Right to start with I would just like to say from here until finish the blog will be about the building and the family no more drama from me. Right so. Myself and Gavin arrived in Huehue on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we met up with Pedro and Luis, and we all headed to get some materials.
While we were in the hardware store there was an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the rictor scale. It lasted for about 20 seconds or so. No major drama just a few tiles falling off the shelf but we followed the crowd out the door all the same. We made sure Luis was safe from aftershocks when we went back in, as you can see above. No messing with health and safety with us boys.
We picked up what we needed from the hardware store and headed on.
We also had a few deliveries of soil and sand which I will explain the use of later on.....
Above is us sitting on the wood so that we didn't have to go to the bother of tying it down..... Below is me observing the work we would have to do to pick it up again after it fell off at the bottom of the hill. Hindsight is a great thing sure.
Along with flashing to finish off the roof and the toilet furniture, we also bought two barrels. The drain pipes from the guttering will run into the barrels at the front and back of house. When it is filled there will be an overflow pipe near the top to bring the water away from the house. The reason for this is that the water supply in Chiantla, although drinkable, is very unreliable. So, even when there is a prolonged water outage there will at least be two barrels full of water for the family to use.
The soil we bought is to make adobe for the walls. The mix is 3 clay, 1 fine sand, and 1/3 of a bag of lime all mixed with water. This mix is used to fill in the spaces in the walls making the building airtight. The materials are all local, cheap and easy to use. The cured adobe has good thermal mass, meaning it will store the heat from the stove and the sun and keep the building warmer at night time when the temperature drops.
Above is Pedro stamping the mixture to get it thoroughly mixed after is was first turned over using hoes... no the garden tool.
Above you can see that there is heavy duty mesh on one side of the wall already. This is to prevent the entire walls from collapsing inwards during an earthquake and also will help for the lime plaster to stick. We formed a shutter using plywood and tablas either side and then filled and compacted the mixture as you can see below.
After the walls are completed we will fix two 1" wooden straps width ways across the wall at the top and bottom along with chicken wire. These two elements act similar to the heavy duty mesh in preventing outward collapse and helping the lime render to bond to the wall.
We also had a delivery of a more coarse sand. This sand was mixed with hydrated lime at a mix of 3 to 1 with water also added to the mix. We used limecrete because, (A) we are trying to build as sustainably as the budget will allow and (B) a concrete floor would inevitably rot the base plate timbers as the timbers could not breathe. This mix will take about a week to set fully and then sun dried clay tiles will be laid as the finished floor.
Lovely screeding job even if I do say so myslef. We left the limecrete down 50mm to allow for the width of the tile (40mm) and some bonding agent (10mm).
As you can see above the entire ground floor including front porch will have a limecrete under clay tile floor.
We also had time to form the lid for the septic tank. It doesn't quite look like this now. Has four children's names artistically inscribed into the top : )
Pedro never ceases to amaze with the amount of tools he has, and his ability to actually use them. Myself and Gav would have been dicussing how to go about it and he would have had them all finished truth be told. Handy out. Anyway below, the first door hung and swinging. Not quite possible to use the toilet though few walls missing yet...
Toilet door from inside, with lock, below...
The next door to go on was the front door. Half doors to keep the chickens and dogs out. (And for sprocket. Loves a good half door that lad does)
Below you can see the progress to date. Roof totally finished, walls rising as the shuttering is risen up daily.
Tomorrow we are going to take the day off, bring the kids to the swimming pool and have a bit of a BBQ. Next week we will start by finishing the limecrete floor on Monday and will hopefully have the adobe walls completed by the end of the week. We also intend to have the windows and doors completed. The week after we hope to get the tiling and plastering done. Which leaves us with a week for snagging and other bits and pieces as we now have a deadline of the 30th of November. Kimberly's first Holy communion is on this date and we would love to have the house ready for that. If we keep going the way we are we will not have any problems however.
Big thank you to everybody who gave generous donations over the last month so that the project could be completed. Really cant express in words how much this all means to the family.
Muchas Gracias muy amable mis amigos.....
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