Now that the walls have reached their full height, it’s time to find other things to photograph. The crew is keeping busy doing a wide variety of things, half of which seem to involve putting holes in the walls:
The above is the future laundry room & the new holes are being filled with plumbing and electrical outlets. The opening to the left goes into our closet & shortens the distance I need to haul laundry.
Below, in the master bath, they’ve already started filling in the holes:
And here, a worker has begun final finishing - in this specific situation, he’s working on making the opening for the future front door the exact size needed as well as making certain it’s straight and smooth:
I don’t know which of the guys did this, but someone has built the formers for the island-counter in the kitchen.
I must admit this feature was a bit difficult to choose. Paul liked the idea of a tile counter. I declared that grout was difficult to keep clean and sanitary and lobbied for wood. Paul pointed out that the counters next to the sink and stove needed to be nonflammable, plus not rot if they got wet. We’ve agreed to compromise on poured concrete, which is a typical way for this area, and Carlos has agreed to test acid-finishing concrete, if he can get the chemicals. With as much concrete as they use in building, here, I was surprised to find out they didn’t use the acid finishes which are gaining such popularity in other areas.
Okay, back to photos of progress – here, one of Paul’s short, decorative walls is being used as a worktable to craft a short piece of rafter.
Above and below, you can see the rafters taking form … soon, there will be a real roof and that means we’ll have a fiesta with a pig being the ‘guest of honor’.
AND, after a hard day of work, the guys are getting ready to go home.
February 4, 2007, before I tell you about the house, I'd like to share a great photo Paul took of the moon over Baru:
Hello from atop one of Paul's new walls:
A section of wall bordering the back yard was one of Paul's projects:
The wood lying next to the wall is going up as rafters, but we can't figure out why it's wood, since we specifically (and over and over) told Carlos that we wanted metal rafters... Carlos told us he wanted false wood rafters because he likes the look. After living in an oak forest in South Carolina for 18 years, we want something totally termite proof, so are waiting to see the promised metal:
& this is a view from the backyard looking through the future living room & yes, the walls are a bit higher than the typical eight feet:
This week, Raul started on the short natural stone walls which will eventually occupy four sections of the garage walls - the first photo shows how they lay the rocks & the second the completed section:
And this is what the walls look like on the inside:
January 31, 2007:
As we head into February, the septic tank has a new lid:
Paul has great water pressure from the spring he tapped:
And the high sections of the living room walls are going up, so I think the roof will come soon ... and after the tiles are on, the photos won't look like much is getting done, even though it is because walls going up always looks dramatic while the finishing of them tends to be a tad dull....
Obviously has nothing to do with building a house in the mountains. The photo, above, is of sunrise over Miraflores lake - if you're interested in reading the story about why this photo got into this blog, you'll have to go to our boat's blog at http://www.svevenstar.blogspot.com 
Since she started helping with the composting, she has learned her name. I say this because yesterday, I had orange rinds, too, but the cattle weren't grazing where they normally are - they were about a block from the road, in the pasture across from a Panamanian family's weekend house (they have a fabulous flower garden and full time gardener).
and since those guys were heading toward me, half the rest of the herd came a scooting, too.
