The Back Wall on the Cheap

About six months ago, we were cruising through town on the way to do some errands, and I saw several sets of windows and doors propped outside a house with a for sale sign. I made my husband circle back around and stop to ask about them. The owners were remodeling and selling them cheaply. Really cheap. We paid $1500 pesos for a wall of windows and a door with a frame. Seeing how my sister-in-law just bought a new door for her house and paid $ 4,000 pesos for that alone and nearly $20,000 for a set of windows, this was a steal!

My husband and son headed back with the truck and brought our new-to-us building materials home. They have been leaning against the wall of my son’s house since then until last month when they were finally installed. 

Initially, my husband wanted to cut the windows into pieces and turn them on their sides, and I don’t know what else. I vetoed that idea. They were in perfect condition as they were. We just needed to shape the back wall around their measurements. So that’s what we did.

This involved the three of us hoisting it up to set it in place. Or rather, my son hoisting, me holding firmly to the sides, and my husband securing the top with wire until it was in position, about a foot and a half above the ground. Suspending it this way allowed my husband to build a base beneath it, which firmly holds it in place. 

Next, the door frame was positioned, and the open areas filled in, which included a half-wall. He used stones and cement since we’d run out of bricks, but after “patching” (applying a layer of cement), it should be indistinguishable from the other walls. We’ll need to commission a set of windows for that area, but the end result will be a fraction of what we’d have paid had we not stumbled across those used building materials.  

My son’s dogs, Fred, George, and Bruce, are not too happy with the new addition. They aren’t able to come and go to the back garden as they please anymore. 

Since we were rockin’-and’rollin’ in the construction department, we went ahead and rented the mixer to finish up the floor on the ground floor. It didn’t require rebar like the second-floor, so all we needed to purchase was some cement. My son and husband spent the day shoveling sand, gravel, cement, and water into the mixer and hauling it bucket by bucket to the designated area. Finally, it was finished, and it doesn’t look too bad if I do say so myself. 

The next project, according to my husband, is the plumbing.