Home Construction Week 21...
October 23-29, 2006

The first photo shows the back view of the house. The handrailing for the lower floor have been installed and you can get a glimpse of the staircase which leads from the television room to the garden below. The photo below gives a better view of the staircase.

The workers have began the tile work on the asador (BBQ). It will be tiled in rustic Mexican style. Next weeks posting should show the completed asador (I hope). Sandra and I would like to get a bottle of wine, some French bread and cheese and break in the gazebo.

The first photo below gives a broader view of the asador and the second photo shows the stone (Mexican red porphyry, from the state of Guananuato)) that will be laid in a very ascetic pattern to form the floor.

The photo below shows the first of three alcoves in the house. This alcove is on the lower floor in the television room. We plan on putting local handicrafts and art on shelves in this space. I will show the other two alcoves in next weeks posting.

The final photo below shows a view from the street above. The main changes this past week were construction of parapets on the edges of the roof wall. More on parapets with next weeks post when they are all completed. The white cement square at the back edge of the roof is the ceiling for our living room. It is much higher than the other ceiling in the house. It will be open beam pine and is about 20 feet tall. We are getting more excited daily as the construction is really looking like a house now. The plastering of walls on the lower floor is nearly complete. Things are looking very good. Architect Arturo Vargas is really doing a nice job with all the details and overseeing the project. Sandra and I feel we made a good choice in hiring Arturo.

Home Construction Week 20
October 16-22, 2006

As I mentioned last week, all the roofs except the living room and the garage have been completed. This past week the garage roof (above photo) was framed in with Michoacan pine.
In the first photo below you can view the underside of the garage roof and see the exposed beams. The second photo below shows the garage roof after roofing paper, steel rebar and a layer of concrete was poured. Towards the end of construction red Mexican tile will cover the concrete and complete the roof. Now the only room needing a roof is the living room. This should be complete this week.

The plastering of the ceiling and walls for the bottom floor is nearly completed. Only a final thin coating of mortar mixed with marble powder needs to be applied. The marble powder gives a very attractive and durable finish to the walls.

The photo below, taken from the back yard, shows the installed hand railings aside the terraces of the two guest bedrooms. The railing for the television room can be seen in the photo, but it has not been installed. We traveled with Architect Arturo Vargas to the pueblo of Patzcuaro on Monday to order the hand railing for the upper floor terraces and for the staircase. These railing for be slightly different because they will be made of decorative aluminum with glass panel inserts. The glass will not block our great views of the golf course and also give us wind protection.

The final photo below shows the partially constructed landing for the staircase leading from the lower floor to the garden. This staircase will connect with a small bridge crossing a pond and then lead to the gazebo. One of the things I look forward to is enjoying some fish and turtles in the pond. Since I've never done this before, I'm going to have to get some advise on outdoor ponds. I look forward to leasurely days spent in the gazebo watching the pond.

Home Construction Week 19...
October 9-15

This past week the roof over the office and the dining room were completed. The roofing is the Michoacan pine that I showed in a photo last week. The pine was laid across the opening in the ceiling, tar paper was put over the wood, steel wire and finally a layer of concrete on top. Now the only ceilings to be finished are the garage and the living room. Both of these will be pine also. The garage will have red Mexican tile instead of the concrete the rest of the house has. The photo below shows a view of the open beam ceiling in the dining room.
The concrete columns and brick walls for the garage and living room have been built to the proper height, so next week the ceilings for the garage and living room will be built. When this work is completed all the ceiling and roofs for our house will be completed. The two photos below show the construction in first the garage and secondly the living room.

The gazebo is getting closer to completion. The roof is finished, with only Mexican clay tile to be laid. The tile will come later after the plastering of the outer walls of the house is completed. This is to keep plaster off the tile roof. The photo below shows the nearly completed BBQ area. Left to right in the photo is a sink, charcoal grill and a table for a gas burner. The BBQ will be covered with a Mexican talavera tile. It should be very beautiful.
The final photo below gives a view from the street above. There is a good view of the gazebo, along with a view of the progress on the roof.

Lake Zirahuen, Michoacan....

Two weeks ago Sandra and I drove to Lake Zirahuen for the day. It is about an hours drive from Morelia, a little past Lake Patzcuaro on the highway to Urapan. The lake is located about 7,000 feet altitude and is crystal clear, unlike many other lakes in Mexico. Blackberries are cultivated and fruit orchards can be seen on the surrounding hillside. We stopped at Troje de Ala, a weekend restaurant, which also rents cabins to catch a ride on the tour boat that crosses the lake. The photo below shows Troje de Ala restaurant.
The restaurant has a long pier that goes out into the lake where tour boats are waiting. Along side the pier are shops selling crafts and many food stalls where one can buy tacos, sopes, quesadillas, soups made from the wild mushrooms that grow in the area and other Mexican delights. The photos below shows the pier and a couple of the food stalls.

As we crossed the lake there were few homes to be seen. There seemed to be about three small housing clusters. 99% of the shoreline is without development. See photos below.
At one stop along the lake we saw people attached to a cable gliding across the lake. See the man in the photo below.
The lake looks like a good place to rowboat, kayak, and fish or just a quiet place to relax for the day. Finally, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the far side of the lake. While we ate, an all woman's group sang for the entertainment of the dinners. Later, after an excellent lunch, we caught another tour boat back to our starting point and car. A nice outing, and not far from Morelia.

Home Construction Week 18......
October 2-9, 2006

Well the LPGA golf tournament finished up this past Sunday and we were very happy that our favorite,Lorena Ochoa, won. I will post a blog describing our experiences later this week. But for now the weekly construction progress.
This past week the cement roof for our home was poured. All the roofing except for the living room, dining room, entry, and office are complete. The rooms, other than the entry, will have wood beam ceilings. The ceiling above the entry will feature a dome which will give light to the staircase during the day. The workers are also preparing the support columns for the wooden beams and these roofs will be completed in two weeks. The wood is Michoacan pine. The first photo below shows a part of the wood that was delivered and the second photo shows a beam being constructed to support the living room ceiling.

The work on the asador (BBQ) is going well and it should be completed this week. The photo below shows this weeks work. Sandra and I are looking forward to its completion so that we can rest in the shade when we make our daily house inspection. We are also looking forward to our first BBQ!

The photo below shows the plastering of the rooms on the lower floor. The workers have applied two layers of plaster on the ceilings so far. There will be one more layer applied to give the finished look. The final application is mixed with crushed marble and gives a very pleasant texture and look.

The photo below shows the view of the house from the back yard.

The final photo below shows the view of the house from the street above us.