A deceptively thin tube of paper arrived at my office via courier. Excitedly I opened the package and unrolled the 17 pages.
The first page said it all. A relatively small drawing of the house and pool situated on the lot - WOW!
That was followed by floor plans, detailed dimensions, elevations, cross-sections, stair details, foundation plans, column plans, IKEA-like instructions on house assembly, beam plans, plumbing and electrical. Quite the package - Quite the task.
When I got home, Lisle rolled them out on his desk and said "what's all this, I thought we had to look at lights and switches - are there instructions?"
Of course there are no instructions and lots to think about. Time for some wine.
Tuesday we copied them - does anyone know how expensive a 24 x 36 copy is - oh my god!
Wednesday and Thursday we contemplated them - flipping through some pages, not really knowing where to start.
Friday - beer with friends - drawings can wait!
Bright and early Saturday morning I dug in. Clear the dining room table. Relocate my laptop. Pens. Markers. Coffee. Sleeping cat off the drawings.
Well let's start from the very beginning - a very good place to start - when you read you begin with ABC with blueprints you begin with Acabados Generales (I did mention everything is in Spanish!). It is sort of a legend - symbols used on the drawings that actually mean something - - LISLE!! -- can you go to GOOGLE and translate this!
Starting at the beginning and working through page by page - overall great but
- why is the roof overhanging the pool?
- why is the spiral stair off centre in the tower?
- where did the giant bi-fold doors in the bedroom come from?
- rearrange the bathrooms - what were we thinking!!
- where did that window go?
- all these doors open backwards!
With everything but electrical reviewed, and sticky notes all over, Claudio - our architectural superhero - arrived at 4 to help us through.
Red pen in hand Claudio went page by page asking us about the notes and making corrections or notations on the drawings (even though we made several copies, we were too afraid to actually write on these without permission of someone who knew what they were doing). 2 hours later - all done. Claudio can go, and I am confident enough to take on the electrical myself (or at least with the help of my son who actually knows how to read electrical plans and circuit diagrams).
The red marking continued into Saturday night and resumed on Sunday. There, all done. Now to actually document this in some way that makes sure we and they understand all the scribbles. Sunday evening - the summary table complete!
Monday - a second look - OH - What about ... The list is outstanding things appears.
Tuesday - the list of outstanding things is done - documented, discarded, or put on the list of things to deal with later
So, today - Wednesday March 17 (Happy St. Patrick's Day) copy the revised drawings, final check, bundle up and ready for shipping back to Ojochal.
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