Bahía de Kino, Sonora, Mexico
Time for a house update! Sorry we are not more consistent in updating this information, but there is So Much To Do!
FLOORS
Yesterday and the day before, I spent most of my time working on the saltillo floor tile in the new bedroom. As taught by Bud Watson back in New Mexico when we were building the first Plaza las Casitas house, work done on the front end to properly seal the tiles means that they will stay beautiful and easy to take care of for years. Well, the method Bud taught us has caused real interest down here!
Generally, when people hear we intend to use saltillo — for those of you who have never seen it, it’s a beautiful, handmade, unglazed, terracotta color ceramic tile — they launch into a lecture about how we shouldn’t do that, it’s so much work to care for, and it gets nasty looking over time, etc. Usually takes a while to get their attention and explain that we know how to make it work. So, this week the floor is finally in place, and it looks great! The construction workers are particularly interested and ask all sorts of questions about what I use, how I do it…and they come, one by one, to check on it in the morning when they arrive. Just in case you’re considering using saltillo or a similar unfinished tile, here’s Bud’s recommendation:
• Paint the tops of each individual tile with two coats of boiled linseed oil, being careful to not drip a lot over the edges. The linseed oil will protect the tile surface from being stained with cement and grout during the tile-laying process; but if you drip a lot over the edges, the grout won’t adhere there correctly.
• After the tiles are set and grouted, and the grout is just dry, clean them thoroughly with water and a sponge, and clean off the remaining film with a soft cloth (like an old T-shirt). Allow them to dry completely.
• With a soft cloth, apply a VERY thin coat of linseed oil to each individual tile to bring up the color. (If the oil is too thick, thin it with up to an equal part of turpentine). Take care to NOT get the oil on the grout as it will greatly change the grout color!!
• Allow the oil to dry completely, then apply four to five coats of carnauba wax, buffing after each application as directed on the product label. The best we have found is Howard Citrus Shield Premium Natural Paste Wax, available at most Home Depot stores and from www.howardproducts.com. It contains no petroleum products, it’s non-toxic and it smells like oranges!
The end result is a rich color and a satiny finish that will last, Bud said, for two to three years with just damp mopping. Our floors in Albuquerque kept their shine for the TEN years we lived on them, with re-application required in only a few problem areas, such as under the dining room chairs.
THE COCHERA AND TINAJO
A “cochera” is a garage, and Perry is going to have a guy’s dream garage – largely by enclosing the existing carport! I’m ashamed to say how many square feet it covers; suffice it to say, it’s huge! It will hold our 16’ Mutineer day sailor, the Hobie Cat (oh yes, we bought a used Hobie that Perry says was unfairly parked with a For Sale sign right where he had to see it every day!), the Nissan Quest van, AND my little Nissan Sentra, with plenty of space for tools, workbenches, bicycles, kayaks, sailboards…
It’s very near to being finished. They poured the concrete driveway/sidewalk yesterday, and it’s being plastered inside. This plaster work is fantastic — you should have such nice work in your living room! And there will be a “tragaluz” (skylight) to bring in daylight. Perry tends to shy away from using skylights because they can cause such overheating problems, but his method here is to use glass block on one or two sides of a raised area in the roof, faced away from the sun as much as possible. It makes a beautiful, soft light, especially washing down a white wall. He hadn’t really planned to put one in the garage; but they had to rip out and replace some of the old roof where water had gotten in and corroded the rebar, so it made sense to take advantage of the opportunity.
In the middle of the garage, under the floor, goes the “tinajo” — the big black plastic auxiliary water tank. Water here is a precious commodity, as it is in many places; and there are some factors that make it a good idea to have additional storage. For instance, often at night, the water in New Kino (where we live) is shut off in order to fill the tanks in Old Kino, with the process reversed in the morning; so you might not have water from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. And, at best, water pressure is not great. So having a “tinajo” with a pump means that one can have good water pressure — not to mention water — consistently.
The guys had to break out the existing concrete floor and dig a huge hole for the tank; and because the soil is almost pure sand, it kept eroding into the hole. Today, finally, they put it in place and will now fill in around it with sand and bricks to make a solid foundation for the floor.
Looks like next week we’ll have a garage door and maybe even the windows and doors in the new bedroom. We have all the fixtures and cabinets for the little bathroom and kitchenette, and we’re getting very excited about painting and finishing out this space. Then we’ll move in – the garage will be our living, dining, and kitchen area for a while – and they will begin to dismantle the main house! Is this fun or what?!
We’ll take more pictures and share them when it’s nearer to being finished. In the meantime, do check out new vignettes on the blog by Perry about personal safety, the very interesting street address numbering system in Kino, liquores and chocolate, and Wilkes University!
OUR WHALE
I can’t sign off without mentioning the whale that visited us two days ago.
It was around 8:15 a.m., and we heard our neighbor, Velda, calling from her front porch. She was pointing at something large moving in the water just offshore about 50 feet from our house. It was a whale, and it was headed our way, which usually means a sick and possibly dying whale that could end up on the beach. We called Rescue One, the local VHF radio service operated for boaters by the Club Deportivo, and they called the local authorities. Of course, everyone listens to Rescue One in the morning, and soon we had half of Kino Bay walking up the beach to have a look!
The police arrived and said the Port Captain would send a boat to tow the whale back out to sea, but a half hour passed and no boat had arrived. Instead, three burly policemen appeared in T-shirts and shorts and went into the rather chilly water to give it a little shove. It appeared they never had to even touch it, however; their presence caused it to turn around and head back out. This was a good thing, because there were many very concerned people standing watch. As a matter of fact, Alana and Richard Eager were here having breakfast before taking off to drive back to Albuquerque; and Alana was so upset by the possible plight of the whale that Richard could hardly get her out the door!
I was able to e-mail her, though, that the whale did not beach. It swam over to Old Kino, where it hung out for a few hours, with guys in pangas ready to herd it back toward open water; then it swam off of its own accord. The whole episode merited a full-page spread (but not the front page) with many pictures and text in El Imparcial, the Hermosillo newspaper. Of course, it may still have a hard time; but we can hope it will recover and live on happily in the Sea of Cortez!
(A few more quick thoughts on the subject: the whale never tried to fully ‘beach’ itself as we’ve all seen where whales seemingly commit suicide by driving themselves onto a beach. This whale – a small one estimated at about 12 meters, or thirty-five to forty feet long – got itself into shallow water where it was supported on the sandy bottom yet still fully covered by water. It spouted occasionally and simply appeared to be sick. It was probably a smart move for the whale, as it may simply have needed to rest for a while to recover. In deep water, it may have sunk and drowned. – PRW)
Finally, to wrap up, here’s an unusual sunset from a few nights ago. You should come check it out! — CK
