Apples and Pears

Pedro the blacksmith is a rapid worker and the bannisters suddenly appeared in all the flights of stairs. We're going to put a wooden railing along the top of them, and obviously they need a good sanding down and a lick of paint.

Saúl has done a lovely job as usual of putting the terracota tiles on the vertical faces of the steps. We've now bought the wood for the tops of the steps too, but it will need a while to dry out after having been treated.

Progress in the bathrooms

Since having words with the builders recently, work has been progressing very well.

These photos are of the upstairs bathroom, in the process of being tiled.

There's also a shot here of the downstairs bathroom which Rosalino is working on at the moment: 150cm high walls around the shower.

Purple snow

 After a rather windy couple of days the street has quite a selection of purple snow drifts.

Elsewhere outside the water filters for the rain water are starting to take shape.

The garden is looking nice and lush, as dry season  hasn't been that dry so far and the plants are loving the hot humid weather.

 This photo really captures some of the interesting angles of the house.

A bathroom update

The bathrooms are coming along now... the urinals are still on order and delaying progress a little, but the toilet is now in place, as is the sink in the downstairs bathroom.




The upstairs bathroom is looking a little sparse right now, but the drainage pipes are good for communicating with people downstairs!

Thanks to various family members we now have our much sought-after bidet valves and taps.  Ebay: 1, Xalapa's shops: 0.

Arty farty

 Our westerly wall now has a nice, colourful feature, in the form of a fan of bottles.  The light coming in adds a touch more brightness to the stairwell.  As lovely as it is, we think we'll leave the bottle installations at that, as it took Hector over a week to do it.  

We were also inspired by a trip to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul last week, where we were very taken by an interior wall/cactus pot.  The top of the stariwell seemed like an ideal place for it, as not only is it very hot and dry, but we also needed something bannister-like on the top landing... it might not be so good for puting your hand on though!  

Covering the cistern

The back of the house is looking nice as it is now mostly painted, and Leborio is currently in the process of painting more of the front - perhaps it will look less imposing soon.

The empty triangle above the living room arch has now been filled with a

window. Manuel the glazier has finished a few other windows, too.

The study upstairs was looking particularly nice

this morning with the sun coming in on the tiled floor. It gets pretty hot up there in this sunny, spring weather!

Hector and Chalino have been finishing off the roof above the water tanks/the veranda. You can see this new section in the first photo. The third photo here is from the main bedroom window, looking towards the back of the neighbour's land. It's all so green at the moment!

New accessories

We collected our stove from Las Vigas this morning - a very good use of two truck wheels! We asked for there to be a thicker than usual hot-plate on the top of it, so it can be used for cooking when it's lit.

The bath arrived a few days ago, after a lot of phone calls and running about trying to chase it up.

Saúl is installing the door that opens onto the upstairs balcony.

1,2,3... floor

Saúl has been meticulously piecing together the floor in the study.

Purchases and another roof

The view from the front door has now changed as the structure for the roof above the water tank/veranda is in place.

After months of trying to get hold of a dry toilet, we managed to buy one. Just waiting for the bath and the eco-urinals now!

Some of the sockets are in place, (there is a reason for the otherwise-boring photo...)

The Garden in Spring

The end of February brought us some very welcome warm sunshine, and the plants thought so too. The compost bin has been in full-swing; the mandarin trees are covered in buds, and everything is growing quickly.

In the details

January seems to have been a slow month, but there has been a lot of progress when you step back and look at it.

With the exception of the porch, all of the roofing has been done and the drainpipes are in place. Time for the house to dry our properly now.

I spent a day painting the study recently, and now all that is left to do in there is to put down the floor... and as our road is now open, we splashed out last week on a load of fired terracotta floor tiles which will be used throughout most of the house.

Celso and Rosalino have been busy fitting the windows in the main bedroom, and the clear roof over the living room is finished.

And most excitingly... we have a (yet to be painted) front door!

A new road

After many, many months of waiting the new road has finally been finished and is now open to (both canine and vehicular) traffic.

December

What with moving house and having visitors, we didn't get a chance to upload these photos from December.

Here you can see the biiiiiiig window in the living/dining room. It lets in an amazing amount of light.

The arch leads from said living/dining room to the downstairs bathroom, bedroom and stairs.

And lastly, guest starring Mum & Dad, a photo from the street, showing Don Fernando's house in front of ours.

Light = Luz

The electrician has got a few cable guides in position in the wall, so the top of the stairwell is almost finished as you can see here. Even though it's been really cold recently, the sun coming in through the roof helps cheer things up and stop the house from being too cold too!

Work has started on the small roof above the balcony in the main bedroom. It'll be nice to see that finished, as at the moment every time it rains, the bedroom gets flooded!

We quite enjoyed noticing a couple of details that happen to have appeared in the photos - such as the smoke from the builders' cooking and the wads of money on the floor as it was Friday (i.e. pay-day!)