Week 10

Right so continuing on from last week... Last Sunday we brought the kids and the Guatemalan lads we are working with to the swimming pool for the day. Above is Luis, myself and Sylvia on the bike the other 30 10 of them were in the pick up ahead. Real Beverly hill billy stuff : ) Below is us after eating the BBQ that Dona Eulalia cooked for everyone.

Back to the work bit now. On Monday we finished off the remainder of the limecrete floor and also poured a pad for the piela. A Piela is basically a big sink with two drains used for washing dishes, clothes, babies you name it. Essential to every Guatemalan house though. Kids didn't miss the chance for a bit more beautiful artwork. The barrel for the guttering down pipe will be in front of the dirty looking orange vent pipe in case your wondering....

Pedro also made the first of the windows/shutters. Above is Gavin installing it. Bit of snagging on it to be done to make it weather tight and reasonably air tight but its looking good for the minute at least.

Below is Luis, Marie and Sylvia pre-soaking the clay bricks to be used for packing around the wall plate and for the plancha.

Below is the start of the plancha. A Plancha is another essential piece of equipment for any Guatemalan house. It is a wood burning fire with a steel hot plate and a flu to take away the smoke. Ours will have be a little different in that it will have an air intake flu running thought the plancha too. This will do two things. Firstly it will prevent drafts from doors as windows as there will be an air supple equal in size to the flu. Secondly the in coming air will be pre heated meaing that even in the cold months the placha will require less fuel. We first poured a lime/concrete pad for it to sit. Then we built 3 walls to support the shuttering required for a base. Will explain this better when we have more progress and pictures.

With the floors ready the rest of the week we mainly concentrated on getting the adobe/lime mix filled into the wall cavity. We on average lifted the walls about 2 foot a day. This involved mixing the sand, clay, lime and water with hoes, then stamping it to mix it further, then pushing and tamping it into the wooden shutters. Leaving it to dry overnight. Next day raising the shutters and so on. We also fixed chicken wire to the outside of the dry adobe help the plaster stick and to hold the wall in place along with the horizontal wooden straps seen below.  

As of Thursday evening we have the walls complete... Myself and Gavin came to Antigua to sort out a Solar Panel and we also need to let the walls and floor dry for a few days.

Next week we hope to have the plastering and tiling done. The week after will leave us with snagging, and bits like finishing off chicken coop, plancha, moving the piela, lime washing etc. Going well on schedule at last thanks to the hard work of Gavin and Pedro and the hard earned cash of everybody who has donated. Thanks again see ye next week...