Costalegre, Mexico.

I bought the first of two lots in November of 2007 and the second adjoining lot in the summer of 2008. What we paid is less important than to say they were equal to less developed lots that had no water or electricity and no neighbors to share the costs.

I've learned a lot and am still learning - but the first lesson was to fence and mark your lot well because the Ejido will just go by fence lines and ignore what your original paperwork says. We lost almost three feet off the back and a foot or two on one side. Many of the lots in Pinal Villa are un-plotted (not on a map) so had to be re-measured.

The cost of title transfer is only per square meter and doesn't matter if there is a house or vacant lot. For us it was about $2500 pesos. If the previous owner has not paid taxes or have receipts you need to pay the last 5 years - $100 pesos a year.

Building in Pinal Villa Web Page

Costalegre, Jalicso, Mexico