Our Casita is looking like a house!

Well things moved along very quickly after we arrived on Nov 1. We had our plan all nailed down and got to it the very first day. We already mentioned our contractor, Jesus. He had all of the sub's lined up and the work moved along very quickly. Fabio was the young fellow who did most of the final concrete work before tiling. He would build forms out of old pieces of scrap wood and mix the concrete on the floor and build the final shape and let it harden over night. He spent a lot of time in the kitchen and as you can see the counters are just about done, then we tile!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesus and Chico unloaded all the tiles and thinset and grout for the whole house. I jokingly kept telling him that if he brought in many more bags I was afraid the house would sink in the mud! It just never seemed to stop.

The final shape of the upstairs deck and landing were completed. We decided to move the large door used to get to the deck. It was in the middle of the wall so we asked to have it moved, a little worried it was going to be a big hassle. But we had forgotten Jesus's famous words, "It's only concrete" so sledge hammers and chisels went at it and next day we had our new door.

And finally we get to see some tiles. They work from the top down so the ensuite bathroom was first to be tiled with the talvera tiles and we loved it. Bright and just the right colours. They took a few trips to Chosa our tile store but we eventually tracked down what we needed.

Our main tiler was a very nice fellow by the name of Rubin (Rubin is actually Fabio's brother in law, lots of family ties in the renovation business in Mazatlan). He and his helper, Chico did all the floors and the bathrooms. I must also tell you how unbelievably hard these guys work. It was very hot in the house when we first got here but they worked through it every day. Rubin also was a very good singer and we would always hear him just burst into song while he worked.

And we got our main deck finished. The tile and grout looked great and the first night it was done Sandie and I went up there after dark with some wine and beer to have our very first drink on our new deck. It was very dirty all around us but we could sit and imagine what our Casita was finally going to look like.

We also got our new window which will be great to keep the bugs out. We usually don't notice any but we do have a large tree just outside our window and just in case the screen would take care of any little creepies that we would rather leave outside.

Sandie also put the final touches on the tile design for the end our kitchen counter. We found if you make up the pattern first on the floor then have the tiler put it in place as is then we always get what we were looking for. When you don't then sometimes the idea gets lost in translation and the design is a little off. Then out comes the chisels and it gets knocked off and redone. Remember, "It's only concrete"