A few more pics of the older, downstairs part of the house. Not a lot has been done here, mainly it is full of bags of escombro or rock debris.

This first pic shows the original height of the garage door, we are working on getting the historical agency that controls all remodels in the centro to approve opening it back up to the full height. The garage was not original of course, but it was converted from a room early enough that we are grandfathered in with it, currently they will not allow rooms to be converted to garages in the centro. I'd like it the original height to get some light and air in through high windows. Since we also want to open up the front door to its original height, that would allow the two to be the same height.

Looking down the hall from the middle section to the back yard. You can see the bags of escombro and that not a lot has changed. On the left side of this hall is where a narrow and long pond will go. A section of the ceiling will be opened to let in light and air. The pond will be about 18" wide and run the length of that section of hallway. The wall behind it and below the half-buried columns will be rock salvaged from some of the limestone dug up in the yard. I'm hoping to wire orchids to it and have tropical fish in the pond.

The main work that has been done on the first floor is to chip out channels and run electric and plumbing. Here you can see the electric conduit chipped into the rock of the wall and between the beams on the ceiling.

This type of ceiling support is traditional in colonial homes here. The larger cross beams are old railroad ties that I think came over to the Yucatan as ballast on ships. I'm not positive about that, I'll have to look it up again. This kind of ceiling is one way to date a house. We think this one was built around the 1890's.