Beginning the Other Half

We are fortunate to have a corner lot, so the front door of the second home is on a different street from the first one. Our front door will be accessed by crossing a 4x12 m (13 x 26ft) covered terraza and we are also adding a 12.5 sqm (135 sq ft) vestibule linking the terraza to the living room/ dining room. The terraza support posts were made the same way as the fenceposts.

I took the arched window at the end of the living room and used it at the end of the vestibule. The best wind comes from the north and the east. Being able to open this window will help keep the room cool.

To form the roof, preformed cement beams are laid about across the top of the walls on both the vestibule and the terrasa.

Once the beams are in place, they lay thick pads of Styrofoam into the notches, filling the gaps between he beams. Then a wire mesh goes over the Styrofoam. Cement is poured and finally two coats of waterproofing.

A full bathroom existed by what is now the front door. I converted this into a half bath, using the shower for the entrance to the bathroom. To allow space to enter, I wanted remove part of the vanity, but when they knocked the door out to the vestibule, they also removed the tiled half wall dividing the shower from the toilet. No one wants to see the toilet from outside the bathroom and I wanted to keep that wall. The tile was nothing special but the workmanship in laying it was something you rarely see anymore.

Losing that wall was not the end of the earth and they will replace the demi wall. Rick never liked that tile and now we can go ahead and re tile the room with something more interesting.