Gringos de Marimán

I missed part of the construction activity this week as we tried to get settled into the rental house. We waited and waited (9 days in all) for the delivery of our new refrigerator and we spent almost as much time trying to figure out how to work the combo washer/drier. I think they designed the machine to save energy by convincing you that it's much faster to dry your clothes on the line outside. Thankfully the construction continued apace without me.

Perhaps now's the time to describe what the finished product should look like. Andrés' drawings below show top views of an early version of the casa. We've made a number of changes, but at least you should be able to get a vague idea of the different rooms. If you're trying to orient yourself in the pictures, just remember that the carport is uphill.



Any resemblance to the Copec Pronto stations on Ruta 5 is purely coincidental.



When I checked in, the crew had completed the enfierradura, moldaje, and the bracing for the walls. They'd also started on the raised walkway on the downhill side of the house. (You decide, which side is the front?)



We couldn't have a week go by without some digging. In this case Jose (yes, for real) starts clearing dirt for the carport walkway.



Meanwhile, Juan's been busy bending some more iron to go on top of the walkways.



Each piece of fierro has to be wired into place.



So it goes all across the walkways. You'll notice that the crew also added iron for the stairs at the bottom and filled the dirt against the moldaje walls.



On the backside they added a platform for uh, let's see . . . I think I need to go check the plans again.


Wait, that's not Pinhead!! No, yet another perra suddenly showed up at the site. Despite those sleepy eyes and her diminuitive size she had no problems fending off the Pinhead.



But, she was a she, and we're not taking any chances. Pinhead luxuriated on the lawn while we planned to celebrate the weekend by removing those huevos. And that's no April fool's. Hasta la proxima!!