Poco un Poco (little by little)

(lBuilding a house is traditionally a slow project, building one in Mexico is renowned for being even slower. Not sure why it takes so long, or maybe it just seems to take longer as it's not being built with framing & then filling in the gaps with insulation & gib.

It's building everything from scratch, onsite, in the burning sun, on the side of a hill a long drive from the building supplies places.

Here are a few of photos to bring you up to date.

From the time of pouring the slab for the ground floor until now (having completed all the walls for the first floor), a lot of time has elapsed & we have had a trip back to NZ & back (for the funeral of Steve's dad).

We were getting despondant about the time it seemed to be taking, & how little we had achieved for the money, but we're almost to the point of laying the beams for the ground floor ceiling & first floor floor.

It feels like a real house now & we can see it from miles around. We've pictured ourselves swimming in the lap pool & dining from the terrace. We've imagined friends sleeping in our spare room with the doors open to the pool & we've seen the neighbourhood kids playing in the kids' rooms (all imaginary, but much more real than it was).

Things are getting clearer, we can even almost imagine moving in...

moving on up...

Well - or should I say cystern, is dug, swimming pool is mapped out, garage walls are going up.

Note the "forms" (in the photos) & the supports either side, this is what holds the walls in place while the concrete/mixture dries. There is also rebar (iron rods) in the concrete, for structural support & if there is electricity or plumbing needed in that section, it is anchored in place.

Next the concrete/mixture is poured in between the forms & after, the forms are removed to produce one big solid wall.

Most walls will be 8 inches thick, others will be 12 inches thick.

The foundations have been completed, the lower perimeter walls have been poured & the garage is on it's way. With the pouring of the walls for the cystern & the garage wall we will also inherit the swimming pool. Almost deeper than it is wide - we'll have to take up vertical laps. Steve is promising a hook & bungy cable for some resistance training in the water, he'd better make sure his boardies are securely fastened...

Hiccups cured (hopefully for ever)

The suspended works order lasted but a week or so. With a visit to the public works office & many discussions about the best strategy for solving the Mr Loco & Mr Pom issue, it was the visit to the officials that worked. Mr Loco's land was cleared & restored & the works suspension order was lifted.

Full steam ahead, building forms, pouring concrete, taking down forms & putting up the next ones etc etc.

It's a small team at this point, usually about 5 guys (& the night watchman), but the team is expected to expand when they finish work on another job...

With things looking a little "un-noteworthy" at this point, (basically some concrete pads, & some concrete walls below ground level) we're only visiting the site with Brian once a week for updates & Q&A time. Not to mention the odd changes to plan along the way, with "bright ideas" from Steve & me...

We're expecting to visit daily when we get to ground level & there are more decisions to be made.

Also, Brian assures us this is the slowest part of the project, when there is a lot of work but it's not obvious (like tonnes of buried footings for example) & things will start to rocket along when we reach ground level...

Epo Epo Epo (hiccup hiccup hiccup)

This is the continuation of the post below called Epo! , make sure you read it first!

The saga continues...
What happens next...

Mr loco, not content with dragging Brian & his guys through the mud, & still not getting resolution with Mr pom, decides on an additional strategy & goes after us too - we think, he thinks maybe we can get Mr pom to sell...

So what does Mr loco do - he goes to the public works department & tells them we are building illegally! The works inspector comes & applies a "obra suspendida" notice (stickers everywhere!) telling us that the "work is suspended", until we prove it's legal!

Thank you loco neighbour!

We now have big holes in our land & big holes in our progress!

The cannon are primed!

There are many calls made, from Brian to Mr loco, from Brian's beautiful mexican girlfriend to Mr loco, from us to Mr pom (in Canada), from us to Mr pom's girlfriend here in SMA, from Mr pom's girlfriend to Mr loco....the only one benefitting from all of this is Mr Slim - the world's richest man & owner of Mexico's telephone companies...

Brian goes to the public works department & explains the reason for Mr loco's name... They know (or hint at knowing) but say they have to respect his request & we need to restore the surrounding pieces of land to their previous state & then the suspension will come off.

In the meantime, we can continue work, but only at a slow pace so as to look like the works are suspended!

So.. the boys need to dig the holes slowly...

Epo! (hiccup in Spanish)

So, we've begun building, we're not counting our chickens yet though. There are so many possibilities for hold-ups (excuse the pun) here in Mexico.

Parachutists for example, people that "land" on your land & claim it's theirs. Being a Napoleanic justice system here, it is then up to you to prove it's not theirs... Well that didn't happen to us (touch wood) but we do have another of the 'possibilities' - a loco neighbour...

The piece of land next door is currently locked between 2 owners. The pommy guy that's trying to buy it & the Mexican guy that's trying to sell it.

There's a very long story attached to the 'how' they've gotten themselves in this position (almost worthy of another blog!) but suffice to say that the pommy guy is the landlord of our builder, & for some reason the Mexican guy thinks that our builder - Brian - can affect the sale of his land... so this is what he does.

He 'denounces' Brian & his builders saying that they have stolen rocks & re bar off his property. This means he goes to the denunciation department at the police station & makes these (false) claims against them, & thanks to dear old Napolean - they are now forced to prove their innocence - how do you prove you didn't steal some imaginary rocks & steel?

Brian is forced to go to the police department (a little daunting to say the least) to refute his guilt & ends up spending 2 hours there - with no outcome at this point.

We go to bat for Brian - who is this little worm that he can threaten our friend & his workers?! We meet with the guy, seems friendly enough. We explain we think he has been hard done by, by our pommy friend, but that we have nothing to do with that.

We also explain that Mr pom is in Canada right now, but that we will do our darndest to get him to 'right the wrong' as Mr loco sees it. Mr loco then all but agrees to remove the denunciation if we can achieve that, we shake hands & smile feebly at each other & leave...

So what happens next???

Breaking Ground...12th September!

The date is 12th September & today's the day!
The digger is here, the truck's here to take the rubble away & Steve's here camera in hand to record for posterity.

Funny to think we bought this small piece of land a couple of years ago thinking, one day, maybe we might build on it, & here we are doing just that.

It's also funny, & actually a little weird, to think that this is the only piece of earth we own on this planet anymore, & sooooo far from where we sprang from & our kiwi friends & family! If I'm sounding a little jangled by this fact, it's because I am. Wasn't it me that kept spouting "a life less ordinary" well - this certainly counts as that.

Building permit!

Well - we have a plan, we have the builder(s), we have the piece of land & so far, we have the balls (or stupidity!) to begin building a house in a country that we're not native in.

The next step is to find an overseeing Mexican architect - he's the guy that checks that everything is done according to regulation (of which there are thousands!) & no short cuts are taken. He also represents us to the local council & applies for permission to build our wee abode.

Brian (the builder/designer) comes through again, with a great guy, Leon - he's only available as he's had health issues & wants some smaller projects to keep him going. He has great credentials & knows a lot of people (definitely what you want in Mexico!).

So, with a few copies of a lot of paper work - the permit is applied for & received! Now we're really "good to go"... Yikes!