Closing it all in

Framing it up

We have started the walls and are still battling daily rains to finish the floors. There is quite a bit of sanding and filling of the boards on the floor and it can't be done when wet. Some of the afternoon storms come with a lot of wind and even with 1 meter roof overhangs, the floor gets wet.
The rest of the windows show up and a day is spent just installing them all and framing up the timbers to support the wall boards. The windows are beautiful, all with one fixed panel and one sliding panel on the smaller ones, with two sliding panels on the larger ones. They do not have glass or screens installed yet, as it is kind of hazardous for them with the amount of lumber being slapped up at this time. This takes all day, some work goes into the floors at the same time. The afternoon rain drenches the floors, so we will concentrate on the walls the next day.
The next day, get a call from the tractor guy while on the way up to see if I would like to do the road today. So much for planning, I go round up the neighbor so that he can make sure his part will be to his satisfaction. He is not happy about not scheduling it in advance, but manages to tear himself away from watering his coffee plants for a couple of hours to supervise the tractor guy. He does a rather amazing amount of work, and just when I think he can't possibly get to my part, here he comes down the hill. It is beautiful, and I get the first test drive up the new driveway at the end of the day. I don't need four wheel drive, but I know I will want it when the weather is bad for the main road coming up the mountain.

The tractorman cometh

 Meanwhile back on the house the exterior walls have started going up. With the usual flurry of organization, and hard work, it looks like all the walls will go up this week. With the same kind of teamwork on the walls, and a couple of guys just sanding the boards before installing them, and also sanding and filling the floor at this time, things are really busy.

Starting the walls

Trying to stay dry, note; backer board for tile is soaked

Scaffolding is makeshift and access slows them down a bit

Things happen quickly when the machine is engaged

Turning the corner

The walls are really moving along as the crew is just as organized at this as they are on the floors. It is a little slower due to the extra cutting and fitting required around the windows. They improvise scaffolding to get the first floor walls done, but don't want to go up to the second yet, as it is 6 meters tall and will be kind of scary.

High altitude framing

They start the second story and we go shopping, a slow day but still moving right along. Some of this is just complicated and will take longer than anyone expects, so we don't get all the outside walls up in one week. We are still very optimistic that we will move in before we take our holiday sabatical to become grandparents. I still don't have access to the roof guy, so I begin putting the back section of roof up to keep the water out of the lower windows.

Last bit of roof going up

Hammock eye view of finished roof

It seems to trouble them that Don David, the owner, is actually working, but I don't want them distracted from their job. They seem really amazed that I can do work. At the end of the week we have all but two sections of the walls in, and we are happy.

Sealing the walls

Last part of the first floor walls

The next week consists of the rest of the walls, hand sanding, and sealing the outside sections, and oh yeah the front of the second story walls, more precarious than the back and complicated, too.

Pretty complicated, this will eat some time

How it looks from the outside

Room with a view, as the front comes together

The guys showed up to put in the spiral staircase to the second floor. Kind of hard to make out with all the other stuff, but it looks pretty cool. Is a whole other story how we ended up with it in an entirely different spot than planned, but hey, this is Ecuador. We found out that the original plan didn't have enough head room for me to walk up the stairs, so we had to move it about a meter in front of the original location. Nothing is easy, but it will be fine in the final cut.

Spiral up

The scaffolding clutters the image, but you get the idea, right? The metal guys putting in the staircase and painting it, prevented the wood guys from sanding and finishing as much as planned, so they worked this Saturday to keep the ball rolling.

Bedroom view

interior wall between bath and kitchen

framing up the bathroom

 After half the day, the wall between the kitchen and the bathroom is in and they are going to finish the bathroom wall. We have to come up with the plumbing on Monday along with the rest of the electrical work. Todo bien, or all is well as they say in Ecuador.

The view from the other side of the valley

We drove up the road on the other side of the valley for a better view and some perspective. A precarious drive at best, but it helps us to see how remote we are. The red dot in the center is the house, next to a grove of Eucalyptus trees.