Posts Tagged ‘building’

Goal Achieved

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Wow!  I am still amazed that we are where we are.  We have a roof on our house!  The windows are in , the outside doors on.  Our house is secure!  After all the set-backs, we have arrived at the goal we’ve been pressing toward.  Our house is ready to move in!

All I can say is “Thank you, Lord!”  The past two weeks we had back-to-back work teams that made it possible to reach our goal.  It’s happened so fast!  We’ve been working on this house since November.  And, it’s all been a concept in my mind.  Now, seeing it, it is SO much nicer than I imagined.  I feel so blessed to have a beautiful, comfortable house to live in.  Thank you, God!

May 2010 Roofing Pics 134

May 2010 Roofing Pics 138

May 2010 Roofing Pics 144

May 2010 Roofing Pics 230

May 2010 Roofing Pics 248

Shirley's May Roofing Pics 018

Check, check, check

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Windows – √

Doors – √

Floor – √

We got a call today from the village.  The team has finished the floor!  Woohoo!  And, they installed all the barred windows and the outer doors.  WOW!  And, they even had time to stucco the kitchen.  Thank you, Lord!  The guy who made our cabinets is going on our next work team and he wanted to install the cabinets, so now he can! :)

And, to top it all off, one of the pilots who flies for our organization here flew over the village yesterday and took a few pictures of the progress.  He just sent us copies.  So, here’s what it looks like as of Wednesday at 2:30.

Where is the work team?

Where is the work team?

You can see the tarp over the schoolroom to shade the floor so it doesn’t dry as fast.  There is black plastic on the floor in the kitchen and the other part of the schoolroom so the concrete will sweat and not dry too fast.  You can see the windows already in.  It doesn’t look like our blue throne is installed in the latrine yet.  That will come very soon, I’m sure.  Great job, guys!

Another angle

Another angle

Now, we’re just lacking a roof! :)

Lumber

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Monday, April 12th, 2010

Unloading the lumber

Unloading the lumber into the schoolroom

On our last trip, we were able to finally talk to the foreman at a lumber mill on the road to our village.  We placed the order for our lumber needs for our house with him. He said they’d have it all cut and ready within a week.  The foreman ended up getting called away for a family emergency and the mill workers were coming up on a week’s vacation, so it did not look promising that things would work out as we planned. In the end, a week and a half later we got our wood delivered to the village thanks to our friend who hauls our freight.  He went out of his way to make sure we received exactly what we ordered.  Tuesday, as the workers were supposed to be getting off for a week’s vacation, he had them cut the sizes they lacked for our order.  The boards were loaded directly onto the truck and he brought us a full load.

We got everything stacked and stickered.  This is our roof, our inside walls, and our doors.

Full lumber order

Full lumber order

Progression

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Saturday, April 10th, 2010
The beginning - November

The beginning - November

December

December

December - halfway finished with the foundation

December - halfway finished with the foundation

January - first few rows of adobe

January - first few rows of adobe

February - several walls fell as a result of extraordinary rains

February - several walls fell as a result of extraordinary rains

February - a few more rows

February - a few more rows

March - beginning of work trip

March - beginning of work trip

Shirley's pics Las Moras March 2010 295 end of trip

March - end of work trip

April - removing the forms from the bondbeam

end of March- removing the forms from the bond-beam

Now, we’re all ready to put our roof on and pour our concrete floors.  As soon as that is done, we will move in!

And they rose back up again

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Saturday, March 6th, 2010

In the few days we were in the village, we were able to make lots of progress on the house.

Dan working with bricklayer to build the walls up again

Dan working with the bricklayer to build the walls up again

Dan and the construction team worked to repair the damage of the rains and brought the walls up to the level they were beforehand.

The walls are window height

The walls are window height

They were able to get a few more rows on so we left the walls ready for the window holes.  It should be faster now, because they have to lay fewer bricks to complete a row!

We’re getting ready to make another trip in, and this time, we’ll have some guys working with the bricklayers with the hope of finishing the walls!  Please pray with us that this will be possible.

And the walls came a-tumblin’ down

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

While we were making our way up the road to the village, some of our friends were coming down toward the town.  They were going to register a child and take care of some community business.  We both stopped and chatted a while before getting back in our vehicles and heading our respective ways.  During the quick chat, we learned that our walls were ready for a roof!!!  Yay! They laughed – If we wanted a really short house!  Our people love to laugh and joke.  They then told us our walls were just barely taller than when we were in the village last.

So, we continued on not knowing why the people hadn’t worked on our house much.  We soon found out.  As soon as we got to the village, one of the building team came over to show my partner Dan the house.  With all the rain we have received in the area, part of the foundation caved in causing a wall to fall.  In another part, a small wall had completely fallen over and another wall was leaning.

Wall between my office and living area - the foundation under the wall caved in causing the wall to collapse

Wall between my office and living area - the foundation under the wall caved in causing the wall to collapse

So, the team had stopped working to wait for guidance about how to take care of the problems.  The next morning, my partner Dan worked with them rebuilding that part of the foundation with cement and rock.

Reforming the foundation with rock and cement

Reforming the foundation with rock and cement

A good strong foundation - this one won't cave in

A good strong foundation - this one won't cave in

Then, they tore down the leaning wall and rebuilt it straight.

They tore down most of this wall to make it straight again

They tore down most of this wall to make it straight again

It took a day to repair the damages that the rain had done.

The master brick-layer at work

The master brick-layer at work

House Progress

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

In November, the guys on our team took our house plans out to the village, hired some guys to build our foundation and lay our adobes and hauled the rock and sand that they would need.

DSC04792 low res

November

In December, most of the team went out to spend time in the community and get the second house started.  We had through our house would be done by then, but alas, the team lacked some materials and was only able to make a valiant start.

December

December

In January, the guys went out again to prepare for a work team in February.  We thought our walls would be almost done.  Several things had happened in the village while we were gone and our house hadn’t progressed much farther.  While the guys were there, things picked up and began to progress quickly.

Our house goes up!

January

In February, we were hampered by a several storms that came through the area.  We’re having an unusually wet winter.  It has made it hard traveling as we do in the off-road conditions.

It is exciting to see progress that we do see- but it is frustrating and sometimes discouraging to see it coming so slowly.

Please pray for me, that I might be patient and not anxious. I am a person who likes to plan and have everything ready so things can get done quickly in an orderly fashion.  This has been a hard time for me to plan, prepare and have to sit back and not have expectations.

Packing again

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

We’re getting ready for another trip into the village, and that means packing again.  It’s getting easier and easier, because after a few times, I know what I need and what I don’t need.

Backpack 003 low res

Please pray for us for safety in traveling.  Please pray that the roads would be dry enough to make it into the village.  Please pray for us as we are with the people, that we might communicate love and grace.  We’re taking a dentist in with us for a dental clinic for all the indigenous in the area.

We’ll also be working on Katie’s and my house. Please pray that we might be able to move forward on it.  We’ve faced a lot of disappointments in the last weeks and it hasn’t progressed like we’ve hoped.  Pray that we might be able to get some things done this trip.

Progress

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Our house goes up!

Our house goes up!

The guys got back today from the village.  They hauled over 30 pick-up loads of dirt to fill in our foundation!  The building team took a break so that they could just shovel the dirt from the pickup right into the house.  The team got started again when they’d finished the fill.  We have 6 rows of bricks up as of Monday.  Every day, they do 2 more rows of bricks.  And, there are about 20 rows all together.  It’s going fast now!

There is a work team coming this weekend, so on Monday, the guys will head back to the village with them.  They’re hoping to be able to pour our cement floor and our bond-beam on top of the adobe walls!  It’s moving along!

In the Meantime…

Posted by Rachel Chapman on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Between trips into the village or while the guys are out on a trip, we are busy back home getting ready for the next trip.

my retro ride

my retro ride

I am learning how to drive a standard vehicle.  Our mountain vehicles are standard, and it’s a skill that I’m sure will come in handy in the future.

We zip around town, order materials, go pick them up on the day they are promised only to find out our materials didn’t come in.  So, we go back the following week to pick them up “for sure” only to find out they didn’t come in again.  It’s a good thing we’re starting on our materials early!  So, it means we’re running around a lot.

And, we buy food for the work team trips.  We cook some of it up and freeze it so the guys just have to warm it up.  The rest we package up according to meals and write instructions on them so it’s really easy for the guys to fix.

Yesterday and today we are canning again – beef, hamburger, and chicken!

Where's the beef?

Where's the beef?

That way, we can have meat out there even after the ice melts in our cooler!  Meat tastes so good after a long day of work!

And, I’ve got to keep figuring out what we’ll need next for our house material wise.  Then, I have to order it or arrange for it to be delivered to our village!  Lots of work and phone calls.  Right now, I’m figuring out how much lumber of each size that we need.  The guys will put in the order at a lumber-mill in the mountains a few hours away from our village.

Figuring out lumber needs for inside walls

Figuring out lumber needs for inside walls

We keep very busy!