When I originally started on this project I had a lofty goal: That aside from some of the more specialized work (some electrical, most of the plumbing, backhoe work) I would be doing most of the labor myself, or with a small crew hired from time to time.  But then the project grew from a small casita into a regular house, and we bought the gallery that, itself, needs significant work and the whole thing became wildly more complicated.

[I still intend to build the guest casita myself, but that will have to wait for the day when we are relocated to the new house and the is shop open for business.]

So, for the main house building project I decided to become my own general contractor / manager, farming out the pieces of the puzzle as they needed to get done.  While that sounded like a great idea, I immediately hit a wall: Who does what kind of work, who does it well, and how in the world am I going to manage so many moving parts, including the work on the shop and all the permitting etc etc etc?  I was stuck.

I had a couple of leads on people who might know a thing or two. One turned out to be retiring; another’s number had either changed or had been given to me incorrectly (and is not listed) and yet a third never got back to me.  One lead, however, turned out to be a wealth of information and quite helpful. 

As my straw bale obsession took root over the past year and a half I have amassed a small library on everything from books to DVDs to articles and magazines.  The fantastic books by Bill and Athena Steen  led me to take their most excellent workshops in Southern Arizona, while the DVDs and books by Ted Owens and Andrew Morrison,  confirmed my delusion that I could build myself a house. 

Happily, Ted Owens and the straw bale home featured in his DVD reside in my own home town of Corrales, NM (the house is walking distance) and sitting down with him to discuss the where’s and who’s of green construction in this part of the world provided just the boost I needed.  Armed with a list of local people, and being referred to them by Ted I am now more confident that things are moving forward.  And I will have more of the house project soon.

But what about the shop?

The shop/store/gallery remained a bit of a tough nut.  Having ripped out the carpet and everything else that was stuck to the sub-floor, it became time to get serious about everything else.  We’ve sourced some tile that looks like wood for the area the carpet used to cover, but we’d remained stuck on how to proceed on the rest of that project.

Enter Chris, our contractor friend.  I had delayed calling him regarding the store project simply because Madrid is so very far away and I had hoped that between myself and some local people I would be able to make some real progress.  But that turned out not to be the case: aside from an electrician and one fellow who offered to help paint, my entreaties went either unheeded, or unwanted.  So I called Chris, in part to see if he’d be willing to work so far from home, but also on the hope that if he did not want to, he might have a referral or two for me.  To my great delight, he’s on board.  Let the renovation of the store commence!

 

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