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!

Never the Same Second Time Around

What would a home be in Merida without hammock hooks? We opted to fabricate ours from wood, to complement some old existing horse posts that remain from the original house. The brief we gave our carpenter was simple: replicate the one shown below.

Of course, even the simplest of things cannot be recreated. The result, ironically, looks quite phallic. Our construction crew was most amused the day we showed up with them on site.

Now that most of their length is embedded in the wall, they look a bit nipple-like. We can’t decide which “look” is best - perhaps it’s a personal preference?

A Beverage to Build Houses

We would like to take a moment to thank the Coca-Cola Corporation for all material support they have provided during our renovation.

Coco-Cola is the drink behind the man. Our workers valiantly empty gallons of Coke into their bodies every day so as to provide us with free building materials.

The empty bottles are refilled with water that are carried around the site to wash walls, thin concrete, etc. - all in neat two-liter increments. Cut in half, the bottles provide impromtu pails for mixing paint or for plugging up holes. This free product from Coke has literally saved us hundreds of pesos on buckets, tape and the like.

For the last few months, empties have piled up faster than they can be used. Their torn wrappers, waving brightly in the breeze like papel picado, lifted our spirits among all that drab concrete.

A few days back, however, things were different. Every little pile had been rounded up, cut into strips and dropped into the newly formed septic tank. Sitting in the last of three chambers, the plastic will knit together to form a floating barrier atop the greywater. Any unwanted solids beneath will thus be prevented from rising up and escaping down the outlet (pictured top left) and onwards into the well.

Coca-Cola makes their plastic bottles tough and we’re thrilled that this free building material will provide us hundreds of years of worry free operation. Keeping us cool. Building houses. Thanks Coca-Cola!

Where Water Flows

Before we started construction, our house had one well, one cistern, one tinaco (water tank), and one single-chamber septic tank.  

It’s a setup typical of houses in the Yucatán. Water is pumped up from the well (of which the well head is visible to the right of the pre-construction photo below) into the ground-level cistern (to the left of the well but overgrown with plants). From there, another pump pushes water up to the tinaco on the roof to provide water pressure for the house. Once used up, gray water returns to the ground via the septic tank.

Our renovation is an opportunity to improve, and some would argue, complicate the plumbing.

Our new setup starts on the street, where after 100 years, the house is now connected to city water. This water flows (more accurately trickles) into the house and is deposited into a new 1700 gallon (6800 liter) cistern being built under the rear garden.  

Above - the formed cistern. Below - the cistern again, covered with a concrete lid.

Instead of a tinaco on the roof, we’ll achieve pressure with a motorized water pressure system, which will sit in a service building being constructed atop the cistern (below). What we’ll do in the event of a hurricane-induced two day power outage, we have no idea, but we were drawing water by hand when we first camped out at our house, so no doubt we can do it again.

After water is pumped from the cistern, it flows through a water softener to remove excess calcium and, where appropriate, a reverse osmosis filtration system to render it drinkable.

Gray water is directed into a new three-chamber septic tank fashioned from the original cistern. Successively cleaned in each chamber, treated water is finally directed down the original well.

Where once a torrential downpour would flood the yard, storm water runoff is now collected in gutters and piped directly down the well.

We toyed with the idea of adding some kind of rain water catchment system for the garden, but it didn’t make sense. During the six month wet season, there’s so much water, we don’t need to store any. Saving enough to keep our plants growing during the non-rainy six would require that we dig a hole 2-3 times the size of our pool - a cost prohibitive proposition.

Instead, a new well (90 feet deep) was drilled in the rear garden next to the service room (pictured in the shot to the right). Besides feeding the drip irrigation for our garden, this well will also be used to fill the pool. 

Our new setup is a distinct improvement. Softer, potable water delivered with improved water pressure, free water for the garden and pool (the bulk of our usage) and a more responsible system for waste management. Despite all this however, the benefit we most look forward to is not having a name-branded 20 liter plastic water bottle sitting on the kitchen counter…except perhaps when the next hurricane arrives.

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.

Layering Views

With the heat of April fully upon us and the thought that the rain (and associated onslaught of mosquitos) will soon return, we are finding ourselves indoors and sheltering from merciless clime.

The longer we spend inside, the more we miss spending time in the garden. It reminds us of the design goal we set this time last year - to design indoor spaces that remain connected to the outdoors during summer.

One major way we will be achieving this is through the use of large picture windows that provide vistas into the garden. One of these vistas is from the kitchen into the rear garden, now under construction.

Viewed from inside the kitchen, the many layers that will compose our garden are starting to come through. From the small stone retaining wall in the foreground to the elevated patio beyond, the eye moves upward and outward until it hits the canopy of trees beyond our property walls.

Compare this to a 3D render we did a while back and we’re starting to really appreciate the complexity of textures that will hopefully keep us connected to the world beyond the kichen door.

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?

Return of the Frames

Many moons ago at the start of the build, existing door and door frames in our house were chipped out and carted away for restoration. Rotted wood was replaced, nail holes and other damage were puttied before everything was sanded, treated with “termite inhibitor” and coated in a single layer of primer.

This week, some of the door frames returned so they could be fixed into place.

For each door opening, a curve roughly approximating that of the frame was first chiseled into the concrete.

Each frame was then moved into place and positioned accurately in relation to the final level of the floor. The curve of the concrete arch was finessed and the frame finally mortared into place.

As well as restoring our existing doors, we also commissioned a large reproduction window for the upstairs guest bedroom. Designed to match the existing window below, this new window is made of new cedar (sufficiently dried of course). Once in place, it will look as if it’s always been a part of the house, even though it is brand new.

From the outside, here is how it’s coming together.  

Before the door themselves (and new window panels) return to site, the frames will be smoothed with automotive putty and sanded once more. A final coat of primer will be applied along with two coats of automotive paint in glossy blue to match the already restored door panels, waiting patiently for their debut at our carpenter’s workshop.

A Thin Blue Line

Our house is being erected almost entirely by hand. Besides the occasional use of a concrete mixer, the main tools of the trade are a shovel, bucket and a trowel.

Apart from these more obvious tools, one arguably more important item goes largely unnoticed. It is string, or in the case of our contractor, nylon fishing line. On our build site it’s everywhere and is used for all sorts of things.

It started a few months back when it was laid out to mark the foundation for the house. String was pulled in all directions and used to mark lines, from which items like door and window openings were measured.

When constructing stone walls, it’s string that ensures they’re straight. As shown below for the footing of the pool, two lines of string are stretched out a foot apart. Boulders are then mortared into place between the lines so they align with the string on both sides.

String also makes an appearance as a dangling plumb line - a guide to keep the vertical walls perpendicular to the ground.

Finally, as our bedroom ceilings expand overhead, it’s string to the rescue yet again. Pulled tight into a criss-cross pattern at the right height, concrete is slapped on the ceiling and troweled flat, up to, but not quite touching the web-like lines of string.

Up the Narrow Stairs

Architects often obsess over the need to create beautiful stairs. Stan is no exception.

When we started the project, he was awash with visions of a gorgeous exposed staircase ascending from the living room. A little thing called a budget intervened and we eventually went for a cheaper L-shaped staircase tucked behind a wall.

With good design possible on any budget, Stan still managed to engage his architecture training to create the most elegant staircase our money could make.

Kept intentionally narrow, the resulting stairs are meant to feel a tad constricted. This works to accentuate the drama of the open spaces at the top and bottom landings. So as not to feel stuffy, we gave it a double height space with lots of light flooding in from above.

This week, the stairs have been formed and we ascended them for the first time. The first photo is taken from the bottom landing.

As you reach the first landing and turn to the right, the walls extend up nearly 20 feet and frame the light flooding down from above. It feels narrow without being tight, just as intended.

Once the walls are plastered, the stairs will be finished with tzalam wood that has been burnt and coated in polyurethane. The result will end up like the 3D rendering below.