All the debri has pretty much been cleared out. The fireplace has been started. the long windows were taken off their hinges and back to the herreria (blacksmith shop) to have the locks installed. The walls are plastered. I think the worst of the "destruction" is done. They have almost finished chipping out all of the old tiles. Still some to finish in the laundry room and on the landing. The door to the laundry room has been installed and the door you see above leaning against the wall is the one that will go to the bathroom with a kind of translucent glass.
The other big task that got underway was the tile in the bathroom. It was very hard to chose tile. Since we are close to Dolores Hidalgo, we can look at tile in dozens of places but I finally decided to go with Cortez tile. It is machine made while all the other tile is handmade. I'm sure you are probably thinking that the handmade should be better and more authentic. You have a point but I now have three years of experience with living with the handmade tile and I have found the quality of the tile varies a lot. Very little of the handmade tile is flat. Imagine a cutting board on your kitchen countertop and every chop you have "wobbly-table syndrome." Also, in three years we are finding the glaze is wearing off the tiles in the raised areas where they get a lot of wear. I've also been told that the Cortez tile is fired at a high temperature but don't quote me on that. Sometimes here it is very hard to track down the truth from the rumor.
Here you get a close up look at the tile in the shower. I'm thinking of painting the bathroom the chili arbol color that you see in the flower of the design. I know it is a pretty strong color but I think that between the window and the two glassblock tragaluz (skylight) that the room will have enough light to handle the strong color.
Today we went looking for light fixtures for the bathroom. We have to decide for the electrician if it will be a light on each side of the mirror or one light over the mirror. We had looked in Queretaro at the Home Depot but all of them seemed so American...especially so since the rest of our house has very simple handmade light fixtures except for a few halogen track lights we have in the kitchen and living area. We were surprised that we had trouble finding some of the same brass and glass fixtures we already have. But I'm sure we will find them. There is one store here where we have bought a number of things and Mr. Llamas stocks his store with all kinds of wonderful crafts. I'm sure he can find someone who makes them and maybe we can even have something special made.
This photo may look a little confusing at first but I am standing on the stairs on the first floor looking up the stairwell. This lovely underview of the stairs was a design surprise for me. I guess I thought it would be a straight slanted line or box but I love the underside of the stairsteps. I'm beginning to think of how I can make this architectural detail even more attractive with the color that it is painted.
Now that I'm able to "see" the possibilities, I'm really getting a lot of ideas for furnishing it. No rush to make any decisions because considering all the possibilities is too much fun. Besides if I bought anything now where the heck would I put it in this construction zone.
1 comment:
Billie! This is so exciting! I had no idea you were building up from your wonderful above the kitchen patio. I had not been able to envision it.
The bath room looks really bright and airy. I love the tile.
Thanks for sedning me to your BLOG.
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