I must be color blind...

This is the green I wanted for the house facade

I won't bore you with the story of an entire day looking at toilets! But if you are bored by paint colors you may just want to look at the photos! Picking paint colors was not as pleasant experience for me. Let's just say that I was outvoted on almost every color I wanted. I had said from day one that I wanted the house to be olive green with white, even after the house next door became electric pink. Carlos has always wanted a mustard or terracotta and Roger a bright blue. We spent about 4 hours at the Sherwin Williams paint store out on the highway to Progresso, We set up a desk with the house plans, the sink, the stone for the kitchen and photos of all the pasta tile we had decided on. And the discussions began and sometimes got a little heated!

This was serious business!

Room by room the colors were discussed and chosen, sometimes two colors for one room! Towards the end of our time there I decided that I would back off and not argue for my choices as it was only paint and I could repaint it later to the colors I wanted....however I did get involved in the house facade color choices as I was really not liking the colors much. So I finally said OK, you guys choose the color for the facade but I DO NOT want a yellow or blue house. So with that they really got down to business. 

Roger working on the facade colors

Carlos taking a much needed break

Roger and Carlos got down to a couple of colors for the facade and decided to order some samples so they could see the colors up in the light. We got ready to leave assured that one of Roger's workers would pick up the colors and we could see them the next morning and decide.

1st color too orange, 2nd too pink and third not enough brown!

So we took a walk and found the color we wanted!

The house sure looked different when  I started to see color on the wall! I know that Roger and Carlos will be happy with all the colors. I'm sure I will be happy too.

Choosing Hard Surfaces is really hard....

After we spent some time at the construction zone, it was time to head out and start the task we had come to do...picking out some finishes. First on Roger's list was pasta tiles. We discussed where in the house we would use the tiles as we drove. Arriving somewhere in Merida, we enter the store front of La Peninsular.

Tiles everywhere... on the floors, on the walls and sometimes just stacked. Each one was more beautiful than the next!  This was going to take awhile.... we all wandered and than met in the middle and discussed our strategy. We decided we would concentrate by room. First the entry and living room... traditional we decided. Two rugs of pasta in the living room and one in the area of the indoor waterfall. All the same. We consulted and we discussed and sometimes we argued. But finally we all came to an agreement on which it was to be.

Our next discussion was for the main terrace as well as the walkway. Here we also discussed how much of the pasta tiles we would use. We decided that we would not use the 'rugs' in this area but would just outline an area and use plain in the middle. We found one we all agreed on but wanted the background to be white rather than beige, so he will make it for us and it will take about 6-8 weeks for production,

I wanted something fairly simple for the bedrooms and decided I would do the same tile in each one. Here is my choice (finally, I did not get out voted... I never thought that this would be a democratic process!) 

As Carlos is the master of his study, the entire choice was up to him. (and Roger of course) As his space is huge he will have two rugs of the same or similar design using the pasta tiles below. 

For the kitchen, family room and dinning area we decided to use just colored pasta tiles as we really want the island and counters to be the star there. Here is the hard surface we choose for the island and counters:

Rainforest Brown

And in the bathrooms. of course we are using crema and ticul for the showers and counter as well as for the floors (I think).

ticul

crema

Choosing the hard surfaces took most of the day Monday as well as part of the day on Tuesday. Now it was time to go onto plumbing! Who knew how much work this would be! 

All I can say is WOW!

Is it 10:30 yet?

I never thought it would be the WOW experience it was. We met Roger at the house on Monday. We arrived on Saturday night, and  spent Sunday out of Merida celebrating CQ's b-day and hadn't actually seen the construction yet. (I can't believe we actually waited more than a day!) So we walked from the Hyatt, over Avenida Colon and down Reforma to our cross street of Calle XX and soon arrived at the house. There was noise and workers in action but we patiently waited outside until Roger and Arturo arrived (promptly) at the prescribed time of 10:30 am.

The original floors are too damaged to use

The vista will be stunning

And the rest of the casa really seems to be about the arches.... they are everywhere! On the first floor:

As well as on the second floor!

This walkway is 6 foot wide..

And wait till the arches are lit up at night as each column has a spotlight at the base to light them. I think it will look spectacular! Yea, we were really having some WOW moments. What FUN.....

Happy Birthday, CQ!

Our first full day in Merida,, Sunday  Oct 9th,  happened to be CQ's birthday... not any run of the mill birthday, but a genuine milestone birthday. Yes, we had to celebrate. I thought being in Merida should be celebration enough, but you know how this goes... he really needed a party. He needed to drink and he needed to laugh. So with the help of Roger and David, our architects and their families and Arturo, the best property manager and his family we had a group large enough to make a party. And we did! We went somewhere out into the country and went to a place under a huge palapa and listened to about 3 hours of music and a comedy show.... and ate and drank!

What a great birthday! Thanks for helping everyone!

Surprising Roger!

I managed to pack the bathroom sink in my suitcase along with the 9 GFCI outlets and covers and enough clothes for 6 days. The sink just made it in! Even an iota larger and I would have left it behind in STL. My suitcase made it through customs without even a question, though the guy before me had to declare a large stereo system. I didn't tell Roger Reyes Gallareta, our architect that I was bringing a sink. So when Carlos handed it to him when he picked us up at the Hyatt lobby he was a little surprised.... well let me restate that.... he was mucho surprised!

Handing over the sink

At first I'm sure he was thinking that I was trying to redesign something of his.. you know some of these artistic types can be very sensitive! But as the week continued I know that he was getting fond of this copper sink, he carried it everywhere in the backseat of his car and he took it into many of the stores we went into. 

The sink goes to the paint store

He started to redesign the half bath in his head and started talking about the lighting the sink deserved and how he could accomplish that! Yes, I think that Roger has been the right architect for us (accept for paint colors and that story will come) He's creative and flexible and extremely patient and yes after this trip I am bringing down the rest of the plumbing fixtures! (at least all the faucets, shower heads and handles)

Trying to pass some time!

Well, it's only Tuesday and we do not leave until Saturday afternoon. Carlos is in Ohio this week and he keeps reminding me of things I need to do before we leave... but he is the one that discovered his drivers license expires while we are gone! So I've called the DMV offices multiple times and have still not reached a human. The recording wants me to leave my name and number and someone will call me back. Yea, right! Only some of the offices renew drivers licenses on Saturday so I have to call many. What a waste of time. We arrive back home on Friday so the backup plan is that he will renew it than, because he goes back to Ohio on Sunday and he has to have a current drivers license to rent a car.
Yesterday I picked up the GCFI outlets and covers (9), and today I had a haircut and picked up chocolates and mints for Arturo and David. I have already wrapped a baby gift for our architect Roger who had a baby girl in the spring. The bathroom sink is ready. Clothes and toiletries are on the list. Now Saturday needs to get here! (and I do have to get the house clean and the pantry stocked for the kids)
So this afternoon I have been playing on the computer while Maia naps. I have been thinking about changing the name banner on the top of the blog for each season... So I have spent some time in Picnik and trying out some ideas... here is one of them....

and another

Yes, a real way to make time pass... along with farmville, scrabble, housework and not to mention hanging with Maia!