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Post date: Jul 4, 2015 12:55:17 PM
I’ve lived in Nigeria, Germany, Central America, and Seattle. In some of those places there is an expression that explains why events are planned on one schedule, but occur later. Here in Taos, New Mexico, it is called “Taos Time”. Many events either start or end later than we Anglos expect.
Now, to be fair, no one told me that my porch would be built in a day. I assumed, in my naive way, that it would only take a day to put up the beams, vigas, and decking. And I suppose we could have done it, if we were more sloppy in the details and used different methods of construction.
But one of my objectives for building a house here is to learn how things are done here. So, as a small example, I did not insist that we rent a crane to move the heavy beams. So we lifted most of them with human muscle. And when they didn’t fit exactly, we used muscle to adjust them.The photo at left represents a very unusual situation. Ulisses, Eli, Lalo, and Jake stopped work at noon Friday (official Independence Day) and just chatted for a while. It is the first time in over three months I have seen them just hanging out — they are usually hard at work or eating lunch.
For example, both ends of the vigas rest in ‘pockets’. These pockets are built of short pieces of wood, twelve per viga, six vigas — each has to be cut to fit — rather than just resting the vigas on top of a beam. These pockets allow sheathing to be nailed in place. The sheathing will support the plaster, but it first has to be cut to shape around each viga — more time-consuming work.Then, on the house end of the vigas, we need to seal around each viga to make it air-tight. (Air leaks are the biggest heating cost in winter.) This means cutting short pieces of very sticky black tape and forming them around the viga where it penetrates the wall.
And the tops of the vigas need to be planed flat so the decking (ceiling boards) rest firmly. Fortunately Eli has an electric plane, so this goes much faster than using a hand plane. Some of this type of detail is because the workers are carpenters. They are trained to cut pieces out of wood and nail them together. I bet that if I hired masons to install the vigas they would embed each end in mortar — which would be much faster. The relative merit of the different methods is not for me to judge — I hired Eli and he is primarily a wood worker.
On a completely different note, here is a picture of the toilet tank. Doesn’t look familiar? This tank adds about $1,000 to the cost of the toilet and, in return, I get about 8” more space in the bathroom. The toilet bowl will hang from the wall and the tank is built into the wall. I’m not sure how I will change the valve if it ever leaks!Cheaper than a cruise on the Mediterranean and more to my liking!
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