I came across this quote from one of my favourite authors on architecture and design, Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language in a book about software design – ‘Patterns of Software – Tales from the Software Community’ by Richard P. Gabriel (‘Patterns of Software’ is worth a read in its own right if you’ve any interest in software and is available free on the linked page.)

We have become used to almost fanatical precision in the construction of buildings. Tile work, for instance, must be perfectly aligned, perfectly square, every tile perfectly cut, and the whole thing accurate on a grid to a tolerance of a sixteenth of an inch. But our tilework is dead and ugly, without soul.

In this Mexican house* the tiles are roughly cut, the wall is not perfectly plumb, and the tiles don’t even line up properly. Sometimes one tile is as much as half an inch behind the next one in the vertical plane.

And why? Is it because these Mexican craftsmen didn’t know how to do precise work? I don’t think so. I believe they simply knew what is important and what is not, and they took good care to pay attention only to what is important: to the color, the design, the feeling of one tile and its relationship to the next—the important things that create the harmony and feeling of the wall. The plumb and the alignment can be quite rough without making any difference, so they didn’t bother to spend too much effort on these things. They spent their effort in the way that made the most difference. And so they produced this wonderful quality, this harmony … simply because that is what they paid attention to, and what they tried to produce.

* The house referred to is the House of Tiles in Mexico City.

So now when I look at my less-than-perfect lines and consider my easy-on-the-eye approach to tiling I can put a name to that previously unidentified factor that let me get away with it all … my tiling has soul…

We’ve got the heating and hot water system up and running!

It took a couple of attempts.

The first time at the start of the month, with the stoked up stove blazing away devouring my wood supply, there was a load cracking noise (sounded like the glazing in the stove doors cracking) and a fairly large puddle of sooty water appeared on the hearth. On closer inspection the firebox was dripping with water that was leaking out from around the doors. After putting the fire out, Jason the plumber, suspecting a leak from the water jacket, cleaned up the inside with a wire-brush only to find no obvious source of the leak. We relit the fire expecting a reoccurrence as the metal expanded, but nothing despite getting the temperature up above the maximum it had previously been. Good news that it didn’t happen again, but a nagging doubt remains. It was overcast that day so getting the solar panels up and running and contributing to the system was out for that day.

So yesterday (16th June) I was really pleased when Jason phoned to tell me that the panels were up and running and we have warm / hot water. At just over 7Kw equivalent of water heated the payback has (slowly started).

May has been about two things – painting and tiling. The main bedroom needs finishing and then the second bedroom and dressing area need painting – and that’ll be it, first coat done! Coverage upstairs doesn’t seem as good as down, not sure if that’s to do with the plaster or the off-white paint, but a second coat will definitely be needed.

Tiling has gone well, but slowly. It’s now in a position where half the cubicle in the main bathroom needs completing and much of the back wall of the ensuite (I must post some photographs). Then it’s onto the messy, somewhat dreaded, but telling (telling in terms of if it’s a job well done), grouting. I hope to have that done by the end of June.

We should be in a position to get the heating system including the solar panels up and running in June – should be an exciting times (well more exciting than bl**dy painting and tiling).

(I’m not sure those dreams I had last month of lime pointing are going to come to fruition this year – too much to do indoors.)