Only TWO rows of brickwork to go!

I've been working so haven't been blogging at all, but much has happened in my absence. We like to come home at night and walk around in our new room upstairs, fantasizing about where we're going to put the furniture and marveling at the views, although it all looks a bit grey here.






Now we are still trying to figure out how we can get the 'exposed rafters' look on the roof and still stick to the budget.

Windows

After days of worrying about which windows would work best and constant re-planning as suppliers are out of stock or timelines are too short, we finally committed. My gripe is that I see too much of the roofs of the neighbours, and maybe not enough mountain. Also we have some burglarproofing issues as they are so close to the roof.



Other good news is that the floor downstairs has been thrown. Who could think cement was so exciting...

A view to a kill

The 2nd Floor is up!

Finally the 2nd floor is up. The builders had to get two more men to help hauling the beams up in the heat. It's extremely hard and hot, not to mention dangerous, work. I climbed up before the blocks went up and had a minor height-freight freeze. Now if only we can make up our minds what windows we want upstairs...

Next floor coming up!

It's high, it's hot... at least theres no wind. The beams for the next floor are hauled up and placed in 30+ degree heat.

The zen of insitu beam casting

Thankfully this will be the last round of insitu beams that need to be cast. These are for strengthening the openings where the slab will be placed on. It generally involves iron rods inserted through iron stirrups and then cast on site in concrete. An engineer provides drawings and requirements and needs to check it before casting.





Not wanting to remove the doors for security reasons, we have to cast the beam in the wall.



Metal rods tied together before it gets cast in concrete.

Plumber problems

I wanted to say "plumbing problems" but in fact the trouble lies with the plumber. Every time our man from Marocco shows up there are problems. He misinterpreted the plans, he didnt ask enough questions, etc. etc. It's not a sexy subject but for a few night I had pipe dreams or rather nightmares. Thankfully all the taps and toilet are where they should be... for now.