Yes, Lucy has the good life, but so do we. There's nothing like sitting in the sunshine watching a hummingbird feed in the bouganvilla.

Paul and I have been doing a lot of sitting in the sun or in our office lately. It's a happy exile because of all the work that's being done at our house...these are the only places except the bedroom that aren't a mess from work in progress.

The courtyard is proceeding beautifully. The tile is about half done, the seat is gorgeous, and we expect the fountain to be installed tomorrow. The rest of the painting and the landscaping will probably be next week...and then they'll be done! I'll post the final pictures of the project then.

We are in the midst of our interior painting. Up north I did most of the painting in our house - and I really do like to paint - but the 12' ceilings made me reconsider. I'm glad I did, too. The team that is working here is very neat - masking baseboards carefully and cleaning up as they go.

The two front bedrooms are done - yellow in one and blue in the other. The hall and main living spaces of the house are something I'd call a pale salmon color. The accent wall behind the stairs is a lively brick color. The beams are being painted a chocolate brown.



We're going quite dark in the dining room - a real deep brick color called Posole. I think we're most excited to see that color go on, which will be tomorrow I think. The kitchen will be the same yellow as the courtyard and we are going to have some kind of mural at the far end of the sala fresca. We asked the artist for his ideas and are excited to see what he comes up with.

So during the day one of us stays here and manages the dogs and tries to keep them from stepping in paint as we go out for our mid-day walk. It's a good thing we are here, too, since they were given the wrong color for the accent wall behind the stairs - and I neither of us would have been too happy with bright orange instead of our chosen color.

In the evenings we move furniture from place to place to be ready for the painters the next day. Both the courtyard and the painters have said they'll have their work complete by the 20th.

It is good for me to experience this - I have really had to learn to "go with the flow." I trust these competent workers and artists, and are excited to see how it all turns out. The house will seem pretty quiet once everyone is gone - I can't believe I am actually getting used to having 8-9 people here all day long!