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.

A Question of Patterns

This is a picture of a concrete pasta tile. Found all over Mérida, each tile is a basic 20x20cm wafer of concrete with a 1/4 inch layer of color stamped on top to form the pattern. And wow! What amazing patterns there are.

The tile above is one reclaimed from the floors in our front rooms. It has over 900 friends sitting in neat piles at our carpenter’s workshop, cleaned and ready to be relaid. When they return to our house in a week or so, they will migrate upstairs to decorate our bedroom floors.  

The joy for us is that since we already own this proud bounty, the choice to reuse them is a no brainer that makes us wonderfully happy. The question now, however, is how to lay them out? Queue the headaches.

There are so many possibilities. Do we lay them square into the room, or in a lozenge (diagonal) pattern? Do we lay them wall to wall, or do we give the whole arrangement a border and have them appear like a rug?

Then, just when you think that’s enough, we realize that our tile can be laid in different arrangements to form completely different patterns. Oh the inhumanity!

Which one do you prefer?  This?

Or perhaps this?

Then let’s consider where the pattern starts and stops. This is important because even if you lay the same pattern, the edge changes depending on where you choose to cut things off. Do you like the one above? Or perhaps the one below?

So many choices! When we look one day, we prefer it a certain way. When we look a day later, we change our minds. Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Then again, every choice we make says something. So tell us, what do you think?