Carrer de Sant Blai #45

When you enter the house, you are at once hugged by the walls and pulled into its far away light. La Casita is only ** m2 (##sq ft) wide, but ** m2 in length. The sunny patio grows the space. I love the alcove. Pizza oven? Pastry shelf? Go down a few steps and you are in what will be the kitchen... You can see it, can't you? A tall black fridge, an oven and a sink along the wall. White plaster shelving below and unique artisan tiles, may ash-green or berry or lapiz or honey?  Then there's the ground floor patio. The personal graffiti, while charming, will have to go. I should be overwhelmed looking at this, but I can only be excited for the possibilities! A sun-lit patio with tables and chairs, a tile floor and plants hanging from the wall....like this... This wall is the oldest part of the structure and records (still be to confirmed) state it dates back when...

Ni aqui, ni alla. It's the room with a view, halfway between the bottom and top floor. It feels like a bombed out shelter. As if never inhabited. It actually only has two walls bc the halfwall is part of the staircase and there is no fourth wall. Only the sky. Imagine we will put in rails around the terraza and walkway or a glass floor of sort.Think glass bottom boat. Considering creative, safe options.  This is why rails might be a good idea. All the layers, all the ways that this place has been something to someone.  Fabricated. Etched upon. Not always clear on what this place is. Whose history it is? Through platicas and research, we will piece its history together just as archaeologists made sense of the prehistoric art of Las Cuevas de Las Arañas a few miles from here, near Forno in the mountains of la Provencia de Alicante.

Go on, go. My head doesn't hit the freckled beam bc I have lost a few inches to age. So instead, I stare. I imagine what creatures wedged their bodies into the wood and made pinhole crevices as they feasted on the lumber meant to hold the roof. The stairs lead to what we will call the top floor. There are two parts: the smoking room in pink and the reading room. They share a narrow doorway which we will widen, so as to allow easier passage. Reading room looking towards the entrance to the roof. Reading room looking towards the smoking room in pink. Clearly someone had a cigarette or a candle with a fierce rage bc the soot it plastered in the pink room is thick and menacing.  The double wood window in the smoking room is inset and small.  The window shutter is made of new wood and has those neat levers that when pulled, jut the rod up into a receiving cup.  There are also windows within the window, so light is let...

The rooftop terraza has this splendid view of the Vall de Gallinera and the village of L'Atzubia to the north. But mostly the lavish clouds and blue sky fill the view.    And lichen fill the floor. The terraza slopes about 10  degrees downward. Gravity works its magic and pulls me towards a fearful view of the hole in the cake: El patio.   yikes! Yes, there will be rails... eventually, but right now, I'm digging the danger. 

Sitting on a sturdy, but ugly folding chair with atay, miel and lait looking down over the rubble, lichen and vegetation on the ground floor. Pondering the insanity and exorbitant expenses that await me, and maybe some friends. I begin with sitting and sipping (sitipping?) bc it is the best way to feel the space and it's abundant possibilities.  Could be a mediation and wellness retreat space. Could be a cafecito con chisme casita. Or a used bookstore y café con pan- casita cafelibro?  Let the mind wander. Do some research. Gather friends and resources. Haber que brota en este lugar salvaje y roto.

I can hear my mom: ponte a trabajar. I started at the top where the curved red tiles form the roof. The traditional way to lay them is to place the curved clay tiles upside down and right side down so as to form an inpenatrable surface. It's been raining in Pego for a week and there are no leaks in this gritty old house. Solid.