Construction - Week 14

Last week the inside painting was finished and the floors were sealed. We moved our wicker chairs up to the new studio just to have some furniture in there and last evening we sat there having a drink and looking out the windows. A very pleasant space. The floors are a different color than the saltillo tile in the rest of the house but then what is up in the bedroom is different than what is in the sala area and now the studio is different than either of them. It is a little Mexican cottage and I actually like the differences.

The electrical wiring and light fixtures are in except for the internet connection. Well actually the internet cable is in but the company hasn't come to connect it yet. Hopefully in the next day or two they will show up and we can move the equipment up to the studio. The cable TV technicians were scheduled for Friday morning but they showed up on Thursday afternoon. We told them that we were not expecting them until tomorrow and they said, "Yes, but we are here."

I am going to buy a folding table to put the computer, scanner, printer, etc. on until I decide how I'm going to lay out the workstation. Then we will have the furniture made. I have a carpenter who is going to give me a quote on how I think I want to set up the tables so it will give me some idea of whether I will let him do it with a better wood or if I'll have it done in a factory in Dolores Hidalgo with pine which is problematic here. Everyone says they use kiln-dried pine but it shrinks and splits in this dry climate.

I wish you could see this carpenter and the next time I met with him I'll see if he will let me take his picture. He is young. He looks 18 or 19 but he might be a little older. He has several tattoos, the sides of his head are shaved but he has several long thin ponytails down his back. He is a very handsome man with beautiful soft eyes and a very shy manner. He speaks some English and tells me that for a while he lived in Austin, Texas. He has a shop with several people working for him and he is making some wonderful carved furniture. I've seen several pieces he did for friends and they are very, very nice. Some of the furniture carving in San Miguel is over the top, very elaborate but what he has done for them is restrained and elegant. Besides the tables for the workstation, I've asked him to quote on the cabinet for under the new bathroom sink and also a large carved china cabinet for the dining room.

This is the wall of the patio. It has had Anartica vine on it. I've never liked that vine. But it was here when we bought the house and it was green. It isn't a clinging vine and you have to keep having it tied to the wall. It is a heavy vine and sticks out about 2-1/2 feet from the wall. In this little patio it takes out a lot of light. The wall will be painted and I want to redo some things in the patio so this is the perfect opportunity to get it taken out. It is gone! Maybe Virginia Creeper.....it does well here and it clings or maybe fig ivy which stays very tight to the wall. I'd prefer the fig ivy but it takes about a year to get established and start to really grow.

The outside painting got underway. It is really amazing how they paint these houses without scaffolding. They hang over the terraces and use a long roller brush to go down as far as they can and then they stand on ladders with the paint can tied to the ladder to come up from the ground. We are changing colors on the house. The old color is on the right and the new is....well you can see the guy on the ladder.

The end is in sight.