On my way back down I found this work in progress. The bricks reminded me of my first trip to Romania. Occasionally I saw a house under construction and I observed that the bricks were very large compared to ours. I thought "Boy, these Romanians do a sloppy job with the mortar. Just look at the gaps between the bricks!" It didn't occur to me that I never saw this loose construction technique on a finished house. The brilliant realization hit me that these "bricks" are like our concrete blocks and there isn't so much care spent on the mortar because it's never seen once the insulation and stucco layers are applied. Duh!