Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

“La verdad es que mientras más enojado estoy con este país y más lejos viajo, más mexicano me siento.”
― Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Instrucciones para vivir en México
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Christine
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Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

It's been so long and I don't even know where to start, haven't even put my fingers to the keyboard in months other than to answer emails so I am a bit out of practice. Saying hello to the EE forum friends has been on my ever growing to-do list, I miss the interaction here and am most grateful to Spiritwind for keeping the forum alive. I won't promise but perhaps I can journal my progress on building a little house in the Mexican country side.

As soon as the COVID nonsense was rolled out I knew that life would never go back to normal, not that I ever participated much in normal though now with some retrospect and a dose of nostalgia I have more appreciation of the freedoms we had, of the innocence that we could still maintain. These past months have been lessons of patience, fortitude, and an ever deepening necessity to listen to spirit within. The land that I celebrated owning sat unattended and abandoned, I kept waiting for the right person or small group of folks to come together to initiate a project. That never happened and I was reluctant and admittedly daunted by the thought of going it on my own. I think it was October that I was gently nudged and then nudged again to go for it. Having grown weary of seeing the masked people becoming ever more zombified I knew that my longing to be back in nature was more vital than anything else so I began what has become a challenging and satisfying journey of designing and overseeing the building of Casa Serenidad.

It was a rough start with needing to clear the overgrown brush, deciding on the location of the casita and then taking the first step breaking ground for the foundation. I started with one crew and quickly realized that my ideas weren't meshing with theirs so I let all but one man and his fifteen year old son go, it's one of those things when building, you don't want to stop once started so we kept at it, stone by stone the foundation went in.

The most important lesson I keep learning again and again is to not give up, never let myself feel discouraged because I know that Spirit is the wind at my back in ways that only become apparent in the present moment... Ismael, a quiet architect from the big project next to the vitamin shoppe would come in for coffee from time to time, at first it seemed we had little in common but over several months our conversations took a deeper keel and we became friends. He heard about my dilemmas and challenges so offered to go out to see the construction and offered me free advice, he's been my bedrock of support so that my decisions are easier to make. A few weeks ago he decided to quit his job here in San Miguel and go back to Puebla to be with his wife who he missed greatly... before leaving, being a quintessential gentleman he pulled two of his best workers off the big project and they are now working for me. I am deeply grateful.

I am building with a song and a prayer that the money I have holds out, at least now I know I will get my roof up and that is huge. Windows and doors are, of course, essential to be able to move and I am stretching it very thin indeed but feel I will be able to close in the house... bathtub and other amenities might have to wait. We will see.

Here are some photos of the work in progress, it's a real pleasure to share and as they say in Mexico "Mi Casa es Su Casa"... my doors (when I have some) are always open for visitors and I keep the home hearth warm.

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Breaking ground

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Manuel laying stone, a good guy who talked non-stop and drove me crazy so I had to let him go... we parted with laughter so all good.

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Foundation work, the most trying part as weeks went by and there seemed little to show for it. That said we laid the electrical and plumbing lines, got the cistern covered and the bio-digestor septic system in the ground and plumbed. About two weeks out from turning the power on and using the plumbing.

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The light is always magical especially when some storm clouds roll through.

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Cistern and backhoe moving the endless rock on the property.

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Adobes baking in the winter sun, an exciting day for me, found some very good adobe and placed my order.

ImageAdobe delivered!

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Week before last with Eric the 'maestro' and Ismael doing a check in... walls going up and seeing my design take form.

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Front porch of the casita and adobe walls.

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Kitchen with views, it's cools seeing the windows framed and imagining cooking in such a beautiful setting.

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Carved stone niche I found while antiquing with my daughter while looking for a wood fire stove and a cast iron bathtub... the quest continues.

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Eric placing the extended beam for the loft bedroom that will support a balcony.

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Loft beams are almost in so I climbed up and snapped a shot of the view from the bedroom, it's getting exciting now.
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The journey, the challenge is to step into the
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Cristian »

awesome ...I see Diana is still alive and kicking ...double awesome

Memories and dreams and ...cats. Hmm.

Awesome
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

Today was rather emotional in a good way. I am finding that my energy body is already moving into the not yet completed house so am beginning to move belongings. I have some older and larger plants in pots that have been crying to be in the ground for years now so we loaded them into a pick-up early this morning and took them out to be planted next week.

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Sunny Olive and Big Bougainvillea, both are over five years potted, they are going to be so happy!

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I know the house is lost in the light of the rising sun, something mystical in the morning light.

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Sunlight coming through my backdoor, all my doors and windows are going to be big!

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Sunny being unloaded, home at last.

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Friday work crew, second floor going up. Looking onto front porch through entry door.

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Side of house with balcony beams... dreams of sitting there with time to write again.

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When I am finished this will be the secret garden area, a stone patio that will be enclosed with a wood fence and outdoor shower. Oh! and all the trees are getting pruned and cleaned up from a type of parasite that grows here.

A final photo and a thank you for this space, friends have been asking me to document my progress and what better place than ee forum! I've been fortunate to meet many of you over the years and share a passage of my life. This is promising to be a new journey for me, not sure what it will bring but I am ready. I hadn't realized just how stuck in a rut I'd become, routine with the shoppe and home had kind of zapped my energy and now I am up and out the door by sunrise and feeling enlivened.

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My kitchen will be a warm place to sit for tea or beer or wine or whatever and everyone is invited to visit, if only....

To end I will wax a bit nostalgic for a time when travel was possible and people didn't wear masks and act all weird. In sharing with my friends lately we all feel a big huge crack in the agenda, we know they are playing with us, know they won't stop unless our beautiful human consciousness and love of freedom defeats them for once and all. Let's do that! Let's remove all obstacles that keep us from being our divine self. No fear.
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The journey, the challenge is to step into the
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

19th of March 2021

Taking the morning off from the shoppe to watch the progress on Casa Serenidad, the main beam for the roof is going up today. Feeling calmly triumphant to have gotten this far and knowing I will have a roof in about a month from now. It’s quite a production with the rudimentary tools we have but the crew is good. I think I will have to buy them a few Caguamas, as the brown two liter bottles of Corona beer are called. Caguama means turtle in Spanish and I guess they sort of look like a turtle to the childlike mind.

Here I drop off for a moment to smile at the richness and simplicity of life, so many days it is forgotten in the darkening maze of lies they keep telling.

Sitting in my Jeep all sweaty from pulling weeds and getting a space cleared to bring out the metal cage that was made during the trauma of bad neighbors trying to catch and kill my cats. I love it out here in the bright hot sun and quiet with the birds flitting by. There have been moments when I wonder what I am doing even though I really do know. Little doubts are like mosquitos buzzing around your head at night that vanish with the morning sunrise. As I sit here it occurs to me that I will find my muse again, away from the bombardment of other people’s projections and issues. While I do embrace my place in town to some extent it’s become rather boring to hear the same story repeated over and over, there are as many different versions as there are people but the tenor and tone doesn’t change much. A friend once said “boring” a lot and there is some truth to that.

How is it possible that people can be so repetitive but the hot sun and blue sky overhead hold so much unknown wonder? Feeling a deep sigh of release today, the tiredness has lifted and all settles well in my heart today.

My battery is dying on my laptop so I will continue when I can plug in.

—- A good day, hope you enjoy it with me.

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When I arrived they had the roof beam up to the loft floor. This is a great crew, they work so well together with Mexican music blasting.

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A cinch, some rope, two pullys, some wires, and my car jack were their tools.

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I watched for a while and then retired at a distance, there was nothing I could advise and I didn't want to interfere.

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The other side goes up, Fernando is hanging off of the scaffolding as a counter balance.

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A quiet moment at the end of the day, workers gone, deliveries received and a house that I can't wait to live in.

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As the sun set I climbed up the ladder to what will be my bedroom.

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Gorgeous day and a glorious sunset out the bedroom window.

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Amen
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

Trying to catch time is like trying to stop water running through a hose, one constant flow and even when I don't have some urgent need to get something done I just want to fall off into some dreamscape. Got to follow the urges without force now. Today I find myself with a few moments to update my friends here. The photos were taken over a week ago so progress this week was having most of indoor walls stuccoed and the roof is now water sealed... Windows and doors are in progress and going to shop for tiles tomorrow.

On Thursday, April 8th I lost my beloved cat, Bella. While preparing to leave for work I had a knock on my backdoor and the fellow who takes out the trash told me that one of my cats was dead in the street out front. I knew immediately it was my Bella. A few dozen feet from my door she was laying in the middle of the street so I went to pick her up, struggling inside to not lose it while a very present calm descended on me. All the years I worried daily about losing her like so many of my other cats and now her time had come, feeling immense grief with peaceful acceptance was a surprise for me. It's something I have contemplated over the ensuing days to make sense of it. What I know now is that my inner work was showing me just how much more I walk in the world of Spirit. There's nothing special or spectacular about that realization, it comes from knowing what is happening on the Earth now, knowing that many will die and knowing without doubt that life is truly eternal and death of the body but a passage. Maybe I am preparing for my own ultimate leaving.

Bella was so beautiful in her death just as she was in life. I miss her of course and the other cats, especially the Dude, are forlorn for she was the badass mama whose energy emanated bigger than life. She's visited me, at first I asked her to come back in another calico body until realizing she's a lioness who will seek the wild.

I'll leave off here for now.

Love, unbound and free,
Christine

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The roof is up, looking from the living area to the sleeping loft.

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The first wall in the kitchen getting it's stucco, that's Israel who is such a great worker. His quite assistants, José and Felix going to mix more mortar.

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The trees are leafing out now and this one goes through the roof eaves. I just couldn't bare to cut such a big branch.

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The front of the house, next photos will show the tile roof finished.

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Bella's final resting place on this Earth realm. Her whole countenance was peaceful.


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This is my Gatti in all her earthly glory.
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

Mi casita tiene puertas! And windows coming soon... I vacillated between wood, iron or aluminum along with listening to everyone else's opinion. A month ago while browsing a local antique store I found the carved wood door, it's carved on both sides and was a bargain so that sealed the deal, wood it would be. Also found the bathroom door cheap at Home Depot. Then I remembered Seferino the neighborhood carpenter, he's professional, fun to work with and I have confidence he will complete the work in time for me to be in the house.

We are at the end of the project, doing the detail work seems to progress as slow as molasses but I know it will all pop into place at once. It has to since the house in town sold and we have to be out by June 10th when the contract closes. It's a weird feeling, non-feeling really since there aren't lingering attachments to what I am moving away from. At the same time everything is afloat and the pieces are in constant movement, glad I have good navigational skills.

Maybe I am crazy since I am now designing the next building, it's definitely a carport with a work room which is now morphing into a multi purpose structure. A space that can be my workroom (so I can get back to creating) or possibly be my supplement shop if I have to leave where we rent now or possibly be a small studio rental. Either way I don't have any confidence in the financial system and rather have something real rather than fictitious.

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Wood door, carved detail. It's carved on both sides.

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Front door held in place temporarily.

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The backdoor through the arch with shadow.

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Bathroom door with bathtub ready to install, just waiting for the tile work to be completed.

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Seferino installing the bathroom door.

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My absolutely favorite room, the loft bedroom. Sitting up there with the breeze blowing through the house I felt lifted to the heavenly realms of peace.
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

It's nice a cloudy today and rain is predicted this afternoon, it will be glorious if it does. I am moving into excitement and out of exhaustion as I can see the pieces of the casita coming together. I've pretty much purchased all the faucets, electrical outlets and thingys that make a house a home.

Seferino, the carpenter is working away on the window frames so maybe I will be able to close in the downstairs by the weekend, we will see since carpenters are notoriously behind schedule here in Mexico.

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The Tejado (clay tile roof) is almost done and we're waiting for the hewn cantera (stone) facings for the window and patio that are supposed to be delivered today.

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Backdoor is stained and sealed, good thing since the rain is forecast starting today and going strong through the week.

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The only tile will be in the bathroom for the bathtub inclosure, laborious but with the grout in the left hand corner it's looking beautiful.

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Everything I am doing is custom by necessity and in keeping with my vision, it took me months of looking to find a bathroom sink that I liked and would fit in it's designated furniture. Paid off since I found this beauty cheap on ebay.

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Repurposed furniture for the bathroom counter, it just wouldn't fit anywhere else when I realized it was perfect for what I needed.

There is a volcano of things I want to write about bubbling to the surface so perhaps I will be thus compelled to write on the EE website. I have so little energy left after the long days that it all settles down for a bit. I only have the time to tweet which I do, sharing today's short muse:

"Waking this morning I heard a clear message broadcasting in the aethers; What are YOU doing to spread the Truth about the tyrannical agenda being rolled out? Each of us has a call to answer and a vital role to play."
https://odysee.com/@markdevlintv:e/it%E ... or-never:a

I have so expanded the number of people I listen to and it's really happening, there is a band of truth playing and the chorus is growing. Join us!
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Fred Steeves »

Very exciting watching it all coming together isn't it Christine? As someone who has spent now 37 years building, and remodeling homes (including my own of course!), I have a great appreciation for the whole process.

That moment when it's officially complete makes all the blood sweat and tears, including the problems and frustrations, well worth it. Nice seeing your house becoming a home! :)
The unexamined life is not worth living.

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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

A quiet Sunday morning which won't last long so I'll do a quick update. Yup, everything is popping into place now, bathroom will be running water this coming week, the floor in the loft is stained and it looks so beautiful. Fernando (who did the floor), an all around handy man is always happy, he LOVES working and feels a ownership type pride in his work. The smile on his face has been a staple as we observe the house appearing out of the ground.

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Sanded, stained, and beautiful.

With the way the work is going the bathroom should be plumbed and ready to use next week. I am working on a stone mosaic for the outside patio/shower area.

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Tiled bathtub enclosure is ready to set in the tub and plumb, walls are painted too.

My current learning curve is how to properly install a pipe chimney on a wood burning stove, not rocket science but it's got to be done properly to have a good draft.

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And my latest score, a Vogelzang boxwood stove. A neighbor sold it to me for a song. Some tender loving care and it's as good as new.

@Fred, exactly right ... it's a process of ups and downs, frustrations and a few corrections of mistakes I made in calculations... all in all I am happy and ever so slightly prideful having taken on another challenging project.
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Re: Mi Casita es Su Casa... work in progress

Post by Christine »

Time is either going really fast or standing still, I can't tell anymore. One thing I haven't had time for is sitting at my laptop and updating my progress. Since I am in the process of moving in I thought I would update before I spend the next week trying to accommodate the piles of stuff, even though piles are staying behind I seem to have collected an incredible amount of things over the last seven years. It's exhausting, one day up and one day walking through molasses.

This is the crews last full day of work, they'll come back once I have the tiles for the roof purchased. I was truly sad to see them go, such an enjoyable and great group of workers.

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José, Erick, Felíx and Israel

It's been raining everyday for the last four days, so needed in our parched landscape. Moving in between sudden showers isn't too much of an issue, it's so refreshing to get wet and watch the trees green out. When the showers stop the birds start singing. I am going to be leaving in the countryside soon!

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Rainy morning, the windows are stained and glass was installed yesterday, it's starting to look finished and the lights are on.

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Bathtub installed and plumbed, my bathroom has always been the most important room in my home... a sanctuary."

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The big door to what will be a private patio with an outdoor shower! My whole life I always wanted one so made sure the house was designed to include it.

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Fernando staining the wood window frames.

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View from the loft, the house feels roomy even though it's just under 900 sq. ft.

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The kitchen won't be finished for another month but I have a stove and refrigerator and can make do. I found a used Whirlpool refrigerator pretty cheap, I've had good fortune finding used furniture and appliances at bargain prices.

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Catrina wanted me to include her in this post, I am still at the shop between outings. Another good fortune is such wonderful friends who will step in when needed to keep El Árbol open.

Next time I write I will be living in my new home. I am a little nervous about getting my cats accustomed out there and hoping they will adjust well.
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The journey, the challenge is to step into the
projection room and stop being lost in the script.
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