Coyote Footprints in Saltillo Wednesday, Oct 31 2007

Saltillo tiles are popular in the southwest. Our house is no exception. These red clay tiles are handmade in Saltillo, Mexico, from their local reddish clay. After Saltillo tiles are made they are laid outside to dry before firing, and you can occasionally find animal prints, distinctly canine, and very possibly coyote specifically.

Who knew? I thought those canine prints in my saltillo floor were fakes! You know… someone thought it was cute or something? And here it is due to how they are laid out and dried in their native Mexico and their local wildlife! Cannot get much more natural than that!

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No FUTURE on my saltillo tile Tuesday, Oct 30 2007

 

Saltillo is a cement based clay paver used for flooring.  It’s color is usually orange-brown and range toward yellow.  It’s color variation is consistent within this range.  It’s colors are achieved during the curing process.  The salty efflorescence rises to the surface out of the cement body and gives a permanent, random pattern on the surface.  The surface is sometimes pitted and wavy.  Thickness of the tile ranges from piece to piece and corner to corner on the same tile.

   …More than you ever thought you would need to know about Saltillo tile? Or coyotes and their footprints in that tile? Well… I wish I was done stripping our tile in our southwestern house! We continue the process… What process you ask?

That “process” is the stripping of our kitchen floor which is made of Saltillo tile. (Hence the lesson earlier in the post. ) We have now been working on this process for a week and we have half the kitchen stripped and partially re-sealed.

I came across a post recently that suggested using FUTURE acrylic floor finish on saltillo tile floors in houses for sale! And although it surely would shine those floors it may well cause problems for the next people that have to deal with them…the buyers.

In order to keep our saltillo floor shiny and bright I decided to try Future floor finish in the kitchen, where there is a high traffic flow and lots of golden retriever activity. It seemed the normal sealers and glosses weren’t holding up. So, since July I have been mopping the floors, letting them dry and applying Future. But recently they were turning dull and kind of gray… no more lovely terra cottas and yellows showing through. I had heard that Future was not the appropriate product for un-sealed stone and tile… and this experience has proved it. Of course, never one to believe just anyone… or the makers of the product… I thought it was worth a try.

1) It did shine the floors in a lovely fashion.

2) But it also did turn gray and dull and… ultimately… wear out.

3) I am now spending many hours of my time stripping, scraping, sanding and crying over getting it off again.

4) It takes a fair amount of chemicals and scrubbers to accomplish this task.

5) Although I started this project by myself, I did have to enlist the help of my husband, and his muscle power.

So, I suppose a word to the wise… do not use Future floor finish on your southwestern saltillo tile floors if you want easy care floors! (and I am guessing that the blogger that encourages it… is happy he does not have to strip it off every 6 to 8 weeks!)

What is your own opinion? (… get carpet?)

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To Dove Bar or no? Monday, Oct 29 2007

Here I sit…

Dove Bar in hand…

not sleeping…

but enjoying the night!

The Dove Bar won!

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…leaving indelible traces? Sunday, Oct 14 2007

Isabel liked better to think of the future than of the past; but at times, as she listened to the murmur of the Mediterranean waves, her glance took a backward flight. It rested upon two figures which, in spite of increasing distance (time) were still sufficiently salient; they were recognizable… It was strange how quickly these gentlemen had fallen into the background of our young lady’s life. It was in her disposition at all times to lose faith in the reality of absent things; (object permanence) She could summon back her faith, in case of need, with an effort, but the effort was often painful, even when the reality had been pleasant. The past was apt to look dead, and its revival to wear the supernatural aspect of a resurrection. Isabel moreover was not prone to take for granted that she herself lived in the mind of others — she had not the fatuity to believe that she left indelible traces…” – page 230, Portrait of a Lady

Reading these words… leaving indelible traces… more likely to look toward the future than the past… the past was apt to look dead… and losing faith in the reality of things absent…

This was like coming home for me. This is something I experience often and no one about me seems to recognize or understand. To them, it simply means: I am not paying attention, or I forgot… or I do not care?

This can lead to some strange situations, like when my husband goes out of town on trips… it appears he does not exist anymore… I have to move on and make a life without him… at least for now. And it also can have some strange reperucusions in that I assume the person away from me… removes me from their memory as well, so they no longer care about me…

This is not a comfortable way to operate and makes for some serious readjustment when people come home or for a visit!

What is your own opinion?

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The Portrait of a Lady Saturday, Oct 13 2007

 

Henry James, The Portait of a Lady, (1881)

Madame Merle tells us:

“I judge more than I used to,” she said to Isabel; “but it seems to me that I have earned the right. One can’t judge till one is forty; before that we are too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition too ignorant. I am sorry for you; it will be a long time before you are forty. But every gain is a loss of some kind; I often think that after forty one can’t really feel. The freshness, the quickness have certainly gone…”

This thought struck me as I was reading this weekend. Seems nothing is ever gained… without something lost? In our “youth culture” of today, it sounds odd to have a 40-something successful, independent and cultured woman coaching a “sweet young thing” on some of the attributes of age. Seems mostly in our culture that 40-something women more or less envy young ladies their energy, sexiness and unwrinkled skin. Few would seem to venture to instruct younger women on what to look forward to and at the same time signify something that they likewise may have lost… Seems like a pretty grown-up conversation… with the younger learning from the older… Almost seems as if this cultured woman may have something to share with her young friend that might enhance her life and make her wiser? Now how does that fit in currently with our culture of youth and staying the eternal teenager?

What is your own opinion?

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