Builders at Our Home

Monday September 22

The workers came this morning, but they were about an hour late. There was three of them. Then the foreman and other guy and myself went to San Rafael to the hardware store to buy what was needed.

I didn’t have enough money with me so we got what we could. Back at the house the workers started with scraping the paint the was coming off because of the rain.

Later, I went to the mall so I could go to the bank and withdraw some money. I also went the restaurant where I used my computer on their wireless.

When I called Jayne to see how she was doing, she told me that one wall that the workers were had cement that looked like it was crumbling. This upset me and her, too.

When I got home I inspected the wall, which is an inside wall and not exposed to the weather. Indeed, it was like loose cement. We theorized that not only water had done it, but that the builders years ago used a poor quality cement mixture. I found the same problem on the outside of the house under the master bedroom.

I had thought that if the wall has to be replaced it would cost a lot of money plus I don’t have confidence in the workers here. It’s not like the wall will come down any day, but it will not last 5 or more years. I thought on the way home from the mall that it would be throwing good money after bad if everything was fixed properly. And here, you can’t get good work done, so the fix would only be good for x number of years. So, I thought the best thing to do would be to do a good surface job and sell the house. I also thought that this must be a notice to leave the country. It’s like the last thing that broke the camel’s back!

Jayne agreed with me that it would be throwing good money after bad and just has the wall surfaced with a good mixture of cement, paint it and sell the house.

Tearing down a couple of walls, putting supports up to hold up the ceiling while this is being done would cost, say, $10,000? All of this would be covered up so it’s not increasing the value of the home and I would get the same price for it as if I just covered it up.

Every day in every town homes are sold where there is something wrong with it – big and small problems. Some buyers know about it and buy it anyway, others just fix it later. In Ecuador, you can bet nearly every home has major problems and it’s a way of life here. the neighbors in the back of me is building a home and you can see right now that it’ll have water problems within a year or two. So people buying this house will not see anything unusual.

Jayne theorizes that our home is not even build on a concrete foundation – for how can an inside wall from the bottom be in such poor condition?

Visa wise and building wise, it’s just too expensive to live here. Sure, everything else is cheap but with the house problems it’s making it expensive.

Our goal is to sell out and move to Cyprus and buy an apartment and start a business there. It’s where I always wanted to be. Though it’s more expensive than Ecuador, everything else is better.

Before the workers went home the guy who’s in charge asked if I could pay him $40 for his workers. I said what for. The agreement was that half would be paid after they worked one week and the other half when they finished the following week. The cost of labor is $500 for the two weeks.

This is typical in Ecuador – asking for money before the agreed time. Anyhow, I told him to write down his name, date the amount. I’ll make sure I deduct that come Friday. Instead of paying $250, I’ll give the $40 less.


Tuesday September 23

Only two workers showed up. Their boss was not there. When he was here yesterday all he did was supervise. I guess he has workers at some other place. Since a canal has to be building around the house that has to go through rock on two sides and cement on the other, I thought they would have an angle iron. (Marcos said he has his own tools.) Well, it looks like they don’t have an angle iron, so the workers have to use a hammer iron spike and a pickax. The pickax I had to buy yesterday. If they had the right tools the poor workers wouldn’t have to work so hard and more work can get done and they would have got the same money in less time.

Labor is cheaper than proper tools here.


Wednesday September 24

This morning Jayne and I looked at the canal that the workers dug. We saw that the foundation is made build with bricks! These are bricks that deteriorate. On top of this is a concrete slab. How can they build such a foundation? The only thing we can do is to do a patch-up job. It would cost way too much to dig out the bottom of the foundation with supports that would prevent the shifting of the house.

We decided not to have a canal dug on the other two sides of the house (one side has a raised patio so there should be no problem there). On the other sides we’ll have cement put where the ground and wall meets and where it will slope away from the house to prevent water buildup.

Sunday September 21

The Play: It was a shotgun wedding. Yiannis, my friend, riding shotgun!

We went to the local market to buy food. For those who might wonder how much we spend for food, we usually spend at this market about $14-$15. This includes (which is what we bought today): tomatoes, avocados (5), spinach, potatoes (4 lbs), beets, cucumbers (3), onions, grapes (2 lbs), papayas (3 large), apples (5) and 15 eggs.

We figure that the cost of other foods items, such mayo, olive oil, bread, missile, occasional fish, and cheese, the total cost would be about $35-$40 per week which will feed both of us.

How does this compare to your country?

Meeting with a Friend

Saturday September 20

A play in Cyprus. Evie in the forefont. Check out that 'beautiful bride'!

Jayne and I went to visit my friend, Irina, in Quito. We first had something to eat in a restaurant before Irina came to the restaurant. She said that he sister, Alejanderia and her husband came. Then we walked to Irina’s new apartment. We met Irina’s husband her their new baby boy.

We had a nice conversation and I also showed them pictures of our wedding.

We left 3 hours later while it was still raining.

We stopped by a pizza place and had a vegetarian pizza. Then we took a taxi home.

Meeting with Roofer

Friday September 19

We went to Quito to meet with Matt and the work who will be fixing the foundations and roof of our home. Matt came about 12.15pm along with the worker. Matt translated what was said. It sounds like the worker knows what to do.

(Me in a play in Cyprus, 2004)

The labor, we were told would be $500 for three guys for two weeks. the materials will be extra. We were also told that there would be another man who will put the tar on the roof top patio. The worker, Marcos, does not work with tar, so this will be a separate charge.

When all was said and done, Jayne and I were satisfied. We just hope that they do good work.

Also, the worker does not do painting (which has to be done on some of the walls inside because of water damage). We will have to get someone else to do that. Taking everything into consideration the price should be a lot less than what we were figuring on.

The work will start Monday. Marcos will come at 8am and I’ll go with him to the store to buy the materials.

I returned a call to Irina who has invited Jayne and me to visit Saturday. The plans are to meet at noon in Plaza Grande. She is a worker I had when I first came to Ecuador. She recently had a baby. We’ll talk about what has happened in our lives and I will show her pictures of me and Jayne’s wedding.

After leaving his office we went to get something to eat. Then we went to a used book store nearby. When we left there is started to rain, so we went to an internet café across the street. From there, we took a taxi home.