Entrada/entry with mystery plant (not great foto)

Kitchen without counter tops...

Final stretch!

And we're almost there!! After returning from vacation, and seeing that no catastrophes had happened, no seagulls had taken over the premises, and no water damage was done on the new kitchen floor/walls, one month later we are almost ready to move in! The carpenters finished on Monday (installation of all new climalit windows for entire house, kitchen remodelling--moving wall and destroying small "terraza lavadera" to create breakfast area/make the kitchen bigger and sunnier, changing all light fixtures from 1980's dome-like smokey glass things to modern, built-in "focos" (not sure about that one in English, someone help me out here), all new electrical wiring throughout the apartment, new toilets, sinks, towel racks and faucets in both bathrooms, new mirrors), the painters finished on Saturday (I went with greyish tones for most of the house, and yes, I gave in, Alejandra's room is a sort of light lilac color), Paco "el pullidor" will finish polishing the marble floors this morning (he should be here any minute!) and the kitchen is "mostly" installed. The marble-man is coming today to install the counter tops and the kitchen design company will then finish up tomorrow installing the fridge, oven, microwave, etc.. I have started on the industrial cleaning aspects, washing, scrubbing and waxing all of the wood doors/closets, washing the windows, etc and this afternoon, with the help of Ana, my super house-cleaner, we will leave the house ready to be inhabited!

Ripping things apart...

Windowless...

Tiles! Wet tiles!!

Vacations and remodeling...

Leaving for Sicily for 6 days right in the middle of remodeling was daring, but leaving for California for 3 weeks is just crazy! When we arrived from our first trip, the tiles had been set, the windows (and strange cement, window-covering thing) had been removed and the bathroom pieces had arrived. We are leaving tomorrow and work has stopped momentarily as the new windows won't arrive until Monday....I am anxious to leave a window-less house....and not quite sure what to do about a surprise rain/wind storm in June in Cádiz! Everything is wet, wind is rushing through the entire apartment nonstop and it doesn't seem to be letting up...