A Runway for the Ramp, prep for the Stairs and the Utility Room

Today I had one of the guys who freelances as a Day Laborer do a lot of work for me.  He cleared all the stones (heavy) lying all over the place and piled them up away from the house.

Then he extended the approach to the Ramp that I started some days ago.  Now the Ramp has a Runway.

Then he cleared up and leveled the space where the stairs are going to be built.  There were quite a few heavy stones in the pit that had to be put away.  Work starts tomorrow.

He also moved a lot of stuff out of the Utility Room and swept the floor to ready it for finishing.  That too will be done tomorrow. Yes there were 13 stone slabs that will be used for surfacing the existing steps, that had to be moved.


There was a lot of cardboard that I needed to get rid of. He was happy to haul it away. His wife will use it for fuel for her cooking fire.


I got my money's worth all of Rs. 150, which is the going rate for a day's labour from 8AM to 3PM.  The custom is to provide snacks, (Thindi) and Chai at around 11AM, which I have outsourced to local woman.  She brings it to the site.

My Neighbours

Next to my house is a fisher family, consisting of two brothers and their mother. One brother is married and has two kids. The sister used to live with them till recently. Now she is married and gone.

This is the view of their place from my kitchen window.  The older brother has built himself a new house that you can see on the left of the picture. He is considered a Below Poverty Line (BPL) person and the government gave him Rs. 40,000 to build this house. He might have spent an additional Rs. 60,000.  He has a moped.  Both he and his wife have mobile phones.  they have a TV and a stereo player.  But he did not build a toilet!

 On the right is the old house.  The structure in the middle that you can see in both the pictures is where the older brother's wife does the cooking.  They wash their utensils at the base of the coconut tree that is in front of the kitchen.

The Brother's have fought and the younger brother has to feed himself. Don't know if the daughter-in-law cooks for the mother-in-law.

You can see all three structures in this picture.

The daughter was washing clothes today and so i took a video of her.  SHe was quite thrilled as you can see.

This is a closer look at their wash station.  

The Towel Rack & more about the Bird

This is one tenacious bird. Today he did a flip inadvertently, .... hilarious.

The sound is turned on, in this clip. If you listen closely, you can hear him chirp. Today's improvement was installing a Towel Rack in the Guest Bathroom.

To complete it, it needs a mirror and a few minor things like a Holders for Toilet Paper, a Hand Towel and Soap. One major item missing is covering for the windows, like sliding glass with mosquito screen. Oh well, I have quite a few things to take care of here!
It has been cloudy and raining incessantly.  Reminds me of the Bay Area in November.  Only the days are longer and it is much warmer.  Unlike the Northwest, where it gets really depressing that time of the year.  I went for a 5K jog and it rained on my way back.  It was quite a pleasurable experience.  It gets cold at night now, which is unusual.  I think we will have a very cold wionter, which would be quite welcome as well.

The Bird, the Staff Bath and the Ramp

This morning I heard consistent chirping outside my window.  It was a pair of birds, pecking at the Window.  

The Windows are tinted one-way glass and the Bird was fighting its reflection.  I tried to help and put a piece of cardboard and left the wind open.  One of the birds started attacking another window.  I gave up.  I will get a bird bath and bird houses. 


Yesterday the mason finished his portion of the job.

The Staff Bathroom is now Plumber Ready. Getting the Plumber to come to put in the faucets, wash basin and flush, is another challenge.  On the upside it will count for another improvement, when he comes! However, it is "dump ready", as is.  All that is required is a bucket of water, that can be drawn from the well.

Improvements were made to the Ramp.  Another layer of cement was applied with lateral grooves so that the tires don't slip.  The circus act becomes a little easier.  Will try it out when the cement cures.

The Staff Room And Bathroom

Another improvement today was the plastering of the Staff Bathroom.  It was partially done. 

The door to the extreme right is the Entrance to the house via the Utility room. Next to it is the Staff Room and next to that is the Staff Bath.  The Staff Room and Bathroom are accessible only from outside and have no access to the house. Drivers of visiting guests can utilize these facilities and be comfortable.

 

To the right are connections for Hot and Cold Water. The sink will be to the left.  Instead of tiles, Red Oxide will be used to finish the bathroom. The walls were done today.

The floor will be done next after which the faucets, wash basin and flush will be installed.

The Tank

Filling the Tank is an exercise. 

First the flex pipe has to be yanked up the ladder.

And then attached to the pipe descending from the top of the tank.  The Solar Hot Water Heater is next to the tank. It is a convection based system that requires no power and works really good.

The Pot

Today I administered a shot of physical पलंक थोड (Viagra) to a पात्र (Pot) of mine. One of the rivets had broken off and the handle drooped. A hole was drilled through the Bakelite handle and a bolt was fastened. Now the handle is erect. खडे रुस्तोम 

Before

After

This was a micro improvement for the day. This micro improvement results in a macro benefit for me. I make my Oats in this pot. So rather than transfer the contents to another vessel which would result in two vessels to clean, I can now enjoy my Oats directly from this pot. The only problem is that the screw head ate through the Bakelite. Now I have to find a washer to make it मस्बूथ  (strong). That would count as a nano improvement.

Rummaging through my stuff, I found a nut, bolt and washer. So the nano improvement is done. Two other pico improvements were accomplished.  A Calendar and Wall Clock were hung. I couldn't decide which wall to put which, so I nailed the opposite walls of my kitchen. If I don't like the placements, I can switch them.

Ah this insertion of Hindi works great.  I love it.

The Ramp

The Ramp

The improvement today was to make the access to the shed's ramp firmer so that it becomes easier to ride my motor bike into the shed.  This is somewhat of a circus trick since the door is only slightly wider than the handle bar of the bike. 

The first step was to spread some broken tiles  and pound them using a pounder.  Then some laterite rubble was spread over the pounded tiles and pounded again.  Here you see the equipment used.  

The local term for the pounder is Damas.  The trovel is called a Kutari and the basket is called a Butti.

Outside the House

The outside of the house is devoid of any landscaping. There is rubble lying around and one day I will get around to it. there is still a lot of construction to be done.The front door as described in the previous post is an iron grill. A wooden door will be installed here. All the grills are rusting and have to be rust proofed. You can see the "Drishti Bombey" and right through to the West Side grill.

Just outside the front door is the well and the pump enclosure. Throughout the day the locals come to the well to draw water from it.
What you see above is the septic tank. It is fairly large and I don't expect it would need maintenance for a number of years. The stairway to the upper floor will be to the top of the arch, from either side and then upwards from there on.
This is the sea facing side of the house and you can see the Water Tank and the Solar Water Heater on top. When the upper floor is built out, it will be an undertaking to raise these two items up one level. The window on the left is for the sea facing guest room. The window on the right is the master bedroom. Currently, there is no piping from the Pump to the water tank. And so I use a flex pipe to fill the tank once every few days. Everytime the tank has to be filled, I pull the flex pipe up using a ladder and attach it to the inlet of the tank.

This is a picture of the plumbing into the guest bathroom. The spout you see coming out is for the grey water which flows into the sand pit. I want that creeper or some other one to cover this wall.

And finally this is the inside of the local Post Office that is manned by a Post Woman. There is a mail carrier who makes two trips to the post office from and to the town which is a twenty minute walk from here.

Inside the House

The house is situated less than a hundred steps from the ocean. Currently I am roughing it somewhat, as you can see from the pictures and explanations below. Everyday the aim is to make things more comfortable than the previous one.The main entrance faces East. To the East is the rest of India. To the West is the Arabian Sea. Currently, there is no door, just a grill gate. Except for the furniture, no wood has been used in the house. I intend to get a wooden door here. A local carpenter provides doors with elaborate carvings. The masonry is intentionally exposed to give the house rustic look. If you look closely at the grill you will see a small black doll hanging. It is called a "Drishti Bombey". Locals use it to ward off the evil eye.
Above is the West side of the house facing the ocean. Here too it is just a grill. When it rains, water comes in. No big deal, I just use a wiper to push the water out. Keeps the floors clean. I have to think of something to keep the rain water out during three/four months of the year. The constant breeze coming in is awesome. Closing it off with glass would be a waste. If you look closely on top of the picture, you will see some hung plumbing pipes. This was the only convenient place I could think of to secure them. Things have a tendency to sprout legs here and walk away.
The skylight is covered by a plastic tarp and water seeps in as well. What the heck, it is only water and the monsoons is almost over. I will cover it with a piece of translucent fibre sheet. Needs some investigation.

Off the coast is an island that can be seen from the sea facing bedrooms. The view above is what you see from my bed. The sea facing rooms are the only rooms that have Sliding Windows currently, with screens to keep the mosquitoes out. By and by more Windows will be installed.And this is what you see from the window. The structure in the picture has five rooms, three of which are being used as storage, one room has no roof (collapsed) and the window you see is the local Post Office. It is situated right outside my door step. Some day I will rebuild this to have cabins for tourists.
Above is my bed. Yes there are mosquitoes here too despite the wind. The brown pieces of cloth you see are to keep mosquitoes from biting my hands. There are similar pieces protecting the legs.
What you see is my cutting table and refrigerator. On the cutting table is a water filter and also my cutting board. On top of the fridge is the "kodopana" which is the steel pot that I use to draw water from the well and pour into the filter. I don't boil the water. It is clean filtered well water and tastes good.
And here is my temporary cooking table. It used to be my computer desk. I plan to move the gas cylinder to the other side of the wall after making a small hole in it. It will then be in the utility room which is accessible from the outside. This way the delivery man can just drop off a filled cylinder and pick up the empty one without having to come into the kitchen.
The kitchen sink is temporarily balanced on two columns of bricks. Yes the kitchen has to be modeled as opposed to re-modeled!
These are pictures of one of the bathrooms. The other is a mirror image of this one. The other bathroom has two doors. One that opens into the guest room and the other door opens into the hall. One of the guest rooms has its own bathroom that is also shared.
What you see as you enter is the wash basin.

Turning right after entering the bathroom is the commode and the bath area. The sewage system consists of a septic tank. The sink and bath water flows into a sand pit.
A 200 litre Solar Hot Water system provide ample hot water.
My temporary phone connection that includes Broadband comes in through the Ventilator Window.
To my temporary Workstation. I have found a Computer Desk in town. I just need to pick it up one of these days.
And now let me explain the life cycle of my clothes. Even the bare minimum clothes I use I think is excessive. Anyway, they hang in the open hanging closet. Notice the lungi (mundoo) hanging loose. Clothes to be washed are put in the hamper.The washing machine is in the unfinished Utility Room. Washed clothes are hung to dry there and then moved to the open hanging closet. No need to fold clothes except the sheets.

There you have it the highlights of the insides.