From the Ground Up
One of the problems with building here in Mexico is that the person who is buying the new home rarely has enough experience to know what is available to work with. As a consequence, he often tries to duplicate that which he knows. It makes sense that a person would build what they are used to, but the problem is that the house often does not fit the environment. It's usually better to try to build a home with local materials.
By local materials I don't mean just brick, mortar, sand, gravel, and cement. The form of the home, down to the type of kitchen, the kind of tile on the floor, the wood for the cabinets and bookshelves, and even the bathroom fixtures should reflect the place where the home is built. What should be used can be defined with the simple term: Form follows function.
An example of all this might be the type of floor tile. There is a staggering array of tile available. There is peron, for example, the common Mexican clay tile. Many people want that "Hacienda" look so they opt for the common tile, but very few know that there is a marble tile that gives the same feel but is much more elegant. This is not a polished marble but a rustic marble which comes in roughly 12" x 12" inch squares and has been dipped in acid to accent the rustic quality of the material. The color of this flooring ranges around a dark red but every tile is different because the marble is cut across grains of color. All in all, this floor is at once very elegant while remaining Mexican and rustico. The best part of this flooring is the price. It compares very favorably with man-made tile at only $300.00 pesos per meter. It is certainly more expensive than peron but it is infinitely more beautiful.
Another example of this thought is the famous colonial kitchen or bathroom tile. What defines the colonial tile is its size. It is usually between 10 and 12 cm. square. Most people know this tile as the tile with the primary colors used to depict patterns and motifs, but did you know that you can get colonial tile in a wide variety of solid colors? Did you know that you can usually mix and match colors to come up with beautiful color schemes and still maintain that rustic yet elegant style that is common to Mexico? You just have to know where to look and what to look for. By the way the cost is the about the same for all types of colonial tile. There are a couple of lines that you must order from the factory and those run as high as $600.00 pesos a square meter but the other are all relatively inexpensive.
Did you know that you can get very secure and beautiful door hinges and locks made in the colonial style? Not only can you get beauty but you can also get them with old fashioned long skeleton keys. If you install those locks and hinges on heavy, Mexican wooden doors made of cedar or perota you can continue with an elegance found only in Mexico.
The list of materials available to use in building is really staggering. Mexico still has village blacksmiths and stone cutters. They often need some guidance simply because they tend to only make the things they are asked to make.
There is a flagstone available here which is suitable for flooring inside a home. It takes some imagination to cut the stone to fit, but the resulting floor is amazing.
You can have blacksmiths forge all manner of wall hangings and even kitchen structures such as stove hoods which can then be tiled or pot hangers for over that island. The list goes on and on.
You can have bathroom sinks carved out of a variety of material from marble to onyx. You can have back-lighting behind a wooden or concrete molding at the top of your walls, You can have iron doors made which look like vines. You can have indoor/outdoor living spaces.
In other words, you can have a home which reflects the rustic elegance of Mexico if you simply know where to look for the materials. One other thing. If you are thinking of building your own hacienda, you can even buy 1,600 meter lots located a scant 15 minutes from Ajijic with lake view for only $200.00 pesos per square meter. But, again, you have to know where to look.
