Day 23: How much can be done in an extra day?

Happy Leap DAY!

So, the plan is to finish building the walls and the roof of the house and as the concrete is setting, they guys will work on the 2 studios. The house needs to settle for approx a month which is why they will alternate between the house and studios

There are 3 areas in the house that need to be raised. The entrance, guest bedroom & bathroom and the office area. Luis says everything but the entrance area will be raised this week.

Below is a picture of the front entrace to the right (where the ramp is) and the back entrance to the pantry on the left. Luis says there are 3 more rows of blocks that need to go up around the house and then they are ready for the roof!

I've been looking through all the "planned" windows and I'm not seeing too many great views. Below, the view from the kitchen window looks out to the volcano. It's really the only interesting thing out any of the windows. Maybe the guest bathroom will have a nicer view? Thankfully, my bedroom is upstairs and has windows to the east, north and west. I have a feeling it will be the only place in the house with a view of something besides the sky.

I don't know what this is for...but I saw it and thought I'd take a picture of it. Ha ha ha. If you are reading this post and you know what this is for, could you please explain in the comment section? Thanks.

Onto the concrete block issue. (Or CMU concrete masonary unit...I've learned is the technical term) Luis says instead of building the columns first, they have decided to put up the walls. He explained that they are doing it this way because often when the columns are made first and then the CMUs are put in after, cracks appear between the blocks and the columns. So in order to avoid the cracks they are doing it the other way around.

To the right is one of the columns that is waiting to be filled I assume that the holes that are in the blocks will also be filled in as part of the concrete column. I assume that would make this corner one of the strongest corners becuase this one has the most bumps facing the column. (I hope this makes sense)

I've also been doing a little reasearch to undertsand the technicalities and I've found that CMU's have a lot of advantages. It's considered a "green"/environmentally friendly way to build. They come in many sizes. 2 cell, 3 cell and 4 cell. Cells, being the air pockets inside the block. The ones we are using are 6 cell. Luis says these are the strongest ones.

CMU's are made for compression. Although they can be brittle, they can withstand a couple tons of pressure. Luis has assured me it will hold more than I need.

I've also learned that in areas where the environement can be unstable, builders insert steel and sometimes even concrete into the cells to make them stronger. I don't think we are in an unstable area so there's no need to reinforce the walls. However Luis said that the cells of the top row of blocks will be filled with concrete.

If you've read that I've misunderstood a few points during my research, please let me know in the comments area and quote Day 23. thanks :)