The building process is moving right along....the excavation was completed for the cimentation (foundation) and most of the varillo (rebar) has been set. The cimentation is a very tedious process with the huge amount of varillo that has to be cut, formed, and all tied together. All of the castillos (columns) have to be hand made and tied into the varillo (rebar) that forms the zapata corrida (footer) and contratrabe (stem wall). All of our outside corners are rounded so the castillos had to be custom made for these areas. The easiest way to describe the construction is to basically say it is concrete post and beam filled with brick. We decided on using the tabique (red brick) instead of the tabicon (concrete block) because of its better insulating properties. The builders are expecting to be ready to pour concrete by the end of the week or the beginning of next week. Once the foundation is in place things will start moving along pretty fast. At that point it is a matter of setting tabique (red brick) between the castillos and then everything is tied together with the trabes (bond beams). The builders will actually use a concrete truck to pour the cimentation so there will be no dry seams. We are happy that our builders are working hard everyday and are taking the extra step to make sure we have an incredibly strong foundation. This is a real good thing cuz we are in an earthquake prone area. Our friend Christine told us tales of at least eight minor quakes she has felt in the last 3 years she's been here.
So..in the meantime while our builders are busy getting ready for the pour...Marty and I are busy trying to keep our own foundations in shape. Our day begins waking up and doing a 20-30 minute session of stretching (yoga/pilates) and then off with the doggies on a 3 mile or so walk. Next we look for the activity du jour. Between mountain biking through the coconut groves, swimming at our friends pool, surfing or scoping new/advanced surfing areas (for the future), kayaking in the lagoon...or shopping trips we manage to keep ourselves pretty busy. Then theres the meal planning...two out of three times that means we have to decide which restaurant is calling us! We've also made up some wonderful meals ourselves including: smoothies, french toast, fruit salads, huge vegetable salads, avocado sandwiches, chicken mole, fresh lobster, shrimp and fish.... yum! Now that it's cooler it's going to be alot easier to cook. Speaking of which, its LUNCH TIME!! Hasta Luego.
The rebar (varillo), the trenches and cement.
Fancy ! building to store our materials (La Bodega).
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