Week 7 - The start of the floor

So although I said the roof was finished I still haven't been able to seal it yet as its rainy season here and I need the roof to be really dry before I seal it. Its almost completely water tight though just a couple of damp walls, but that will all be fixed when its sealed.

Extending the new roof - rotten beams at rear

I also took off a section of the roof from the back of the house as a couple of beams where looking worse for wear so they came down this week. Its about 20sqm so shouldn't take more than a few days to complete, we have already made the beams to go up but before I get that complete I really want to complete this floor. My maestro has been ill this week so its been up to me to start the floor. 

Demolishing a small part of the roof at the rear

The beams are made and all up now. But the biggest job is getting them all lined up. The old floor beams were all over the place, none of them were level so it has taken a couple of days just to get one side level. 

Inside the main building

My hammer drill broke and trying to get it fixed has been nightmare. One person kept it for three days and gave it back to me claiming it was fixed... nope, and he even had the cheek to try and charge me for it. So I had to bite the bullet and buy a new one - at least this one comes with warranty.

Floor beams up

It doesnt look much at the moment but I just need to set the beams in concrete tomorrow and then the floor can start going up. I am double layering the floor boards (1 x 8’s) - I wanted to do this so heres no gaps to the rooms below. 

A level floor - I hated this job!

I also started to run the conduit in the walls for the electric cables. Most people have said I should just run them outside the walls but I like all the wiring to be hidden - a lot more work but it will look a lot better.

An almost complete 'pool house'

The little outhouse out the back is also taking shape. I got the guys to plaster it as I wanted to test how good they were before I give them the job of plastering the entire house and they have done a good job so far - should also be finished in a day or two.

Practicing running electrical wires in the little outbuilding 

Eventually I plan to build a two floor building at the back so I don’t want to spend too much money on the back part but that said it needs to look presentable. I wooden supports you see at the front of the door will be replaced with Caoba that I have kept from the roof beams. They clean up really nice.

Enzo always wants to be where I am working

The little house itself is for my live in caretaker - just a bed and bathroom nothing fancy inside. I also bricked up one part of it to split up one of the rooms. This will be my store room. So I am also hoping that this will be finished by the end of the week. One set back is that I need to take the clay roof tiles off as they were put up wrong which is really annoying. It has to be done as it is raining inside at the moment...

Next week hopefully the floor will be up...

So I am hoping by the next post the floor will almost be complete - If my maestro is back it should be - if not I will do it meaning it will probably take a little bit longer as like everything here I am learning on the job.

Week 6 - Roof completed!

Finally. I have a new roof! I have been waiting for this for a long time. It has taken slightly longer than calculated and also a little more money but I now have a roof. The guys have been working really hard. 

The bricks were laid on the other side of the roof and the guys started laying the cement over the top. The thing that took the longest was building the edges up - as when we took the last roof off we had to take about a foot off.

Now the roof is finished we have to wait a couple of weeks for it to fully dry before we can put the sealant on to finally finish it (if the rain ever stops). But all the hard work for the roof is finally complete.

The top of the cistern is now also set, so as soon as we waterproof the inside we will be able to start filling it with water. I am glad we got that finished as it was a pain in the ass having to get buy as it is right in the middle of the walkway.

We have got one half of the beams up for the 1st floor. I was hoping the mahogany beams would be in a good enough condition to reuse but unfortunately not. So we have had to make another 22 beams which has taken up a lot of our time not to mention budget.

So the aim for next week is to have at least half the floor up - we started setting the beams but it is a lot of work to make them all level and also to lay all the floorboards. I have also started to mark where all the electrical lines will be run and where the lights and outlets will go. 

As soon as we have the electrical runs in the walls with the plumbing we will be ready to start plastering we will be ready to start plastering. That is when the house will really start to look close to completion.

Week 5 - Starting to take shape...

Ok my 3 week timescale to finish the roof may have been a bit optimistic... although this are looking good... I would say we are about seven days away from completion. To be honest though in that timescale we have also started other projects. 

The cistern is almost complete and we just need to poor the concrete to finish the top and we also started work on the little two room building at the back of the property. I wanted to get this done as I wanted a watertight and secure area to lock all my tools up.

It doesn’t look much at the moment but we have almost finished the roof for it and the rest of the block work will be completed shortly. I am turning it in to a little studio room with bathroom and a separate store room.

It is a very simple construction so all we need to do is add the electrics, plumbing and finish with plaster and it is pretty much complete.

At the start of the week we began to lay the bricks in the roof, the colonial style roofs here are petty simple, you just have to lay the bricks on top of the 2x4’s then cover with cement. Luckily we managed to save enough bricks from the old roof to cover just over half of the roof which saved quite a bit although I did have to buy another 45 m2 to finish the other side yesterday. 

The guys are working well as they have to ensure that the water runs into the outlet pipe when it rains but it is quite a slow process. We have to use a pulley to get all the materials on the roof which is backbreaking work. 

So as it stands we are two days away from fully completing one side of the roof and I would say another week to complete the other side. I will be so happy when it is finished as thats most of the heavy lifting out of the way. 

So next week while the guys are working on the roof me and Rudolfo will be putting the new beams we made for the floor in to place. I know this will be a slow process as you can get away with the roof beams being a couple of centimeters out but as we are laying the wooden floor directly on top of the floor beams it needs to be perfect as this will be the floor for the bedrooms. 

Week 4!

I keep saying to people that the restoration is going slow and get frustrated through the working week but every time I sit down to write the next blog installment and look at my pictures it makes me see how much we have actually done. 

Ok it has been a slow week regarding the roof but the cistern is almost finished which is great - it will hold just over 5000 gallons which I hope will be enough to keep us in water through shortages. 

It was a lot more work than I thought building up the roof edges, its about a day or two away from being finished which means we can start laying the bricks finally so we can work when its raining. 

I also have a new member of the family - Enzo, he is an 8 year old Rottweiler who I adopted from a friend this week. I had been looking at getting a puppy but I thought it would be a year or so before it would be a credible guard dog so this was the perfect opportunity. He is really well mannered and is really playful which is good for me but also keeps people from trying to walk in to the house when I have the door open. Even the delivery guys refuse to come in!

He is a bit overweight so is going on a diet. The boy loves rocks for some reason, he loves it when you through them, although I think he has been eating them by the state of his teeth. Will have to take him for a check up soon. 

I have also started on an out building at the back of the property, which is just a shell. I have dug up the plumbing and bought the wood for the new roof so that will be my little project while the guys are finishing off the roof. 

I really cannot wait for the roof to be finished, I think I will be a lot happier at that point... So onwards and upwards! Until next week...