Bathroom Talk.

The Bathroom Nook.

When I sat down to draw the "final" plan for the house, last month, I right away knew that I wanted it to be "L" shaped. Later on, I realized that it was probably because of the house my grandma created when I was around ten years old. She had built if from an old wine cellar and it was wonderful. Actually, this house has been coming back to me quite a bit, lately. That time period too. Now that I think about it, she was around my age when she took on the love task of turning a 17th-century castle into a hotel. Funny how this works.

So, "L" shaped. Plus it's Lila's and my initials, the first letter of the word Love, it's good stuff.

To me, an "L" shaped house holds us. I can see a loved one coming out of the living room holding a cup of coffee (must buy coffee) while I get up with my crazy morning hair and we meet on the patio. Held.

So I drew the two sides of the "L," which were originally the same size, which is silly because no harmonious "L" has the same two sides. I fixed that by adding two meters to the long side.

I stumbled briefly about the bathroom.

It had to be accessible from the bedroom and from the main room. So... corner. Yes, but what about natural light?

Because as we are building to the limits of the property line, I have no windows on the two sides that are adjacent to potential neighbors - who may also want to build on their property lines. How was the bathroom going to get natural light AND ventilation?

My pencil was waiting for an answer and that's when I drew a little funny bumpy shape that allowed for a bathroom window onto the patio. Bingo! I showed it to Jorge, he approved it and we started building.

But as the days passed and they were doing the foundation, I could no longer "see" that shape. "You will," he told me calmly.  He is so calm, I love that. Ok, I will.

Yesterday, I did!

All of a sudden, there it was, just like on the paper! SO FUN.

That little bumpy shape will be where the sink goes (I am thinking it will be a beautiful one, too - YEARS ago at the market in Mexico with my close friend Carol, I had fallen in love with one of these ceramic sinks and I told her that one day, I would build a house to put around such a sink) and we had visioned a high window for light and air. A circle, Jorge had said. I love circles.

By the end of the day, having spent time in that sweet little spot and imagining brushing my teeth there, I visioned a window above the sink. The mirror can go on the side, there are no laws that say that mirrors need to be right above the sink. For me, I would much rather be looking at plants and flowers than my face, first thing in the morning. So there will be a window above the sink, with a little curtain to close for privacy, when needed. Man, this is such a joy.

And now that we can see it almost "for realsies" I saw that this funny shape calls for a little concrete sitting area right below it, on the patio. We'll talk more about concrete furniture in a bit. It's a Mexican thing and while it cannot be moved, it has some pretty great advantages.

So here we go. Forms got placed last night and will most likely come off today.

I am bringing the crew pizza in a bit and I believe we are going to "punch out" the windows.

Conversations are turning to "where will plugs and light switches go" and I can feel an acceleration. Also, I love that we are all talking about plugs and light switches considering that there is (yet) no electric power to the land. You know what? No one ever mentions that. It's a though we all know we will have electric, and so be we build for that.

Pretty powerful to work with people like that.

It's starting to feel pretty darn sweet.