the new patio

After five days of furious work by Jaime and his industrious crew, the new patio is finished. The following will document the amazing transformation from a dark, haphazard sitting spot into a lovely, inviting patio. The two walkways down either side of the house are no longer danger zones for tripping but wide, even paths from front to back, including the drying yard.

Here's how it looked before any work was done. (I should mention, too, that before any bricks were laid about 5 years ago the front area had a very scraggy grass covering, was uneven to the point where you couldn't put chairs out for comfortable seating. And the grass drew biting insects.) The bricks did not weather well; they got black and grimy, and despite all out best efforts of scrubbing them with bleach at the beginning of every season, last year we decided enough of getting down on hands and knees and trying to restore them. A new patio this year!

This is looking from the entryway to the north wall.

This is the view from the downstairs guest room porch to the west wall.

The base of the big palms in the corner always looked ratty; ground cover wouldn't grow there; not enough sun. Something had to be done!

Looking towards the north side walkway. That's the corner of the guest room porch on the right.

Walkway along the north side of the house, front to back.

Walkway along the south side (aka the drying yard) back to front. This path was always a threat to ankles; very uneven. A real sprain trap!

You can see what I mean about the discoloration of the bricks. So up they came and they are now stacked neatly in our lot next door, awaiting some other use over there. You may be able to tell that they are not the conventional brick size but instead are thinner (and thus a cheaper grade). I don't think we realized that when we bought them. I think had we gotten a better quality brick we might have gotten away with the patio as it was for a few more years. But frankly, I'm glad we didn't. I like the new look much better.

Let me preface the following progress report by saying that everything these workers do is done by hand. There was the whine of an electric saw a couple of times but otherwise, no machinery was used in this construction. For instance, here's the cement mixer.

First they took up all the old bricks and laid out a grid with string. Note the bucket of cement in the lower right corner.

They built forms for the cement, leaving wide seams between each pad for the decorative rocks.



Each form took three or four buckets of cement that was hand mixed and toted into the garden on the shoulder of one of the mozos, dumped into the form and carefully smoothed out and leveled. After the pour dried a bit they textured each pad using a soft broom soaked in water. Each pad is textured in an alternating direction. It's an amazing process to watch. Click on this photo to enlarge and see what Jaime is doing.

The remarkable Eduardo (on the right) ~ a true artisano with tile and trowel ~ follows and makes a smooth frame around each pad.

After all the pads were poured, textured and framed, it was time to fill in the seams with tumbled river rocks.

I also had some small tiles that were handmade by an artist in Davis, Donna Lemongello, that I wanted incorporated into the design. There is one in the center where the four pads meet. Eighteen in all.



As of 3 PM yesterday, the crew had cleaned up everything, packed up all their herramientas, piled any left overs into Jaime's truck or on to their bicycles or toted on their heads or shoulders, and moved on to the next job. They are an amazing bunch; it is a real pleasure to watch them at work. Every one knows his job, what he is to do and when. And each one is good at his particular assignment. Some have been with Jaime for many years. Others are new hires who will probably stay as long as there is work. He treats his workers with great respect and pays them well; they in turn respect him and show real loyalty. Here's what they left behind.

From the entryway across the patio.

From the guest quarters porch.

North walkway.

Drying yard, smooth and even!

And finally, the palm tree has a beautiful necklace of inset stones and loosely scattered stones around the base to hold in the moisture. No more futile attempts at ground cover.

So there you have it. A lovely addition to our wonderful house in this seedy backwater Mexican beach town.

And now it's time to turn full attention to Carmen. She deserves it, for all she's going to suffer in the next couple of hours. And that poor sap, Don José!