Category Archives: Work

Cabin Walls and Pozo

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We are at the phase of the cabin project where we can really see the shape that the house is taking. This week we began framing the walls and digging the “pozo.” Pozo means well, but in this case, it is the word they use for septic tank. This hole has to be at least 6 feet in the ground, 6 feet wide and 6 feet in length. Below about 2 feet, it is rock hard soil. And they are digging by hand. In the full sun. Yah. There are some worn out guys by the end of the day.

Digging the septic hole
Britton and the guys take turns digging and removing the dirt for the septic

Before we even started these tasks, Britton installed all the hurricane clips beneath the house as well as brought over and powerwashed nearly all of the 2x4s. Between him and me, I think we probably washed about 200 pieces of wood, and some of them really needed it.

Powewashing boards in the quebrada
Britton pauses during powerwashing (sorry it’s a little blurry)

This is such a major project it quickly becomes exhausting. The guys often work straight through in the hot, blazing sun. Since we had to clear the area before we could build, it is just roasting without shade. The good thing is that we think it is going to be an excellent candidate for solar power.

Framing
Framing the first wall

Every single thing that you see in these pictures was brought over by hand through the jungle up and down slick slopes under and over trees and vines. I don’t think anyone would deny that we really are a team of go-getters with can-do attitudes (but they may say we are a little crazy too  🙂 )!

Walls up
Two walls up

We are still deciding on a few things like siding (there is really only one choice at any ferreteria: T-111 siding -but we would prefer something else, windows -Miami shutters (Air Masters) must make up 90% of the market here so again not much choice in the matter unfortunately, and we can’t find any rolls of insulation anywhere. Not that we really need insulation for temperature reasons (there will be no heating or air conditioning inside) but we would like it in order to fill the cavities so that bees or bats won’t want to once again take up residence inside. These are fairly minor issues, they just make our days “off” seem like endless scavenger hunts with promising leads, but all trails point to the same limited choices (anyone with any suggestions?). Cést la vie in Island Construction.

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Finishing the Foundation (and Some Fun)

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This week went by pretty fast because we had all of our days filled up. The guys worked four days out of five finishing up the columns -building the molds, mixing concrete, etc- and the one day that they didn’t, Britton and I spent about 10 hours shoveling and then carrying buckets of rocks up and down the quebrada like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia. We were joking that this is by far the best exercise regimen you could come up with! Cardio, strength training and repetition. We were super sore (especially my shoulders), but the next day was more work.

Rock pile
Britton and I literally moved tons of rocks to this site

They mixed all the concrete and then had to load it into buckets and into a wheelbarrow. One person “drove” the wheelbarrow and the other one or two acted as the horses and in that way they hauled the super heavy wet concrete to the columns.

Bringing over the concrete Loading concrete
Loading the buckets and wheelbarrow to bring to the site

The hard work wasn’t over at the site either. At this point they had to lift each super heavy bucket of liquid concrete mix in the air where it was then lifted by the guy on the ladder and then dumped into each column form.

Dumping buckets
Dumping the concrete into the column mold

Site now
Poured columns

turkeys and columns
The turkeys checking everything out

By the time the weekend came, we were ready for a break from the work. This weekend is the annual Corona Pro Surf competition and like the one we went to last year, it brought quite the crowd into Rincón. On Saturday night we went out to the bar Calypso because a great reggae band called the Predator Dub Assassins was playing and we had a blast.

P Dub and Mark
P Dub at Calypso

We used to listen to them some when we were preparing for our move here to get psyched up, so it was cool to see them in person. Plus one of our friends was playing in the band with them!


This video was filmed here in Rincón

And finally, today we enjoyed a beautiful beach day down at the marina with friends.

At the marina

Lots of work, and lots of play, too.

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Column Construction: Rebar, Footers and Concrete

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The guys are making some great progress on the cabin foundation. The concrete stuff is all new to us, so it has been quite the learning experience. Since we can’t actually drive to the cabin site, we opened up the fence in order to be able to drive the truck halfway there. This saved a lot of time, labor and heavy breathing going up and down and up and down with just buckets and a wheelbarrow. Though there was still some of that too.

Loading the rebar
Driving through the formerly fenced area

They worked a few days on the rebar for the columns, then they loaded them onto the truck as far as they could go and then carried them to the site.

Cutting rebar Stair work benchBending and cutting rebar for the column skeletons

Then they set and measured them to make sure everything was level again.

Rebar columns
Rebar columns

Truck down below
Unloading the truck and taking the sand two buckets at a time

Truck loaded up
Good thing we have a truck! It was super filled with sand, boards, and concrete

Finally, they had unloaded everything to the flattest part of the quebrada under the canopy and by a pretty mango tree. Here they built a mixing platform and began to hand mix the concrete. Luckily the three hoses reached because we had hooked up water to the turkey coop!

Mixing concrete
Mixing in the shade


Sounds like the start of a good joke: Four guys and four turkeys make concrete in the jungle…

And then they were able to load up the buckets once again and haul them up the hill to the site where they dumped them into the holes to make the footers.

Footers
Zapatones/Footers

We had a huge rainstorm that caused a bit of a delay, but they were able to finish all the footers in one day. Next in line will be the column molds and repeating the hauling and mixing process for them as well.

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Cabana Shower Tile Project

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When the wood house take-down finished, two of the guys who helped in that project were interested in continuing with anything else we could give them by way of work. Well, around here there is always work, so we started talking about some projects we could put them on before we start the big ones (the cabin on the other side and the bridge).

So we tried to think of things we either didn’t have the skills or motivation to tackle. We had them finish up a few things like plastering the new electric pedestal, taking out some of the fencing and general clean-up. Then I thought of one that is a bit of a luxury item, but something I have wanted since we moved in: Tile for the cabana shower stall! When we first moved in we painted it, but it was difficult to keep clean, the paint kept peeling up and it had little pink tile flooring.

Shower before
Before

So our team of Jorge and Waldemar (and us as needed) were happy to do it. The hardest part was removing the paint from the walls before mortaring. Paint is considered a bond breaker, so while it was a messy part of the job, it was necessary.

Shower During
During/prep and paint removal

These guys did a great job and went above and beyond working longer than they had planned so that we would be able to shower soon. We only have one bathroom and it is extremely tiny so it was a challenge having all of us in there checking it out at various times. It’s always tough living in a construction zone let alone one without any bathrooms (since the bathroom is the work zone)! But we all got through it just fine.

Jorge y Waldemar
Jorge and Waldemar finishing up

Well, the tile, mortar and grout finished setting up and we were finally able to take a shower in there after 3 days and it was soo nice!

Shower done 1
After

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