Window to the Future

It has been quite some time since my last post because the work has sped up substantially.  Louro (my builder in the striped shirt above) said that he was in a hurry to complete our house.  The three month deadline is coming quickly and he knows that my payments will also come to an end when we reach 70% of the total to be paid.  In the past couple of weeks they have covered all of the walls with concrete, inside and out, and installed all 11 windows, and installed the electricity, and started on the roof.  This past weekend was Thanksgiving for us so we went to Fortaleza to celebrate with our other missionary friends. When we returned they had completed pouring the floor and front porch.  We drove 4.5 hrs with two large pieces of granite and two granite sink counters.  Fortunately the roads are pretty good for interior standards and the granite did not break on the way.  You could probably heard our sigh of relief in the U.S. when we unloaded the slates of rock and they were still in one piece.  They will serve as a wall divider for our shower box.  This was cheaper than having a glass box installed and it will look very pretty with the matching sink.  Tomorrow the wood for the roof is going to arrive and they will start installing the trusses.  I will be driving to Fortaleza to pick up our tile for the bathrooms so when I return Louro can start the finishing touches of the bathroom.  Please pray for my safe travel over the next two days as I will be driving for 9 hours.

Ceiling Problems Solved (before it even exists)

The reason for the recent silence with this project is that we had quite a blowup a couple of weeks ago. After putting up the “belt” the process for installing the ceiling starts. This is accomplished by ordering premade concrete reinforced “2x4 type” beams. These beams expand from wall to wall and are set about a foot apart until they cover all of the openings where the ceiling is located. Bricks with “wing-like” sides hang between these beams to form the surface of the ceiling. Boxes for ceiling lighting, then conduit, and then a rebar mesh (see photo) is installed on top of the structure before concrete is poured on top to seal off the entire roof of the house.

The problem occurred when my “builder” ordered the wrong size of beams because of a miscommunication between him and me and then he tried to fix the situation without saying anything to me. When I saw the way that he planed to fix the problem I questioned the integrity of the roof.  James, our fellow missionary in a city 30 min. away, looked at the fix and agreed that it could create some problems in the future. After some intense but clam arguing the builder decided to fix the situation and have some new beams made. With a little compromise on both sides we were able to come to a suitable situation that we could both agree on.

Now that the ceiling has been installed we have been working on the installation of electrical conduits and then covering the walls with concrete & light plaster. By the end of today we should have all paths for the electrical installed and most of the walls concreted. We have even started on water and sewer, which will not take long.

I have got to hand it to these guys. Between my American way of doing things and my weak Portuguese construction language, they seem to be doing very well. It is absolutely strange to them when I tell them that I want to fabricate a water heating system for my showers and washing machine. None of them like to take warm/hot showers and most of them probably don’t own a washing machine. And when they hear that I am going to build this system myself from an internet design it makes this “stranger” in their land even stranger.

--Please pray for the building of our roof. It is my white albatross and I still don’t know the way we are going to build it (structurally) or how much it is going to cost. (I am currently working on this so I should know more soon.)
--Thanksgiving we will head to Fortaleza to pick up a bunch of granite pieces for the shower and kitchen. Please pray it doesn’t break on the way back to Croata because the roads still have some holes from last rainy season.
--I have one more month of payments for the builder until we meet the 70% agreed amount until he completes the work. Pray that he spends his money wisely and saves enough to pay his workers when I stop paying him. The remainder 30% gets paid when the work is completed.