Getting on With stuff

Hola.

One nice breezy day today. I tried to sweep the portal this morning and it did not happen, all came right back in my face. We are having guests for dinner. So, I tried to remove the layer of dust that has covered the couches and chairs. That's not happening either. I got out the shop vac. I could not conquer anything with that either.

So many nice reasons we chose this home. And one is because we are a little higher up we do get some great steady breezes. I have discovered the clean up is just a little harder. But everyone gets the polvo, the dust. I like to think because we are under construction we might get a little more, probably not though.

For the past year, the pueblo has been paving many barrio streets with funds designated by the federal government. I can only imagine how it has been for so many women in those barrios who for years have been trying to sweep layers of polvo off their chairs. What a change it must be for them.

Not too long ago a truck came. You can just barely see it in the first photo, but it left what you see in the second photo.

Varro blancos, a white tree trunk. If you recall it is what our roof is made of. 

So, yes! Senor is working on the second and last section of roof and hoping to have it completed before the rainy season starts.  In this photo you can also see the acid stained concrete pieces I have finished for the portal floor.

 You can see all the beams and vigas are in place and he is cutting the trunks to the right size and the guys are laying the varro blancos. It is hard for him to give up the work to someone else. We often go round and round over this issue for about ten seconds and I wisely shut up. He laid all the varro for the first section of the roof by himself, so it's good to see him give up that job. Of course the guys do a lot of different things and obviously I need them or this house would never get done.

 But there seem to be certain things that Senor is just very stubborn about. Take the painting.............but what if you let Rosario paint the vigas.................i want to do it...............okay, what if Marcello learns to cut the varro blanco..................nope, he can't do that.

 See, me? I am always thinking of ways to make this all go a little faster, but the fact is.......it doesn't really need to go any faster.

 The truth is we are having fun.

 Looking back to the wall, behind the ladder, is the door leading to the game room. To the right of that is the cut out in the wall for the refrigerator. Below you can see that more closely and the kitchen window area. The sink will be below the windows. The bucket on the floor covers the copper tubing that will go the stove in the island.

 In the photo below, the white space on the left will be a door leading to a bath and the library/guest room. Marcello awled the wood header above the door.

Actually Marcello did all of this work and Rosario mixed concrete and brought it to him in buckets. There will be a fireplace where the ladders are stacked against the wall and bookshelves on either side. All of that orange tubing is for the electrical stuff Senor has planned: phone, tv, and music.

 There will be a sitting area in front of the fireplace. 

On the right side of the big column there will be a recessed pantry.

 And below, the sala, in case you have forgotten what it looks like.

 COZY, for sure. Even when it's 80 degrees outside I want to light a fire.

And,last, but certainly NOT least, because it is where we spend a lot of time......... the portal.

We have not had a truly HOT day. 

We have actually had almost 2 1/2 inches of rain this late winter and spring and as we go in to summer, we are hoping to have a really wet one.

 So, for all the rain and good weather we have had, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why we are on such heavy water rationing.

I am not saying the rationing is a bad idea, better that than everybody just wasting water away.

But you really have to stay on top of it.

In our barrio we get water once a day for an hour.

 That would be okay except several days ago Rosario decided we needed to water the lime tree which is on a timer and gets plenty of water. He just doesn't understand that a timer can take care of that.

Now it might not have been so bad but he did not ask or tell us he was going to water it, and Senor discovered it later in the afternoon, the trunk surrounded by a swimming pool and minus eighteen inches in the el jibe, or cistern. 

I know he was trying to help me out, he knows I am the gardener around here, well, except for the timer stuff.

 I don't know NADA about the timer and how it works. I guess I am like Rosario, I don't understand it, but I know it works so I don't ever water the lime tree.

So now, getting water for only an hour a day, the cistern is under heavy guard and Rosario does not get to go near the hose. We laugh about it since he is not getting much water at his house either and he sure would never water his own lime tree.

I watch it every day and we have not been able to build up the water supply above half.

but, you know what, it's nice to have little problems.

Que le vaya bien!!!

Linda Lou