It looks like the warm weather is pretty much over, and now that the sky has become a constant cold shower (I prefer hot baths), concentrated work has begun on the inside of the house.  As reported in the last post, the kitchen had to be the first room to start on.

We took down the old counter and cleaned up the one wall to start work.  Jim found out about a type of adobe-mortar that is recommended for an adobe-style rammed earth mix.  Basically the adobe mix includes 10% of cement, and when it dries it looks like the typical adobe but is waterproof.  Jim mixes everything in a wheelbarrow outside and rolls it in when filled with the thick, damp goo.  It kind of looks like a very dark bread dough.

Here’s the result of 10 days work in repairing the one wall in the kitchen.  Its a little hard to see some of the deep holes in the first picture, but trust me — some of those holes made it possible to see the great outdoors when sitting on the floor.  Now its all filled in and smooth and we are preparing to begin working on the flooring in front of that wall.  We just have to let the wall finish drying.

We’re debating whether to paint the whole wall before installing the counter and sink or leaving the wall looking raw because the counter will be covering it.  The paint is going to be a plain, flat white to serve as a base coat for future painting.  At the present the walls are an awful shade of purple and the ceiling is made of sheets of plywood that are painted a very dark brown.

We have another week before we can install the counter, so if you get a chance, give me your opinion!  We are really torn and we continue to debate paint or no paint with no solid decision.

Tomorrow we are going to try an experiment.  We will be bringing our cat (Chamako) with us.  He absolutely loves hunting, stalking and catching mice.  There are plenty of prey for him and although he’s never been here, we are hopeful that within a few minutes of exploration that he will begin the hunt.  Crossing our fingers!