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.....

House Project. Week One...

 Day 1 thanks to Brendas powers of persuasion the local Municipal agreed to lend us a digger and driver for the day to clear the site. Was about 200mm of topsoil and then pure rock would have been impossible to do by hand and very expensive to pay for.

 Site cleared left us with a lot of useful rocks for building and some top quality well graded fill material

 Marie the youngest child of 4 taking some time out from site camera work to do some modelling....

 We went around town to get some old pick up tyres for 20 cent a piece. They will be used as permanent formwork in the rising walls....

 First job after getting site levelled was to set up the levels and centre lines of walls to then dig foundations....

 Kimberley, Marie and luis inspecting the site.......

Diego and Pedro celebrating the final completion of digging the foundations. Diego is a friend I met in Antigua many moons ago who gladly agreed to come to help for the month. And actually came.... Pedro is Dona Eulalias brother, the one who donated the site and an animal for work.

Just in case you are wondering why we are building a house for a family with rich relations I will explain. Pedro was in the states for 8 years where he did reasonably well for himself working in construction before getting deported 4 months ago. During the time he managed to make enough to buy some land and build a house for himself. All the while being pretty much supporting the entire family 15 brothers and sisters and his parents (10 sibblings and 5 1/2 sibblings). Dona Eulalia is Pedros half sister and as is with every family politics and begrudgery are rife. He took a lot of flack off his full brothers and sisters for helping Dona Eulalias family with the last piece of land he had. Practically his front garden. He is now pretty much broke due to his fathers ankle break and being out of work since his return.

Sand being delivered................

 This is the concrete ring beam at bottom of foundation. The mix is 1 part cement, 2 sand and 3 site stone. There is a 1/2inch rebar running along the centre of the beam with uprights fixed at the corners and 2m intervals. The concrete along with keeping the steel from rusting adds to the strenght. The purpose of the ring beam is to act as a base for the masonry foundations and allows the timber ring beam at floor level which sits on the tyres to be fixed securely to the base. Tying the whole structure and founsd to the ground. The reasoning behind the whole design being that we use as much local cheap materials as possible in the lime and stone founds and allow sufficient movement (tyres) in an earth quake without actual diplacement as the building is securely fixed to the ground.

 There were some tree roots in the foundations so we drilled holes in the stump and drove pieces of copper rod into them to kill them so that we wont have a tree in teh kitchen in a few years.

 Hard to make out but this is the four corners of the building built up to 300mm below floor level.

The lime came from a local guy and came in slaked form. Basically rocks of lime. We first had to re hydrate it before it is workable. This is done by simply adding water and then watching as the lime bubbles and gives off a savage amount of heat before turnign into powder form ready for mixing.

Next week we will start by completing the masonry foundations, then we will be placing the tyres on top, we will then fill the tyres and floor with compacted hardcore (found on site), on top of this we will be securing the 6 x 4 inch pine ring beam by bending the rebar sticking out of pre cut holes over the top. Thus fixing the whole base together but allowing movement enough in an earthquake situation. We will have 7 spanish volunteers coming next week and possibly 3 or 4 of them for the 2 weeks after supplied by Inlex which will be well needed. I will up date the blog every Sunday from now until completion if you are interested in keeping up to date......

Below is a summary of the budget and costs to date if anybody is interested in the full trade break down, where the funds came from, the schedule and purchase orders (all in excell) to date send me an e mail (roryoconnor25@gmail.com) and i will send it on to you. If anybody wants a copy of the plans or 3D sketch up design (big thanks to Ross Boyce) let me know. Also if anybody is interested in donating to help reduce the 800 euro or so needed to complete the project please get in contact. 

	Q	Euros
Trade Summary
Site Clearance	0	0
Foundations	2,890	289
Structural Timber Frame	6464	646.4
Roof	7572	757.2
Wall infill	1927	192.7
Floor	2150	215
Plastering External	750	75
Plastering Internal	275	27.5
Plumbing (including 300 euro connection fee)	4419	441.9
Electrical	1420	142
Windows and Doors	1450	145
Labour and Machinery	3600	360
Total to complete project	Q32,917.00	€3,291.70
Available Funds	Q24,300	€2,430
Funds needed to complete	Q8,617.00	€861.70

House Project... Planning Stage

NOTES ON CHOICE OF DESIGN:

Materials......

Foundations... Concrete ring beam 100mm x 300mm with 1/2 mild steel rebar in centre. Stones from site laid in courses between cement (1) slaked lime (3) and sand (12) mortar. Cheap, local available products, strong yet flexible, breathable so wont rot timber base plate, relatively low carbon. Alternatives...... RC (reinforced concrete) or gabion cages filled with graded stone.
Steel Ties... Steel rebar bent at both ends. Strenght, ease of use to tie base plate and ie structure to the foundations, tranfering the loads to the ground, slightly flexible to absorb vibration and allow for seismic forces in earth quake without permanent displacement. Alternatives......  Wire (gabion cage), bamboo,

Base plate... 6 x 4 inch rough pine timber base plate. Available locally, strong but relatively flexible, suitable for use with bamboo vertical members. Alternatives...... No basw plate (bamboo in founds), RC

Wall posts... 6 x 4 inch rough pine timbers. Available locally, workability, easily tied to other primary and secondary structural memebrs. Alternatives.... RC, bamboo, oversized adobe corners, clay brick

Wall infill... Adobe / lime slip formed wall with secondary structural members of bamboo (or roundwood) vertical and horizonatal in centre of wall fixed to primary structure. Sourced locally, adobe has good termal mass so stores heat to create a warmer environment for occupants, carbon nuetral, anti seismic designed for stenght and flexibilty, cheap, simple construction technique, easy to work with. Alternatives.... RC and cement block, clay brick, wood frame, adobe blocks with lime or adobe mortar.
Floor... Abode with fired clay floor tiles with lime grout. Warm as the adobe and tiles both act as heat sinks storing heat during day to be released at night when its cooler, low carbon, on site and locally sourced materials, ease of workability. Alternatives..... concrete painted, concrete with tiles, timber floor.

Roof... Bambu cut in half overlapping. Locally sourced (Xela), carbon negative, lightweight so safer if falls in earthquake, good weight to strenght ratio. Alternatives, lamina (galvinised) clay tiles

Layout....

Window and door opes 1.2m away from corners so that corners are stronger. anti seismic
Box layout. anti seismic
Heat rises to sleeping areas
House faces entrance (south facing window in kitchen)
Porch for dry wood storage
Openable windows for fire escapes
Porch for evening sun and dry storage of fire wood etc
Main door beside toilet for ease of access at night
Toilets and shower closer to soak pits less pipe work needed
plancha in centre of house for heating entire building
sink near soak pit and showers
window in kitchen evening sun
window in main bed and boys room allow heat from sun facing south to heat room and house
vent for plancha same size as flu to stop drafts
piela near water and soak pit



I would like recognising the people who have been reading my blog over the last 9 months or so. All time page views of blog....

Ireland	1295
United States	300
Guatemala	236
United Kingdom	102
Russia	100
Canada	74
Australia	58
Germany	44
Austria	34
Netherlands	12

All the support is greatfully appreciated and in all honestly is quite humbling to have such support. I wholeheartedly appreciate it and along with being a great source of publicity and therefore fundraising seeing so many people reading makes it a lot easier to spend the time to write the posts. The page view summary above shows that the hits are basically 50 percent Ireland and 50 percent rest of the world. It only shows the top 10 im afraid. I would like to say a big thanks to people around the world namely JT Magen(New York), Reillys (Guatemala) and Terri (Oz) along with everybody in good ol Eire for there financial support without which it would not be possible to undertake this house project.
If anybody reading from places like Russia or Canada would like to donate towards the project I would love to put your money to good use as we are still a good bit short of the monies needed to complete the house project fully. If one of the people in Russia happens to be Roman Abramovich a spare million or two would be great...

Adventures Month of July

Johnny, Seno Cony, Myself and Roberto posing proudly after painting the Semillas de Ayuda logo and installing a pump on a water tank in the beautiful Escaputzy. One of my favorite places to work in La Cumbre. Always shown the height of hospitality and its is such a wonderful place when the sun shines. Baltic cold and miserable when the sun isnt out mind you.....

In all honesty I spent most of my time in July planning for the house so had little time to do much work with the foundation. I did however have a few adventures during this time which I will tell you about below...


Laguna Magdelana

After work one day in escaputzy I asked about goin to the lake from there. 15 minutes they said.....

About an hour later and nearly killing myself and Johnny on the bike twenty times we arrived. Funny cos I dont remember seeing many helicopters in Escaputzy. This is Guatemala though and expecially in la cumbre time doesnt mean a whole lot. Europeans have the watches guatemalans have the time............

Laguna Magdelena. Not as impressive as when the sun is out on my profile pic on FB but impresive none the less.


Todo Santos

Went to Todo Santos one day. Went to a little private museum played a bit on the Mirimba had a look at the few artifacts the guy had. Was good way to kill an hour or so.


Nebaj

Got the idea to walk to Nebaj in Qeqchi one weekend. There are tour companies charging 100 euro or so to walk from Nebaj to Todo Santos and taking 4 or 5 days. We decided to take an adventure in the other direction, one because it was easier to start from my house and two because we would be goin down rather than up 100m over the 32km journey. Bit easier on the oul legs. We started out at about 8 in the morning, got a feed in the local comedor and then got a pick up ride for about 2 hours just past Escaputzy. Lovely walk too but seen as ive been living and working in this area for 8 months there wouldnt have been much new to see so the quicker option was preferred.

I havent gone this grey just yet. Honestly I havent forgot to put my dye in... the dust from the dirt track in the back of the pick up was fairly tough.

 The first real town we hit after tasking a few ¨short cuts¨ was Polop. All along the way kids came out of nowhere to wave at us and talk to us. It was like we were aliens the amount of interest they showd us. From here we asked a lot of people how far Nebaj was walking. We were told different times ranging from 3 hours to 1 full day so we just put the head down and started walking.

The nearest paved road from Polop is about 3 hours drive in all directions. Still, political parties have slogans painted on rocks. In Ireland the politicians go to the bother of making up policies that people want and then when they get into power do what is most profitable. In Guatemala it is pure advertising. Painted houses, t shirts free water tanks, they dont even bother going to the effort of telling lies. Then again would the former head of the secret police, personally responsible for the Genocide of 80,000 indigenous people, actually be the president of a country with a 70 percent indeigenous majority if real topics were actually discussed?

Anyway...... we walked for about 5 hours in some of the most awesome terrain I have seen in Guatemala so far, until we came upon a few boys loading rocks into a truck. They offered us a lift if we helped them. We actually helped them for an hour and got a lift for an hour and a half off them. Realistically we made less progress than just walking as the truck went at a snails pace. However, my legs were about to pack in and it was starting to rain so was a good option all in all not to mention the bit of craic and conversation with the boys we helped.
Along the way I was day dreaming thinking how good life must be for the people. Simple, self sustainable surrounded by such beauty and with such warm hearted people. We had a chat with one of the guys on the journey in the back of the truck and the reality is very different. In reality unless a person is given land by his father then there is no other option to afford land than to through Mexico into the States. 1 in 10 young men are estimated to take this option in Guatemala with as much as 1 in 3 estimated in Los Cuchumontanas. The reality is that they head to the states to work in chinese restaurants or as gardeners or in construction for double the hours and have the wages of people with papers all to save up enough money to buy some land back at home. If they manage to get through Mexico safely, which many dont, on arrival in a country with a foreign language and alien way of life they also have a bill of 4,000 dollars to a Coyote who has brought them there. I have talked to a few people about this since and the most startling thing is that they dont go through the desert on trecks but straight through the border paying the border police on the way. Now im not an expert on border police in the states but it seems hard to believe that such a nation couldnt stop this if they really wanted. Or is the economy actually propped up by this new form of slave labour??
The most disturbing thing for me is that when these people return they are so full of praise about everything form the US and yet so ignorant of the fact that the reason they dont have the opportunity to make a decent living in their own country is partly because of the capitalist corporations from the very country they admire so much. Of course credit has to go to the Spanish conquistadors historically and the more recently the 18 Guatemalan families that now control the country.

After we got to the bridge construction site the rocks were destined for we then picked up another truck that brought us to the town of Nebaj. Nothing special in itself other than it is a real Guatemalan town with very little outside influence and it also has great yellow cheese. Somewhat of a rarity in Guatemala. All in all it took us a day for the trip and we headed back along a paved road to Huehue the next day on micro bus. Enough adventure for one weekend.

Xela (Volcan Santa Maria)

Myself and Denise met up in Xela to climb Santa Maria volcanoe a few weeks back. We also met up with a few people we had met in Monte Rico the week before for Denises birthday. We planned on climbing Santa Maria but when we got to teh base the guide told us that due to the taxi braking down by the time we got to teh top the clouds would stop us seeing anything and convinced us to go to a look out to see Santa Guita erupting. As in turnd out he was lying through his teeth but I was happy either ways all i wanted to see was Santa guito anyway. Something cool about an active volcanoe has to be said......