Rebarring steel and climbing poles

So much happened this week! Still no connection to the electricity, but the steel fixers were there to commence their craft. Another round of phone calls was made. And so appears another solution. For there is always someone with a solid sturdy generator in the shed, of course. Who cares that the tires are flat, just throw in some fuel, crank up the machine and work! It is smelly, it is noisy, it is so bad for the environment, but it just has to happen…

Cutting and bowing rebar

The generator is cranking up another heavy machine, a hydraulic steel bender. The rebars are cut and bent on the spot and connected with steel wire, into bespoke forms for each foundation hole. The iron basket is put in the hole, and placed on spacers. Another metal pole in the concrete base is connected to the basket. This will prevent the basket from sliding when the heavy concrete is poured into the holes.

Columns

On each independent reinforced foundation block, a column is installed in the middle. Of course these also need to be reinforced by steel. Every column is made on the spot and fixed on the steel baskets. Held in place by wooden beams. Next the concrete mixer reappears. First they fill up de holes with the steel baskets. Next they top off the whole surface with a thick layer of concrete. This is the floor of the crawling space under the building. Nothing fancy. Yet, when we set foot on it at the end of this week, we were overblown by a sense of euphoria. We are standing on the floor of our new home! Everything that was in our thoughts, on sketchpads, screens or paper prints, now suddenly comes to life under our feet. This is very bizarre, but now I am walking around in my kitchen. This is where we will sleep. In this corner we’ll put a comfy armchair to enjoy the scenery. And this is where we’ll shower. And wow, on this enormous porch we will lounge extensively with our beloved ones. How is this possible, did we cause this?

And then…. the electricity

At the end of this week, after many more calls, visits to offices, desperately throwing arms in the air, non-repeatable forms of cursing, vague promises and never arriving emails, Luís and Nuno, the electrician, got it done. The energy network company and the energy supplier, that were one company but got ‘divorced’ in January, finally communicated with each other. A car arrived, a guy climbed our electricity pole he switched a button and… poof! Nothing happened…. The so called third phase was apparently missing. The emergency services were called in, more guys arrived, with more ladders, and they had to climb pole by pole to find the actual error. It took them another two hours of inspection. But now we finally have three-phase current, needed for the heavy machinery on this construction site.