Erecting the Structure

As we go into the second week, we are excited to get to the part where we get to see the actual house going up. On Monday we show up at the welders, load the welder/generator, lots of tools and a few tubes of steel. This takes forever, but we hope they will improve with practice. When we get it all loaded, we head for the gas station to fill the tank on the welder and another can to take with us. We get to the site about 2 hours after the day starts, so we only have about 6 hours to actually work.

Loading up

The Welding Begins

As these things go, we move right along. It is soon apparent that we will use all the steel we have brought with us before the day is done. Good from a progress standpoint, but not so much from the productivity standpoint. We call the taxi to request more metal, but he has gone to Loja and won't be back till after lunch. He should be back up in time for a couple of more hours of welding. We need a 4x4 taxi to get materials to the site, and finding a new one who can load the steel and find us is unlikely without going personally to oversee it. That would involve walking down for a couple hours, so that is not an option. Unfortunately, he decides to wait till he comes to pick us up, so the workers sit idle for a couple of hours. I explain to the leader that if this happens again, I will not pay for the idle time. Next day we bring another load with us, but the rack on the truck will only bring about 8 tubes per load. He tells the taxi to keep bringing it, so on the third load, I tell them this is stupid, as it costs the same to bring a load with an empty taxi, as it does moving the crew. Once again, it is demonstrated that no amount of expense to me should be spared to ensure that they get paid.
The original plan had been to put pine beams on top of the metal frame, but I have seen too many wooden houses crumble when the timbers rot or are eaten by bugs. We agree to weld metal cross pieces to support the floor boards instead. This takes longer and requires more tubes, but should be pretty much bulletproof. They are very slow at measuring and cutting and cutting again when it doesn't fit, and maybe one more time for good measure, but it is moving along.

Starting to Look Like a Floor

After a couple of days of this, it looks like progress, but is driving me crazy. They mark the ends, put a string between the marks and then fit the tube pieces. I try to show them that if the frame is marked, they can just lay the tube in place, mark the bottom and it will fit first cut. They look at me like I just told them to eat a live rat, and obviously don't believe me, as this is not how they were taught to do it. I cut one to demonstrate it, and they do a few more that way. After lunch it is back to the old way, as this just feels wrong to them. I make them do it the quick way a few more times, but it obviously hurts them. Probably not as much as it hurts me to watch them waste so much time fooling around, but hey it's moving along.

A Week of Welding

It seems I have to spend at least two hours just getting them on track each day. We are excited enough about making this much progress to keep the crew for another week.

More strings and tapes

 When we get to the front area with the triangles instead of rectangles, they are terribly confused. He wants to cut each triangle into an even number of cross pieces depending on the size of the triangle. It is apparent that the floor I had envisioned, with the boards parallel to the edges, is not within their grasp. I get them to continue with the same spacing and decide the floor boards will all run in the same direction, just to keep moving. It's two hours and they are still moving the strings around. When they start cutting pieces by measuring with a tape, I give another try to just showing them how to lay the tube on top, draw a line on the bottom and cut it. Amazingly enough after you cut a piece at the right angle for one cross member, you just move it over and it is at the right angle for the next piece. Working on two sections of the floor at the same time seems painful to them, but they will do it if they have to. I make them move the cutting tools closer to the actual work just to eliminate the walking back and forth time.

Filling in the Triangles

The lesson seems to stay for the rest of the day and we move along.

Most of the first floor done

Exciting to think about going up after more than a week on the first floor.

Up we go

When all the uprights for the square part are in place we start to add the cross pieces. This part requires much time climbing up and down moving strings and such.

Front pieces

The front is particularly difficult, as no three are in line, so strings are useless. I try to convince them that the tops must be the same distance apart as the bottoms, but they must measure them at the top for each one. I convince them to try just the square part first, so that we can be doing something again.

Second floor frame

It is horribly slow, but still exciting to see the house taking on shape. When we get to the part where we add the beams for the second floor, we find that no amount of strings can compensate for hammering the wrong size upper frames in place. They try to tell me that the heat made them bend, but they are inches out of place and must be cut loose and re-welded. Half a day down the tubes, and I am starting to wonder what the Ecuadorian equivalent for Prozac is called.

Second floor taking shape

We press on, as scenes from Fawlty Towers flash through my mind, particularly one where Basil is sitting on Manuel in his underwear flailing away with a skillet at Manuels head. Alas, this would be culturally insensitive, so I have to keep it in my head.

We agree that to proceed up with the roof supports will require another pair of hands, so we will have another helper the next day.

Up, Up and Away

The helper is not afraid of height and can also weld, very exciting as visions of accelerated progress flash though my mind. The visions turn out to be illusions, as the Jefe will not allow him to take instructions from me, as I am just a dumb foreigner who doesn't understand how things are done here. At least he can fill in the welds while they try to puzzle out the process. It takes a whole day to get two of the three top roof supports in place along with the lower front roof support. A great deal of the time is trying to correct for the poorly cut angles by welding rebar and other metal into the holes when the pieces don't fit.

I keep hoping they will get better

Front roof support

Each day we talk about what we are going to do today and then proceed to get about half of it done. This is some of the hardest work I have ever done, and I am just overseeing it. They seem to have mastered the technique of moving half way to the goal each day, so that it will take infinity days to actually get to the end.

The top comes together

After much discussion, I agree to shorten the top cross piece by 2 meters, as it really adds nothing but the illusion of strength. They are convinced that it would be impossible to lift that much metal high enough to install it. We can finally start to add the roof panel supports and get an idea what it will really look like.

Connecting it all 

Next, we can start to add the supports for the porch roof. I try to get them to make 1 good one and then 8 copies of it to surround the porch. They think I want to eat their brains, but agree to make a bad one and keep refining it as they try to get them all made. Mass production is as alien as time travel in this world.

The porch roof supports going up

Despite repeated requests, they won't bring the rest of the roofing materials up to the site. After a heavy rain which damages the road a little bit, I convince them that if the road is damaged, and we can't bring the materials up, we can't work. This argument works even though it is faulty, because if we can't bring the welder up we cannot work regardless of the material situation. I suggest using a heavy truck to bring it up to the entrance, but they are sure it can just ride up with us on the taxi, as it's not really heavy. Another long painful session of moving materials ensues. I try to explain that the supports are upside down and too close together, they let me know they are in control.

Load it up

Unload and re-align supports

Final load

Amazingly enough, when they start loading it, the load is unstable because the supports are too close together, so we unload the first few panels and change the supports around. When we have 8 of 36 panels on the truck, they decide that the truck is loaded. After explaining that it will take 5 more trips and cost me $100 instead of the $20 for the heavy truck, they reluctantly load 18 panels. Half way up the mountain, the supports buckle from being upside down, but we manage to limp up to the site with minimal damage to the dragging panels. We spent about 2 and a half hours moving this load, and repeat the drill the next day in slightly less time. I send them back for the roof caps and some more welding rods. At last I have all the materials on site and no more dependence on this crew.

Roof supports going up

After another day of maddening bad cutting and hours of trying to compensate by welding it back together, I tell them that we cannot work the following week, as I have other obligations. I suggest that they take all their tools with them in case it takes longer than expected. They are really disappointed as it soaks in that they have killed the golden goose. I am the happiest I have been in weeks, kind of like when you stop hitting yourself on the head and it feels so good to not be hit on the head anymore. The taxi driver is particularly sad, as this is probably the best gig he has ever had.

I found an expat with good references who will work for a reasonable hourly rate. I will work with him to finish this up, and I feel good about the arrangement. 

We took a week off to go to Cuenca and extend our visas, and just tie up some loose  ends. I have scheduled a tractor to come move the entry to the property to the top of the hill next week, and things are looking up once again.

The new whip

A funny thing happened on the way to the generator store. We went up to Loja to look for a generator to use for construction and until we get on the grid someday. I had picked out a 1995 Land Cruiser and was on my way to buy it when we got the opportunity to buy materials and start building. It was the perfect vehicle for living in the mountains, but one must have priorities. A week later, we drove by the car lot and the whole lot was vacant. Just not meant to be, I guess. While walking around yesterday, we saw the worker from the car lot in front of another shop with no signs or indications that it was the same business. Upon asking about the car, he said yes it is right inside. We went to look at it, and the owner had completely reupholstered the front seats and added a new battery and a few other touches. He was glad to see me and I offered to buy it for slightly less than the earlier agreement. He accepted the offer and when I told him I needed to go home for the money he offered to take me down to Malacatos, a one hour ride each way. I drove us down, and we really liked the car. It had better road manners than I expected from an off road vehicle and nice new comfy seats. We spent the rest of the day doing the paperwork, and drove home in a new car. Your world can change in an afternoon, we will be doing a lot more sightseeing after the house is done, as well as having much more flexibility in making things happen. It's all good.

The Building Begins

We decided to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak and keep rolling as long as possible. Eduardo, the taxi driver we have been using for most of our running around has been going on and on about how the VIlcabamba workers exploit foreigners, and if we use his friends in Malacatos, they will be honest and hardworking and stop trying to take advantage of us. At first glance, the materials for the bodega were more expensive than we were led to believe, and Eduardo's dad hauls rocks, gravel, sand, and anything heavy in his truck for about half what we paid for the bodega project. His truck is also smaller and more powerful than the dump truck, so it can bring the materials up to the site instead of dumping them at the entry. Since the bases for the columns will be require lots of this stuff, we decided to give it a try.

We talked with the metal worker he recommended, and he seems to be able to grasp the design, and actually have some ideas of his own, so we decided to proceed. I had been told that he had his own gas powered portable welder/generator, and would charge $130/day for a welder and helper to weld the steel frame for the house. Of course we should buy the materials immediately, as the price would be more the next week. We decided to go for it and headed off to Loja to the steel distributor to buy metal in bulk. We bought about $3400 worth of tubes for the frame and channels for mounting the wood and metal roofing. We also bought $2200 worth of  metal roofing and screws and such. This was all paid in cash and must have made my pockets appear to be very deep.
The first warning should have been when I asked what the work would cost and he replied $800/wk. I asked what he paid his workers and he told me $85/wk, so I told him we would pay what is fair, but I wanted to see a list each week of what we were paying for.
We proceeded to dig holes for the bases and made good progress.
The first load of rocks and cement came, but the truck couldn't quite make it to the top of the driveway with a full load. They unloaded it and it was decided that he would dump half at the entry, make a run up to the site, and the guys would go back to the entry to reload the truck with the other half. The price of the delivery was included in the cost of material which was $15/cubic meter, so this was not a very good deal for the driver. Instead of bringing it all the next day, he just made 1 or 2 trips a day over the rest of the week. We had to adjust the work schedule to use what we had available at the site. At the end of the first day I was told we needed to buy rebar for the supports and a guy in town would do the ironwork. We agreed reluctantly that we should have concrete supports above ground level so that the steel would not rust out in the concrete below ground level in the rainy season. When we ordered the ironwork, it became apparent that they were going to be a bit taller than I had planned. Actually he ordered then to come up to floor level, just to be safe. We were to use steel plates with rebar attaching it to the rest of the column to attach the steel framing. I tried to avoid the columns, as this is a long process and bad concrete mixing is a common problem here. I finally caved to the peer pressure as everyone I talked to thought it would be much stronger and that's how we roll in Ecuador.

Building the bases

The first colum

Una mas columna

Column plates for the frame attachment

One more load

Pouring concrete in the column form

At the end of the week, he wrote down $800 as the total. I asked what this was for and he replied workers, lunch, transportation, etc. This was for 3 guys digging holes and mixing concrete. I was furious, but tried to keep my composure and told him that I had paid for the transportation, so he dropped the price to $700. We just gave him $500 and left, afraid that longer interface would bring culturally unacceptable behavior on my part. When I got up to leave his wife was standing at the door looking really scared. It is considered poor form to get really furious and appear as though you are about to go postal on them. I stewed on this for a couple of days and went to see him on Sunday, determined to fire him if we didn't come to some agreement. I lost a lot of sleep fuming about the nerve it took to imply that I was too rich or stupid to need to count where it all went. When we talked on Sunday, I explained that I was not paying for anything I did not get and if that was a problem other people wanted to do this work. I was not paying welders wages for common labor like hole digging. He reduced the price to $350/ week for the team, so we agreed to go forward.  Another week of much the same and the columns were complete on Thursday, we just needed to come back for the forms Friday, so it would just be 4 days work this week.

Rebar in the form

Looking down from the road above

Mixing and pouring concrete

Last one is done

Moving the driveway to make room for the frame

When I got the bill, it was only $600 for this week. I started to percolate, but explained that we had agreed on $350/wk. on Sunday, so I only owed $280 for this week. He agreed and I had already paid $150 too much the previous week, so $130 more would cover it. He was obviously disappointed at my grasp of logic, but agreed to this. He then said the metal all needed to be cleaned and painted and that it would take 6 days, so would be $1100. Once again, I told him workers were not worth that and we agreed that $400 would be more in line with the norm. I am astonished that he can tell me this with a serious straight face, but it is a different culture, and you must earn their respect by not bending over and well,,,you know what I mean.
Come Friday, we go up to remove the last of the molds, and he tells me he forgot to include lunch in the bill which is another $75. I explain that lunch is only $2.50 in the nicer restaurants in town, that they don't actually buy lunch, one of the wives makes it each day, and I am already paying $100/wk for $85 labor, so maybe he should give me back the extra $7.50 I paid. A disappointed look and never mind shrug settle that matter. We talk about the framing work and agree that using metal instead of wood for the beams will be stronger and last longer, and that integrating them into the frame will make the structure stiffer and eliminate the need for supports for the porch. This will take a few more days to implement, but is a good idea in the long run. I agree to go buy the additional metal and he agrees to include painting it for the already agreed upon price. He also says he wants to do a formal labor contract to avoid further confusion. A little research shows that in Ecuador such contracts are only to protect the workers and to be sure that they get paid.

Moving and Shaking at Last

A week went by, and now it's July. At least it seems like that when you travel for a couple of months. We were glad to get out of the storms and bugs in Florida, and ready to try our luck in Ecuador again. We returned to Cuenca for a few days, planning to visit the shock wave guy for a follow up, and have someone look at Joan's shoulder, which was deteriorating. The shock wave Dr. was in the USA visiting his kids, so we just saw the original ortho guy and got some ultrasounds and xrays of Joan's shoulder. Good news was no tears in the tendons, but the down side is that nothing can be done about it except long painful rehab. He started her on anti-inflammatory medicine with glucosamine and sent us on our way.

We decided that the only reason to return to my Dr. was to tell him I was good, so we took off to Malacatos. I am more mobile than I have been in a couple of years and loving every minute of it, with the possible exception of the soreness from overdoing it now and then. We returned to the same house, as we had paid a portion of the rent to secure a spot for our Ecuador possessions and to skip looking for a new rental on return.

This is an example of how things go for the unwary. The ceiling of this A frame house is supported with Ubingue wood timbers which is an extremely hard and totally water resistant wood, an excellent material for floors. It was very expensive 3 years ago when this house was built, and is virtually unavailable now. The background wood is actually floating floor, totally unable to tolerate moisture or wetness. There is no rhyme or reason to this, so the owner needs to pay a lot of attention to the building process.

We visited the property, and everything seemed intact. We started looking for a tractor guy to fix the road and ran around in circles for a few weeks trying to line something up. We were convinced by an english speaking local to hire a more expensive guy with a bigger tractor because of the extent of the damage to the road. It was to cost $25 instead of the usual $20/hr. Turns out he was the one who had finished the construction on the road originally, but had not been paid to finish it well. He showed up a week or so later than promised and tore into it. He worked miracles with the big tractor, moving very large rocks into the ruts and holes, filling them in with material from above.

Everything flows down hill in the mountains, so the fill was just pulled from the high side or gathered from the rubble which had tumbled down from above. As I was to learn over and over, things are not always what you expect. When he finished the road in one day instead of the 3 or 4 we had expected, he told me it costs $350 instead of the the $25/hr. I had been promised by his friend. It was still a better deal than a smaller tractor for several days, but my expectations were not met. Never let anyone do anything for your without a clear understanding of the cost. The people we deal with are almost evasive when you asked what they charge or what a job will cost. This seems to be because they hope it will take a long time so they can make more money.

The next step was to build a bodega or shed on the property to give us a place to keep tools and materials for the house project and also to enable us to apply for electricity. The guy I was considering for the house project agreed to build the bodega for a fixed price which we found reasonable, so we went for it. They worked for about a week and finished it up on time and only slightly over budget. It turned out that the dump truck bringing rocks, gravel, sand and bricks could not make it up the final part of the driveway because it was too steep, so all the materials were dumped at the entry to the driveway and ferried to the site with the contractors 4x4 pickup truck. This added a bit of unforeseen time and work to the project, which resulted in an extra $100 and a day more time. We were pretty satisfied with the results and now had a one car garage with steel doors for a base in the mountains.

Moving the rocks

The Finished Bodega/Garage

We were now in need of electricity for the construction of the house. We had been told that if we apply with 5 other neighbors, the government would set up the electricity for the neighborhood without cost to us. I spent a few days looking for some neighbors, but they are few and far between. The first one I asked about this asked me "Why would I want to pay for electricity?". Hard to make payments if you garden and tend cows for a living. This was beginning to look like a long process as it is driven from the national level, and wouldn't even be budgeted until the fiscal year following approval. We decided to see what the electric company wanted to just hook us up. We had been told that it would cost $3000 and take three months, but when they came, they said we would need four poles. a transformer and permission to cut trees on the neighbor's land. The proposal came by e-mail a few days later and it would cost $6500 and take two months. I got a call from the engineer the following morning asking when I wanted to start. I told him not now as I didn't have that much money lying around. I think I can buy a generator and run it for 5 or 10 years at that cost. This will also allow us to  get on with the house project without having to rent a generator for the work.