Reparando las vigas

(Domingo 19 - Sábado 25 Mayo)  Our crew is working hard to finalize everything. Unfortunately for us and them, Frank has rented his new house and needed to borrow Luis, our foreman, and one other fellow for two days to finish up details there. This put things behind here. It would not matter to us except for the fact that Luis has promised to start another project up in Coscomatepec, so the crew can be here only one week after this.

This week's work has centered on reparando (repairing) the rotted ends of the decorative roof vigas (beams) and furthest out tablas (boards) above them at the edges of the north and west roofs. The prior configuration of roof tiles had been constructed in such a way that rain dripping off the roof had run back, keeping these areas almost perpetually damp. To fix this, the guys cut off the beams back into good wood. Wood delivered from Alejandro's mill in Coscomatepec was trimmed to size and cut to the length needed for each beam extension. The decorative curves and notches to match the existing beams were crafted on the outboard ends. Then, using a very long 3/8” bit we had brought from the US, two deep holes were bored in each viga, and corresponding ones on the repair pieces. Rebar stubs were driven into the holes and the new beam ends sledged into place. Then to firm everything up further, heavy mending straps (some brought from the US, others found at Home Depot—otherwise unavailable here in local ferreterias), attached with lag screws.

In some cases, channels bored by polilla ants (aerial termites) were found in the beams, and festermicide was injected in the holes. All the wood was treated with festermicide, and the new vigas were stained and sealed with Thompson's WaterSeal. The other job this week was the construction of our little bodega (small storage area), which will be a place for tools and outdoor supplies. A short footing between the laundry and BBQ was poured, block walls constructed, actually incorporating part of the BBQ structure, and on saturday the roof slab was poured.

Mauricio, our welder. stopped by to measure and get Dan's ideas for designing the doors for our bodega being built between the laundry and outdoor BBQ/fireplace. They will be similar to our protective door gates, but covered with heavy gauge sheetmetal. We bought our washer and dryer from Home Depot, to be delivered next week thursday, and picked up lumber for shelving jobs Dan plans once the crew is gone. This week we had Home Depot deliver two unfinished cabinets that will be incorporated into a seating/storage area in the master bedroom.  Still lots of scraping being done on the outside walls, and late on Friday afternoon Dan finally arranged with a dump truck crew to remove our hugour huge pile of escombro (building debris) in the street beside the house.

Still no action from the local water commission, although we were able to finalize with the arquitecto that the sewage line will run to the east to the main existing line deep under Calle 11. Luis measured and found that the drop between the bottom of our registro and the surface of the calle is 1.4 meters, so the fact that the main line there is 3 meters deep indicates that it is a workable plan. They know that our crew will only be around another week, so we have hopes of having the city crew here early next week. Grocery shopped to fill our freezer and refrigerator again. We feel so wealthy having many fresh fruits and veggies in the frig. Items we never afforded so frequently in the US.