Post Party Planting

After a brief respite after Sergio's celebration we went to work planting.

The first thing we had to do was "paint" the pool shed.  We wanted it to look like the adobe stone.  I assumed this meant going to the paint store and buying said colour.  Roberto said that we could make our own.  Jerry Kolidij and I spent several hours breaking up a couple of adobe bricks into the finest possible powder.   This was then mixed with water and sealant to create a very thin paint.  Jerry was a great help as we attacked the structure first with rollers then with brushes to get the mixture into all the plaster crevices.  It took all day but the result was so much more pleasing than the white block you saw in previous posts.

Jerry continued to be a great help planting a mix of yellow and orange flowering vines along the face of the building and the start of the far stone wall.  It was slow going, especially in the heat.

Sergio had selected a large palm tree to plant off the side of the house.  We wanted to be able to see it inside the length of the house and it works really well.  It now has more plants around the base.  By this stage we'd run out of sod and opted just to put a layer of tezontle in the meantime.

Gabriel has been busy building stone steps to get from one terrace level to the next.  This is slow work as each piece has to be chiseled flat and the progress is pain-staking.  You can also see that the plants along the stone wall now go all the way up to the corner.

Pat and Marco arrived and they helped out as well with more planting.

We've finally been able to enjoy the pool.  Marco was in it constantly and the adults used it to cool off.

There's still lots to do but we're back in the city for a few days and will return on Saturday to pay the guys and enjoy a quiet weekend just the two of us.

Garden Race

We were franticly trying to get the yard ready for Sergio’s party frustrated by all sorts so things - including the fact that the week prior was the big Mexican celebration of Day of the Dead – and nobody wanted to deliver, work, or do anything.  We basically bribed our three workers to come.

Earlier that week we spent two hours at a gigantic – and I mean huge – nursery.  We walked for miles with a very knowledgeable women checking off things from the list prepared by the guy who did the landscaping proposal.

This is what $1,000 dollars worth of plants looks like before they are planted. My only consolation is that in anyplace else, this load of, literally, 128 trees, plants, bushes, would have costs five times as much.

This is me with our first limes – basically everything that fell off the trees as we moved them.

All week long the workmen, including the two of us, have been leveling the lower levels of the lot and placing a layer of tezontle on top of it.  Tezontle is a red volcanic stone that absorbs a ton of water and is especially useful here during the dry season.

Then two trucks arrived with 24 square meters of top soil. It took six of us two hours to move it off the truck and get about half of it dumped in piles around the lot.

Then the sod arrive – 350 sq. meters – this was over 1000 pieces of rolled sod.  There were three of us in the truck and another three up top piling the rolls.

We treated the worked to a taco lunch and multiple beers before they left to join their families for Day of the Dead celebrations.

Here’s out three guys, Roberto, Gabriel and Samuel laying the first sod around the pool.

Unfortunately we were so beat we passed on going into town to enjoy the festivities.

A Kitchen!

While there are many things Sergio and I like about our house, we are both really pleased with the kitchen. We wanted a space that was big enough for lots of people to help out, or just be there as other chef's did their thing.  It is finally ready.

This is a view looking from the living / dining space.

The windows straight ahead look towards the village.  The windows on the right open to the covered terrace and facilitate passing things back and forth.  The granite counter top extends to the terrace and there is even a little bar on the other side.

Sergio was inspired by these tiles in our local park where he takes Uma for exercise. He found a ceramics factory in Guanajuato (north of Mexico City) and worked with them to create replicas. The result is wonderful.

The floor is concrete with lots of swirls and a few stains.  Oddly, that's the look we wanted.  The stove is sort of industrial looking with five gas burners. It actually has two ovens - the one on the bottom is meant for smaller dishes! Too too.

After both of us working especially hard I took full advantage of the bath - my first.  Ignore the Costco size bottle of cleaning liquid on the corner!

Inching ever closer ...

Sergio and I have been spending a lot of time at the house trying our best to help out in any way we can.  The interior is almost finished. But man does it ever need a really good cleaning!

The carpenter has all but finished his work.  The countertop people have installed the granite counter top which looks fab, and the tile work is being finished this week in the kitchen.  Once the dirty work is finished inside the downstairs floors will be cleaned (with acid apparently) and sealed.

This is our front door!  The bedroom and bathroom doors are equally attractive, so nice, in fact, that we have asked the carpenter to quote on making us a dining room table top.  He still has to design and make the cabinetry for the bedrooms but that may have to wait until our cash flow is a bit more robust.  For now - metal shelving.

We now have cabinets, sinks and running water - hot and cold - in both bathrooms and we can even take a shower! This is the master bath vanity with "his" and "his" sinks - total caprice!  Still need mirrors tho'.

The last of the windows were installed up in the master bath.  It took nine of us to hoist this metal structure up to the master bath.  Three on the ground, three in the bathroom and three guys on the roof.  It will have glass windows on three sides plus a glass roof.  It looks great.  The windows in the corners open on both sides.

This is the view from the shower stall!
Gotta love it.

Lighting fixtures were never part of the original agreement so we've been buying them in bits and pieces and Sergio has been busy installing them so we don't have to shade our eyes from the bare bulbs that were hanging there before.  Sergio wants LED lights everywhere which is costing, in some cases, more than the lamps!

Sergio left for Cuba today for his birthday celebration.  I'm going back tomorrow to check on progress and to leave Uma with the dog sitters for the week while I go to Texas.  When we are both back home we intend to move to the house and help out as much as we can.  As you can see from this shot, we still have not done any work on the yard and will try and have at least the majority of the area covered in sod the week after next in anticipation of Sergio's party.  Our first guests arrive in just two weeks - yikes!  We might have to put them to work un-rolling sod.

I'll do another post with kitchen pictures tomorrow evening.

Let there be light

We are inching ever so closely to having a finished and secure house.

Check out this picture of the house with actual lights on inside - sure they are bulbs hanging from wires - but they are lights.

Here's Uma and I standing in the stairwell to our upstairs bedroom.  You can't really tell but the stair risers are black stone.  In a week's time we should have a metal handrail made by the same craftsman that did our windows.

You gotta love this view from the living room.  We've stayed over the last two weekends and it is wonderful to wake up to this vista.

Still no shots of Sergio - sorry - lots of me tho'.  Here I am doing some detailing of the upper terrace with Uma's help.

We went into town for "stuff" and there was a celebration of one of the parishes - San Miguel - lots of costumes, music and noise.

A shot of the two of us enjoying a beer and tequila after some garden work.  We're back tomorrow to see how things are advancing.

Kitchen and Tecorales

Things more ever so slowly.

Two weeks ago the carpenter came and installed the kitchen cabinets.

This is where the stove will go with a microwave over it.  Sergio designed and ordered special tiles to go between the counter and the upper cabinets.  They look great but can't be installed until the granite counter gets installed.   We selected the granite this week and the guy came yesterday to take the measurements.  The carpenter has been back since to install the panty and fridge "nook" which will be on the left, plus an additional cabinet over the stove.

This is the wall to the terrace.  The counter will be level on both sides with a bit of a "bar" on the outer side with the same granite.  The hole on the left is for the dishwasher - hidden now by a wooden door.  There is also an island which will have the same granite top.  The sink will go under the middle window.  The cabinets still need a coat of varnish but it has been so cold and wet it has to wait for dryer weather.

Meanwhile outside they have been busy building "tecorales". These are stone retaining walls that have allowed us to create several terraces going up to the far corner. Eventually we'll plant succulents into the stones to add some colour.  You can see how wet and damp is has been.  Mud everywhere.

We stayed over that night and it was a total disaster.  Huge electrical storm.  Wind, rain, lighting, thunder, plastic sheets making noise all night, water everywhere, a mess.  Decided we weren't staying over again until the place was completely secured.  Here I am reading on the floor.  Uma, asleep,  non-plussed but what was going on around her.

Uma making friends with the neighbors.  Literally cows, ducks, rabbits, turkeys, living across the lane from us.

Bathrooms, doors, windows - progress!

Slowly, every so slowly, things are advancing.

We have a toilet, that flushes!  And a shower that has running water – albeit it cold!

The tiles are all in place in the guest bathroom downstairs.  We chose “Mexican” white, which in the showroom was a sort of light creamy shade and some “harlequin” accent tiles for along the bottom.  When we arrived to see the finished room it all looked a little too yellow for both of us.  Sergio hates it.  I’ll get used to it.  Eventually, the shower will be enclosed with glass walls on two sides.  The vanity should arrive this week so the sink and faucets can be installed.

This is the master bathroom.  Still very much a work in progress.  These tiles are white white white.  In both cases they are artisan tiles, which basically means they are made by hand and no two are alike.  Again, the vanity and sinks should be installed this week (to the left) and the rest of the plumbing connected.  The bathtub enclosure was filled with sand and then they put the tub in place and then it was filled with water to ensure the snuggest of fits.  Intriguing.  The "balcony" will have a glass wall around the tub and doors opening to a small outdoors space (yet to be tiled).

The first of the metal windows and doors have been installed.  These are being handcrafted piece by piece by Jorge.  He's the sweetest guy, who, unfortunately, works at a snails pace.  Craftsmanship I suppose.  The end result is wonderful.

You can see the corner window in the master bedroom that opens on two sides.  The big doors open to the upper terrace.  You can also make out the kitchen windows that will swing 180 degrees to facilitate passing things to the terrace dining area.

This week they started laying the first of the outdoor terrace floor tiles.

This is a shot of the terrace doors from the master bedroom.  

The reason for all the panels is both aesthetics as well as security.

We anticipate that by the end of this week all the exterior floors will be finished, the windows and doors completed and the kitchen cabinetry should be in place.  Sergio and I plan to stay for a week and start on the garden with the help of a few workmen.  I figure I can at least point to where we want the bougainvillea to be planted and perhaps even unroll some of the sod.