Renovations-One or Two Details

Of course, with a big house there are always details to attend to. One of them for us was finding antique window locks. Called sapos, or frogs, these spring loaded locks are put at the top of the window where they ensure that the window can't open. You pull a thin chain to open them. The modern models are pretty ugly so we've been looking for antique ones for ages. We found 4 in Valparaiso a couple of weeks ago and two in Santiago last week. Added to the 7 we already had we needed around 12 more. And they're really not easy to get hold of. Muy escasos was the phrase we heard most.

For that reason, this morning we found ourselves in the 8th Circle of Hell, otherwise known as La Feria Municipal de Belloto (the other side of Quilpue). This place is a huge semi-outdoor market that sells absolutely everything ever made anywhere in the world. It's like the Persa de Bio-Bio in Santiago, but even more of a nightmare-huge crowds, traffic jams, noise and obvious pickpockets galore.

We didn't find any sapos.

We decided on the way back to drop by the antique market here in Valpo to see if more had arrived since our last visit. Jackpot! We found one and then, just a couple of stalls down, we found...wait for it...11 more. Through a huge stroke of luck, we now have all the sapos that we need. Another little detail ticked off the list.

Finally, here's a photo of our wood burner. Like in the kitchen, we designed the tiles. I'm almost looking forward to winter now, summer's getting boring. I love being inside next to the fire when there's a huge winter storm outside.