Three months have passed since we moved into our unfinished house in Uruguay. The sun is out and the trees have started to flower, which means winter is finally over and spring is arriving. So this is the story of how we got through it: what went wrong, how we dealt with it and how we kept warm.
▶ A winter with no insulation: living in our concrete house in Uruguay
The move was spontaneous: a door, a bathroom wall and a stove
As soon as the builders finished the shell and put the roof on, we spent about a week fitting a door, building the bathroom wall and buying a wood stove. That was it. Then we moved into a bare concrete box, all of us together with the dog and everything we owned. That is how life in an unfinished house started: /en/dom/zhizn-v-nedostroe/.
For some reason I assumed we would spend the winter at a moderate temperature and would not be especially cold. The weather on moving day was much like today: warm, but the moment the sun went down it turned cold and I put a hooded jumper on. We lit the stove, because we worked on the house until midnight and only then made up somewhere to sleep. For the first while that meant a mattress lying on a sheet of cardboard on the bare concrete floor.
I also gave my parents a washing machine. I had been saving for it for a long time, starting before the move, and in the end ordered it online; it was delivered right to our door.
Flu, a fever near 40°C and five days on the mattress
Things seemed to be going well, and then a few days later we caught some kind of flu and were properly ill. My temperature was close to 40°C and barely came down. We drove to the hospital several times and I was given injections; they lasted about three hours before the fever came back. For roughly five days I just lay on the mattress.
That was when we took the advice from the video comments and put styrofoam under the mattress instead of cardboard, which was warmer. Work on the house stopped completely while we were ill.
7°C indoors: where the real cold started
As soon as we recovered, the weather turned sharply colder and the temperature in the room fell to 7°C. I checked the thermometer to be sure. My parents decided this could not continue and ordered a tonne of firewood.
A tonne of firewood for $150, and a conversation we walked away from
We found a man selling firewood at $150 a tonne, some $30 to $50 cheaper than everyone else. We ordered it and he delivered. Then we looked at the pile and asked whether he was sure it was a tonne, because it looked like about half that.
His answer, roughly, was that he is from Piriápolis, he is local too, not from some village somewhere, so we ought to trust him and he could not possibly cheat us. We did not want a row with a local who already knew exactly where our house was, so we paid and took the firewood.
That is why my parents decided to buy a chainsaw. With it we could cut firewood in real quantity, and we cleared everything there was on our own plot. Later a Uruguayan friend heard that we were cold in the house and invited us to his farm: cut down a few trees for free and take all the wood.
The chainsaw helped, but only so much. I was still going to school (/en/shkola/kak-ustroena/), helping my parents with the house and collecting sticks and branches for kindling, because the wood we cut was green and will not catch on its own. None of it is easy, but we are holding up. And I am not the least bit sad about it: I am genuinely glad we finally have our own house. That is the fuel that keeps you going, and without it this would have been much harder.
Rain: the second half of winter fell day after day
The first six weeks were simply cold; the second half of winter was a proper rainy season. We thought it would never end, because it rained day after day. Some downpours were heavy enough to push straight through the spots we had sealed, and water came in through them.
On top of that, every time it rains water comes into the house down the chimney, and it is most obvious in a downpour. The reason is simple: we decided against the proper rain cap because it cost a little over $100 and that seemed like a lot for such a thing. We agreed we would just light the stove on rainy days instead.
In about two weeks we had almost used up the whole stock of firewood we had cut. That was an uneasy feeling: the rain kept coming and we were running out of wood. Luckily it eased a few days later and two warm days arrived, around 27°C outside, almost in the middle of winter.
Mould and copper sulphate
While it was warm we decided not to waste the chance and treated the inside walls with copper sulphate, which works against mould. The rain had left the house very damp and plenty of spots in the corners and behind the furniture had simply gone mouldy. Luckily, once the warm spell passed only the cold came back; the rain eased off and things got a little easier.
A storm, two days without power and the quails
Then I got the idea of keeping quails and built them a cage myself. On their second day in our house a strong storm brought the power lines down and we spent almost two days without electricity. The quails were not grown yet and needed warmth, and the infrared lamp we use for them does not work without power. So for those two days I kept the stove going non-stop and burned through what was left of the firewood.
The quails are fine now: they have grown, they have started laying and they still live in my room. More about that project here: /en/moi-proekty/ferma/.
The winter in numbers
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Heating in the house | one wood stove |
| Room temperature on the worst day | 7°C |
| A tonne of firewood from a local seller | $150 — $30 to $50 below others |
| Rain cap for the chimney | just over $100 — we skipped it, water comes in |
| Warmest days in the middle of winter | around 27°C outside |
| Our firewood stock during the rains | almost gone in 2 weeks |
| Time without electricity after the storm | almost two days |
What this winter taught us
- You freeze indoors here, not outdoors: there is no central heating, and uninsulated concrete holds cold far better than warmth.
- Firewood is sold by weight and there is no way to check that weight. A chainsaw pays for itself faster than you would think.
- Green firewood will not catch on its own, so you need a constant supply of sticks and branches for kindling.
- The $100 we saved on a chimney cap cost us more than that: water inside the house every time it pours.
- Damp is worse than cold. Mould appears in corners and behind furniture within a couple of weeks of rain.
- Village power lines come down with the weather, and then the stove is the only source of heat.
We spent our first winter in a concrete shell on one wood stove: 7°C in the room, a tonne of firewood for $150, then a chainsaw and trees from a friend's farm. The second half of winter brought rain, water down the chimney, mould and two days without power. We made it. This summer we hope to insulate the house and prepare properly for the next one.
How we moved into the unfinished house — /en/dom/zhizn-v-nedostroe/. How the shell was built — /en/dom/korobka-i-pereezd/. What it all cost — /en/dom/skolko-stoili-uchastok-i-dom-v-urugvae/. Current prices for gas, electricity and internet — /en/tseny/.