one brick at a time

Good morning all. This is Grant posting. I was scrolling through previous posts and it looks like there hasn't been an update on the house project since Stollers and Bluniers were here digging trenches and a little bit on Scott's post. I guess it probably is time for a little update.

After getting most of the paper work through, we were finally able to start. I hired one mason and two laborers to help, so the four of us are usually out there Monday through Saturday. We only work from 7:30 to 2:30, so it leaves some time in the afternoon for Bible studies and other stuff around the house, like changing diapers.

The mason really does everything, not just bricklaying. I think the only subcontractor we will ever have on the job will be for the windows and doors. I'm having fun designing drainage, plumbing, and electrical systems, along with sizing steel beams to support the concrete roof. It's great not to have any codes or inspections :) I really like the Mexican style of just doing the best you know how to do and seeing if it works later. Engineers are just way too expensive. That's what they tell me at least... They also told me about a man who put a new bathroom in his house and then hooked up his drainage pipe to the city sewer. Minor detail: his bathroom was lower than the city sewer pipe... We're doing our best to try to avoid messes like that. Fortunately we got all our drainage and water pipes in and the slab poured on top before Hannah found out that we were just flying by the seat of our pants.

Presently, we are finished with a few additions and rearranging of the existing walls and are working on building the walls of the kitchen/living room addition out the front.

Here's the mason - the head honcho. His name is Jose. 

 The guy in yellow is second-in-command. He's Jose's son. His name is Jose.

The young man on the left sometimes hangs around to hold up the walls for us. His name is Jose.

This is Chuy. His mom chose the second most common name around here. This is how we mix concrete for small jobs. 

Looking at the front of the house. The floor has been poured in this picture. We used a concrete mixer for that. 

View from the street. 

 Here is Jose trying hard to get more water from the barrel. On the two major days of pouring the concrete floor, we didn't have any water from the city (I think the pump had burned up). I spent most of the time running around in Marshall's pickup looking for water to haul. By the way, that's a great way to get out of mixing concrete.

Laying brick around the window opening. Down here we just make all the openings however we feel so moved at the time and then hire a metal worker to custom make all the windows and doors. Standard sizes do not exist. I love it.

So that's where we are on the house. Those who know me well can probably imagine how much fun I'm having with all of it. But don't worry, our mason really does know his stuff, so we shouldn't run into too many major problems in the future. We are really looking forward to having a place of our own, hopefully around the end of August, Lord willing.