The Old Gal Received A Face Lift :c)

No No not me, The house she was gussied up a bit ;c) There are a few things that work against a house's complexion, and young looking skin. First there is the salty air. We are 8 blocks from the beach so it's not as caustic as it is for those right across the street. Then there is the excessive humidity 8-9 months a year. Of course 4 months of a rainy season, with a few tropical storms. And lastly there tends to be to much sand (with a high sodium content) in the cement. All these conspire to wear down a girl's best makeup efforts.

After about 3 or so years all those elements tend to cause the concrete skin over the bricks to crumble and fall off. Most of the damage tends to be on the overhangs and 2-3 feet up on the walls. Stands to reason since those places have the most exposure to being wet for long stretches. Oh yeah LW just reminded me that houses here for the most part are not built with moisture barriers. One more nail so to speak.

We had Maurice (pronounced Morris) our Irish friend come over to give us an estimate. Truth be told any excuse to listen to his lovely Irish brog is fine with me ;c) Well "The Irishman" and his crew scrapped, power washed, patched and the painted. As he said this is the time to change the color of the house if you are going to. LW and I both like the yellow it goes with our Yellow Submarine (xterra). I thought it would be nice to paint it a more mellow, warmer yellow. And I thought a soft terracotta as a accent might be nice. Finally a lady needs to have her jewelry polished up to really feel good. So the guys gave all her bars a new coat of shiny black paint.

So what do you guys think? I think she is the cutest gal on the block :c) The Neighbors have given their stamp of approval :c)

Not to make this too long winded but I thought you might like to know the reason all our houses have bars on the window and doors. It actually is an old Spanish tradition brought over with the Cortez brothers (along with small pocks) Doors and windows tend to be left open ALL the time to catch any and every breeze. Bars are nice cuz they tend to keep unwanted animals and people from wondering in and out. :c) Of course they do provide a great burglar protection.

Now days we have bars because it's traditional. In fact houses tend to look a bit under dressed without them, don't you think?? And yes they do provide protection. Which means we can leave the house or go to bed with our windows wide open (which you can't I bet) . Actually besides looking cool they are a very effective low tech burglar alarm. Interestingly there are many different patterns. They can identify the region, city, state and time period that they were made. As well as reflecting the popular decorative styles of the eras. Just thought you might like to know :c)

If you have time my Bloglandian buddies let me know what you think of mi casa and her new do. I hope you all have a great day or evening depending on what part of the world you are in :c)