We continue our exploration of the little things in our house. Today we document the various hooks embedded within our walls. These hooks are a common sight in old colonial homes as Yucatecans traditionally sleep in hammocks suspended between them. Given how hot it can get, it’s an ideal solution for a cool and comfortable sleep.
We have decided to document the little things that make our run-down house so special. Respecting these tiny details will make or break our renovation. We start today by documenting the exterior doors.
As of noon today we moved out of our tidy vacation rental. Goodbye pool, comfort and convenience and hello crumbling dilapidated house. It took two police payoffs for minor traffic infractions, a flat tire and lots of shopping at hardware stores, but at least we are in. Our house is now filled with all sorts of pipe, concrete, fittings, and fixtures - like Home Depot after an earthquake.
Our builder has jerry rigged some electricity and a few pumps to get water from our well. Various department stores around town have delivered us a refrigerator, oven, table and bed (all on time, and mostly undamaged - very impressive). We have even lucked out and gotten internet service seven days ahead of schedule (thank you Cablemas). One could say we now have all the creature comforts we require.
We sit here in our grand living room writing this exhausted after two full on days of sweating. As we look around, we are unsure how we will cope. Will the never-ending dust overwhelm us or will the dime-sized ants crawling about our feet drive us to distraction? More likely, the 95 degree heat and absence of any way to cool down will spur us to quickly wrap up the design process so building can commence and normal times return.
We have decided to save some money by leaving our on-going string of vacation house rentals and move in to our house in its current dysfunctional state.
Not wanting to punish ourselves too much, we have decided to hire someone to establish some basic services. Our Handyman, Jorge Sosa, is now working on the basics.
Our main priorities are to get some electricity and water flowing in a few rooms of the house. Beyond that, it would be good to fix some of the hinges on a few doors and install and a gas tank so we can hook up a stove of some kind. We also need to figure out how to temporarily manage our crumbling walls so as to minimize the amount of dust that continues to collect on the floors.
Jorge says that he and his team of four can do the lot in eight days, which makes us very happy.
The exterior wall of our grand room, as with so much of our house, clearly needs work. You can see the lime-based plaster has fallen away to expose the stacked stone construction. Stacking limestone rocks to form walls, called mamposteria, is the traditional building method in Mérida. It leads to thick walls about 1 1/2 feet that are incredibly durable over time.
The issue with these walls is the lime-based plaster expands in the humid climate, cracks and falls out. This is what leads to the gaping holes seen in the image above. The modern solution is to fill the holes with concrete instead of plaster. Concrete, lacking the lime, is not as susceptible to humidity and therefore lasts a lot longer.
Our house was originally built to draw water from a well in the back yard. This has obviously worked well in that it is still the only source of water for the house. Although we will eventually need to connect to city water, we are going to stick with the well for now.
We currently draw water by hand with a bucket. In two short days, this has become rather tedious, so our first priority is to buy a new pump ($500 pesos).
Water will be pumped up to an old concrete holding tank that sits on our roof. Once there, we’ll have enough water pressure to enjoy a decent shower.
Concrete tanks are not ideal (potential health issues), so ultimately it will need to be replaced with a larger black-plastic tank seen dotting the roofs of houses throughout Mérida.
For now, we feel like we’re truly living in an episode of 1900 House.
