When about three years ago we moved into a "green" house we had built—and which as far as we know remains the "greenest" house in San Miguel de Allende and the surrounding area—the initial weeks were not reassuring.A freak winter storm in January dumped several inches of rain over a two-week period and one morning …
Tag: sustainable building
Almost Show Time?
During the past month construction speeded up to the point that the architect triumphantly announced, a couple of weeks ago, that the house would be finished...a month ahead of schedule? That would be a landmark event in home construction probably anywhere in the world and certainly in Mexico. If the house in fact is finished …
To Adobe or not to Adobe
Adobe elicits the kind of rhetorical rapture you don't generally hear about other construction materials like, say, cement blocks or aluminum siding. "You can feel the warmth, the spirituality, the charm. It radiates! It has a round and soft feeling," one New Mexico builder raved about his adobe houses.Close your eyes and adobe construction starts …
Stuck in a hole
And a big hole at that. Cost overruns and delays are inevitable and two months into construction we've already been hit by both, caused by the construction of our extra-large rainwater collection system. Was it actually necessary? Is it worth it? I must confess that I've had my doubts. Stew insists it will pay off …
Off the ground
It looked and felt like an apparition. After almost three years of watching our house plans stumble over endless obstacles and delays--architects, legal problems, squabbling neighbors, plus the occasional waffling and changes of mind on our part--on February 10 we actually broke ground. We showed up at the land early in the morning and a …
Architectural Plans Take Shape
Voila. The sudden appearance of architectural drawings might suggest this project is leaping forward. Well, hardly. Or at least it doesn't seem that way to us. It has taken over six months, and a change of architects, to get where we are. We're delighted with the results, though. Friends keep telling us this is the …
El Rancho Santa Clara 