The beginning of the House and Solar Bodega

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 July 20, 2022

Today my Architect Edwin showed up with his crew of four men to begin construction of the addition to the existing house and also the construction of a new bodega (warehouse/storeroom) for the solar batteries and tools.  I'm very anxious to get the house going but also anxious to have the solar working so we can have some electricity for the construction.  So we're going to start on the bodega first.  It doesn't have to be huge in floor space, so I'm making it 1.5m x 1.5m (about 5'x5).  But it does have to be tall.  At least as tall as the house that it is next to, and that's because it will also serve as the tower for a water tank that is back up water in case the pump breaks.  If the pumps is not working, then with the water tank about 4 meters high, it will give some natural gravity feed with enough pressure to take a shower or flush a toilet.  I plan on making it appear on the outside to match the house with exposed rock exterior.   That's done using concrete blocks for the construction and then covering the outside with a rock veneer of rocks selected from the ranch.  (I've got millions of them to choose from)


all of the mortar used for placing the footings in rock walls is mixed on the ground by hand.



I have a good well, with an abundant water supply.  Basically, the ranch is sitting on top of an ocean of fresh water about 15m deep (50 feet).  Unfortunately though I don't have electricity yet, or a pump.  I do have a windmill that fills a tank and it's about 20m away from the construction site.  So, each morning, 2 of the men, just take 5-gallon buckets down to the tank, fill them, and bring them up to their own construction water tank.


Besides the 4 construction helpers the architect brought, he also brought 2 laborers for clearing land.  These two men stay on the land and sleep there at night in the existing casa.  They bring their own hammocks with Mosquito netting and they catch and cook their own food from the wild.



They can only lay the rock foundation so high in one day and then they have to let the mortar set and get hard.  So they started on the footings for the extension of the house.   What you see here is for the house extension itself, and then in front of that will be a porch about 1.5m wide.







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