The Premises
Forgot to upload the previous meanderings this morning, but I'm figuring an excursion to the coffee shop will be forthcoming in an hour or so to use up the last of my two bucks internet allotment.
The alcalde needed to be tracked down a bit but the old lady is nothing if not persistent. The next appointment is in his office at 1 PM tomorrow, or after lunch, which could be anytime.
In the meantime a local real estate agent is supposed to track down the owner of another property on the main drag whose tenant is about to leave for a new building. It's already an operating soda so there's no question about setting up there; it's just a matter of price.
Bought a can of Dos Tigres, which is a local brand of bug killer. I figured it should work on the ants and whatever ails ya' because it has pictures of every kind of bug you could think of on the label. Since I used it late afternoon yesterday I've only seen a few scouts and some salamanders wandering the premises. Even the big suckers that used to give me dirty looks while hanging around the back sink haven't made a show. Good enough for me, plus I like salamanders. They remind me of my long lost cat Crash who used to have such good sport with them.
The premises. I should try and describe them now as shortly after our meeting with the alcalde we'll either be moving or renovating. Just off the street there is a gated space large enough for two cars and a little extra. It has white masonry walls tapering from the house on either side down to about six feet at the gate. There's a bit of hurricane fence covering an opening alongside the gate and a mix of sand, grass and gravel extends 4 or 5 feet to the street.
The house is about twenty feet wide and maybe thirty feet long to the back patio, which runs another six feet or so. There is some open space behind that, another wall and some more open space. As you enter the main room is half as wide as the house and runs back about twenty feet before you step up into the kitchen. Two smaller rooms take up the other side, with the bathroom and shower alongside the kitchen.
Plastic conduit and junction boxes decorate the walls just below the open framed ceiling. The framing is irregular with warped two by fours holding up the corrugated metal roof. Toward the back of the house the metal seems newer, but in the front it's a mix of rust and various painted panels.
The outside walls of the house are masonry while the inside walls separating the front rooms are a couple of sheets of plywood slapped over a frame of whatever wood happened to be available at the time. There is a foot of space between the top of the inside walls and the ceiling/roof.
I would have been proud of this kind of handiwork when I was a kid building forts out in the woods.
As you might imagine there is a lack of 'sealing' throughout the structure, and though there are signs that window screens existed at one time, they are long gone. The floor is a multi-layered, multi-leveled concrete with patches of paint here and there which completes the rustic look. If the place is a go the plan is to tear down the wall to the front side room (two minutes with a claw hammer should do the trick) and go hog wild with bamboo and banana palm fronds. I'm also agitating for sawdust for the floor but I'm perilously close to being overruled.
I'll have to cover the ceiling with something as well, and burlap coffee bean bags are vying for top slot there. In the side room I'd build shelves for the books and the main room would get the TV for the nightly movie (or daily novella). I've got the bar area staked out already.
The only question is the kitchen and whether or not it stays where it is, or if we need to migrate it to the patio and screen it in. So far, the roof hasn't leaked and I'm loath to cut a hole in it for an exhaust fan (a code requirement and a good idea anyway), plus we lack storage space. The likely best benefit would be keeping the heat out of the place.
It's all academic at this point though until we finally get the jefe in the door and talk pavo.
