Well, we’ve just wrapped up our seventh month of construction. We missed our original finish date of October 1st, and now we’re sailing past November 1st. Rain caused several delays during the footer and foundation work, but it’s clear now that we’re much further behind than just weather-related setbacks. In hindsight, I think the scope of the project was underestimated, and week-to-week progress has simply moved slower than we initially expected.

Are we bummed? Yeah, a little. But only because we’re incredibly eager to start living in Villaflor. In the grand scheme of things though, we’re still in a very good spot. Our landlady has kindly allowed us to stay in her house on a month-to-month basis until the new home is move-in ready. And Marco, our architect, has been wonderfully accommodating with construction credits, which have allowed us to make changes and additions to the home that were previously out of reach due to budget constraints. We’re also really pleased with the effort our small construction team is putting in. It’s been an incredible experience to be present for the build week after week, and to evolve the design of the house as the work progresses.

So, when’s the magic date? I have no idea. We’re hopeful to be in the house by Christmas, but ultimately, it’ll be done when it’s done. And you’ll see every step of the journey here.

Now, let’s see some progress! This week we met with Marco at Italpisos in Cuenca to choose the ceramics. That includes all of the flooring in the house, except for the bedrooms and offices, as well as the kitchen backsplash and bathroom walls. Italpisos, a ceramic and porcelain tile manufacturer with over 40 years in the business, is based right here in Cuenca. Which meant their main showroom was just 20 minutes from our front door!

With my wife, our 3-month-old Lily, and my mom in tow, we set off to explore the options. And not blindly; we had a clear vision for the house: grey, grey, and more grey. Our goal is to keep nearly all the permanent installations in neutral tones, making it easier to coordinate with the more temporary elements like furniture and decorations. With that in mind, we’re leaning toward light shades of grey, with the occasional pop of color to prevent the house from clashing with future design choices. So, it didn’t take us long to land on the selections below.

This is the primary ceramic flooring for the house. This will be in the living rooms, dining room, kitchen, utility space, and all of the hallways. Its color, Cenizo, translates as Ashen.

The next two pictures are the flooring, followed by the wall tiling, for the bathrooms. All of the bathrooms will have tiling from floor to ceiling around the bathtubs and showers, and to a height of 1.5m (5 feet) in the remaining areas.

And finally, we have the decorative tile for the backsplash of the kitchen. This will be run in two rows between the countertop and cabinets with another grey tile in between that is not pictured.

And that’s it for all the ceramic in the house. Though the cost of these finishings is built into the turn-key price of the home, for curious minds, I wanted to share the equivalent price per square foot. All ceramics ranged from $7 to $10 per square meter, which translates to approximately $0.65 to $0.93 per square foot.

As for the house? Almost all of the concrete block has been installed; it is only lacking in a few of the vaulted areas. The workers have continued installing enlucido upstairs as well as putting the finishing touches on the corners downstairs, which really helps clean up the look of the rooms. And, we now have a roof! The corrugated fibre cement roofing is going up quickly.