Hola

Holy Toledo!

Maybe you are wondering about us or maybe you aren't.

Where did July, August, September and October go?

 They went right by me and maybe I didn't even see them go.

I think you will like these photos, especially those of you who have actually been following the reconstruction mess of this casa.

We now have the rejas in and we can actually lock our house up when we leave it.

These photos are taken from the portal side.

The long window above is where the kitchen will be and NO! I don't have the kitchen yet.

The fake kitchen is working fine with the exception of cookie exchange day when I had to spend four miserable hours baking seventy cookies in a tiny toaster oven.

Believe me, I will be glad to have an oven.

I heard that Senor told someone we would have a kitchen by spring. Well, that was news to me.

We will just see about it.

In fact, just a minute, I will be back. I have been meaning to ask him about that.

Okay, he says it is a possibility......hmmmm, well, he should not go round telling people that we will have a kitchen in the spring if it is only a 'possibility' because that is the first thing anybody asks me....uhm, do you have a kitchen yet?

I think some folks are getting embarrassed to ask.

I just tell them, no, and you will probably be playing bridge in the card room before I am cooking in a real kitchen.

But, look!

Isn't that pretty???

Someday we will have doors, too. 

Wow!

This is the front door and then, the area that will lead out to the street.

 Someday when you come visit you will come in through this door.

Cool, huh?

Okay, check this out.

 Senor is working on yet another fireplace.

 He is the King of fireplaces.

All of his fireplaces draw so well and they really warm up the room which is very nice since we don't have any doors or windows.

This one is opposite the big stone one he built at the north end of the sala.

I will show you a picture of that one in a moment.

Our TV is going above this one.

 We won't have TV, just a screen that he will hook up to the computer or something.

I don't know anything about that really. 

We are going to awl some old doors to cover the screen.

We are putting in the sala floor.

The downside to this is all our stuff is crammed into one little area of the sala.

But the floor is going in fast.

I am still the one acid staining it and Senor is the one marking out the pattern and Marcello and Rosario are actually laying it.

Here is the finished floor in the bathroom 'to be'.

Not too shiny now because the boys are walking on it all the time.

But when it is clean it is beautiful.

There is a poly varnish on top.

Finished floor looking out to the sala.

And below, Marcello is laying the sala floor.

There is the stone fireplace opposite the fireplace Senor is currently working on.

So, there you have an update on the casa.

I know you want an update on our lives as well.

We are ABUELOS!!!!!

A little baby boy, Eli, was born to our daughter and her husband in September.

Thank goodness for skype or I would go completely wacko.

I am secretly planning my next trip to Denver to see him.

Alright Senor says he is starving and we are heading out to La Aduana for food and music and shopping.

Que le vaya bien!

Linda Lou