So… the truck that our Portuguese masons drive says “Old World Craftsmanship” on the side.  This means, apparently: hair trigger tempers and colorful curses screamed at each other for most of the workday. 

Though they have been working very hard, we discovered Thursday afternoon that they had misread the foundation plans and had set all the heights for the finished wall too low (I don’t know, maybe they don’t use blueprints in the Old World).  Anyway, the architect and I talked to them for a while trying to come up with a plan that would not involve re-setting half the forms.  While one would have thought that they might appreciate this proactive approach to problem solving, it, in fact, resulted in them storming off the job dragging their tools with them, shouting obscenities in both English and Portuguese (I was lucky to be able to have a translator in the architect who is married to a Brazilian).

Despite the apocalyptic scene, they all showed up the next morning, fixed everything and generally carried on as if nothing had happened.

And the walls got poured, and here we are, ready to frame.

Old world craftsmanship.