BE-COMING HOME: on the rise

Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.
[Frank Lloyd Wright]

By mid-August, the 2^nd story floor joists were in,

and the once-blurry threshold between “outside”

and “inside”

coalesced into a firm boundary.

Side note for “Where’s Table?” players:  in the photo above, the kitchen is in the background.  Alas! no table – and no winners for the week of August 12^th.  Table spent this part of the process in the living room, tucked into the corner designated for the wood-burner.

As with the primer piso, building the stairs to the 2^nd story and laying the floor was a multi-day process.  Here’s a glimpse of men-at-work as seen from the backyard of our good neighbors to the east – with big thanks to Cindy for catching it on camera.

Naturally, the guys were working up top long before it was safe for folks like us to make the ascent.  The magic day arrived with perfect timing.  Just before sunset on the night of the full Hazel moon (Tuesday 20 August), Roy and I went to our land and home-in-progress.

We entered through the “front door,” took the stairs to the main floor,

rounded the bend and climbed the stairs to the landing,

rounded the next bend, mounted the last set of stairs,

and stepped onto the dusk-draped top deck of our home.

The view to the west was amazing, but hard to capture with the setting sun glaring into my phone-camera.  Much easier to snap this pic of a bit of cheerful greenery that sprouted amid the dust and rock desolation on the downhill side of the house, grew quite happily all summer without a drop of water, and put out these lovely white flowers for the full moon.

I took pics of the view a few days later, when the sun was higher in the sky.  I was trying for a panorama effect; try to imagine the photos below lined up left-to-right with their edges overlapping.

Same day, same time, this is the view to the east:  Jere and Adrián hanging out on our (embryonic) roof-top porch, Roy leaning in the doorway.

Neil came up on the weekend, to see the place and the progress one more time before taking off for Canada.

Can’t tell if Roy’s glow is proud dad or proud lord-of-the-manor (or just back-light)… but no denying the “high” we felt, strolling around our brand-new top floor.

Table had strolled upstairs, as well.  Here’s a hint for those playing the game – Table is always near the heart of the action.  During the week of the 19^th, the guys re-purposed Table’s old digs downstairs and turned the wood-burner corner into a kind of work-closet,

while upstairs, Table took up residence in the master bedroom.   (The westering light provided good camouflage, but you can just spy Table in the right-hand corner of the Neil and Roy pics above.)

New heights, big changes… this turn of the lunar wheel was “full” of culminations and new beginnings.