On July 30 or 31, we will move into our new house. It has been a long 7 months since we started the renovations and an even longer 9 and a half months since we bought it, and it has been over a year since we made our first offer on it. Whew! I am tired just thinking about it.
Every thing is about finished so I went to the house today and took pictures based on what we saw before renovations began and posted BEFORE and AFTER shots to Flickr. I will post a few more next week after things get cleaned up a little more.
On August 18, we are planning on having a house warming with everyone we have ever met (well almost) in Querétaro, along with our architects, masons, electrician, some neighbors, etc. If they all come it will be well over 60 people.
This house is the nicest one we have ever owned, and more charming than most we lived in growing up. Only the one we lived in in Newport R.I. (near Cliff Walk) and the one my parents owned on Main St. Glastonbury, Connecticut (1745 Colonial), were nearly as neat as this one. It has a great mixture of traditional construction and basic layout with modern convenience and light. Our architect did a tremendous job of adding the nice little touches like the back patio floor and stairs, the rooftop terrace, and the skylights in the bathrooms and front bedroom; and he was very creative in adapting an old house to modern needs.
I just like to go there, with or without the workmen, and stare.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
House Update #5
Since the last update (#4), about a month and a half ago, things have picked up speed as we have consistently had 10 people working. Click here for some recent photos.
All the tile in the baths and the kitchen; and the interior floors have been installed and grouted. They really look nice. The floors are of terra cotta tile and will need to be sealed, but that will wait until all the painting and other heavy work is done. The brick in the back patio is finished and a new drain has been installed. They are putting the quarried patio stones back in the main patio, now that the electrical and plumbing work is mostly done. We still need to install the light and plumbing fixtures. The light fixtures in the bedrooms, baths, study and kitchen will be modern; and in the living room, dining room and patios they will be traditional handicraft style which we bought in San Miguel de Allende, where there is really a wider selection even if the prices are a little higher.
We bought a new stove and a dishwasher which will be installed in the next week or so. The main question will be whether the gas company will accept our pipes or require that they install the pipes (on the outside of the walls) and hook up the stove and hot water heater on the roof.
The interior doors are all of wood, but since the doorways are all different widths and heights and because we want an “authentic” look, they have either been made by hand (hand hewn tongue in grove, all pegged together and no nails, and mortice and tenon) or are being adapted from the original exterior doors, which were also hand-made and pegged together. The carpenter has also repaired the original front window using the same methods as the original builder. It is really fascinating watching him work.
The doors leading to the patios will all be metal door frames with glass. And these are being installed even though we have not gotten the quarried threshold stones yet. It seems that the little village where the thresholds are being made has been cutoff from the outside world by the recent rains, making it impossible for trucks to get in and out.
All of the walls, inside and out, have now been stuccoed white, and only need to be painted. They look pretty good without paint. The 12-foot ceilings have all been painted.
The pergola on the roof was finished today, and they will start putting in the terra cotta floor tile tomorrow. We still need to tile the steps to the roof, put guard rails on the stairs and the puente (bridge), connect to the water tanks on the roof, put in the hot water heater, build and install the kitchen and master bathroom cabinets (by hand, of course), install the rest of the doors, put in the light and plumbing fixtures, paint, and few other things. We have told our architect and our landlord that we plan on moving in at the end of the month.
I hope they get it ready on time.
All the tile in the baths and the kitchen; and the interior floors have been installed and grouted. They really look nice. The floors are of terra cotta tile and will need to be sealed, but that will wait until all the painting and other heavy work is done. The brick in the back patio is finished and a new drain has been installed. They are putting the quarried patio stones back in the main patio, now that the electrical and plumbing work is mostly done. We still need to install the light and plumbing fixtures. The light fixtures in the bedrooms, baths, study and kitchen will be modern; and in the living room, dining room and patios they will be traditional handicraft style which we bought in San Miguel de Allende, where there is really a wider selection even if the prices are a little higher.
We bought a new stove and a dishwasher which will be installed in the next week or so. The main question will be whether the gas company will accept our pipes or require that they install the pipes (on the outside of the walls) and hook up the stove and hot water heater on the roof.
The interior doors are all of wood, but since the doorways are all different widths and heights and because we want an “authentic” look, they have either been made by hand (hand hewn tongue in grove, all pegged together and no nails, and mortice and tenon) or are being adapted from the original exterior doors, which were also hand-made and pegged together. The carpenter has also repaired the original front window using the same methods as the original builder. It is really fascinating watching him work.
The doors leading to the patios will all be metal door frames with glass. And these are being installed even though we have not gotten the quarried threshold stones yet. It seems that the little village where the thresholds are being made has been cutoff from the outside world by the recent rains, making it impossible for trucks to get in and out.
All of the walls, inside and out, have now been stuccoed white, and only need to be painted. They look pretty good without paint. The 12-foot ceilings have all been painted.
The pergola on the roof was finished today, and they will start putting in the terra cotta floor tile tomorrow. We still need to tile the steps to the roof, put guard rails on the stairs and the puente (bridge), connect to the water tanks on the roof, put in the hot water heater, build and install the kitchen and master bathroom cabinets (by hand, of course), install the rest of the doors, put in the light and plumbing fixtures, paint, and few other things. We have told our architect and our landlord that we plan on moving in at the end of the month.
I hope they get it ready on time.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
House Update #4
The upstairs bedroom with a new little room for our tinacos (water tanks) on top. Note our neighbor's tinaco, not too pretty; and presumably against the law in new construction and renovations. But hey, rules are meant to be broken, right?
After a month lost to INAH, we had a reduced crew of 2-4 for nearly a month, slowing down the process considerably. We are now 2-3 months behind the original estimate for one reason or another. BUT- things are looking up. The main patio is still a mess, but the bathrooms are being tiled, the walls are being stuccoed and painted, and the floor tiles are being installed. Here are some pictures.
Birds seem to be a theme. For the front guest bathroom we selected a simple blue, bird design, and for the upstairs guest room we selected a green/blue, bird design. These talavera bird designs are pretty much straight from the 13th century when they seem to have found their way from north Africa to Italy to Spain. You can still find them in Morocco, or you could 40 years ago.
We have to wait for the tiles for the kitchen, half-bath and master bath since the tiles had to be ordered from Dolores Hidalgo (la cuna de la revolución). They are really nothing special, but they make tiles down here as they are needed, all hand-made of course. The kitchen counter and wall designs will include yellow birds on a red background for highlighting and yellow tiles for the counter top. Most new "traditional" kitchens here seem to be bright red, blue or green, but we liked the yellow tiles which have a nice glow and warmth to them that you often don't get in recent Mexican kitchens. And besides we just did not want to be like everyone else.
The tiles in the half-bath in the study will have an abstract cobalt blue design on natural terra cotta, with an off-white tile for the counter top. We will not tile the walls, which we can do later if we want to.
Our master bath will be white and blue with two types of blue crosses, following a design that Christiane liked at the house (i.e. mansion where the sitting president of Mexcio who signed the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty once lived) where she takes her culture classes. It will be somewhat sedate and formal (I hesitate to say distinguished) and easy to live with.
The patio will be brick set on edge in a series of concentric circles, a little modern, but it will really be spectacular when it is finished with large terra cotta flower pots and some bougainvilla.
The outside walls look so nice in plain white that I am tempted to leave them alone. But we will probably paint them off-white in the patios, except for one wall in San Francisco orange/red or something. With bougainvilla climbing up the walls, they too will be spectacular; and since bougainvilla blooms every other month down here and geraniums are always blooming, we will always have a wide variety of flowers to sit and enjoy. I can barely wait. But at least we are finally making progress again.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Catorce and Charco
Not a happy camper, but at least a safe one.
The last couple of weekends we have made two great trips, Real de Catorce, an overnight trip to a nearly abandoned mining town in San Luis Potosi, and a quick trip to Charco del Ingenio near San Miguel de Allende about 45 minutes from our house.
The last weekend in April, we made the Real de Catorce trip with Pierre and Sophie and their son, Antoine, along with Byron, the Mexico country director for the Peace Corps. It took four and a half hours to get there, the last 1.5 miles of which were through a one-way tunnel, the only car access to the town. It was inhabited late as mining towns in Mexico go, having been discovered in the 18th century, and its mines were exhausted by the early 20th century after producing tons of silver. Since prehistoric times it has been a pilgrimage site for Huichol Indians who live in another state, Jalisco.
Until the 1990s it was pretty much abandoned and had a population of around 80 in the 1980s. It now has around 1,200 mostly because of tourism. There are probably more restaurants and hotels (and horse rental guys) per square meter than anywhere in Mexico.
The afternoon that we arrived we walked up the mountain to the first abandoned mine. The road was so bad, even for walking, that I was afraid that C would fall and split her head open. She had fallen the week before in Querétaro and bruised her chin. The next morning we rented horses to take us back the same way we had gone the day before, but we went beyond the first mine to the second, which is locally known as el Pueblo de Fantasma. For some pictures of town, the hotel, the ruins, the abandoned buildings, and yes, Christiane on a horse, go to our Flickr site. We had a really great time, good food, good company, good scenery, and some mediocre horses.
Cañon de Chan at Charco del Ingenio, Guanajuato.
A couple of weeks ago we attended the Querétaro international guitar festival like we did last year. The only difference is that this year we knew a lot of the people. The last night we attended the Guitarras de America concert, and our friend, “el famoso” Ramon, was recognized by the group. Among other things, Ramon plays the guitar, besides being an electrical engineer who specializes in solar energy and ecology, and being a pretty funny guy. After the concert we went with Ramon and Elvira to a lecture on ecology, or more precisely on an ecological preserve near San Miguel de Allende called Charco del Ingenio. The speaker, Cesár, introduced Ramon in the audience because Ramon had done all the solar energy at Charco. With the guitar guys and the ecological guy, I have dubbed Ramon “el famoso”. Elvira says it was a fluke that he seemed to know everyone that evening, but wives always try to keep you from having a swelled head, so “el famoso” it will remain, at least for me.
Anyway, after the lecture Ramon wangled an invitation for us to visit Charco with Cesár today. Not only do they have a unique program, there is only one municipal ecological preserve in Guanajuato state, and none in Querétaro state, but the plants and water are beautiful, the trails are safe (much safer than Catorce) and walkable; AND they have some real archaeology, a couple of old mills (remembrances of my days at New South), including one that is from the late 1600s. Since they don’t have much money, and virtually none from INAH or the feds, they need volunteers. It may be that I can find some archaeology to do after all. We shall see. Check here for some photos.
I invited Angel along. Angel lives in our apartment building or patio and works for the Peace Corps. He is in charge of the new environmental program they are starting, and I hoped he would be able to make some useful contacts for himself and the Peace Corps. He had already been to Charco three times recently, but had never met Cesár. He filled out our “team” and made it a truly memorable trip. It was fun talking with people like this after being away from it for over a year, and the preserve is beautiful.
We will have to take people by here on our way to visit San Miguel in the future. But we will still visit the cactus nursery in Cadareyta near Bernal which is always interesting for visitors even though both places are heavy on cactus. They are really very different and complement each other.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Suspended!!
Monday, March 19-
I am upset, to say the least. After nearly four months of trying to get the National Institute of Anthropology and History to address our application for our proposed changes to the house, we have had our project suspended.
About three weeks ago, our architect told us that the institute had problems with the door between the front room and the next room. They claimed we wanted to change an original doorway. However, in the process of looking beneath the plaster, we had discovered that what they thought was the original doorway was not the original doorway. And in fact, I found an earlier doorway almost exactly where we wanted to put our new door. We were, in effect, restoring the doorway to an earlier, if not the original, position.
I documented the older doorway with photos and was able to show on them where the current door was, where the earlier door was, how it was built, etc. My architect took these to the institute, and one of the institute people told him informally that the current door was obviously not the original door, so we figured it was pro forma. We have been waiting ever since for a formal acknowledgement or at least an invitation to discuss the matter.
On Friday, March 16, Christiane and I went to Mexico City to pick up her sisters from France, and we left Querétaro thinking that everything was OK. When we came back to town on Sunday, there were suspension seals all over the house and work had stopped pending a meeting with the institute on Wednesday. Today is Monday.
Everyone (i.e. gringos) that I talk to say this is not a problem and that our architect will straighten it out. That may be because none of them have gone through the proper preservation process from the beginning like we did. Since the beginning our architect has been saying that this is not a problem; but now he does not know what will happen next. We could get closed down permanently or have to redo a major portion of the work already accomplished ($$$), and/or put the “original” doorway back the way it was.
So far, I have not dealt with the institute people, and from something the architect said, it sounds like they think I am the typical American who has no understanding of Mexican history or of historic preservation and could care less about the patrimony of Mexico. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course.
I was founder and executive director of a national preservation group in the US for 10 years; was on my county’s historic preservation commission for five years doing the exact same thing the institute is now doing (albeit with a little more common sense); have researched the house in the city archives and know more about it than they do; completed my MA in anthropology and archaeology in Mexico; am a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites; was active internationally on ICAHM, ICOMOS' archaeological resources committee; and have spent the last 30 years working with historic preservation professionally.
The problem is that they do not know this and could probably not care less. They also probably think that I have doctored the photographs or something, and that I am as rich as Croesus. None of which is true either, of course.
They are concentrating on a door that was probably put in when the house was last renovated in the late 1940s, but they have completely missed the frescoes in the entranceway that are truly coeval with the construction of the house, frescoes that I am trying desperately to preserve and conserve with help from the University of Querétaro.
We are making relatively minor changes to the house, and are trying to preserve its general layout while making it livable (bathrooms, running water, electricity, etc.). We have friends who have basically gutted their houses and rebuilt their entire floor plans. They had the same architect, but they never heard a peep from the institute.
There are dozens of houses that are literally collapsing or have already collapsed since no one wants to go through the hassle with the institute to fix them up. Demolition by neglect seems to be OK , but making a house livable without destroying the original fabric is not. Go figure.
I am really, really upset. Really.
Thursday, March 22-
On Wednesday, Christiane and I met with Alberto and Miguel (our architects) and with the INAH director who also invited the INAH lawyer and architect in charge of our project.
The director seemed to be the most practical and rational one of the lot. He said he wanted to see people living, not just working, in the historic district; but of course he wanted the historic nature of the district to be respected. After his introduction I introduced myself (I had spent all morning coming up with a statement in Spanish) by pointing out my background, the Dekalb Preservation Commission, my ICOMOS membership, my degree from UDLA, etc. Things went pretty smoothly with him after that. The architect was another story.
She was upset that we had desecrated an original doorway. The photo did not convince her that there had been another door there before. I had given Alberto three photos, and on the advice of another INAH member, he had only submitted one. I therefore showed them the other photos, and the director had to agree that there was indeed a door there previously, as did the architect, reluctantly. We left them the photos.
Of course, the director pointed out that our way of finding the door was a little heavy handed, and he is right. The architect then focused on the channels that were dug in the walls for electricity and plumbing, and how these destroyed the original fabric of the building. I had been a little uncomfortable with that myself, but I figured there was no way around it if you wanted to modernize the house. The director pointed out another way (baseboard channels), and of course he was right. At the end, the director wanted us to meet with the architect at the house and hammer out the details of an agreement, although he admitted that it would cause more damage to get it back the way it was than to just leave it alone. Miguel was quiet and stoic.
The architect only looked at me as she made disparaging remarks about my architects. Alberto suggested we just go directly to the house then; but the architect said she was busy. The director did not let her get away with that, so he set up a meeting the next day at noon, which she reluctantly agreed to.
The next day, Thursday, Miguel, Alberto and I waited for the architect, who showed up a little late with her boss, another architect who had visited the house once back in January. She had not been at the meeting the day before so that the first hour or so consisted of her preaching to us about preservation, and how I had been badly served by my architects, etc. etc. She also barely looked at them, but instead kept eye contact with me. It was very embarrassing for Miguel and Alberto, but to their credit they did not respond in kind. She pointed out that the picture I had taken was just a repair in the wall and not an old door. I found this hard to believe after the previous day’s discussion and asked the first architect for the photos to show where the old finished doorway and doorway arch etc. were.
It turned out the boss had never seen them! Visibly embarrassed, she eventually had to admit that there had indeed been a door there. While it ultimately helped our cause, she made us pay by how she treated Miguel and Alberto.
I stopped the conversation after she started to repeat herself, and pointed out that recriminations would not get us anywhere, and we needed to talk about where to go from here (I refuse to use the term, “the way forward”!!). Miguel then spoke up and asked them what they wanted us to do, and we would do it; but they had trouble giving a straight answer. He also pointed out that he loved the historic district and its buildings, his family had lived here for generations, and that he wanted to save it and not destroy it, as she had been implying. We finally got her off her high horse, and Miguel admitted that what they suggested would not only preserve the house but actually be cheaper for him to do. They liked hearing that.
I asked what would happen next, and the boss said that they could make us tear everything out or we could pay a fine. Just before Miguel and I were going to point out that the director had admitted the day before that redoing everything would cause even more damage, she admitted that tearing things out would be more of a problem than a solution. So I asked what the fine was. She hesitated, and then said 50 centavos (about 4 cents). So I asked, 50 centavos per square meter, and she said no, just 50 centavos, since the law was written so long ago and had not been updated. By the end we were talking on a more professional level, but relations were and are still strained, mostly because of the INAH folks' attitude.
We then went through the house, and she pointed out all the problems she saw with little digs at Miguel, who remained stoic. Finally, we agreed that Miguel would turn in a set of plans the next day, Friday, with things more spelled out (they do not have a preservation manual for the district so it is impossible for anyone to know what to submit, how to cause the least damage while renovating, etc; and they are not at all helpful in their reviews); and that he would pay a fine. I was ready to pay $500 MN right then and there, but we agreed on $50 MN.
They finally left, and Miguel, Alberto and I talked. They were very embarrassed and knew that this had not helped them in my eyes, and could hurt their reputation. I tried to assure them otherwise. This was really the first time they had followed the rules from the beginning (more or less at my behest) and the first time they had dealt with these particular architects. And we all agreed INAH needed to improve their "system". The only damage done to us is a two week delay, barring problems from the INAH lawyer, who was not at the house, naturally. We hope to get a permit next week. We shall see.
Saturday, March 24-
Given everything that has happened and the way the INAH architects acted, it is no wonder that most people ignore INAH until a neighbor calls them in and the owner gets slapped with a fine (which is not much). Why get harangued by irate INAH personnel when you can just wait and pay a small fine or perhaps get away with nothing at all, like most of the folks we know.
If they really want this system to work, they need a manual and/or a better way to get preservationist ideals across to architects and owners, perhaps a yearly class or something. I feel like volunteering to help write a manual for them.
As for our relations with our architects, I am not upset with Miguel. There are always going to be problems. It is how they are approached and/or resolved that matters. Miguel handled himself very well, held his temper in the face of provocation, and just wanted to get the process rolling in a positive direction. I think we accomplished that; and I think Miguel and Alberto learned a thing or two about preservation in the process that will help them in the future. Another architect could easily have been worse in this situation. Miguel is young but he is mature and is learning well.
I feel that I am at fault for most of this. I should have spoken up earlier and been involved with INAH earlier, but never having worked with masonry architecture or INAH in this capacity I really did not feel comfortable telling anyone what to do, and so I let Miguel take the lead. I was well aware of the basic preservationist tenet that all changes should be easily reversible back to the original conditions. But this is a private home not a public building or a major historic landmark, and I figured Mexicans would know better how things are done here and would be better at getting an agreement. Obviously, this is sometimes not the case.
Thursday, April 12-
We took our little holiday to the Sierra Gorda and got back last night. I asked our architect how we were doing, and this morning I got the answer that we have our permit and can begin working next Monday! The permit was supposed to have been signed Monday before last, but someone was on holiday. So we lost an entire month, instead of a week or two. I have now republished by old blog entries dealing with the house; and will post this one. I hope they cannot take a permit away after they have given it. I hope.
I am upset, to say the least. After nearly four months of trying to get the National Institute of Anthropology and History to address our application for our proposed changes to the house, we have had our project suspended.
About three weeks ago, our architect told us that the institute had problems with the door between the front room and the next room. They claimed we wanted to change an original doorway. However, in the process of looking beneath the plaster, we had discovered that what they thought was the original doorway was not the original doorway. And in fact, I found an earlier doorway almost exactly where we wanted to put our new door. We were, in effect, restoring the doorway to an earlier, if not the original, position.
I documented the older doorway with photos and was able to show on them where the current door was, where the earlier door was, how it was built, etc. My architect took these to the institute, and one of the institute people told him informally that the current door was obviously not the original door, so we figured it was pro forma. We have been waiting ever since for a formal acknowledgement or at least an invitation to discuss the matter.
On Friday, March 16, Christiane and I went to Mexico City to pick up her sisters from France, and we left Querétaro thinking that everything was OK. When we came back to town on Sunday, there were suspension seals all over the house and work had stopped pending a meeting with the institute on Wednesday. Today is Monday.
Everyone (i.e. gringos) that I talk to say this is not a problem and that our architect will straighten it out. That may be because none of them have gone through the proper preservation process from the beginning like we did. Since the beginning our architect has been saying that this is not a problem; but now he does not know what will happen next. We could get closed down permanently or have to redo a major portion of the work already accomplished ($$$), and/or put the “original” doorway back the way it was.
So far, I have not dealt with the institute people, and from something the architect said, it sounds like they think I am the typical American who has no understanding of Mexican history or of historic preservation and could care less about the patrimony of Mexico. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course.
I was founder and executive director of a national preservation group in the US for 10 years; was on my county’s historic preservation commission for five years doing the exact same thing the institute is now doing (albeit with a little more common sense); have researched the house in the city archives and know more about it than they do; completed my MA in anthropology and archaeology in Mexico; am a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites; was active internationally on ICAHM, ICOMOS' archaeological resources committee; and have spent the last 30 years working with historic preservation professionally.
The problem is that they do not know this and could probably not care less. They also probably think that I have doctored the photographs or something, and that I am as rich as Croesus. None of which is true either, of course.
They are concentrating on a door that was probably put in when the house was last renovated in the late 1940s, but they have completely missed the frescoes in the entranceway that are truly coeval with the construction of the house, frescoes that I am trying desperately to preserve and conserve with help from the University of Querétaro.
We are making relatively minor changes to the house, and are trying to preserve its general layout while making it livable (bathrooms, running water, electricity, etc.). We have friends who have basically gutted their houses and rebuilt their entire floor plans. They had the same architect, but they never heard a peep from the institute.
There are dozens of houses that are literally collapsing or have already collapsed since no one wants to go through the hassle with the institute to fix them up. Demolition by neglect seems to be OK , but making a house livable without destroying the original fabric is not. Go figure.
I am really, really upset. Really.
Thursday, March 22-
On Wednesday, Christiane and I met with Alberto and Miguel (our architects) and with the INAH director who also invited the INAH lawyer and architect in charge of our project.
The director seemed to be the most practical and rational one of the lot. He said he wanted to see people living, not just working, in the historic district; but of course he wanted the historic nature of the district to be respected. After his introduction I introduced myself (I had spent all morning coming up with a statement in Spanish) by pointing out my background, the Dekalb Preservation Commission, my ICOMOS membership, my degree from UDLA, etc. Things went pretty smoothly with him after that. The architect was another story.
She was upset that we had desecrated an original doorway. The photo did not convince her that there had been another door there before. I had given Alberto three photos, and on the advice of another INAH member, he had only submitted one. I therefore showed them the other photos, and the director had to agree that there was indeed a door there previously, as did the architect, reluctantly. We left them the photos.
Of course, the director pointed out that our way of finding the door was a little heavy handed, and he is right. The architect then focused on the channels that were dug in the walls for electricity and plumbing, and how these destroyed the original fabric of the building. I had been a little uncomfortable with that myself, but I figured there was no way around it if you wanted to modernize the house. The director pointed out another way (baseboard channels), and of course he was right. At the end, the director wanted us to meet with the architect at the house and hammer out the details of an agreement, although he admitted that it would cause more damage to get it back the way it was than to just leave it alone. Miguel was quiet and stoic.
The architect only looked at me as she made disparaging remarks about my architects. Alberto suggested we just go directly to the house then; but the architect said she was busy. The director did not let her get away with that, so he set up a meeting the next day at noon, which she reluctantly agreed to.
The next day, Thursday, Miguel, Alberto and I waited for the architect, who showed up a little late with her boss, another architect who had visited the house once back in January. She had not been at the meeting the day before so that the first hour or so consisted of her preaching to us about preservation, and how I had been badly served by my architects, etc. etc. She also barely looked at them, but instead kept eye contact with me. It was very embarrassing for Miguel and Alberto, but to their credit they did not respond in kind. She pointed out that the picture I had taken was just a repair in the wall and not an old door. I found this hard to believe after the previous day’s discussion and asked the first architect for the photos to show where the old finished doorway and doorway arch etc. were.
It turned out the boss had never seen them! Visibly embarrassed, she eventually had to admit that there had indeed been a door there. While it ultimately helped our cause, she made us pay by how she treated Miguel and Alberto.
I stopped the conversation after she started to repeat herself, and pointed out that recriminations would not get us anywhere, and we needed to talk about where to go from here (I refuse to use the term, “the way forward”!!). Miguel then spoke up and asked them what they wanted us to do, and we would do it; but they had trouble giving a straight answer. He also pointed out that he loved the historic district and its buildings, his family had lived here for generations, and that he wanted to save it and not destroy it, as she had been implying. We finally got her off her high horse, and Miguel admitted that what they suggested would not only preserve the house but actually be cheaper for him to do. They liked hearing that.
I asked what would happen next, and the boss said that they could make us tear everything out or we could pay a fine. Just before Miguel and I were going to point out that the director had admitted the day before that redoing everything would cause even more damage, she admitted that tearing things out would be more of a problem than a solution. So I asked what the fine was. She hesitated, and then said 50 centavos (about 4 cents). So I asked, 50 centavos per square meter, and she said no, just 50 centavos, since the law was written so long ago and had not been updated. By the end we were talking on a more professional level, but relations were and are still strained, mostly because of the INAH folks' attitude.
We then went through the house, and she pointed out all the problems she saw with little digs at Miguel, who remained stoic. Finally, we agreed that Miguel would turn in a set of plans the next day, Friday, with things more spelled out (they do not have a preservation manual for the district so it is impossible for anyone to know what to submit, how to cause the least damage while renovating, etc; and they are not at all helpful in their reviews); and that he would pay a fine. I was ready to pay $500 MN right then and there, but we agreed on $50 MN.
They finally left, and Miguel, Alberto and I talked. They were very embarrassed and knew that this had not helped them in my eyes, and could hurt their reputation. I tried to assure them otherwise. This was really the first time they had followed the rules from the beginning (more or less at my behest) and the first time they had dealt with these particular architects. And we all agreed INAH needed to improve their "system". The only damage done to us is a two week delay, barring problems from the INAH lawyer, who was not at the house, naturally. We hope to get a permit next week. We shall see.
Saturday, March 24-
Given everything that has happened and the way the INAH architects acted, it is no wonder that most people ignore INAH until a neighbor calls them in and the owner gets slapped with a fine (which is not much). Why get harangued by irate INAH personnel when you can just wait and pay a small fine or perhaps get away with nothing at all, like most of the folks we know.
If they really want this system to work, they need a manual and/or a better way to get preservationist ideals across to architects and owners, perhaps a yearly class or something. I feel like volunteering to help write a manual for them.
As for our relations with our architects, I am not upset with Miguel. There are always going to be problems. It is how they are approached and/or resolved that matters. Miguel handled himself very well, held his temper in the face of provocation, and just wanted to get the process rolling in a positive direction. I think we accomplished that; and I think Miguel and Alberto learned a thing or two about preservation in the process that will help them in the future. Another architect could easily have been worse in this situation. Miguel is young but he is mature and is learning well.
I feel that I am at fault for most of this. I should have spoken up earlier and been involved with INAH earlier, but never having worked with masonry architecture or INAH in this capacity I really did not feel comfortable telling anyone what to do, and so I let Miguel take the lead. I was well aware of the basic preservationist tenet that all changes should be easily reversible back to the original conditions. But this is a private home not a public building or a major historic landmark, and I figured Mexicans would know better how things are done here and would be better at getting an agreement. Obviously, this is sometimes not the case.
Thursday, April 12-
We took our little holiday to the Sierra Gorda and got back last night. I asked our architect how we were doing, and this morning I got the answer that we have our permit and can begin working next Monday! The permit was supposed to have been signed Monday before last, but someone was on holiday. So we lost an entire month, instead of a week or two. I have now republished by old blog entries dealing with the house; and will post this one. I hope they cannot take a permit away after they have given it. I hope.
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