So who's doing the work?
Although remodeling a house in Mexico feels like a full-time job, Barry and I are not doing much of the physical labor. So who is? Here are the players.
David (Da-veed) -- our architect. He´s 37, speaks understandable English, and is a joy to work with. Has his own ideas, is very creative, but also open to ours. He dresses in jeans, shirt tail out, very casual--the opposite of stuffy.
Geraldo Flores – the “maestro” (foreman). David addresses him as “Maestro”; he calls David “Arquitecto.”
Then there are three albaniles (workers): Juan, Hector, and Juan Angel, a.university student for whom this is a summer job. In three weeks, they’ve enlarged the kitchen window, built concrete countertops, built the concrete bathroom walls, dug into the walls to create the space for the future bathroom sink and cistern, enlarged the living room window, added an interior window, stucco-ed two exterior walls, and done a lot of finish work.
Barry and I are staying in the room adjacent to the street, our future patio. We recently learned this room was a patio/terrace when the house was built, and we like the idea that we are returning the house in some ways to its roots. For now, the room is our combined office, bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and hang-out room. We have a phone, desk, 2 laptops, a modem, two plastic tables, several chairs, a set of temporary shelves resting on bricks, a fridge, a range top, and a plywood door to keep out the dust. The door is an important addition! Dust seeps in from the rooms where the workers are working and from the new kitchen and bathroom windows, so far glass-free and open to the air.
In the room next door, the workers mix cement. It's sticky and messy and we have to carefully step around the pool of cement to get to our room. Downstairs are huge mounds of sand to be mixed for stucco.
At the end of each day the workers clean and organize everything. What's noticeable is what there isn't: no power tools, no trash, no loud music (no music at all), no beer bottles-- all things we've been warned about by other gringos. I attribute this to David's leadership style. He is understated, soft-spoken and modest, unfailingly courteous and respectful and never orders people aound--but he clearly lets Geraldo the maestro know how he wants things done. The workers respect him because he’s a working architect—his dad was a mason, and he was a mason in the family trade before he became an architect. So he knows his stuff.
Every Friday we buy bottles of cerveza and at the end of the day sit around with the guys getting to know each other and talking. We find out things like the fact that Giraldo worked on this and the neighboring houses 40 years ago! Hanging out helps to break down the “us” and “them” barriers.
David (Da-veed) -- our architect. He´s 37, speaks understandable English, and is a joy to work with. Has his own ideas, is very creative, but also open to ours. He dresses in jeans, shirt tail out, very casual--the opposite of stuffy.
Geraldo Flores – the “maestro” (foreman). David addresses him as “Maestro”; he calls David “Arquitecto.”
Then there are three albaniles (workers): Juan, Hector, and Juan Angel, a.university student for whom this is a summer job. In three weeks, they’ve enlarged the kitchen window, built concrete countertops, built the concrete bathroom walls, dug into the walls to create the space for the future bathroom sink and cistern, enlarged the living room window, added an interior window, stucco-ed two exterior walls, and done a lot of finish work.
Barry and I are staying in the room adjacent to the street, our future patio. We recently learned this room was a patio/terrace when the house was built, and we like the idea that we are returning the house in some ways to its roots. For now, the room is our combined office, bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and hang-out room. We have a phone, desk, 2 laptops, a modem, two plastic tables, several chairs, a set of temporary shelves resting on bricks, a fridge, a range top, and a plywood door to keep out the dust. The door is an important addition! Dust seeps in from the rooms where the workers are working and from the new kitchen and bathroom windows, so far glass-free and open to the air.
In the room next door, the workers mix cement. It's sticky and messy and we have to carefully step around the pool of cement to get to our room. Downstairs are huge mounds of sand to be mixed for stucco.
At the end of each day the workers clean and organize everything. What's noticeable is what there isn't: no power tools, no trash, no loud music (no music at all), no beer bottles-- all things we've been warned about by other gringos. I attribute this to David's leadership style. He is understated, soft-spoken and modest, unfailingly courteous and respectful and never orders people aound--but he clearly lets Geraldo the maestro know how he wants things done. The workers respect him because he’s a working architect—his dad was a mason, and he was a mason in the family trade before he became an architect. So he knows his stuff.
Every Friday we buy bottles of cerveza and at the end of the day sit around with the guys getting to know each other and talking. We find out things like the fact that Giraldo worked on this and the neighboring houses 40 years ago! Hanging out helps to break down the “us” and “them” barriers.
posted by Louisa at 9:17 AM
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