For those of you not interested in yet MORE construction photos, I’m sorry. But the courtyard project is really fascinating me and I just have to share.

If you’d like to see my previous posts on the project here they are: first post and second post

Since the three upper shed roofs are complete, the crew started in on the cover for the walkway. Everything is to be made out of concrete, but from underneath it will look like wood beams (vigas) but they will be made out of colored concrete.

The support beams had already been poured to look like timbers out of colored concrete.

They then started assembling the wood to pour the vigas. They do this first, pour the colored concrete, and then have a separate pour for the roof surface that will support the tiles.

In the picture above he is pouring the vigas. They have to be able to disassemble everything from below since when it is all done there will be a concrete roof layer above this.

The picture below is them pouring the concrete roof above the vigas.

The picture below isn’t totally complete – they are still working at cleaning everything up, but it looks pretty good to me! You can see some cardboard that they used on the edges of the vigas but they are removing it today.

Next is a picture of the foundation and reservoir for the fountain. It will have a drain that goes directly in to our drain system so we can clean it without siphoning. You’ll also see that we had the schefflera tree removed and they have patched the concrete wall, too. They also poured the new slab for the tile.

Now the schefflera tree that had been in the planting bed next to the wall – we had intended to just clean it up a bit and remove some of the limbs that hung over too much. But while they were cleaning it up we realized it was getting uglier and uglier. Since it is a “junk” tree here and was crowding the palm, we are happy with our decision. BUT the planting bed is a mass of roots and it is unlikely that they could all be removed successfully – and we had really wanted it to be a planting bed not a root bed.

So, the idea was floated to raise the curb on the bed by about 10 inches and make a little seat edge there. That way more soil can be added and we can plant away!

Here’s a picture of the curb yesterday afternoon.

Then this morning the architect came by and drew this on the wall:

Can you imagine what a change to plans like this would entail in the US? Probably days of discussion and delay.

But after yet another delivery of sand and gravel the maestro is getting setup to make the bench. Here’s the start of it:

And just because I am SO EXCITED to see everything coming together, I’ll show you that the painter is working on the high stuff while work progresses below. Once he’s done up high they will tile the walkway roof.

We are really excited about the tile going in, and the fountain, and the painting….and then having such a wonderful courtyard.