Casa Wabi Sabi

In two weeks the crew has finished excavating the foundation (a backhoe was used for the initial cuts). They’ve compacted soil where needed, constructed the steel re-bar footings, smoothed the walls and floor of the 45,000 liter (+ or -) rain catchment cistern, and built forms for the structural columns of the house. The posts for the side fence lines are also in. Twisted wire, cut re-bar, wheelbarrows of cement, wooden forms, string and plumb bobs, brains and brawn. Tomorrow they pour the footings, and one of the most important parts of the entire building process will be finished. Corners must be square, or rooms turn out oddly-shaped. The re-bar has to be elevated off the bottom of the footings, or they don’t work as part of the vitally needed structural strength and integrity. To do this, small squares of concrete with wires embedded into them are tied to the re-bars every so often; here in Mexico these squares are called pollitos-little chickens.

Living Room Wall

Tying Footings

Preparing Cistern

North Fence Line

Nancy Maneuvering String and Steel

From the road the form of the house is visible—we can see it settling into the site. Today Barry handed our builder José a thick pile of drawings and specs for all of the windows and interior doors. The amount of knowledge and patience and creativity that went into that pile, not to mention the design and specs for the entire house, just boggle my mind. It’s like breathing to him, an unknown universe to me. I am so grateful…

Maestro Marciano-he oversees the job and the crew on a daily basis.

Our contractor, José Alvarado

 This is a short work-week; it’s Semana Santa, Easter week, and from Thursday to Sunday most everything comes to a standstill. It’s also Passover, on April 8th. We’ll be attending a Seder with 34 other San Miguelense and out-0f-town guests, celebrating freedom in all of its many facets. 

Taking It All In

The mesquite trees are in full bloom, the jacarandas fading, and pollen is blowing everywhere on the April winds. Most of the snowbirds have gone back to the east coast and Canada, and town is quieter, the restaurants and sidewalks less crowded. When we went out to the property yesterday, I couldn’t quite grasp that the house is really being built. The lines I’ve been looking at on paper and the computer screen are suddenly manifesting, rising up out of the white tepatate soil with steel and cement roots. Barry laughed, as if saying, “Well, what did you expect?” Maybe that’s it—what’s appearing before my eyes is beyond my expectations. It’s un milagro, a beautiful miracle.

I’ve done some more reading about wabi-sabi. I leave you with these words from Leonard Koren and his book, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers:

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

It is a beauty of things modest and humble.

It is a beauty of things unconventional. 

And finally—

The simplicity of wabi-sabi is probably best described as the state of grace arrived at by a sober, modest, heartfelt intelligence.

View of San Miguel from the roof deck of our rental house.