HI!
It’s been a long week, the last of six of constant construction on our
house. I have finally felt the effects of having 2 or 3 guys around my
house all day everyday from 6am till 4:30pm, hammering, singing,
scraping, chatting, drilling, painting, etc, etc, etc. They are DEAR,
completely sober, unfailingly cheerful, remarkably fastidious. All the
sounds are happy sounds, sounds, in fact, I begged to hear. But I’m
weary of not having my house to myself, no privacy and no silence. I crave silence.
Consequently,
I haven’t been able to focus. Plenty to say and I’ll be catching up
now. But I can’t focus anymore with all these sounds in the background.
And all the dirt. Construction is a dirty business. I need silence. And
privacy. And cleanliness. Who knew I’d be such a fussy blogger?
We
love our house, love the location overlooking the coffee farm, down the
hill, into the valley with San Jose off in the distance, on over to the
mountains on the other side. I have tried and tried to get a picture of
the view at night. It’s breathtaking, as good as the day. Lights spread
all along the valley and up those mountains.
I spent a couple of weeks on email back and forth with Richard Watherwax looking for a solution. But we decided I’d need an $8,000 Hasselblad to do the job. That purchase will have to wait until I have a job.
Until
then, you can get a vague idea from these two photos taken in the early
morning today. This is a sight to wake up to! At night when all is
black but the lights… it’s pretty amazing. Looking forward to that
Hasselblad!
What a treat to be here. The only drawback has been
the size: tiny kitchen, odd layout, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms all in
800sf. It was like sleeping in the same room. Plus we didn’t have a
living room, really. No place for us all to sit and chat or watch a
movie.
So our landlord, wanting us
to stay, enclosed the porch which gave us a living room and me an
office. Then she enclosed the carport and made an extra bedroom, so we
have room for guests. You still have to really really like us to stay
with us – it’s still a little bitty house. But it’s a little less cozy
now! And we are certainly way more comfortable.
Now we are dropping hints for a second story. Yes, we are brazen. But, hey, if you don’t ask you don’t get.
And
guess how much it cost to do this addition? If you are a Key West
reader, you’d better sit down. To enclose the 160sf porch, it cost
$1200 TOTAL for two men all day everyday for 3 1/2 weeks, including all
construction material. The roof and floor were here, so they built 3
walls, custom made windows in every wall, a new beautiful wood door,
electricity and a phone line.
Don’t
know about the 100sf carport. But that was only 2 walls, they reused a
window and a door, no phone line. And, tee hee, no permit. I love this
place.