Gate Update

It is the middle of Sept and the monsoons are almost over. The support for the gates have been removed and the trench in between the columns have been filled in. Now the sides have to be filled in with stones to complete the compound wall.

The East Gate

I can now ride my bicycle to town without having to carry it over the wall!

The West Gate

The Wall - Work in Progress

All these years I resisted building a compound wall around the house. But the villagers would pass by and randomly drop plastic bags and wrappers. Then I had motor bikes pass by using this access as a short cut. Many people suggested I build a wall and so it is now a Work In Progress. While it will be around the house it does not enclose the entire extent of the property which would be impractical. The property includes the land beyond the wall to the ocean to the West as well as the land to the North where you see coconut trees and the irrigation pump house.

Work commence on Jan 18th. Based on the pace it will take all of March.

You can see the island behind the truck as it passes by. Some years ago the sea came in an washed of the road. The truck is actually passing over a dirt road that passes through the property. If and when a proper road is built I will have to reclaim that portion.

The stones of the Wall are individually placed and cemented by a mason and his helper. They typically lay 120 to 130 stones a day. More than 3000 stones were used to form the wall up to the point of getting ready for the gates.

Gap left for the East Gate along with a barricade to prevent Cows from entering.

Gap for the West - Sea Side gate.

The fellow who constructed the Gates said he would have them ready by April 17th 2016. Instead he had them ready on June 15th! Meanwhile we got started on site prep.

June 10th, Day 1 - The trenches for the posts/columns were dug and Concrete poured to form the base of the Footing and the Gate Columns.

June 30th, - Day 2, Even though the Gates were delivered on June 15th, he person installing the gate was busy. The rebar for the footing is placed along with the reinforcement rebar for the columns.

Concrete is poured to form the the footing.

The West Gate which is double wide needed a footing and a base.

July 1st - Day 3. The gate sections are placed.

Concrete is poured to form the columns.

Jul 2nd Day 4: The column formers are removed. Now the gaps have to be filled with stones and the space between prepped.

It is July 15th 2016 as I write this and now that the monsoons are in full swing it will probably be September when work will commence to finish the Wall. 

Besides delay in getting the gates, more stones are needed and the Quarry is not delivering.

In getting the gates installed I am convinced of the Power of the Universe. The person who installed the gates was building his house near by and so had all the stuff available to do the job. During the installation, we ran out of grit/aggregate. It just so happened that my neighbour had some remaining from building his house. Normally people don't have grit lying around. We also needed half a bag of cement. The person doing the installation was able to provide that. The installation was completed without a hitch.

Link to Gate Update

The Village Primary School and Balwadi (Day Care Center)

The village Balwadi and Primary School (Class 1 through 5) is situated just outside my house.

The Balwadi is to the left and the Primary School is to the right - You can click on the picture to see a larger image

At the very end are the toilets, in a separate structure for the school.

The main room of the Balwadi in which the children sit is just a room with a desk. The children sit on the floor. In summer it gets hot and they spend time outdoors.

The primary school consists of two rooms and a verandah. Five classes share these spaces each of which has a desk for the two teachers and the head master. The children sit on the floor.

Primary School Children

The children are celebrating Swami Vivekananda's Birthday. Two boys are dressed up as the Swami and the other children are holding up placards in Kannada.

Pre-school Children flanked by Teacher on the right and helper on the left

The primary school kitchen

All the children are served mid-day meals. The Balwadi has a separate kitchen situate in their building.

This year the number of children in the primary school was fewer than the last, and one of the kitchen helpers was let go. Figure this is in a nation of 1.2 Billion. But she is doing OK, working at a Cashew Nut Splitting center.

The structural work is complete

The roofs were poured in May 2012. I have been delinquent in taking pictures and posting. So here goes. You can click on a picture to view a bigger size.

This is the view from one of the balconies

The Solar Hot Water Heater and Water Tank

Looking West towards the Arabian Sea

As you enter

Each room is made to look like a cottage and clustered like a village with an open space in between.

Each Bathroom has an opening to the sky where the shower will be located.

I do have pictures of the reinforcements before the concrete was poured. Will post in a few weeks.

Click on the following links for previous posts:

The previous post has pictures before the top was poured.

This post has the beginnings of the upper floor.

Link to pictures of the outside of the house.

Pictures of the inside of the house.

Upper Floor Takes Shape

Partially built walls

The walls were built up to a height of 7 feet after which small concrete beams (Lintels) were constructed over the openings of the doors and windows. Also slabs were poured to form the bathroom ceilings. All bathrooms have a section open to the sky where the showers will be. Now we are ready for the roof. This is looking West towards the ocean.

Dorm Room

What you see is the concrete Lintel that forms the windows with stones on either side to make it level for the roof. This is the NE corner of the upper floor.

One of the bedrooms with an attached bath

You can see the entrance to the bathroom, which has the opening on the right to the sky. The opening on the left is for the common bath that will be shared by the Dorms.

This is the Southern section of the upper floor. 

The tank will be shifted to a structure that will be built on top of the slab that can be seen near it. The Solar Hot Water System will be relocated to the top of the slab on the left. The tank is currently situated in the mid-section which will be an open terrace. what you see leaning against the walls are concrete door frames. No wood has been used to construct the house.

Entrance to a bedroom with an attached bath

On extreme left is the entrance to the bedroom, to its right is the door to the bathroom. To the right of the picture you can see the opening to the sky.

The Mid-Section

Here you can see the mid-section that will be an open terrace. The entrance to this floor can be seen to the left-middle of the above picture. This is looking East away from the ocean. There are four bedrooms with attached baths. Two on either side of the open mid-section. Each bedroom will have a four sided slant roof (like a pyramid). There will be three rooms that will share a bath and a store room for supplies. The idea is to give them a cottage look and configure the Upper Floor as a Village.

Shower Follies

The shower in my bathroom was a little feeble unlike the shower in the Guest bathroom. I could not fathom this out. Then the faucet in the Guest Bathroom seemed clogged and the light bulb lit up. There was sedimentation and it had to be removed. And so I cleaned the faucet spout and unscrewed the shower heads to clean them.

The Shower Head

I couldn't figure out how to dismantle this contraption so I took a small nail and poked each hole to cleanse it. Tried prying it apart, but that didn't work. Not one for giving up I finally figured by using enough force and grip, the head could be unscrewed and the be thoroughly cleaned. 

Shower Head and Nipples Layer

I figured that if I don't use the Nipples Layer, I would get a better flow, but what resulted was this:

The flow was not evenly distributed and splattered out. And so the Nipples Layer was reinserted and now I have a proper shower, like it should be:

Duct Tape to the rescue

Yesterday we moved the Water Tank and moved the Solar Water Heater a bit away from the wall. I had used up all the water in the tank and drained away the little that was left. Heave Ho! Heave Ho! The plan was to cut the current 50mm pipes, use reducers at either end and reconnect with flexible hose pipe after moving the Water Tank. Unfortunately I did not realize that the pipes were UPVC, which are different from PVC both in dimensions and the glue used to seal the joints. The local store had no UPC reducers and so I was in a fix. No water in the house! The term used to do "chicen wire and chewing gum" solutions in India is called "Jugaad". And so a Jugaad solution was applied using duct tape.


Well the Jugad was 50% successful. I was able to have a luke warm shower.

 Duct Tape used to connect reducer to UPVC Pipe

 Interconnect using Flex Pipe

Shifted Water Tank - Now

Water Tank Then

Postscript:

The proper connection using the proper reducers looks like this:

A bend needed to be added to one connection so that the flex pipe didn't crimp while skirting a wall