The history is wonderful. Thank you for sharing it with us, Jonna.

I just went to your area and toured the Palace of Government building, by Google. The architecture is so beautiful!

Jonna, it takes a lot of vision and perseverance to renovate a "ruin" ! We watch "House Hunters International" on TV a lot and I find it more than amazing what people do to places that they buy and then turn into a fabulous home... (but then, just putting new cabinets and windows in our kitchen was quite trying for me, apparently I just am not cut out for that sort of thing!!)

I found this on a local english site, it's a description and a video of my barrio or parroquia (basically parish) in the center of the city. It takes you through another renovated house, this one is very elegant. I assure you that my house is not this elegant, it is much plainer. However, it shows the type of construction and gives some info on what these old colonials are like. It also shows some pretty pictures of my neighborhood, the house it shows is around the corner from me. One of the owners is the guy leading the tour and the other owner has a cooking school there.

http://www.yucatantoday.com/en...

It is a beautiful place, Jonna, and that kitchen...well, let's say I wanted it. But I prefer yours. The video house looks like a museum or set piece, too perfect to touch. A house comfortable enough to live in--people, dogs, cats (the occasional lizard )--is much better.

Very interesting and very relaxing to watch. Loved the dining room murals! Thanks, Jonna.

Interesting. What a beautiful home.

Karen

Just found this forum and have been enjoying the saga of your rooftop garden/getaway. Many years ago I was living in Libya and new houses were being built across the street. I used to watch discreetly (the workers wouldn't have liked a woman watching them, especially one with her face uncovered -- at that time the Libyan women wore barracans with one eye visible).
Anyway, I was flabbergasted to see the concrete wall of the house go up, and then later someone would come with a hammer and chisel, or whatever and just pound a hole out, making it bigger until they could fit a window frame in, and then patch all the gaps up with more cement!

I enjoyed the video, Joanna. Delightful.

Thank you Sandy.

Interesting construction technique, Elfie.

Elfie, that's the concept they use here too. I haven't seen them do it with windows but for sure they do it with cabling and wiring channels. First they make a nice straight wall of block and then they chip away the part for the wiring channel and then patch it when it is finished. Almost anything you need to have done here involves chipping out concrete and patching it again. When I wanted new hammock hooks, chip a hole, put in the receptor and then fill it with concrete. Also, hanging pictures or heavy mirrors, moving an electrical outlet, they just don't see breaking a hole in the wall to be a big deal. I had to get over that, it seemed extreme to me. It also means that almost any job creates a huge amount of fine grey dust which gets into everything.

When we finally managed to get a telephone installed (with a little palm greasing), it seemed that this was a real status symbol, so the black telephone line was brought into the house through the middle of a wall and anchored to the middle of the wall, along the wall, up the side of the door, across the top, half way down the door frame and then across the middle of the next wall -- and then the telephone was attached !
I had left the house, because it wasn't correct for me, a female with uncovered face to be there, leaving the houseboy in charge. But he didn't appreciate that I wasn't happy (silently having a hissy fit!), because he didn't want to tell them. My husband was at his office. So, I ran to an expat neighbor's house, who had a phone and called him to come home and deal with them.
Oh, yes; meanwhile they had a little charcoal brazier going in the middle of the marble floor of the very large entry room (we were renting by the way -- weren't allowed to own property there), and they were making tea! Houseboy apparently wouldn't allow the kitchen to be used. Geesh, what memories.
I didn't mean to "take over" your thread. I'll shut up now.

It is interesting, Elfie!

Please don't shut up. This is fascinating stuff!

Keep on going Elfie. Jonna will be all ears with us.

I, too, finding all these stories about other countries quite fascinating! Things are so different in other countries! Keep all these stories coming! I am enjoying them as well!

Jonna - I can not imagine building that way and then chipping out the block walls to add lines/pipes/whatever. That is almost unheard of here. Seems like a lot of extra work that could be done much easier to install the electrical lines, or plumbing BEFOREHAND and then block over it or around it or however it's done here. LOL!

with everyone above. Keep the stories coming.

Elfie, I love your stories. It's interesting the similarities and differences. At least the workers will take orders from me and I don't have to hide. I now have something to think about when I get frustrated with how things are done.

I can relate to the telephone story, our first land line many years ago on the coast we had to go and open an account and start paying the monthly fee. Then you were on a list to get one installed. Except there were no lines free so you could end up paying for a non existent service for months. Instead, wherever I went I watched for the telephone company truck and one day I found one and convinced (read bribed) him to come and put in a line for us. Then, one of the other lines in the building mysteriously stopped working. I was having moral qualms about it when they bribed a truck and got their line fixed. I assume that the bad luck just went on downstream Installing amounted to occasionally tacking the wire to the wall wherever it landed and trailing it up and around doorways. Even so, we felt lucky.

Love it!!