House Project... Week 2

Above is a nice picture of the family. You cant really see Kimberley too well so below is a pic of what looks like Kimberly bringing the pig for a walk..... thats what you get for hiding... thats not actually a bow by the way its just a makeshift collar made from a piece of material that looks like a bow. Baaarrrrammmmuuuuu

We made good progress this week which I will explain below. We had help great help from 7 Spanish volunteers who travelled here with an organisation called Pandora http://www.aipc-pandora.org/ and are working with Inlex. Inlex also made a donation of 1,500 Q towards the building project which is greatly apreciated. With Alex and Paula the representatives from the two organisations and Roberto (for the week) we had 13 on site for one day. Wasnt always smooth to keep everyone busy but I would like to say a big thanks to the volunteers for their enthusiasm, interest and patience. Dona Eulalia is also doing the cooking of lunch and dinner for the volunteers during their stay which myself and Diego jumped in on everyday for lunch and managed to get the odd dinner in too. Must say its hard to beilieve that quality and variety of the food for an untrained cook nevermind the tools she has to work with.

 Diego explaining a bit about the project to some of the spanish volunteers (strangely only the girls)

The foundations took longer than I frist imagined and for a couple of days I thought my back was broken. Definitely we would still be at it if it wasnt for the hard work of everybody.

The foundations getting built. And before anybody writes any smart comments in the comment box. Yes, work has just got a hell of a lot more interesting, and no, the sheep in la cumbre still have a nervous look in their eyes. Joking aside, I would be doing the volunteers an injustice by saying they all work hard. From the time they arrive on site to when they leave they are all full of enthusiasm and energy.

Diego and the girls again...

The timber for the entire structure arrived on Tuesday afternoon. 1100 euros for the lot after a bit of bargaining and then some more bargaining...........

Bit of a theme here alright. Diego helping the girls......

Above and below can be seen the foundations of site stone and lime mortar, sitting on top tyres with the inside rim cut off and cut in half, with the base plate of 6 x 4 pine notched and bolted together also with steel rebar bent over the top tied to the RC ring beam below the founds. I had first planned on using the tyres as rising walls in the whole with stone packed inside, however due to the difficulty in digging the foundations, the lack of enough fill on site and a bit of re thinking on my part we decided to use them as a DPC and cushion to absorb seismic pressure.

The first of the columns going up..............

On Friday evening we all took a break as Diego decided he was going to let the kids cut off his dreadlocks. GET A HAIR CUT YOU HIPPY----------

This is the progress to date as on the end of day today Saturday week 2. You can see below that its starting to take shape. The small room top left corner is the toilet and shower room, the rectangular shape bottom left is the porch, top right is Dona Eulalias bedroom and the large room is the kitchen/dining/living room. Upstairs the room to the behind the stairs ope is for Luis and the bigger room closer to us is the room for the girls.

Before the spanish volunteers left for the lago Atitlan on Friday afternnon, the lucky bastxxds, we built some bottle lights which we are going to install in a place called Bodiga (which has no electricity) along with some other projects on Monday. It will also be the 1st opportunity for the volunteers to go to La Cumbre so they can see how they get on with the altitude etc.

The new improved design..... Instead of bending the cut flaps up I bent them down, this allows a better seal to be made around the joint of bottle and lamina where its most likely to leak, it also allows the use of epoxy mil in dabs just enough to stick the two elements together and not as an actual sealant. I also decided to use heat silicone arounf the joint instead of normal silicone and pop rivots will be used in installation to reduce the need for excessive silicone use. All in all we built 8 for a total cost of 84 Q (8.40E) and the installation should cost no more than 40 Q. So about 15Q or 1.50 euro for construction and installation cost combined. It was about 35 Q before with a far inferior design. Even if I do say so myself as the man says...........


Next week starting on Tuesday we hope to get the roof structure completed, the adobe (earth) floor in, the foundation walls tidied up a bit and the sewerage line completed. Myself and Diego plan on going to buy bambu for the roof and walls next thursday also.

Tomorrow we are going with Dona Eulalia and the kids to Rio San Juan for Dona Eulalias 40th birthday. I will have a few good photos for next week im sure..................

Big thank you to everybody who has donated or plans on donating to the project. We are still a bit short on funds to complete but we are getting there. Even so all donations would be greatly recieved. Send me an e mail if you would like the account details of Semillas de Ayuda. Muchas Gracias.....