Country House Advances

So the work on the is advancing pretty rapidly, even though from the following photos you might think otherwise...

We took the roof off the other day, saving the tiles and the original beams, of course. The tiles will be re-used for the roof and the beams will be recycled into various other structures, including tables, chicken coops and compost heaps (the original beams are too short for the new roof, which is why they're not being used for that purpose). Everything we take out will be re-used for something.

Once the roof was off, the workers started putting in place the steel mesh and re-bar, which will reinforce the adobe walls. The walls survived the earthquake with barely a scratch, which is pretty incredible- most adobe structures in Colchagua collapsed. The mesh will then be plastered with a thick layer of cement.

The rubble is from the original, separate kitchen that didn't survive the earthquake- we knocked down what was left and rescued all the materials from it.

The foundations for the 45m2 extension are also being laid at the moment and the pillars will be concreted next week I would imagine. The total house size will be about 140m2.

Work on the electrical system will start next week too and the plumber should be coming as well to start installing drains and other plumbing stuff.

The fruit trees I planted 3 weeks ago are now all coming into bloom, which is good to see. I also planted 20 raspberry plants, which have started to flower, and 10 blueberry bushes, 5 of them being 3 years old already and with about 2 kilos of berries that will be ripe in a couple of months. Assuming the birds don't eat them, of course.

The rest of the land is uncultivated at the moment and I'm thinking of leaving it that way. The Spring wild-flowers (otherwise known as weeds to most people) are beautiful and I don't think I want the hassle of cultivating one hectare commercially- it's a huge amount of work for very little money. I might put in a pond and attract the wild ducks that live in the area (there are ducklings swimming up and down the irrigation canals at the moment).

And, finally, here are a couple of gratuitous puppy shots. All three dogs love what will be their new home.