Citibank

Let me start this be reminding everyone that Citibank continues to fail miserably as a credit card provider. That they are headed for bankruptcy should not surprise anyone. What should be surprising is that they are even permitted to continue in operation.






The rain gutters are now installed, along with the double downspouts that will feed the roof-water storage. From the tank will be a gravity feed to the filtration and Hydropack pump in the external furnace room. That room got underway today.

The other view is of Whale Mountain from the Llanuras de Diana.

Sunday Morning in Southern Patagonia Fjordlands

Preparing for the drive down to Punta Arenas to attend (and work) the "Cold Regions Science and Technology Seminar."

I would rather, however, stay at home and watch the rain.

The last foto here, with the rain splattered on the lens, shows the utilities ditch that was started yesterday. The old guy doing the work was here again today, Sunday, in the rain and mud. I continue to be impressed with the work being done by the new crew, in contrast to the first builder. But there are still some problems that I hope José can help to resolve.

Punta Arenas

Had several reasons to make another run down to Punta Arenas. Bank. Univ of Magallanes visit. Building materials. Dollars for pesos.... since the rates are much better than here in Natales. Recall from earlier posts that Puerto Natales is known by many of its own as the ass-end of the world.

Got in last night after an interesting drive back from Punta Arenas, with the wind catching the material in the pipe rack and blowing the truck around on the highway.

But the trip was largely successful, save for the repeat offenses of Citibank in screwing up my Mastercard. Word to the wise: forget any sort of credit card that has the word Citibank on it if you plan to travel more than 6 miles from a home in the Lesser 48.

As can been seen in the images, the chiflonera now has a locking main access door. And the lads are working on installing the rain gutter which will eventually feed the roof water to the storage tank on the upfill side of the house.

Milestone

Yesterday I did a test fire in the wood-burning stove on the second floor, in its " instalación provisoria." One of the images may show smoke from the chimney.

Another small milestone.

Bids taken on installation of the natural gas, water, and sewer runs, each about 100 meters and some serious trenching all to be done by pick and shove. Selections for Friday after I get back from Punta Arenas.

Bids accepted on work for the furnace room and installation of the canaleta, the rain gutter system that is going to feed the roof-water storage.

Windows, who knows? I visited Tec-Alum and they said they have the materials in and can deliver the rest of the windows later this week. We will see.

Stove and chimney installations

There are now just two workers on the site, but they are pretty good, though there are times when that third set of hands is useful. Today I see good progress on the installation of the chimney and the stovepipe, though I see that my directions for the anchoring of the section of stovepipe above the roof level were not followed. Oh, well. Can correct that later.

The chiflonera is not quite done but some progress was made. I had hoped that the structure might be sufficiently finished this week to be able to lock it up, but we are only close.

Portones y estufa

The workers surprised me the other day by asking where my wood-burning stove had gotten to.... it had been safety stored and covered in the garage. And there was a long story to that stove, since it had belonged to a good friend of mine in Colorado years ago. It was an older Orley insert and I bought it for a very fair price, but it languished in my Black Forest garage for many years since none of my house or barn installations could readily deal with the minimum spacing requirements for such a stove. So when it came time to design a house around a stove, the Puerto Bories place, Casa 7 Bis, was laid out to accommodate the old stove.

Well, the workers had, unbeknownst to me, moved the stove upstairs and started the preliminary work for the chimney installation. They removed the protective packaging from the glass windows, which made me a little nervous, but so far no damage is done. In the time that the stove had been stored (since November of 2007) it has had time to develop some surface rust. So I started to clean up the stove and do some touch-up with the high-temp stove paint I found up in Argentina.

Elsewhere at the site the portones, the garage doors, are now installed. And work on the chiflonera is concluding, though that structure is not turning out as nicely as I had hoped, at least for the external appearance.

101 Views of ... Cerro Ballena

Must be getting close to tying Hiroshige's magic number of views of Mt Fuji, though by now my gentle readers may be weary of seeing Cerro Ballena. In that case, stay tuned for other subject matter. But here is the view this morning. You can click on it for a larger view.





And another morning shot of Cerro Balmaceda as well. So maybe "101 Views Down the Fjord."



Later in the day we see that the wood-burning stove has been moved into the second floor, where we worked the issues of location and components that would have to be made locally for the installation.

José and I obtained the rest of the large hinges needed for the installation of the portones, the garage doors. We set one of them in place temporarily to see how it would look. The previous builder constructed the foundation so unevenly that for the door opening on that side (in the photo) there is more than 2 inches of difference in height from one end to the other. When the final door work is done the upper sheet metal will be cut away, and the bottom edges of the portones will be skirted individually to work the problem of the uneven lower edge.

Windows? Well, more explanations and more promises. Supposedly there is a materials shortfall due to transportation from Punta Arenas of the thermopanel glass components. The material is supposed to be here on Thursday and built-up window assemblies are to be delivered a week from today. That makes them three months late.

Portones and stuff

The great building project proceeds with the beginnings of the portones, the garage doors. In a Saturday search of the open hardware stores, there were no suitable hinge sets to be found. That does not mean that they are not out there, just that my usual hardware stores were either closed or were out of the stock. So far, the "Aguila" hardware store, which was supposed to hold so much promise, has not brought much to the local game.

It rained a great deal yesterday, and I had the chance to do a leak-check for the roof. There were no leaks to be seen, but there was no wind to spray the rain around. The roof still has some flaws that will need to be addressed to keep out wind-driven rain and snow.

In the attached fotos we see the start of the portones, and the stairs leading to the second floor. In the third photo, a loadbearing wall was recently added as a correction for the first builder's problems. That wall will be getting some additional cross bracing with steel strap. Then for the rest of the insufficiently supported span, I will probably get another "viga maestra" similar to the one that supports the other end.

Those corrections are still underway as we continue to discover errors. But things are coming along, even as autumn races by and winter settles on us.

The Birds of Casa 9

This rainy morning the long-beaked bandurrias (Theristicus melanopi) were outnumbered by the Patagonian "upland geese" or caiquenes (Chloephaga picta).

Slouching toward Winter

Rain down on the fjord, but snow not much higher upon the sides. It makes the views a little more spectacular, but it also makes us feel colder.

Views from windows, and from outside.

Discussions with workers included some window substitutions, modifying the run of the aguas-negras plumbing, and a separate fire-rated room for the furnace and hot water heater. Windows continue to be late, an issue that has many dimensions, evidently.

April Rain. Building Materials. Punta Arenas

Went to Punta Arenas for a number of issues, including banking. Too long to tell right here. Needed some groceries, building materials, paint, tools, a wheelbarrow. A decent wheelbarrow down here costs about the equivalent of US$80 or so, and they aren't a particularly nice product, either.


The main purchase was canaleta, the rain gutter system. The brand is Tigre and the stuff is imported from Brazil. A set for an 8x14 meter house roof is about US$400 and that includes the cash discount.

Other material.... 2.5 meter sheets of galvanized metal and some Internit, the fibercement material used to cover the exposed structural steel. Plus one sheet of 8mm Internit to place under the steel plate for temporary installation of the wood burning stove as soon as the chimney is done.

The lads were starting work on the floor structure for the first floor office area when I got in this afternoon.

Around the Village

Sundry images from around town.

The bricks, the result of some scrounging at old foundations. It appears that at least some of the brick markings are from "Rawyards - Glasgow." Others are marked with the brickworks in Punta Arenas. These and other bricks are being accumulated for the construction of a walkway next season.

Then a local friend brought by an English language children's newspaper from the UK, from the year 1935.



On the house, the decorative pinaculos were installed on Saturday, giving the place an arguably softer touch. The heavy hardware in another image reflects the anchors to be installed on the roof as part of a fall-protection scheme for anyone working up there, whether for later work on the chimney or painting tentatively scheduled for a year or so from now. Colonial Red, to be sure, to maintain the tradition and appearance of the old red-lead paint of circa 1900.

Planning to head for Punta Arenas this afternoon for a variety of tasks, including a truckload of building material. How does one say "turnbuckle" in the local language?

Patagonian Windows 1.0

Today the first two of the upstairs windows were installed. The process involves using a "galletera" grinder with cutoff wheel to cut the siding steel sheet. Insulation and trim to come. For now the "obra gruesa" --- the weathering-in of the structure.

Question? Yes, you in the rear. Yes. Yes, the windows are double-pane thermal windows. Yes, there will be other windows in this part of the house that open, but not the windows in the balcony itself. One large window in the kitchen will be "abatible" -- an opening window hinged from the top surface. Yes, that will help to ventilate the kitchen. You know how my cooking is.