Aplanando

Domingo 24 Febrero – Sábado 02 Marzo 2013.  (Dom 24^th) Since she has been busy getting resettled, we have not seen Ania since she and Frank returned from Nayarit, while we normally would have had a visit by now. We got an email from Frank this morning that explained why. Seems that Ania's mother, from Poland, doesn't think it is proper to visit someone unless specifically invited. So, we called them and invited them for some peach pie. All, including Ania's mom Wanda, 85 years old, checked the progress of our little building project, including the top of the bathroom roof, our future terraza. Wanda thankfully only looked over the top of the ladder, and did not attempt to step onto the roof. Dan, Frank & Ania went on up to the very top of the house where the mirador is located. We then enjoyed pieces of pie, which Carmen baked early today, with coffee. Since the pie was a bit too sweet (canned peaches are not real tasty for pie),  Carmen had too added a bit of orange rind and a few raisins. Yumm. Always enjoy chatting with these folks. Wanda had many tidbits from Poland to interject in the conversation. She is a delightful lady, and as we said before, she speaks at least four languages. They borrowed the film, Mamma Mia, to watch while Wanda is here, which will be only a dozen more days.

The skies were not hot with sun, so we started on a short walk, south towards the dirt roads below town. Then headed east towards where a stream crosses. It is pretty looking down into the stream. Got a bit more than we had hoped for however. There was a bad smell, which turned out to be a dead dog laying half in the stream. Not so pleasant a view after all. About this time, the sun broke thru and pounced the upon us! So much for the perfect temperature for a walk. Back home we headed. Noticed a dirt road we had missed before. Also a cat the coloring of our Gardi. A couple different butterflies were strutting about on the ground and fluttering by. Walked past the window glass shop. It was closed. We took special notice of house windows – there are many different types, hand constructed. Met Louis and his dog Charlie down the block. Stopped next door to talk to Valentín about refinishing our wall on his side of the property.

(Lun 25^th) Wow – talk about hot!!!!!!!! It hit 90 by 10 am. Stayed cool and comfortable inside our house though, as the house holds pretty constant, whether the temperature turns hot or cool. Apparently febrero is renowned for its fluctuating too hot then too cold temperatures. Our crew continued working along, but it was too hot for us outside. We did walk down to the glass shop in hopes to make plans for windows and skylights. Owner was not in. We thought to walk a bit further since he was to return in a few minutes. The wind was in HIGH spirits, and just ahead of us a little dust-devil started up, and we turned our backs for it to swirl on by. Went back to the glass company and with no luck at finding anyone except an apprentice there, we came on home.

Hung laundry out this morning and it was dry in two hours, hanging on the front porch in the shade. While orchids were taking their turn, soaking in a bucket of water, Cosme, the fellow who sold them to us, appeared at our gate. He had brought us more orchids of different varieties. Was hard getting him to accept the fact that we do not want more orchids. Electricity? We had none for most of the day., apparently the wind had downed some lines somewhere. It returned shortly before our crew left for the day. Luckily they did not need it today. The night air cooled – good sleeping weather, with only a sheet for cover.

(Mar 26^th)  Cooling and some drizzles of rain started today. Thunder storms were predicted for past two days, but we felt them pass us by. Today was so dark, that Dan rounded up some work-lights to illuminate things for our crew. Thankfully they had inside work to keep them all busy 'til the drizzle stopped. Went shopping again to FortiFerre, where Luis insisted he last bought some hardware cloth. Nope, they still did not have it, so we checked the other hardware stores in town. Dan went back to FortiFerre and told them he had to have it today, so he would have to drive into Córdoba for it, since no one else in town had it, Armando the owner said he would get it from his other store, in another town, and have it to us by 2pm. Come that hour, where was this material? Just being delivered to our crew out back! Seems the store still hadn't located the large mesh for the slab, and would deliver that tomorrow first thing. Our crew immediately cut into the hardware cloth, using it to create a little hollow false bottom for the beam in the bathroom, hiding where the propane line runs across at the top of the wall. They also formed up the decorative sill under the bathroom window, using pieces of PVC drain pipe for forms.

When we were in town we saw a fuel truck from our gas company, and gave them more specific info on how to find us. Carmen is concerned we'll run out of gas before they deem to stop to refill us. It was too dark today to work on a very hard jigsaw puzzle with lots of dark pieces. But it was a good day for reading, and for cooking fresh beets, which gave us that tiny bit of heat we needed to take off the chill.

(Mie 27^th) The floor slab was poured today, after the welded steel mesh was cut and put in place. Another of Luis's brothers came along today, Ausencio. He heard there might be a job for him here in town. Apparently it did not happen because he was here all day. He helped a bit, so we feel we must pay him too, thought he was not expecting any pay. A neighbor a few houses south stopped and asked if our crew might be able to work for him on a masonry job. The brother will start the job, so it proved good for him to hang out here.

Again, we saw the fuel truck drive past. We are getting lower on propane, and Carmen is getting anxious to get it filled up.  We are still having problems with the pilot light in the old water heater (it blows out because the flame is so small), and she fears that an almost empty tank might make things even worse.

(Jue 28^th) Walked to the Fester store for a liter of festerbond. Fellows were aplanando (smooth plastering) the inside walls today. Gave them some molasses caramel popcorn in the afternoon, all wrapped in individual plastic wrap so that they could eat it without touching it.  They formed up and poured the concrete counter for the bathroom sink, over which the sink will be placed, surrounded by azulejos (wall tiles).

Started to rain harder by end of day. When on our way to bed, already warm in our jammies, Carmen noticed water on the dining room floor. We got dressed, with rain gear, and took large sheets of plastic up the ladder with us and covered the area that was leaking. Lots of concrete has been removed up there for the skylight construction to take place, and the rain worked its way thru, despite some protective plywood covers rigged by the guys. Buckets on floor did not catch much water after our repair.

(Vie 01^st)  Rainy today. 15ºC or 60ºF degrees out. Did not expect workers to come today, but they are here. Dan pointed out that a small lower wall in front of the water heater “closet” was out of square. No one would admit to doing the measuring for the wall. It will be repaired today. The tile would be hard to align if the wall remained crooked. Because of the rain, the crew concentrated on finishing the interior walls, readying them for applications of wall tile or paint.  The forms were pulled off and the counter for the sink was revealed.  There are no longer any leaking pipe joints, so all the grooves in the walls where the pipes run have been plastered over, except for a little access hatch Dan had them leave behind the shower faucets.

(Sáb 02^nd)  A cool day, cloudy which brightened later. Crew worked mostly on final plastering of the exterior walls. The window sill looked great with the forms removed. Carmen, outside in the front yard watering the flowers, noticed the propane truck coming up the street. She raced outside and flagged them down. It feels good to have our tank up to 90% again. After the crew was driven to their bus stop at 1pm, we had a dinner – a squid ink pasta with sauce of chicken, Italian sausage, and many fresh veggies, fresh garlic of course. Enough left for dinner tomorrow.

Next we thought we would visit nearby Ixtaczoquitlan, which was having a two day annual event in a small community south of there, with many pre-hispanic ethnic happenings. However, when we read that 24,000 people were expected in this six block village, and since the previous day had rained hard, we decided we did not need to be stuck in a field where we would have to park. Starting this late in the day, we'd just get there and then have to think about coming back home. We'll plan to catch this next year, when we don't have a construction job running, and chances are the weather could be a bit warmer then too.

So now what? Shopping of course. We did a short stop – buying nothing today – at Home Depot. Will probably buy the roofing for the shelter atop the mirador, perhaps next week. Our stop at Chedraui was eventful! There was a large bin of green tomatoes. These were actually green tomatoes, not tomatillos (husk tomatoes.) We are quite fond of fried green tomatoes, so Carmen's fingers did the walking thru the bin to select her perfect tomatoes for this gastronomic delight. The tomatoes must be the correct size and the correct greenness.

We wanted to look at fabric for our upstairs curtains. The largest material store we have ever seen is in downtown Córdoba. Saturday afternoon is a great time to shop as the city traffic is lighter and parallel parking spots easier to find. We felt lucky to find a good spot but six blocks away, and only one hill to climb.

We arrived at the ModaTelas store with totally open minds in regards to color, texture, etc. We inspected bolt after bolt. Finally narrowed it down. The only telas we both really lit up over were the Guatemalan fabrics. Even here, there were several to choose from. So the first final decision was – which room would this brightly patterned fabric go in. The smallest bedroom was the winner, since it has two large windows on the east side and two smaller ones on the north. Well, the small windows have yet to be installed. The dark purple background Guatemalan will go on the two smaller windows and a solid medium blue will go on the two larger ones. The colors just jump out at you and make you happy!

The medium bedroom has two large windows, both on the east side of the house. Here will be a rich light brown, with a slight red, rather than yellow cast. The fabric has a slight but hardly noticeable “palmera” weave pattern. The largest bedroom will have medium spring green curtains on its two large windows. One is on north wall to be installed yet, and the remaining window on the west side. The new, yet to be finished door in this room is where the other west window was.

Materials are sold by the meters here, not by the yard. Our purchases, including six spools of matching thread – about 24m (26 yds) of cloth, most of it 1.5m (60”) wide – cost about US$65. When looking for someone to help us, we asked one likely looking fellow and it turned out that he spoke english, however he was not a clerk. As many men, as women, work in this store. We have never seen male clerks in a fabric store in the US. We were wise and had all dimensions figured ahead of time. Nevertheless we were easily there a couple hours – what a job. Fortunately, we both seem to have the same sense of design, so decisions were easily reached, once we were able to eliminate fabrics that didn't feel right.

All the downstairs windows in the house when be bought it were clothed in a white light linen look. The glass upper section of door going outside from the pasilla (small hallway) hall of the new construction will either be this white, or maybe a Guatemalan tela? As Carmen was falling to sleep last night, she decided we also needed a Guatemalan fabric on the bedroom to terraza door. We will make it two sided so it can be green or colorful. We will need to go back to the store to get the other pieces of material.

Waldos? This store has good buys on dry pastas, a special oatmeal cookie that makes a great snack, US spaghetti sauces, plus other odds and ends from both US and Mexico. In other words – a heavy load. Our parking spot didn't seem so close when Dan was carrying the 16 pound bag of material back to the car. Carmen was loaded up too, carrying many bags from Waldos dollar store.

Next we tried to find a window maker not far north of the center of Córdoba. Frank has used this person in the past, so he had given us a name and directions. The directions left something to be desired to us strangers to this part of town. We finally did locate it, after going the wrong way on two different streets that were poorly marked, where the streets met at weird angles due to the course of the river winding thru town. It was closed this Saturday afternoon, but at least we can find it again. It was dark by the time we got home. To finish the day, we watched the end of one of the Zorro movies, and recorded the sequel which followed for later viewing.