Pictures of My Construction Project

Hey Tom, I wrote a very lengthy reply to your post about adobe and earthquakes this morning from work, but as I was interrupted many times it took a couple of hours to finish. Then when I tried to post I got some kind of error message and lost everything I had written. Are you using four 3/8" bars in them? No, we're using "castillos" made from four pieces of 1/2" rebar. Are you buying your adobes or making them on site? We're buying our adobes from a local family, they make them out of the earth of their ejiedo. Because they can't make a living farming thier land anymore (lack of water for irrigation), all the boys in the family have found jobs in the mines or mine related service fields, all except the youngest son and his father. They work making adobe blocks 8" wide x 16" long x 5" height. Thier uncle works the parcel of land next to them and he makes blocks 12" X 16" X 5". We originaly negotiated a price of 2 pesos each for the 8" or 3 pesos each for the 12", but we had to provide transportation to our site. When we were ready for the blocks, they were not able to meet our needs as far as quantity, so they offered to deliver them when they were ready for the same price. If I had known what they were going to do I would have stoped them and told them to just make thier own as fast as possible, but they went out to the other producers of adobe blocks in the area and bought the number they were lacking and delivered them to us on horse drawn wagons. And are you using the same adobe material for mortar?
No, we are using a cemment mortar, because we are using a cemment stucco finish for the exterior. It requires much less maintenance than a mud plaster exterior, but cemment stucco does not adhere well to the adobe blocks. The solution is to use a cemment mortar and leave it rough. This way the stucco adheres to the rough cemment mortar, not to the block. I questioned this technique when first told this, because I wanted a more natural and organic and traditional house. But, I've learned to accept local customs and practices because they have usually developed over time from trial and error. As is turns out, this is the accepted system of finish for post and beam adobe houses in the area, and it has several advantages: 1. By using two lines of mortar on the top of the block close to the edges, instead of spreading it all over like mayonnaise on bread, you get much lighter walls. 2. You create an insulating pocket of air in between the mortar to stop the cold/heat from penetrating through the more conductive mortar. 3. You create these pockets inbetween both the horozontal and verticle joints of blocks that are filled with concrete from the columns and beams when they are poured, thus locking the wall sections together with the post and beams.