House #2 under construction. Can you spot the wide pillar along its wall?
We are building two new houses, one on each side of our first. The one on the right (#2) is further along than #3, but we hope both are complete by November. One thing a little unusual for this area are the wide concrete posts at strategic locations. Their purpose is to prevent an earthquake side thrust along each of the concrete ceiling beams from collapsing the structure. Side thrusts across a beam are taken up by the beams that intersect them. These have their own wide posts attached. We don’t need quite the protection we would if there was a second concrete floor above, but there are the concrete beams and a tile roof.
Note wide pillar in the wall in right foreground. Also one along the wall at the left edge of the picture and one going crossways a little to the right, under the ceiling beam .
Construction workers leaving at the end of the day .
The two new houses will be nearly identical to our existing one. The next two houses after these will be smaller, each designed for a maximum of eight children. The smaller homes are less expensive. We need both for different situations and will be evaluating what works better as time goes on.
