View from window; Light

This is the view from the smaller of the two upstairs bedrooms, which we plan to put our son Mateo in on day. The windows are pretty big and east facing so I hope he doesn't get woken up by the morning sun. We will have to make sure he's got decent curtains. Or I like some blinds made from bamboo we've seen...

El Nica, bending rebar

His name's Jhonny but I think they call him El Nica. I'm not sure why. Sometimes it's best not to ask too many questions.


Nica is short for Nicaraguan and I don't even know if he was born in Nicaragua or not. There is a significant amount of Costa Rican style pacifist racism against Nicaraguans so Jhonny's nickname could be a bit like a guy from England who was a bit tight with his money getting called "The Scot". Or maybe Jhonny really is Scottish. The possibilities are endless.

Mold to poor concrete column

This mold or form (formaleta in Spanish) is where concrete will be poored around the steel reinforcement to form a strong concrete column at what I hope are strategic places around the house walls.

Tying rebar around walls

Here's Edgar tying two pieces of steel rebar together with a piece of wire. This horizontal steel reinforcement is laid on top of a row of blocks at every 60cm up the wall. All these kinds of details slow down work a bit but hopefully mean the house will be a lot stronger.



I don't know much or anything about earthquake resistance but I think the idea is that if the house moves, the whole house moves together and you don't end up with one wall moving one direction and another wall staying put and a big whole in the middle.