Here we are, our first chunk of free time since we closed on the property, and we don’t fly south. We drive north. If I had known in the summer that I would have closed on a property shortly before New Year’s, our plans would have been very different this weekend.

So here we are at an inn on Cape Cod, waiting to celebrate New Year’s, and marking Paul’s birthday. It’s drizzly and cold outside, but we brought our books on haciendas and casas to stimulate our imaginations. Sitting by the fireplace, we need to think through our plans for Casa Nana.

As I’m poring though these very professional and beautiful photos, it strikes me that they’re of limited use.

“Your looks are laughable, unphotographable,” goes the old song lyric, but when I say Mérida’s grand-scale homes in the Centro can’t be photographed, I mean it as a compliment.

My last trip down, I visited the home of a favorite blogger whose renovation tales I had been following closely. I saw (studied, really) every photo taken before, during and after her fantastic Henry Ponce project. I saw it as a good way to train my eyes to look at a “ruin” and see its potential. But when I arrived [Read more…]