Back from a Renovation Break

Hello world. We wanted to let you know that we’re not dead. This past holiday season brought a last-minute escape to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay to “renovate” our spirits.

Travel, along with a much-needed break from the daily grind brings us back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the new year with gusto.

For now, we leave you with a couple teaser images of what’s to come:

1) After days of toiling in the sun, our garden finally takes shape with partially completed brick paving!

2) We didn’t think the day would ever come, but our kitchen actually arrives (well, 1/3 of it - just enough to make a mess), poco a poco!

Painting the house in “Horchata”

In the last few weeks, our house has gradually been turning white. The painters have arrived and are washing our walls with calestina.  

An ancient technique used throughout the world, calestina is a cal (slaked lime)-based paint that has been used in Mexico for centuries. It works well in Mérida’s humid climate because it’s not waterproof. Any moisture rising up inside the walls simply evaporates through the calestina without causing it to bubble in the way latex paint does. As an extra bonus, the escaping humidity dissolves the cal at a microscopic level and allows it to shift, thus filling any cracks appearing in the concrete.

Not something you buy premixed in the store, calestina is made on site by mixing cal with water and a little binding agent to hold it together. The binding agent varies from country to country. In our research, we have found people using everything from milk to honey. Here in Yucatán, the mix seems to be a little vegetable oil (Negrita won the day) and some wood glue.

Our painters began weeks ago by “hydrating” the cal with water in a big blue drum. When done it looked a lot like horchata, except with leaves and dead insects floating around. After a few days, it was time to decide if we wanted to add any pigment to the mix.

Although we toyed with a splash of bright color here and there, we ended up settling for a natural “horchata”. The house is about showcasing original details and rustic textures so a clean white palette was the best option for allowing these details to shine.

We did, however, opt for a very subtle hint of orange - not enough to notice - just enough to warm the white so our house doesn’t look like some cold minimalist gallery space. Orange is a good fit that complements all the natural limestone, wood and vegetation we have on site.

As it’s not an off the shelf product with a rainbow of paint chips to agonize over, our ”hint of orange” was a hard concept to convey to our painter. We figured it out by mixing a strong peach-colored tint with a splash of paint from the drum. From there, we created swatch after swatch on the wall, halving the tint each time. It took us 6 swatches to get down to the white we wanted. Here are some of the early attempts:

Three coats of calestina have now been applied upstairs. Here is what it looks like in the guest bedroom:

We’re really pleased with the outcome. Not only have we achieved the clean palette we originally envisioned, the calestina has also delivered a soft and luxurious texture to the space.

Totally Floored

We are finally at a point in our renovation where we are starting to see finishes applied to the house. After eight months of renovation, it’s gratifying to see hints of color and texture appear.

First up, the upstairs bedrooms get a lift with the laying of reclaimed pasta tile from the former living room. With a splash of orange, the house starts coming back to life.

Although the tiles were meticulously cleaned before being laid, it took not three hours before the flip flops of our workers had covered them in a thin film of concrete dust and returned them to the dull state they were in when we bought the house. We can’t wait for the tile polisher to come in and restore them to their former shine and glory (this action will also signify the exit of worker flip flops, stage left).

“Antique White” Pasta tile is the choice for our bathrooms. At only eight pesos per tile (20x20cm), it’s an economical option that fits with the aesthetic of the house. In the photo below, we have laid a lozenge pattern edged in a square strip of the same tile. The edge marks the transition between the bathroom and an outdoor private terrace. Cut at a 45 degree angle, we are thrilled this edge came out so well. Sometimes it really is the small things that make us happy.

The space to the right of the edge will be filled with gravel. To the left (and bottom) a hardwood slatted shower platform will allow you to cross from inside to outside barefoot (and naked).

Downstairs in the outdoor living room, a smooth layer of concrete foundation has been poured.

To this, an application of locally-sourced limestone tiles called crema maya (or macedonia) is going down. As the room is a screened outdoor garden space, the limestone brings this outdoor feeling inside.

Inside the media room, we find yet another layer of concrete.

As pasta tile is the choice for this room, the foundation has been poured roughly, with stones poking through the surface. Each tile will sit on a hand-troughed bed of mortar that will bond tightly to the rough surface beneath. Also visible here is a layer of plastic sheeting laid under the concrete to prevent moisture from rising up from the ground beneath.

Quicker than we imagined, the floors are coming together and giving us some finished surfaces. Next up, wall finishes. We can’t wait!

The Choice is Made

After debating over what tile pattern to use in the bedrooms, we finally settled on option three, edged in plain white pasta tile. Here is a plan view of how the tile will be fully laid out in the guest bedroom:

Yesterday, the room was measured out with string to determine the position of the first tile to be set, a tile in the center of the room.

Concrete was mixed on the terrace outside the bedroom and carried in one bucket at a time. Finally the tile laying, much promised for two weeks, began.

Each tile is being set by hand into a lozenge pattern using a level to ensure the tiles are set evenly across the floor. As the pasta tiles are reclaimed and have the occasional chip, rough edges are being cleaned up with an edging tool. Tiles that have large pockmarks are being reserved for the edges where the imperfections can be cut off to square the diagonal edge.

Once laid, the tiles will be hand polished to restore the brilliant color and shine that make pasta tiles so special. Although a bit pricier than mechanical polishing, polishing by hand does a much better job and ensures the tile edges and corners stay crisp and clean.