Casa Den Occupied!

Sorry for the long wait. Time has been short. Since I last wrote we have had to prepare for the trip, find, buy, fix and load a minivan full of stuff for Casa Den, drive down, and then get the Casa ready for top-level occupancy. That means with electricity, gas, furnishings, internet, appliances, food, beer, etc. After that we could get down to managing the continuing efforts to stucco the lower levels, build the kitchen and bath shelves and counters, pick and install wall tiles, plumbing fixtures and such. During that we could prepare for and entertain our first guests, my sister Peggy and her husband Mike and Peace-Corps-Guatemala daughter Molly who were here from new year's to the 8th. Some of these activities are detailed in Liz's current journal which I will let me post here shortly, so I'll concentrate on what's not there.

The short version of the news: we're living in Casa Den. We finally got the electric service established about December 17th and moved over from Derek & Christine's the next day. It was great being there again and enjoying the pool and kids for 10 days or so while things got finished here. We are living on the top (palapa) level, with a small bath and a 30 square meter big room with the kitchen in one corner, the bed in another, the dining table in the third, and the multifunction space in the fourth (computers, table). On three sides the walls are only about hip high with a foot+ wide ledge on top. It turns out living without walls can be thought of as very luxurious camping, with the fresh (70-84 degree F) air, neighborhood noises, and, unfortunately, the mosquitoes one gets with camping in lots of places. We got some mosquito nets for over the beds and have a system...if it is too windy for the net it is mostly too windy for the bugs too. The hot still nights are a bit too warm.

We arranged for the middle floor to be worker-free, swept up, and equipped with a toilet, bath sink, a few lights and power receptacles, and cloth curtains and doors for the duration of the guests' visit, and Liz and I stayed down there since Mike is much taller than I and would fit better on the queen airbed upstairs than the smaller spare beds. Our nights down there were pleasant enough, with the shorter bed Sophie could make her way on and off, if not through the mosquito net, without a lift. She's still with us at 16.5 now, by the way, deaf, not real quick, but still as loving as ever.

So far we have arranged for the kitchens, baths, and floor tiles to be done over the next month or three, and for the wiring and plumbing to be pretty much done (some lighting fixtures to follow). What hasn't yet been decided (or funded) includes the treatment of the stairs, the installation of windows and doors on the lower floors, and lots of landscaping, walls, fences, plantings, etc. outside. All of my well-paid work from last fall had the bank account in pretty good shape but with taxes coming up, and no firm work up north yet on the horizon, some things might not get done just yet.

The neighborhood turns out to be pretty livable, if you get used to smelling like DEET some of the evening and sleeping under a net. The daily cacaphony includes roosters, dogs, goats, and now turkeys, delivery trucks for tortillas, water, pizza, etc., plus Mexican radios, construction noises (here and elsewhere), and the jake brakes of highway trucks sometimes. And the sound of waves breaking when the wind and waves are right, but earplugs are often useful. The view is wonderful up here, a bit of beach and a lot of ocean, and much of town spread before you. We found that not having a east wall made us rather intimately acquainted with Sylvia across the street so we hung up some woven floor mats above the south half of that wall to afford us (and her) a bit more privacy. They get tossed about in the breezes but a length of bamboo tied along the bottom keeps them from flopping in on the bed (well, almost always; we had an amazing windstorm up here last night -- no damage -- but that's another day's blog).

The 500 meters down to the beach takes about 8 minutes strolling, and the swimming at the point is nice as ever, though we haven't found the late-afternoon time as often as in less-busy years here. Construction in PE may have slowed with the rest of the world, but has by no means stopped. The road project got largely done through this side of town but HAS stopped in an unfinished and occasionally frustrating state. The large lot across the road south of us has a caretaker's shack now and caretakers with kids and dogs living there but something much bigger seems to be planned. Another few places between here and the beach are being built or enlarged now.

Our tile decisions are something like two-thirds done. Liz worked out a design for the lowest kitchen with a field of white-ish tiles sprinkled with some floral tiles and solids in four colors. The countertop was again green concrete and it all came together great. She is buying 600 more tiles today, after Spanish lessons, to use in the lower bathroom, with a double-high band of blue patterns and some surprises among the ivory elsewhere, complementing the blue & white sink which will be mounted in a concrete vanity on that level (we have pedestal sinks elsewhere in the slightly smaller baths). We still have the 2nd level to outfit but she has ideas about that already. I get a vote, but know she knows such things better than I.

So Casa Den is habitable, and getting more so. It might even be available for guests pretty soon as Liz's school year looms in a few weeks. It looks like we will be driving back about January 20 or so, unless we fly here home and I stay a bit longer. There is discussion that my brother and his wife may meet me back down here next month but that is all up in the air so far. Anybody interested in trying it out should let us know.