Above is the "old house." It is common to see homes built with whatever building materials are around. You'll notice the various panels of the house and its rooms. All of the building materials that we would use had already been delivered to the site before we arrived. As our Amor-appointed assistant pointed out to us, the materials aren't exactly what you would run down to Home Depot and purchase. Many, many 2x4s were warped (almost) beyond use. To call these "seconds" would be generous! Combine unskilled workers and lesser quality products, and you can only imagine what a challenge it is to build square walls, etc.
Meet part of the family below. We were building for a single mother and her three children. Also living there was the most docile little kitten I've even seen. Docile and cute, yes; clean, not by a long shot! The mother was very gracious, helpful, and patient. Her only request: a roof that doesn't leak. In her current home, she'd been stuffing old sweatshirts into the gaps were the ceiling meets the walls. Brian promised her that one request.
All of the cement for the foundation was mixed by hand. We worked out a system to keep the process moving. Even with a great team and good system, there is a LOT of concrete that goes into the foundation. The entirety of Day One was spent pouring and finishing the foundation. After it looked like things were progressing well on the foundation, some of us worked in the street on building a wall or two. That would mean one or two fewer walls to build tomorrow!
On Day Two we finished building the walls. There were seven total walls to build. The four for the two "long" sections were easy. In order to give the roof line a pitch, the three other walls were (purposefully, this time) not build with all right angles. A little more tricky, but again, we now worked with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. When all the walls were built (and the roof), we carried them from the street into the yard and raised the building!
Above is the roof on her old home. Again it is just whatever plywood sheets you might happen to come across. They were held in place with concrete blocks or large stones. It's no wonder they were getting wet in there! I was part of the roofing team. Again, the whole issue of squareness comes into play here. The building plan is such that there are no extra materials provided; we just had to make what we had available work! Day Two ended with the walls in place, the plywood on the roof, and, in the next shot, you can see part of the team wrapping the house in wire, then tar paper.
Day Three was another glorious day to work. We knew it was going to be hot again later in the day, so the roofing crew wanted to get done with that project early! It involved a layer of tar paper, then four rows of "shingles," each tarred and nailed in place. We spent a little extra time doing a very good job, so there would be no chance of leaks!
While we worked, the kids in the neighborhood flocked in to hang out with us. Eventually, there were so many of them, we just put 'em to work! They liked to laugh at our Spanish, play soccer in the street, pet the kitten, and fetch stucco for us! Bonus!
After the roof was done and the house was wrapped, then next order of business was stretching chicken wire over the all the exterior walls. It went quickly, but was some of the hardest work of the whole building project. The pay-off was that the tighter the wire was stretched, the easier the stucco would go on.
Next the stucco goes on. I take back what I said about the chicken wire being the hardest part of the job. Stucco wins! Even more exciting is that two coats are required!! I caught on pretty quickly - thankfully! Also, being tall, I got to do many of the hard to reach areas.
Day Four was the final day of work. That meant the second coat of stucco. Los ninos helped fetch the stucco which really made the job go so much faster. They were so eager to help. The language barrier was high but not insurmountable. "Mas, por favor" (more, please), "Muy bien" (very good), and "Un momento, por favor" (one moment, please) were about all I could use to communicate. Oh, and "Gracias" (thank you)...
My arms just got absolutely fried (not from the sun) from the stucco process. In my left hand, I held a hawk with (I'm guessing) about 10-12 pounds of stucco. The right hand worked the trowel: scrape the stucco off the hawk, press the trowel into the wall, and smear the stucco into the chicken wire. Repeat about a million times. The first few hours, we put way more stucco on the ground than into the wall - it's just the way it works. Eventually you realize that you've covered all the areas at eye level, so your choices are to go low or go high. Being tall(er), I got to go high. So that means holding all the tools of the trade up at shoulder height or higher! It's a good thing I work out, because I was so sore for at least 3 days after the trip! I can't imagine what it would have been like it I didn't workout for a living...
The second coat went on a little easier, but there were some parts of the building that were tough to reach. Two of the four walls created some challenges for us. The narrow section at the back of the house had about two feet of space in which to work - we had built the wall very close to a neighboring building. It was a tight squeeze between the workers, the trowels and hawks, and all the kids "helping." An adjacent wall was near the ditch seperating two properties (an elevation change of about 8-10 feet). That left a narrow ledge of about 18 inches on which to stand. Plus the slope of the ditch did not allow for a ladder. I worked quite some time balanced on an over-turned bucket (leveled with bits of concrete and stone) while someone else stood in the ditch literally pushing me into position. It was scary for me, but I really felt bad for the folks that got roped into pushing on my butt the whole time!
While we smoothed the stucco with a sponge to finish the look, Brian, Danielle, and some others went to the store. They came back with foam sealant to further protect the house from leaking, some basic food items, and a couple pieces of drywall. The two rooms of the house would now at least be a little more private. The original plans just call for leaving the studs exposed... Two windows were installed and we were nearly done!
We all decided to eat in the house. It became very apparent as to why we used stucco to finish the house. It was nice and cool inside!!
We had just enough stucco (we thought...) left over to add another little finishing touch for the family: a front step. We filled our frame only to discover that we underestimated the amount of cement we had left. Well, we couldn't NOT build the step now, so out came the tools, sand, cement, etc. and we whipped up a little more to finish the job. With all the kids running around, we were a little scared that someone would accidentally step in the wet stucco, but it never happened. What did happen, though, is that Brian managed to drop his digital camera in the wet cement!
Here's the finished product! It's a two-room house measuring about 11x22. Not very big, but it's about all you can do in four days!
After a very nice dedication ceremony (we ALL cried!!), we turned the keys over to the new owner and posed for some final pictures.
This was one of the top ten experiences I've had in my life. So many great people worked together as a team for a week, camped in some less than ideal conditions, showered in even less ideal conditions, labored joyfully in the heat and dust, and never once complained. Even better, we laughed a lot, and (hopefully) made a big difference in someone's life. Danielle summed it up very well when she told the owner that we gained a lot more from the experience than she gained in getting a home.
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