Into 2006 Proper

Stumbling into April flushed with the success of the construction of the big retaining wall, we literally stumble around the site now cut apart with the trenches that will be the footings. Wow! So many holes! We are fortunate to be building on some solid rock although it bubbles up across the site and can be a little bit difficult to work around. Still, it ain't going nowhere! 

Making the steel cages that will form the reinforcement for the footings is a dirty job and yet more stress on the back (what isn't?). Its great to see the steel in the trenches and to pour the concrete on top. Eventually, the footings are completed just after the Easter weekend. More importantly we now have an outline for our house - at last. We can now start working on the house platform that will give us a decent flat area to build upon.

At this point its worth mentioning Semana Santa (Easter) and the local festivities. The holiday starts on the Thursday (Maunday Thursday?) and goes through until Sunday. In typical Jubrique style, the bars are packed each night until the early hours as families gather for the weekend. The Friday processesion is quite special with effigies of the Virgin and Jesus being paraded and a moving ceremony in the plazza where, through a cunning system of levers, the Virgin bows and wipes the tears from her eyes in front of Jesus. Then the band strikes up and off they go around the village. Not easy since all the streets are fairly vertical in nature! And we went to a bar...Saturday night is a really mad night and not for the faint hearted. It involves an effigy of Judas being strung up in the plazza and being burnt. Being Jubrique this can only happen with a serious amount of extremely explosive fireworks being thrown around. The favourite trick is to take the stick off a big bang rocket, light it and run. It randomly spirals around the place before a humungas flash and bang. Dangerous but good fun after a few beers! Judas is, of course, stuffed full of fireworks that zoom in all directions. Not exactly a controlled firework display! Then we went back to the bar....

On Sunday, its bull running time in Gaucin, one of the local villages. Good fun providing you can run or climb up the railings. This is how Easter should be rather than the British preoccupation with getting stuck in traffic jams.

Back to the house and the outline for the platform was constructed using termiacillas that will be the same as the blocks used to construct the house itself. I decided to break the platform up into four distinct areas to allow each area to be constructed independently rather than trying to do all the platform in one go.

The actual floor construction consists of a sub-floor (compacted rubble and earth, membrane, reinforcing mesh and concrete) and final floor (polystyrene sheet, underfloor heating tubes, screed and tiles - to be done much later). Once the platform areas are levelled and compacted and any pipework setup (for grey and black water and air intake for the fire) then its down to the serious business of filling them up. Anne and I managed the two smaller areas but we decided for some muscular help from Richard and Nick to complete the other two. Its great to see them finished (not R & N). Remarkably, we can now talk in terms of building walls - and not retaining walls! Those green wellies of Anne's were last in use in the Surrey countryside. Ideal for laying concrete.

Early June update: And we are motoring! Looking at the beginning of this page and in April the talk was of trenches. Its all walls now - real walls! We've even bought a load of railway sleepers that will be used for lintels. Having spent quite a bit of time thinking about foundations, its nice to have to concentrate on different subjects, e.g. stair and door design and, of course, the construction of the ceiling/floor. Still, at the moment, its eyes down and get those blocks straight and level - well nearly.

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