First bedroom finished?

Well, not quite, but it now has a floor and a finish coast of mortar on the walls. The bodega was finished a couple weeks ago and is filling up with stuff already. They will do the outside finish work next week so I can put a door and window in for security.

The foto below is of the shower floor and the 'mold' they use to get the level and slope they want. After the mold sets up they just fill in the openings. The same method is used for every floor but usually in straight lines in a normal room.

The bottom foto is of the doorways now sized to the Home Depot doors I bought. They cut 5 centimeters off the top cement beam to give a little more room. My original builders put the beams at 2 meters when they should be 2 meters and 10 centimeters. A little more headroom and I won't have to cut as much off the doors.

The notching on the wall is for a future closet which was not in the original plan. Will be 2 meters high and have storage above and over the door. I don't feel so bad after a builder friend told me how common it is to forget closets when planning a house.

Want a shelf, these guys can build it

They are finishing up the bodega/workshop and I wanted a storage shelf around the room. This will also be the safe storage room for valuable stuff when I'm away. I put up a second layer of bricks on the outside walls up to the 2 meter level and this shelf sits on top of the second wall.

Then the re-bar to hold the cement together and the wood supports to hold it up for a day. They used 2" PVC cut in half as a mold for the front cap on the shelf. Very nice work, I'm really impressed

Hugo (Jugo) finishing the cement support

Oscar filling it

Finished shelf

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

Stuccoing the second floor

Had to rent three sets of staging (andamios, torres) to safely stucco the 2nd floor of the laundry room. I was relieved that they were a sturdy as they were when locked together. Last thing we need is someone getting hurt. Oscar will do the 'fine' coat today so we can return the third andamio. The two remaining sets will be used by a neighbor who will start to stucco the front of the house and front walls.

Oscar almost finished with first coat of stucco

The roof, the wash area and the stairs

Today they finished putting up the Panel-MG for the hand rail (pasa mano) and started a one meter wall around edge of the roof. The wash area still has it's roof supports so work there will wait a few more days. The main roof still has a week to go before the supports come down.

I'm anxious to see the work on the handrail as I've never seem them work with the Styrofoam panel. We decided to put four cut-outs for looks and a little more light in the evening.

Sad to say we are stuck with Mexican steps (short run almost equal to the rise). One fewer step with more foot space on each would be nicer. The maestro has some good ideas for the steps but that's finish work and will have to wait.

The roof

Panel-MG on the stairs

The stairs and a bit of the upstairs wall

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