Gringos de Marimán

I don't have much to report this week for a variety of reasons. For one, we again started the week with a holiday, this time la Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen. Check that out in your missals. For another, the crew spent most of the time on tasks started last week, mainly, painting the siding and the tejuela. We also enjoyed daily downpours which limited some activities.

Tuesday morning everyone agreed with Andrés' suggestion to add another coat to the tejuela to slightly darken the color. Here Leo has several rows drying, those immediately behind him with 2 coats and those in the foreground with just one.

I noticed that Leo had switched to using a brush. I asked if his wrist hurt from sponging so much the previous week, but he said he simply found the brush more efficient on the smaller tejuela surface.

Andrés thought the lighter color appeared too fake. I guess a fake color on fake material isn't considered artistic. At first we weren't sure that the extra coat of paint mattered much, but we found we did like the texturing better on the dried samples. Score one for the artistic side.

After he finished cutting the tejuela, Valdovino added more fisiterm and installed the door frame in the wall leading to the bedroom.

Thursday afternoon the crew started the prep work for hanging the tejuela. Juan and Jorge attached an additional thin layer of wood to the concrete below the plywood.

Next they added a layer of aluminum filter paper. They also covered the corners with sheet metal to protect the seams. In the corner they tested the fit where the tejuela and siding would meet up.

Soon we had the bottom row of tejuela in place.

The second row actually slightly covered the first to correct the spacing. Each successive row will be interleaved with the one below.

Notice the look of dampness added by the steady rains.

That reminds me, the hojalateros also added a leaderhead cover to the agua canales. Of course, once the siding is finished they'll lengthen that drainpipe a bit.

Did I mention that it rains a lot here? After this week's heavy rains we started to worry about the unprotected windows on the uphill side of the casa. Some of the wooden frames had swollen and the wood corners appeared to be coming unglued and separating. Not sure yet what the solution will be, but at least we spotted the problem before too much time had passed. Ah, the joys of home ownership!! So much for this week, hasta la proxima!