Telling stories, real-life stories, anecdotes that remind us of who we are and why we are what we are. Stories of paths, our path, other people’s paths we make temporarily ours. To tell or not to tell stories?
A Cal y Canto… (Spanish expression for a gate or door that has been sealed “with rock and cement…”)
Twenty years of a lifetime of construction labor, the project, the supply of materials. Twenty years of acquaintances with architects, designers, masons, carpenters, installers, painters. And of course, the owners of the properties and homes we work in.
Hundreds of blueprints and modifications, electrical, structure, finishings, furnishing. The months it takes until it can be seen how a house “is born” from scratch, a house that sings its story.
We met Suzan fifteen years ago when she called us because the marble she had bought for her floor turned out to be green.
I must clarify that my specialty in construction is precisely stone. Marble, limestone, granite, anything made from stone, that has always been my specialty, my ancestors were most surely carving stones and building pyramids.
Twenty years ago I received her desperate call because her floor was meant to be beige, and when it arrived green, well, she returned it.
Halfway down the road to Mismaloya and with her coffee cup in hand, she told the truck driver in her kindest demeanor that she had not ordered green marble and she would not allow it unloaded in her house; along with the travertine marble she returned came a white Guadiana marble she thought she would keep, but once it was unloaded she no longer liked it and she did not know what to do with it.
Suzan’s house greeted you with a gigantic spiral staircase in the entrance, going down four levels; from the road all the way down to the beach and Suzan greeted all who arrived with her hat and a great smile.
"What is this woman doing here?" We all asked the architects. “"She is the owner and she lives here, she practically conducts the construction.” Living or camping?
The house looked like a mined camp; and when Suzan saw us ,she said: “I want you to see the house the way I see it, so you can suggest the materials it will shine with. I just have a little problem because I have already bought all this white marble…” (glittering, polished white marble evokes antique tombs and mausoleums, quite a challenge).
We toured the house up and down, among mountains of debris, scaffolds, and blaring radios. We attentively listened to Suzan “sing” the story of the “Casa Caracol” she had in mind; the architects, the designer and I listened, trying to see with our own eyes what she saw… until we saw it.
The house wanted golden floors, but since it had to shine, we inlaid 5 x5 centimeter pieces of the beige marble which gave the floors a special light and glitter.
Standing at the entrance we see the golden house; I can almost assure you that Casa Caracol was one of the first houses in Puerto Vallarta with golden marble from Tepeji, “honed” as we now call it. The white marble was treated with acid, to give it texture and take away its cemetery look.
The steps of the great staircase are also golden. Only the pool level ended in a tapestry of acid-treated, white marble batons. The staircase is a great golden sea snail with white cants, so, seen from below, the sea snail turns white.
In every detail Suzan is the baton-carrying boss; with her we created our special inspiration rituals; at noon she would give us “totopos y salsa” (tortilla chips and sauce) because we did not stop for lunch; however, when the sun set, after very long workdays, we went into the ocean until the first star appeared, then we went out for dinner. It was so much fun! I remember one evening when an overcast sky did not let us see a single star. All hungry and wrinkled as raisins we decided to come out of the water, with a reluctant Suzan who floated happily in front of Lindomar.
Those were months of hard though very creative work, where we could make the acquaintance of a woman, with a hat and a cup of coffee, a woman who managed to see through the debris a house where a singing sea snail lives. Email to a friend
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A Cal y Canto… (Spanish expression for a gate or door that has been sealed “with rock and cement…”) 
I must clarify that my specialty in construction is precisely stone. Marble, limestone, granite, anything made from stone, that has always been my specialty, my ancestors were most surely carving stones and building pyramids.
The house looked like a mined camp; and when Suzan saw us ,she said: “I want you to see the house the way I see it, so you can suggest the materials it will shine with. I just have a little problem because I have already bought all this white marble…” (glittering, polished white marble evokes antique tombs and mausoleums, quite a challenge).
salsa” (tortilla chips and sauce) because we did not stop for lunch; however, when the sun set, after very long workdays, we went into the ocean until the first star appeared, then we went out for dinner. It was so much fun! I remember one evening when an overcast sky did not let us see a single star. All hungry and wrinkled as raisins we decided to come out of the water, with a reluctant Suzan who floated happily in front of Lindomar. 