With the windows on the way, I tried my best to "grade" the road. The washboard was horrible, hopefully this will smooth it out a bit.

Grader cam:

A neighbor and I drove out about 30 miles to meet the truck and lead him in:

The shipper did a phenomenal job re-packing the windows. 28 windows, 3 sliding glass doors, and three entry doors with zero damage:

Our contractor discussing window installation with Martin, one of the masons:

To secure the windows in the block, we drilled 3/4 inch holes and glued wood dowels into them. The windows will be secured with deck screws into the dowels, then plastered in place.

The first windows roughed in:

Meanwhile, work continues on the patio sitting wall. These C-clamps made of rebar hold the form in place so the top will be level:

Rockwork continues to go up on the arches. Very tedious and time consuming:

Main electrical panel and 12 volt transformer for exterior lighting are roughed in:

Plumbing is also nearly complete:

Tools

Hacksaw bent out of rebar. Blade is held into place by nails and tension of the rebar:

This is an ingenious device. It's a powerful magnet attached to the end of an old fishing pole. They sweep it over the dirt or floor to pick up nails that have been dropped.

This is a belt holder for a hammer, made out of the wire that holds the rebar together:

Cup holders are conveniently placed throughout the construction site:

Punch clock and day planner:

Their scaffolding always amazes me. I just about pee my pants while working on it. They climb like cats on a wall.

January 20, 2012

Windows arrived safely at the importers warehouse in San Diego. They should arrive here on Monday.

Front patio pour is complete and the sitting wall is being built:

January 19, 2012

January 12, 2012

For the last few days we've been pouring the patio. It has to be done in sections to (hopefully) prevent cracks in the concrete as it cures. My job is to properly mix the color. The color is calculated for bags of U.S. cement which weigh 94 lbs. Cement bags in Mexico weigh 110 lbs.

We bought a scoop, figured out the proper amount of color for a 110 bag, then took the color and scoop to the hardware store where they have a scale. We weight out the proper amount of color and made a mark in the scoop. For each bag of cement, the color is added. The stuff is a mess. It permanently stains clothes....and almost permanently stains skin.

I can't believe how hard these guys work. Each bag of cement is loaded by hand into the mixer (110 lbs), along with 4-5 gallon buckets of gravel, and 4-5 gallon buckets of sand. Each bucket weighs nearly 40 lbs. This process has been repeated 70 times so far and we're only half way done. That's nearly 30,000 lbs of material lifted by hand into the mixer in less than an hour!

Each mixer load produces two wheelbarrows full of concrete. Omar, pictured here, logged 140 trips to complete what we've done so far. I can't even describe how heavy each wheelbarrow load is:

To the left is the pour from a few days ago, and to the right...todays pour:

A decorative rock:

While the patio pour is going on, our contractor and I (mostly our contractor), are building the shade structure that will go over the courtyard. These are "knife plates" that will hold up the 4"x6" beams. I cut the metal and welded them to form a "T". They are then welded to rebar that's imbedded into the concrete.

The headers are going up. We painted the wall behind them to seal it.

Here's the workshop. All tools are being powered by the sun!

January 8, 2012

While waiting for concrete to arrive for the patio, we finished installing the septic lines:

It was a tight fit to get the backhoe in:

Another project is designing the bathtub:

Cement load finally arrived!

100 bags in the garage:

100 bags ready to pour:

Patio forms are up:

Compacted, wired and ready to pour:

January 5, 2012

Sunrise from the living room:

Same sunrise from upper deck:

Below is Osvaldo installing the hand rail. To form the curve, he bent a piece of rebar to match the curve, took it back to his shop ( 2.5 hours away), and made the handrail. A few days later he drove out (5 hours round trip) to make a few more measurements. He was only here for about 5 minutes. When he returned today...it fit perfectly.

Osvaldo didn't know we were powered by solar panels. He plugged his welder in and began working. When I saw him welding, I almost freaked. I pictured a complete meltdown of our system due to the huge current draw. To my surprise it worked perfectly! I didn't think the system would power a welder. Sure drew down the batteries fast though. I had to keep an eye on him, and run the generator whenever I saw he was preparing to weld so the batteries wouldn't go dead.

In retrospect, it was probably dumb putting ironwork outside so close to the ocean. We'll just have to keep it maintained to keep the rust a bay...

Tomorrow we were supposed to pour the patio. Unfortunately the truck of cement is MIA.

Hopefully it will arrive soon...