Rustico
We have a new kitchen! It’s glorious, fancy and oh-so-useable. Also rustico. Yeah, rustic.
Victor is our uncle’s friend who watered the trees out here (every 15 days throughout the dry season) before we arrived. He’s also a carpenter. Victor oversaw the preparing of the plot, pouring concrete, and building the roof (which then was rebuilt by the better welder, who hadn’t been available the first time because his sister had just died).
Now that the rainy season is seriously here we are so grateful to have a place to go during downpours. Sure there’s the van, but the flies and mud are more annoying in the van than out of it. And we can only crouch/lounge/lay for so long.
Victor showed us books of colonial Mexican architecture and spoke passionately of fine woodworking in fast Spanish. But this structure was meant to be rustico - simple and still outside (no walls, the rain and wind do make themselves right at home), a blank slate so what works for us now can serve our uncle in the years to come.
We should’ve taken out stock in Mexico’s Home Depot from all the wood, hardware and other supplies we’ve bought there in just two months. A couple thousand dollars so far, for rustico! We love it.
Cooking and eating with the same grill, dishes and food has way more charm in our new kitchen. The view is even more beautiful when we can step out of the rain and have a table to rest our plates on.
And we get to host friends for meals, which was simply too awkward before. I mean, what if it rained?!
2 Comments:
June 30, 2018
Very lovely! Perspective…… What a great compliment to Phillip! (At least I assume that’s a compliment. I know there are SOME people who think all Mexicans are lazy, but that’s not been my experience.)
July 01, 2018
Right - that’s exactly how they meant it, that they know they are hard workers here. Actually, Phillip’s comment was that he hopes he can work as hard as they do when he’s their age. Then Victor (who is probably 50ish) was impressed by how strong and hardworking Papa is! So lots of admiration!