A little closer to home

Two weeks ago, we had lovely guests from Turkey. Last weekend, we had guests from Costa Rica, just two hours down the road. It's always nice to share our place with people of this country since many Ticos don't travel to the mountains, and exploring this region is a new experience for them. Our challenge is speaking Spanish -- I won't lie, we don't get to practice as much as one might think. All our Spanish-speaking friends are far too forgiving.

These guests are friends of a man we've never met who lives in Copey (the next town). This man, Carlos, apparently asked around and our friend, Seidy, recommended our place (nice, eh). After several phone conversations, he booked the guesthouse on behalf of his friend, Father Andres. We were told there would be a married couple joining the Father. Carlos left the deposit with our mutual friend, Violeta, to secure the dates. On Friday (July 24), our guests arrived three hours late, at 8 pm. We urge people to arrive before the sun goes down because it's tricky enough to find us during daylight. It always makes us a bit nervous then our guests are running late, but it is what it is. We can only recommend, the rest is out of our hands. Carlos called at about 6:30 pm to warn us they were on their way, not to worry. Luckily, they had not ordered a meal, so I didn't have to coordinate food preparation that night.

Although pitch dark, it was a warm night without rain, and they seemed happy with their lodging as I explained where they could find everything. They were especially thrilled with the wood stove because they planned to cook their own meals. In the morning, Kevin and I gave them the tour of the property. I don't know which was used more... Spanish or sign language... but we managed to communicate just fine. The weather was gorgeous all weekend: blue skies without a drop of rain. After the tour, they decided that even though they brought their own food, they would love to catch some trout. They requested one trout cleaned and fileted, and one cleaned with the head removed only. Apparently Father Andres is quite the cook and he looked forward to impressing his friends.

Francie, Juan Daniel and Father Andres were lovely. We thoroughly enjoyed being their hosts. They wrote a kind note in our guestbook (all in Spanish) and said they'll be back... we hope to see them again soon. We went down to Copey to meet and thank Carlos for coordinating their visit, but he wasn't home. We want to invite him to come visit the farm for himself.

Francie catching the first trout

Juan Daniel, Francie's husband.

Father Andres... I know, not what you were expecting... but I kid you not, this is a Catholic priest.

After Francie, Juan Daniel and Father Andres left, I decided it was high time to paint our bathroom. I've been meaning to paint it since we first moved in, and yet for whatever reason, I've been putting it off. It's a very small room with a shower stall, a small sink and a toilet. That's pretty much it. But, it was the one room that Kevin and I cringed at the thought of other people using. It was one of those scenarios where no matter how well I scrubbed, it always looked dingy and dirty. Anyway, the time had come where more urgent projects had been dealt with and where we had a block of time we could dedicate to it. It was time.

Kevin agreed to do all the prep work: fill in the hole and sand, get rid of the old sink and fit the new pipes, and seal the obvious gaps. God bless him... I hate prepping, especially sanding. Kevin hates painting, which is convenient because I love it. We make a pretty good team. We  bought a new sink and tap (the old one was cracked and chipped), but the goal was to freshen up the room with a lick of paint... and preferably paint we already had. The shower stall and floor tiles had to stay. We decided we were not going to replace them, which means we have Butternut Squash coloured tiles to work with. Oh joy! You'll have to imagine the 'before' ... dingy white-grey walls. Very uninspiring. So, this is the transformation (keep in mind I'm standing in the shower stall to take this pic and I don't have a lens to zoom out):

We used up the same butter cream yellow paint and putty green from the living room. All walls, including above the shower stall, are all cream, however, for a bit of depth and interest, Kevin agreed that the green accent would be nice. Kevin removed the useless hooks under the shelf and replaced them with a handy towel bar we had stored away and I chose to hang a burgundy towel. I unpacked a piece of artwork that was created and given to us as a wedding gift by our good friend, Louise. It's the perfect size and adds some 'pop' bringing all the colours together. The letters on the canvas spell "Lucky in Love"... "Anne and Kevin" ... and "27" ... We were married on Sept 27 and our wedding theme was "lucky in love". We think it looks perfect.

Although a small room, it took most of the week to complete this project between all the prep work, some minor plumbing, waiting for things to dry properly (during the rainy season where the humidity is higher). We are very happy with the end result. Wished we had done this 3 years ago! Oh well... it's done now. Next project... I will be tackling the loft area. And then we're done with the painting projects (I know, I know, famous last words).

Oh, and I should mention, we bought another 3,000 baby fish this week as well. We're up to 7,600 (more or less). The baby trout will be kept in the concrete tank in the hatchery until they're about 2 months old. By that time, we will have sold all our big fish.