Block by Block!

  Today we are watching the removal of the wood forms that are used to shape and contain the concrete that has been poured.  The forms are made of Cypress trees that have been locally milled especially for the job.

Sorry for the barbed wire in the middle of the photo, however, I wanted to show our home site from the main road.  While walking and seeing the view in person, it shows up much better, however, the photo still points out the size and visibility of our property and construction!

The first row of block is being laid.

After the forms are removed, the tedious job of placing cement blocks over the upright re-bar is 

what happens next.  Each block is aligned and leveled and filled and surrounded with concrete.

Concrete is mixed in the power mixer but moved around in wheelbarrels.  Here you can see the re-bar in the center and the concrete surrounding the blocks and in the centers.  

And the work goes on!

It is surprising how quickly the walls go up and, although I don't think cement block is "beautiful", the fact that it means we are a bit closer to our own home is beautiful!







The one and only mixer that runs on electricity and the materials used to create the concrete for construction.  Building with something other than wood and sheetrock is so foreign to both of us, every step of the way is a new experience that we are curious to explore and try to understand.

Again the string is used to keep things leveled.  Simple but effective.  And, the wood structures add stability while the concrete is drying.

It's funny how Tico parents think like Gringo parents when trying to motivate their children to become educated.  We put our children to work in our Cafe and here the Ticos bring their sons to the construction site to work or they send them to pick coffee.  Construction here is very labor intensive and these kids work very hard.  Pickers also work hard but most of the coffee here is picked by Nicaraguans. This year is different for us as we have all local pickers who are actually friends. Because it is the only option for making extra income, even the educated pick at times.  This year one of our pickers has learned quite a bit of English and while picking, she helps me with Spanish and I help her with English. The days are long but pass much quicker with a little conversation.  In past years I've always felt left out because the pickers chatter and sing constantly while picking and now I can chatter also but still I cannot sing!!

Here Don is "talking" (I use the term loosely as Jose does not speak English and Don's Spanish is minimal) with Jose who is one of the managers about adding two more windows.  Seeing all that concrete makes me feel a little claustrophobic and I'm up for any additional windows!

The rooms are starting to take shape and now when we stand in the middle of construction we know which room we are viewing.  I'm already placing furniture!!

While the men are busy working on adding more block to the walls of our home, I wanted to share some beautiful views.  This one is from the main road just before heading down our road.

Here I am a little farther away from our road on the main road.  To the left is the Pacific and in the center and right you are seeing the Nicoya Bay and Peninsula dotted with many islands.  Many times there are also large boats visible and it  is fun to watch them through binoculars and wonder what is their purpose.

Back a little farther I've included some of the incredible cloud formations that we experience on a daily basis.

The view and the clouds are constantly changing and this unusual one grabbed my attention!

It continued to roll in and eventually it consumed me and just as mysteriously vanished and blessed me with warm sunshine.

So, while we were viewing the beautiful scenery in Berlin, the builders have been busy!  Look at those walls now!

A Visit to Turones!

We're off again with our friends Maryse and Guy and their visiting sister-in-law, Christian, to check out a Resort as well as a coffee finca.

Turrones is about 45 minutes from us and near to Ateneas, Costa Rica and as Maryse and Guy had been there before, they wanted to share it with us.  Turones is a Coffee Finca and a Resort where you can visit for the day or longer.  There are cabins available for rent, which we viewed, and they are quite cozy and well equipped.  There are two separate, large swimming pools with long fun looking slides and a hot tub.  Unfortunately, it was a bit chilly for us to swim but they are quite busy at this time of year, as school is out in December and January (Costa Rica's summer vacation) and many people also take their vacation.  As you can see, there are also a number of places to have a picnic.

The slides are quite long and beautifully landscaped as are the grounds of the Resort.

Here is a covered sitting area with a spectacular view of Alajuela and Gracia.  We enjoyed our lunch and a nice glass of wine sitting here.

This is a view from the top of the slide that runs down to the second pool.

Not interested in packing a lunch!  There is also a restaurant with a bar!  We had lunch there and everything was delicious.

When we arrived we were greeted by lots of coffee drying in the parking lot on black landscape plastic.

It was late in the afternoon and our tour couldn't start until the coffee was taken care of for the night.  We all pitched in to scoop the coffee into sacks and the job went quickly.

Look at us work!!

Just a little bit more.  Evon, in the yellow shirt, is the owner and here Don and Christian are watching as Guy looks on.

Once the coffee was taken care of we went off to see how this company processes our coffee. Don & I are very familiar with what happens to coffee before it gets to this point and were interested to see how other coffee growers process their coffee once it has been picked.  Our coffee is taken to a receividor that belongs to the Palmares Coop and they remove the skins, dry and package our coffee.At Turones they have their own machine which removes the skins of the coffee, shown in the photo, and they they dry it as we showed above and also on large tables.

Here Don and Christian are looking at the waste that is made from removing the skins from the beans of the coffee.

A look at how the processing machine works!

The machine separates the coffee beans from the skins and also grades the beans by size.

Evon is showing Don and Maryse what happens once the beans and skins are separated. After the beans have gone through the processor they are spread out on landscape screen about waist high above the ground to dry in the sun.

Each evening the beans are covered with a plastic cover to protect them from any moisture occurring overnight.  Turones bags their own coffee and sells it in the U.S. and other countries.

After a fun day at Turones we returned to Guy and Maryse's, snapped a quick photo--Guy, Maryse, Christian and Don. :)  Guess who is taking the photo!

Next We Go UP!

Now that the trenches have all been dug for the footings at a depth that will make our house stable on the hillside and through the regular earthquakes that occur, they are filled in and compacted as we mentioned in a previous blog.

Here you can see the dark material that is added with the gravel.

An overview of all the trenches that have been dug.  Although it doesn't look much like a house, we can see where each of the rooms lie and get a better idea of things to come.  After only seeing the plans, it's very exciting!

 All of the work is done by hand with shovels and wheel barrels.  At the end of the day the wheel barrels are turned over for the night waiting to start the process once again in the morning.

This is the compactor  waiting to be put to work!

And here it is being used by one of the workers.

Now that all the compacting and filling is complete, things are about to start moving up!

One last view of the finished fill work.

 Going up starts by laying the  previously created re-bar forms on the bottom of the trench.  It is this base that the vertical structures will be added.

The re-bar forms are set into all of the trenches ready to be secured and used to hold the vertical structures.

Every re-bar from is laid and leveled to make a perfect, secure structure for attaching the vertical forms.

All of the re-bar forms visible here in the rear and right side of the photo are waiting to be included.  The ones already placed where they belong are sitting on small oblong mounds of concrete which help to make everything level and secure.

Here you can see the boards used to traverse the wide trenches by the men, especially if they are pushing a wheel barrel.  The boards that are stuck into the ground with a cross board have string tied to them and these are used for leveling and making sure things are straight.

Making sure every piece of re-bar is positioned perfectly is a team effort.

The amount of re-bar used in this type of construction is huge.  Because Juan Carlos is known for his quality of construction, I'm sure our house will have more than the "norm".

                                                    This man is  cutting the wires used to tie the re-bar together.

This is an overview of the whole project at this juncture.

And the "view" from the other direction!

Little by little the view is changing!

Once the rebar forms are attached with the small metal wires and made secure and level, concrete is poured to hold everything in place.

As you can see things are moving rapidly up.  All of the walls have these structures and the next step will be adding cement blocks and the tubing for electrical, gas and water lines.

Ready for cement blocks! Amazing!