More Carpentry Pictures

Manuel at the helm

Bruce between the South Wall and the South Parapet Support Structure

The Support for the Parapet on the South End of the Structure is going up

South Wall

View from the kitchen looking South

View from the kitchen looking South

Balcony view looking South

Another Balcony View looking South

Second Floor looking South

Second Floor looking North

The above picture is unique in that we haven't taken a picture from the East looking SouthWest (other than close-ups of the rebar/brickwork).  One can barely see the tunnel just above the grass near the base of the black walnut tree. One day, all of that will be covered with dirt and some kind of green-ness as yet to be determined.

End Walls Nearly Ready

Some pictures of the End Walls.  We are also working on finishing the rebar.

 The West Wall is the farthest along (above pictures).  The North Wall needs insulation (blue stuff) and sheathing and then the Tyvek HouseWrap.  And the South Wall is awaiting some screws which should come tomorrow...but the crew put the sheathing on where they could so they can still get to those areas that they will need to.  No insulation is needed at this time on the South Wall as it can be insulated when we work on the interior.  The South Parapet has not been started as yet as the South Wall needs to be completed first.

 

Pictures of End Walls

Lots of windows fit into our South wall.  The smaller holes are for insulation.  And lots of LVL (linear veneer lumber , ie engineered lumber) to hold our wall in place through most any storm.  It's a long span, 20 ft high in the middle, with no second floor supports, so we are thankful to Tom and John, the engineers that designed this a very sturdy wall.  And thanks to the carpenters for enthusiastically building it to specifications. It is made to withstand winds so that it won't blow in or out in hurricane-force winds.

Our Second Floor from the perspective of an upper window on the South Wall

The West Wall

The Carpenters are Here! THE CARPENTERS ARE HERE!!!

All of Vincent's crew (Bruce, Manuel, Eric and Felix, plus Vincent's son, Sam), showed up on Monday, and have not had rain days, so progress is going full bore.  All of the materials were not here, but they were able to work on the West Wall on Monday.  Materials arrived on Tuesday for the South Wall. Ooops...we are missing some fasteners and screws...to be delivered Wednesday, hopefully....still to be delivered...

A problem encountered with The South Wall and Parapet - it is out of plumb by 3 inches.  Some of the arches are twisted.  Thought processes are working on this problem....and this is resolved.  Stretching and straightening.

We had to make a new home for our tadpoles and mosquito larvae.  We created a little pool nearby, and bailed out the pool area.  We also moved 3 frogs and a toad.  

An electrical occurrence momentarily stopped work Monday.  The carpenters use a lot of electricity for their tools and air compressor, and we were supplying it.  However, when they  plugged in the microwave at lunchtime, and turned it on, that fried our electrical box.  Bill got the generator out and the carpenters had lunch and went back to work.  The electrician was called and put us back online by lunchtime Tuesday (with no microwave problems).  The power outage effected our living quarters with only a glitch in the power and 45 minutes without power while the electrician fixed the problem.  

It did rain Monday night which caused a somewhat muddy condition Tuesday. And the pool area has some water in it again, but not much.  We continue to add water to their (tadpoles') swimming pool.


Pictures to come.....

The Patio is Done! The Patio is Done!!

Last week, Mario and his co-worker, came and finished creating our patio.  They were helped a lot by the delivery of a truckload of cement.

The slab looks to be 3 shades of gray.  Actually, the patio is a straight line starting at the second metal arch.  The lighter curved moon is the protrusion of sunlight onto our floor INSIDE the house.  And the shade behind that is where the 'roof' will help us keep cool.

 

Preparation for South Patio

These photographs show the insulation and rebar set in place for the concrete pour soon to be done - after the rain stops.  

The horizontal insulation is 3 inches thick.  The vertical insulation along the footer is 2 inches thick.  They will help keep the heat sync (under the house) from escaping as it will have to travel another 9 feet (from the interior of the house) to uninsulated dirt.  

Every 2 feet along the front of the house slab, there is a drilled hole where the rebar has been inserted.  Since the rebar is 1 foot apart, every other piece of rebar is 'floating'.  

Tunnel nearer completion

The brick wall now has the rebar behind it and is ready for the shotcrete.

The tunnel second layer of rebar has been quality checked and the third layer of rebar is being applied.

Quality Control is still ongoing on the rest of the house structure.  
Bill and I visited the 'pool' area, and found tadpoles as well as mosquito larvae.  So we shall leave them be and watch that they get enough rainfall.
We also visited the dirt wall behind the garage.  It used to be 14 feet high but because the back-filling started awhile back, it is more like 10 feet high. In that wall, some bees have decided to build their tunnel nests.