Okay, I say.....................

Buenas tardes. We are having a lovely day, skies are filled with gray clouds and a good wind is blowing at us from at least three directions. I went out early this morning for a walk with a friend. We went to La Aduana where it was peaceful and green, rolling hills and a gentle sprinkle to keep us cool. It's been awhile since I have shown you some casa photos. Looking at the photos helps me realize that things may not always move as quickly as I want them to, but they do get done.



I want to show you outside because I just finished mowing the yard yesterday and it looks pretty good. Everything is incredibly green, it just sparkles.
On the left is the plumeria, now void of its beautiful cinnamony pink flowers, but lush with huge green fan leaves. The really tall green tree, in the center, is the amapa, without its brilliant lavender flowers, but full of dark green leaves. More plumerias are on the far right. The only things out here two years ago were the amapa, plumerias and the limon tree and the huge palm. All of the palms we have planted are getting tall and full of fronds. They look great.
Below you can see the parapet wall over the portal. It will be plastered in. The wall works so perfectly. Senor has the roof and wall slanted so all the rain runs down to the end and pours off over the edge. (One day all that water will be caught up into a new cistern).

To refresh your memory, the left window behind the mesquite goes to the laundry room and the higher one on the right, to the bathroom to be. The roofed in section of the new portal is overhead. We sit out here in the evenings, its especially great in a good storm, lots of dry shelter.
Inside the bathroom to be, Umberto is plastering the walls. Where there are gaping holes, he adds chopped up adobe and then throws the plaster up on the wall.

If you think his hands and the wall are the only things covered in plaster, think again. I was livid and purple faced when I went in there, where the new stained door for the closet has been stored, and saw plaster on the door. I went to Senor and looked him in the eye...................there is plaster on the new door, and I WILL NOT, let me repeat this, I WILL NOT RESTAIN THAT *^#+ door.

The door was out of that room in two seconds, completely washed down in five minutes and a sheepish looking Senor came to me and said.........door is all clean again.

Now it is not Umberto's fault. He is clearly always intent on the project in front of his face. Now it is not Senor's fault either, but he is the same way. I am sure neither of them even noticed the door was there.

But the door is a sore spot for me anyway. I am always looking at it, to see if it has moved, to see if it has been rotated, any indication that this door which has been stained and ready for over a month is ready to go to its place in the wall.

Senor and I cannot even talk about it. But more on that later.

There is the long bathroom to be window that you saw in the other photo.

In this photo I am looking through the window to the covered portal outside. The plumeria tree is straight ahead. Today the walls are being smoothed down. Umberto takes a board and runs it over the plaster to smooth it.

Senor has a lot of light switches. Three and four in a row, for fans, overhead lights, sconce lights, and sink lights. And they are on the other side of the room as well. He says if you walk away and forget to turn off a light, well, voila! you can turn it off from the other side of the room as you walk out the door.....okay, i say. It really is amazing that he has done all this electrical wiring himself.

And it is amazing that he has done all this plumbing, too. People ask me, how does he know how to do all of that? I have to say I don't know, he just does and what he doesn't know, he looks up on the internet. So, the plumbing for the shower has gone in. We still do not have the propane hooked up, and when November comes, I think I will still be biking down to Dolisa for a hot shower.

I talked with someone the other day and she said.....wait, are you complaining about THAT? .................hell, I didn't take a hot shower down here for three years................okay, i say. Now it is plastered over.
Here is the plumbing for the toilet..........................and hell, she continued........i had to use a bucket for five years...........................okay, i say.
Pvc pipe to the sink........did I really want to show her that? Hell! You are going to have a sink!.......................i say, okay and make mental notes about things I will show people when they come visit.

These photos are taken from between the doorways of the kitchen tool room and the bedroom.


All of our plants look great. I keep saying this, but it is true. So many of these palms were just babies, only several feet tall when we put them in and several have grown two and three feet. Some are over six feet.

Now, briefly back to the door. About a month ago Senor asked if I wanted to prep the floor of the closet so he could put in the concrete floor. Of course! So I prepped the floor with a mixture of some goopey stuff that levels the floor and helps the concrete poured over it adhere to it, with no cracking. I don't know what it is, you would have to ask Senor. It dried for over a month.

So during the month the West Wing is so full of stuff, you can barely walk into it.
Here is the deal. When the closet door goes up, boxes and bins and tools and all that stuff in the West Wing go into the closet. All the tools and bins that clutter the kitchen tool room and the bedroom go in the closet. Closet door gets locked, we get more space, things are easier to keep clean, things are safe and I could go on and on about the benefits.

When I was sick several weeks ago, Senor did the floor, which comes before the door.

He poured the cement and used a trowel to create the patterns. It is still drying in the photo.

Above is the acid stain he will use to stain the floor.

Below is the test of the stain. I love the colors and I love the way he created the patterns. The whole floor of the casa will be done in the patterns and the stain.

But back to the door. The floor is done. I love it. The door is clean again, standing in the corner, ready to be put into place.

I have been so ready for the door to go up, but Senor knows what needs to be done and when, so over the past few weeks, whenever I have asked about the door, I get the evil eye. That tells me with out words there are more pressing things and it will happen when it happens.

When I was telling my friend about this in a hushed voice in case Senor came into the room, she SAID.......................hell, you have a door, i had sheets on sticks instead of doors, even for my front door, have you ever woken up to a skunk sitting on your bed?...............................okay, i say.

So, I no longer bring up the door. It will become a part of the house whenever it is supposed to.

I have reorganized the West Wing and we can at least sit in there and enjoy it. And when the cold weather comes, we will light a fire in the little kiva Senor built.

Besides, it is just a door and I am lucky, I have shower curtains now on real tension rods instead of sticks and sheets.

Now this is a nice old photo, from November 2007.

Same place in the photos below.

As I look at these photos and think back on how the casa looks in that November photo, I know we have really come a long way. Okay, I say, ................enough about a silly door, enough about being overrun by bins and boxes.

Now all this looking has pooped me out, a good little rain is falling, Cookies is asleep on his back, senor is already on siesta, time for me to join..............................adios, linda lou