The Spanish word of the day is Polvo!

Living and working in our Mexican construction zone is a challenging business.  We arrived last week to find our home renovation at a near stand-still, which was challenge, numero-uno. Our architect/contractor proved to be a lousy money manger.  He must have went to the Enron school of business and accounting, because his method was the "what's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine". Our workers and subcontractors had not been paid the monies that we had been sending down. Evidently, our architect/contractor paid himself and barely anyone else.  We're not talking big money, but enough to put a sizable chink in the work flow and our budget.

Because the work had halted, so had our ability to make hot water! To add to that, our new guest bathroom had only a working commode and little else (no shower, sink, finished walls, etc.). That wouldn't have been too big of a problem, if they had not completely demoed our only other bathroom as well.  The plan was to finish one before tearing into the other. So, we improvised.  Cold showers in the courtyard with the garden hose, Brrr.  Our kitchen sink now doubles as our bathroom sink for the rest of our hygiene tasks.

Now that we have reestablished the payroll, the workers are moving at a fast clip. Everyday by 8:00am, we are overrun with a five-man work crew, several electricians, painters, and all sorts of delivery guys. It's a beehive of activity.  But, these busy bees have generated something else...Polvo.  Polvo is the Spanish word for dust. I learned that this week, and it is everywhere and on everything!

The inside of our pantry resembles the inside of Tut's tomb. Climbing into bed at night, is like taking a snooze on the beach.  Coffee, yes please, with scoop sugar and polvo in mine! And, I am sure that the polvo generated from chiseling into our near two hundred year old walls, delivers a special brand of polvo, perhaps laced with mysterious microbes of some long forgotten plague. Ha! But this is what we signed up for, and it is fun, none the less, to see the progress on a daily basis now.

So, at the end of each day we sweep-up, wipe down, and have a gritty glass chilled of wine and enjoy our little slice of dusty heaven.