June 8, 2008

Constructing a driveway and other jobs

Dear Dad,

What a busy week we are having.

David talked to the landlord about filling in the driveway with brick and they agreed.  We had (the work has been completed) spaces between slabs of cement and the tires would fall into them. 

The truck showed up with supplies, stacks of red brick and bags of re cement, and placed them in the garage under roof (really a carport) and we were told not to park inside as we would not be able to get the car out once the work was started. 

This we did, but it rained and rained and rained for three days and postponed the job.

When the workers finally appeared and started on the job I was happy to see that they were going to open one of the spaces making it bigger so it would match with the brick on the main road that goes around the compound. I should have known better since I have lived here for more than 34 years (yes, believe it or not, it has been that long) and the job would not be done correctly.

What happened?  The first row of bricks was supposed to have six bricks placed side by side and the last row was not complete.  Why….well the explanation David and I got was that the lid on a cement top that covers a drain was in the way so the workers could not continue the row.  What? 

We called the landlady and she gave authorization to have the changes made without even seeing the mess.  She is very nice nothing like the horrible landlady in the other house.

The next problem was that the first row was 15 inches longer than the next two rows? 

The center row was fine but the last row, instead of opening or cutting the cement and making room for the six bricks to be placed side by side, the workers placed two bricks and then cut a brick in half.  It looked stupid and didn’t match the row of six bricks in the street.

Years ago, I would have yelled; but I know that a ¨word picture¨ or a good explanation would be better.  What is that?  Well, I pointed out the mistakes.  For the first row I told them to set the cement top straight and they row could be continued.  Also, did up the extra bricks and put down cement so that all three rows were the same length.  The last row took extra work and a cement cutter to widen it and make room for the row of six bricks.

To do all this, I had to show them the pattern in the road and how making the changes

We suggested that the finished job would be perfect and everything would match up.

After explaining it 4 times (maybe more) the workers finally got it.

Two days later, the job is finished and looks perfect. I am sure that the owners will be grateful that we insisted on the changes so that the entrance to the house is as perfect as the rest of the houses in the compound and architecturally perfect. 

I may drop dead from stress however.  Not really.

It has been my experience here that any time, and I mean every time, we do a construction job there is a problem.  It is and always has been difficult to get the worker, for whatever job we are doing, to get it correctly the first time.

We are not the only ones with the problem and language is not the problem either, it is vision of what the finished product should look like or common sense.

Example:  Years ago when the tuna plant, Tesoro de Mar, wanted to expand they had to take down a wall.  The instructions were given to the construction boss and the owner of the plant and our friend and neighbor George went home for lunch.  When he returned he saw, to his horror, that a wall had been removed, but it was the wrong wall.

Another construction mistake was an American wanted to build his dream house.  After looking at all the construction sites, he decided on a construction boss and crew and went home to have the plans drawn up. 

When he returner, to his horror, he saw that his dream house had been built according to his plans but the BIG mistake was that the plans were drawn up in feet and not meters.  His dream house was built and big enough for Paul Bunion and his Blue Ox with room to hold a 727 airplane in the living room.  The windows were 22 feet high and the door jams over 40 feet tall.

This happened to another person who lived in Chile and was building a brick house here, but after receiving numerous long distance phone calls asking for more and more money he came to Costa Rica to see why and discovered the mistake and was able to correct it in time.

The most common mistake that is made is the wall plugs.  Since electricity here is such a luxury, normally the wall plugs are placed mid wall so that they can be seen and this is what will happen if the person building is not observant and makes the correction.  

 

Tomorrow we are going to Puntarenas to meet with the man who will be in charge of the construction we need to do at the new Casa Calypso.  We have to put in bathrooms and move the kitchen before we can move and all this has to be completed by the end of July.  We can do it.  Then we are going to Punta Coral for a long weekend. J

 

David is in the car.  It is late and Celiece and Marlon are waiting for us at home. My special and great friend Jetty just sent over a vase of tulips, hydrangeas, agapanthus. Iris, and purple roses.  I love purple and will take the flowers home.  They are beautiful.

I cannot believe that another year has passed.  Tomorrow I will celebrate another year.

How old ?   I’ll never tell. I love and miss you.  Hope you are well and happy.

 

Besitos,  Cecs