One Brick Short...

...not of a full load, but of a wall. Yesterday I finished building the little brick retaining wall by the hot tub. I was within one brick of estimating the amount of mortar correctly. Not bad for my first brick wall. It looks pretty nice for something that most people will never see.

Today I worked with Naun again, leveling and otherwise fine-tuning the foundation trenches. We also dug a little bit under the existing foundation footing, which will be used to tie the two foundations together. And I began the tedious process of drilling into the existing foundation to insert some rebar as part of the tie together.

My Spanish is improving rapidly. No, that's not quite right. My comfort level with speaking Spanish is improving rapidly. I've had a couple of full-fledged conversations in Spanish, and besides not remembering a word or two, I didn't even stress. But I know that I'm frequently butchering the language. My Spanish instructors would be pleased that I'm still speaking Spanish, but probably be appalled at how much I've forgotten. I do pretty well in present tense, but I've forgotten conjugating for past and future tense, and I frequently forget to use the command form when it would be appropriate.

I've begun teaching Naun English. He's no dummy, and knows that knowing English would help his job prospects. I told him at lunch that when the house is done, he'll be speaking English and I'll be speaking Spanish. And if my project takes as long as Rob and Ginger's, that may not be far from the truth :-)

As evidence of my comfort level with Spanish, I've even said a few things (intentionally) to get Naun to laugh. Part of today's English lesson was some of the foods at lunch: rice (arroz), beans (frijoles), juice (jugo). And the simple phrase, "more juice, please." We were reviewing words while I was driving him home, and I asked him to say "more juice, please." in English. He'd forgotten 'more', but prompted with that, came up with "more beans, please." OK, now for the big laugh. I corrected him, and he chastised himself for forgetting 'juice'. I responded in a very deadpan way in Spanish, "What would you like to drink? Hmmm...beans, please!". OK, so it's not the funniest joke in the world, but it was a start.

Stuff That Just Works

Every once in a great while, you find a product that just works. There aren't that many relative to the millions upon millions of products that Madison Avenue tries to entice us to buy. But one thing that just works, yet I've never seen an ad for is Orange Goop. It actually lives up to the claim of "gets hands dinner table clean", even with grease (from the jackhammer), latex paint, and just plain old dirt. I first learned about it at Habitat for Humanity, where you can end up with a variety of different substances on your hands at the end of the day.

The term "Madison Avenue" makes me wonder. Is it still the center of advertising media in the U.S.? You hear about it in old movies like Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. It was a must-see given this project, though he doesn't do any actual building, just pays (and pays and pays) various contractors to do the work. But that was almost 60 years ago, and things do have a way of changing. I'd guess that even if it is still the center of advertising, most people these days wouldn't have the slightest idea what you were referring to. Makes me feel old, *sniff* and I'm not even 40 yet.

Today was a quieter work day. No Naun, I worked more slowly, and not on the addition at all. We have a hot tub, but we haven't used it since the California "energy crisis" when electricity rates shot up, i.e., Enron and friends milked CA for all they could get. Katarina realized that my back would probably appreciate the hot tub every now and then during this project. We decided it was time to fill it again, so Kat started by cleaning it. But at some point I got it in my head to rotate it 90', partly to reposition the cover and the seats, but also to give better access to the drain (which proved to be an issue when cleaning and draining it). So today I ran new wiring for the hot tub so the electrical could come into it in a different place, and built my first (and probably only) brick wall. Only, because I'm re-using some bricks that used to be part of the front walk, and because unreinforced masonry is just a bad idea for construction in earthquake country.

I think my body appreciated the semi-rest. Carrying the jackhammer to the car this morning to return it made me think it had grown much heavier during the night. I'm sure Naun felt fine this morning, even given that he worked incredibly hard yesterday, and started carrying a huge piece of concrete out from under the deck, hobbling along doubled over. No 'lift with the legs' there -- it made my back hurt just looking at it. I made him put it down, and I wheeled it out with a handtruck. Funny how a situation like that can inspire you to make yourself understood in another language.

Happy 4th of July

I worked today with Naun, Edis' uncle. He's also a very hard worker, but I don't feel I'm being left in the dust...quite as much. He speaks even less English than Edis, even though he's been in the U.S. for four years versus one for Edis. While we ate lunch (thanks, Kat), we talked about different stuff. His journey to the U.S. sounds hard. Bus to the coast. Boat to Mexico. Freight train to the U.S. border. But as hard as it was, it sounds like it was worth it to him and his family. According to the CIA World Factbook, Honduras has:

• 28.5% unemployment
  
• $2,800 per capita GDP
  
• 53% below the poverty line
  

Compare with the U.S.:

• 5.5% unemployment
  
• $40,100 per capita GDP
  
• 12% below poverty line
  

Though it's still amazing to me that as the wealthiest country in the world, we have anyone below the poverty line.

I did more careful layout lines to check our digging, and used my new electronic water level to get them level. Pretty cool gizmo, and with a tone audible into the next county, easy to use with one person. Naun did a lot of digging for the foundation. I need to rent the jackhammer again, but I think one more day should do it.

Last week while laying things out and digging, I thought of a beneficial design change, namely making the bathroom the same level as the bedroom (at +21" from existing floor level) with the foundation to match. It will make the steps and door a bit more complicated, but simplify the grading, the foundation itself, and the floor framing. And it will give us another 30 sq. ft. or so in the bedroom, with no change to bearing walls or the footprint of the addition. Now I just need to find out how hard it is to get a change through with the city...

Programmer Hands

I worked for a lot of years as a programmer. It's one of many jobs where you sit at a desk and don't do much physically. Besides a tendancy to bulging waistlines, desk work has the effect of letting your hands get soft. Sure, I'd do some physical labor here and there, but 3 or 4 days straight at a Habitat Build-a-thon isn't enough to really toughen up your hands much, and certainly not 3 or 4 times a month volunteering at the Habitat building site.

So here I am, one week into the addition project, and already my hands feel different. There's the expected blisters here and there, but there are already callouses forming, and the skin is rougher.

They don't feel like programmer hands anymore.

P-p-p-rogress

No Edis today, but I jackhammered for a couple hours, had lunch with my friend Jim, then jackhammered all afternoon. Gone is the brick retaining wall, the top of a concrete retaining wall, and more bits and pieces. Getting close to being done with jackhammer, I think. Just some sidewalk and an already-cracked retaining wall to get through.

It became clear why unreinforced masonry is bad for earthquake country. A double-wide brick wall came apart with surprisingly little force, and a lot less force than needed for a thinner concrete wall.