House Update Time!

This is the cross that is now on our house until it's completed.

They are traditionally put up on el Dia de Santa Cruz (May 3rd) when the workers get a feast put on by the owners. In most of Mexico it is carnitas but our guys wanted ceviche and it was put on by our architect as we weren't in town.

We spent a couple of hours at the house today in 104F.

Yes, it is hot now, even I the heat lover will say "It is hot!". It's not as humid as I had expected though so really, it's no hotter than a normal day in June in Palm Springs. I can do that so I can do this.

We stood around for about an hour waiting for one of the architects, that's a switch as usually I'm late to meet them. After an hour in the heat and the dust I called, I think he forgot but whatever, he came over then. The pond designer I found the other day also came over and explained a lot to him that I wasn't getting across very well. It's odd but I understand just about everything he said to him but I couldn't have come up with it in spanish on my own. It's frustrating, my understanding and reading are well ahead of my speaking.

I spent some time with this pond guy the other day, his english is not as good as my spanish so most of it was in spanish. There are a lot of words I didn't know that are key to building a pond. Think about this one, how many ways can you embarrass yourself trying to describe 'bottom drain' in a foreign language? Trust me on this, I hit them all!

Finally he pulled up an Argentine pond builder's site on the net and we got the answer... are you ready? El Bottom Drain! That's what they called it. But, of course, it is pronounced differently in spanish so my saying it in english hadn't registered. It's stuff like that that can send you screaming into the night if you aren't as well balanced as I obviously am.

Anyway, he described bottom drains, biological filters, Y's for pump returns, water movement, and the oxygen needs of fish quite well.

They are going to meet next week and come up with a plumbing design for the outside pond. I'm very relieved as I knew I wasn't going to get what I really wanted because I couldn't describe it in words we both understood. This will be a concrete pond and that means it will be difficult to retrofit plumbing. I will buy all of the equipment from his company and also pay him for the design, I think it's better to spend some now than try and fix it later.

This is the living room looking into the kitchen. These walls are done and ready for paint when they dry. The upstairs walls are done and they are working on the downstairs now.

There is still a lot to be done though, the stairs aren't complete, the walls are only done up to the living room which leaves a lot of hallway, the library and the garage still to do. There is a lot of digging out that hasn't been done. They hit rocks in preliminary digging on the pool so they will start with a jackhammer next week - that should make me really popular with my neighbors!

We spent so much time hanging around waiting on the architect that I started wondering where all the workers take a dump. I know, I really shouldn't have that much time on my hands.

Anyway, while contemplating this I noticed a big, pink rope going down into the septic tank, which is still open. Luckily, it is very large and very deep and I couldn't see the bucket that I'm sure is down there.

Mimi, however, started poking around in the workers stuff.

They had music playing and she discovered that it was coming from a small iPod with a partial plastic bottle over the speaker outlet that amplified the sound. Clever!

We also spent some time hanging out in the street - looking for a cool breeze - and discovered that you can see the door of the master bathroom if you stand in just the right spot.

Because of the set back rules in the central historical district, the upstairs is 9 meters from the front of the house. You can see the new construction though from across the street.

The gas tank will be up there and perhaps a couple of lawn chairs as the view is great. I'm also thinking of putting some kind of shade up and using that area as a nursery for plants that aren't yet ready for the back.

The front of the house is still the same, they won't start working on it for awhile.

Check out my new blog roll to the right. I finally got it up, I've been keeping a list and 'getting ready' to put it in the template for awhile. I know you all wonder what I do with all my time, well... I spend a lot of it reading blogs. Check them out, they are all good!