Inital Roof Work

First tentative steps toward roof structure begin slowly. The completed roof will have four slopes ("cuatro caidas" in Spanish) - at the front, back and sides. The slightly wonky shape of the house means that the support structure for the cuatro caidas is a little tricky to assemble - the wooden beams need to measured and cut precisely before setting in place.




The small section of concrete beam that sticks out to the left of the upper floor will support the overhanging roof. This is important because without it the roof would not be sufficiently supported. It was reasonably tricky to do and needed its own scaffolding for the form used to set it.

It is nice to have a significant overhang for the roof because it means rain is less likely to fall on the walls. On hotter days it will also keep the house cooler. I hope enough light will get into the rooms.

Right in the middle of the photo you can see a platform for a small rainwater tank. We are not sure how necessary this is but have decided to include it on the basis that it should guarantee we will have some water, whatever the condition of the river pump setup, for eight or nine months of the year. It's nice to have backups for important things like this; it also uses no electricity, unlike the rest of the water in the house (which has to be pumped on demand from a tank 25m away).