Myself and Gavin headed back to Antigua last week for a number of reasons. It was the lovely Ellie's birthday (housemate on my right) number one. (pic above)
We also went to a second hand bike shop in Chimaltenango. We wanted to buy a bike for the kids for one. The kids have all been working really hard with us since we got back as they are one their summer holidays now. Particularly Luis, who seems to know where every tool and material is at any given time. He really enjoys helping and learning too. Sylvia is similar in this regard, but she has been doing English classes in the afternoons of late. When I first got back she was back working in Huehue for pittens which kind of defeated the purpose of everything in my book so she is doing English classes and is starting computer classes next week too. She will start writing monthly e mails before the year is out I promise. So anyway rather than paying the kids money we thought buying them a second hand bike would be cool, as well it is coming up to xmas as well in case you haven't heard.
The shop also make bike operated blenders, corn crushers etc as you can see being lovely demonstrated by Deane and Gavin. The reason we want to buy one of these; possibly Dona Eulalias xmas present; is that she uses a blender nearly every day and if she does that with the new solar panel kit it will possibly drain the battery very quickly. That was the final reason we were back to go pay a deposit and talk to the solar panel guys in Guate city. So that is ordered now should be with us in a week hopefully.
Right so back to the actual house. This week we concentrated on plastering. We started by patching any deep holes or crevesis in the walls with a clay, fine sand and lime mix.
This prepared the walls for the first coat of lime plaster. As you can see below there is a lot of heat and dust coming off the lime when it is re hydrated. It is pretty nasty stuff to work with to be honest. Our hands are in rag order from burns at this stage.
We also managed to finish off some jobs that were on the to do list for a long time. These included making and installing the door up stairs in luis's bedroom. This door is first and foremost a fire escape but it also acts as a good air vent during the day when the windows would have the upstairs very hot if not opened.
We also fitted the base or table top for the plancha, being lovely modeled by Mari here above. The plancha is a wood fire with steel top for cooking.
As I mentioned the kids have been helping us work all week which has been a great help in all honesty. Luis was working so hard one morning he built an entire village before breakfast (Below)
Above you can see the kids working together to sieve the bigger stones out of the sand so that is was easier to plaster with. Below is Luis and Sylvia helping me put fix the timber for the internal wall between the kitchen and Dona Eulalias bedroom.
Above is a picture if the internal wall nearly finshed from inside the bedroom.
Below is all the kids and Pedro plastering the outside of the house.
I always wondered why they were so protective of the weeds growing about the place. Apparently thats where water melons grow. Who would have thought. I persumed they came on trees to be honest.
Below are a few pics of the house from the outside. Looking well I do think......
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