NOB Again

We’re traveling once again, this time to witness some friends getting hitched. We’ll be back soon.

Not Digging the Pool

It’s time to design our rear garden, the long neglected stepchild of our central courtyard.  For the last few months we have pictured a lengthy lap pool - in which we toil daily on our new-found Athenian physiques.

Taking a hard look at the space (and our feelings toward strenuous exercise), we realize that 12 meters of blue will annex our goal of a lush garden space. Although it’s nice to drop the length of one’s “lap pool” into conversation, it’s simply not enough.

The second thing we realized was that by building the pool flush with the ground, we were increasing our construction costs by close to $10,000 USD.  Crazy, huh?

As we mentioned before, Mérida sits on solid limestone.  As such, to make a 1.4 meter-deep hole in the ground means explosives.  As the only way to the rear garden is through the front door, it also means digging and hauling those 40 cubic meters of exploded rock by hand. Put together, this means mucho dinero.

To make things better, we changed the pool to a rectangle that measures approximately 4x7 meters.  Not much of a reduction in overall size, but it allows us to shift the pool toward the center of the space and surround it with garden.  We also raised the pool and surrounding garden by 60cm. Not only will this mean less digging, but evacuated rock can now be used to raise up the garden, saving both our money and carbon footprint.

The “diorama-style” renders above illustrate our current thinking. It’s a pain to render realistic foliage, so imagine lush planting everywhere depicted in green. Imagine hard enough and you realize that from the kitchen, you will barely see the pool. Green trumps blue, just the way we want it.

It’s early days yet, so expect to see more developments. Until then, let us know what you think.

Out of Control

Last month we moved out of our run-down house in favor of rented accommodation (we are now dryer, cleaner and more rodent free - thanks for asking).

One consequence of this move is that our garden has been severely neglected. In our absence, it has taken advantage and is now out of control like a wayward teen.

This is eight weeks ago:

This is today:

Rainy season in the tropics. Who knew?!

Framing the Courtyard

The look of the central courtyard is shaping up. Here is an image looking straight out through the mosquito screens toward the east wall. If you imagine some vines on the wall and a few trees and philodendrons for good measure, you can start to picture the framed views that inspired us on a recent visit to the Kampong Garden in Florida.

Each day, design ideas come and go. Since yesterday, you will notice we have replaced the terracotta tile in the courtyard with a local limestone called Concheula (or shell stone). The terracotta was a little “grandma” and so we chucked it (see below for an updated view). If only real construction was this easy.

Time to Get Serious

Our base design is complete.  Our builder is hired.  It’s now time to make some hard choices regarding wall and floor finishes, column details, overhangs, and exposed structural connections.  In tandem, we also need to firm up the ethereal ideas we have about various systems - lighting, drainage, solar, etc. - that will make the building comfortable.  So much to do.

First up - materials.  Until now, our 3-D renders of the house have all been in a single color and not terribly realistic.  This image is such a shot, depicting the western side of our inner courtyard (to capture the entire courtyard, we had to set the “camera” 15 meters back from our property - making it quite unrealistic because the adjacent buildings would technically be in the way).

Yesterday, we started rendering with colors, depicting materials with a simple palette.  We decided on white to represent lime-washed walls, orange for terracotta floors, and dark brown for steel, including the mosquito screen doors and other accents like handrails and building trims.

What a difference.  Previously we had always felt this perspective of our house was pretty ugly.  With base colors in, the building is transformed.  We are starting to see some strong horizontal lines to match the length of our site.  With the addition of dark colors, the mosquito screens dissolve allowing the two sides of the courtyard to mesh together more fully.  By defining some extra detail, shadows are emerging to provide texture and depth.

Here are a few additional shots of the courtyard from under the covered living area.  We definitely think it’s starting to come together!

The End of (What Feels Like) an Era

We can finally say we’ve hit a significant milestone. After months of work, the core design of the house is now complete.  There are still a ton of little details to decide upon (like lighting placement, door patterns, and such), but the heavy lifting is behind us.

Posted below is a set of the key plans and sections.  Let us know your thoughts.

We now have to take the next (scary) step and hire a builder! To that end, we met with someone this morning to get a feel for their process. It’s kind of like dating, except that at the end of the relationship, we’ll get to keep the house.

The Plans:

Some Sections:

Clouds of Discontent

It hasn’t been raining much. Most afternoons clouds roll in, promise rain, but never deliver.  It’s like they have performance anxiety or something.

Finally after a week of repeated failures, it happened. Two days in a row no less!  Since then, nothing.  We return to lives of lowered expectations.

Ensuring You Want It Enough

On one side of our eat in kitchen, we have a large 3x3m opening that looks out into the rear garden.  Our plan is to transform this gap into a key “money shot” moment in our design.  But how?

Looking around for inspiration, we found the pavilion at the Kampong Gardens in Coconut Grove, Florida.

Between brick columns, the architect has decided to erect wooden frames with no glass or screens.  It’s purely ornamental and fantastic.

The frames transform an otherwise typical line of columns into a series of windows that outline the garden beyond.  By creating this false barrier, the garden feels like it sits apart, heightening your sense of longing.  As they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Did we mention we moved?  Yes, our pioneer spirit died and we decided enough was enough.  After scraping our wilted bodies off the dust-covered floors, we have traded up to a rental house near the Fiesta Americana.  With luxuries like windows that open, doors that close and a roof that doesn’t leak, we are almost restored to our former selves.

La Cucaracha?

La cucaracha, la cucaracha…utter nonsense. In our house, they never arrive in the singular.

We are taking the inititive and have layed out poison traps.  Do they work?  Short of bombing the house, does anyone have any other tips?