Life at the Casa

We arrive late November 9.  Its a Friday night and dark.  We park the motor home and can't wait to see the house.  We have a key to the front door - there is a note on the door that says "Wet Floor."  When we open the door we are met with the overpowering smell of the concrete sealer on the floor.  Ok, we check and sure enough it is wet, very wet.  Since there is only one door we can't go inside!  (there are sliding glass doors but there is no key for them and they are all locked)  Dang!  Well, using our trusty flashlight we can peer inside, sort of,  and it looks wonderful.  We decide to go up on the roof and open the upper windows of the vaulted roof to ventilate the house so we can go inside in the morning.... hopefully.  We enjoy the view of the lights of Los Barriles and the distant lights of La Ribera.  And the stars!  the magnificent stars!

Saturday morning.  Yes!  The floor is dry, the smell is gone, and we can go inside.  All the floors, including the outside terraces have the acid wash on them and they are a beautiful rust color!  The only floor that is sealed however, is the kitchen/living room.  The walls in the kitchen/living room are finished and painted and I love them!  The granite counters in the kitchen are beautiful, the fireplace is amazing, and the bathrooms are truly beautiful.  The onyx sinks and counters are spectacular, I'm not so sure about the color of the acid washed showers however.  The woodwork everywhere is stunning.  The craftsmanship of Martin, the carpenter from La Ribera, is excellent.

Mid afternoon Carlos and Marta stop by to see us and find out what we think of the house.  We love it!  Lorne decides to be cranky that it is not totally finished.

Me - I am very glad that it isn't finished.

• I am glad that the walls are not all painted because I wanted to be sure of the color before they went to all that trouble, 
• I am glad the floors are not all sealed because if the floor was too dark I had told Carlos he would have to grind the color off.  The color is perfect.
• I am glad the bed is not painted because I had not decided on color and I wanted to be the one making that decision.  
• I am glad the fireplace is not painted because no colors had even been discussed before we left.  
• I am glad the exterior isn't painted because again, a color selection had not been made before we left.  
• We brought down the handles for the cabinetry and the lights for over the table as well as the hardware for the bathrooms, so these couldn't be installed till we got here obviously.  

That leaves the following that wasn't done:

• fixtures installed in the showers - the plumber thought we had the wrong valves (after much research we discovered that we had in fact bought the correct ones before we left last year). 
• installation of the refrigerator and stove - this had to be done after the floor was sealed and it had dried for a few days.   

So, we stayed in the motor home for a week before we could move inside the house.  Then we moved in with the workmen......

Ooops..... the stove is delivered ..... however...... when installing it we discover that it sits about two inches below counter height and that is not acceptable.  The standard counter height in Mexico is lower than that in Canada, so stoves are shorter as well.  In addition, we have asked for a higher counter (since we are so very tall)  so - out comes the stove and the concrete guy is called to make a two-inch pad for the stove to sit on.  This will have to dry and then be painted.

 Oooops.....  the fridge is delivered..... however.... when installing it we discover that it is about 4-5 inches deeper than the built-in cabinetry.  This is an amazing mistake because this carpenter is so skilled and he had the fridge to measure well in advance of the carpentry.  He too is very surprised, as is Carlos.  None the less, he comes and removes the cabinet, takes it to his shop and a week later has it back completely perfect.  The seam is virtually invisible.  You would never know it was there.  The granite guys from San Jose also had to come back to grind off the edge of the counter that had wrapped around  the original cabinet.  They had measured correctly so the counter depth was exactly right.  

  So, we live with workmen.  For what seems to be quite a very long time.  It is not unusual to have 8 - 10 guys milling around doing final finishing, installing stuff.  Eating cookies and drinking coca cola.

I love the sight of work men accomplishing much each day.  However, I will be glad when they are finished.

Our little car makes frequent trips to Cabo - San Jose and San Lucas, and to La Paz to find just the right stuff - washing machine, shelving, fans for each room, desks for each of us..... stuff stuff and more stuff.....

Well, so we moved in.  And then the bug guy came and recommended we spray all the wood for termites.  The carpenter said that in all the years he has been a carpenter he has never run into problems with termites with Mexican cedar.  The problem is that there is some plywood in the cabinetry.  Martin says it is Mexican mahogany which termites also don't like.  Oh well, wanting to be certain there were no problems we sprayed.  Which meant we had to move everything - absolutely everything - out of the drawers and cupboards.  All that stuff that we had just put away had to come out.  Sigh.

 We are now sleeping inside.  However, on the floor as our bed has not been finished..  Everything has to come out of the drawers and closets...... what a mess!  Plus it has to be completely dry before moving things back into the drawers.

The borate spray is supposed to be completely innocuous.  The two men who spray wear no gloves, goggles, protective clothing of any kind.  And it doesn't smell at all.  (we found some packaging after they left that recommended it be applied using gloves, goggles and protective clothing which should be disposed of after application.

Then we needed a sheet of plywood for the bed which also had to be sprayed, painted, dried and installed....

thank goodness for concrete shelving.....