Here come more fun vivienda words and expressions… I’m racing on to the final page of that (remarkably useful) chapter.
la silla — chair. Cuando me han liberado de mis responsabilidades, sentí que no era yo para silla ni para albarda. (please correct me if I got the verb tenses wrong!) — When they relieved me of my responsibilities, I felt totally useless. What the…? Well, una silla is a chair, but also be a saddle (una silla de montar). As far as I can tell, the expression no ser para silla ni para albarda is a comparison to a horse “worthy of neither a saddle nor a packsaddle”, i.e. no good for riding or for carrying a load… Put another way: totally useless! But don’t lose hope, little horsie! Horses are still pretty to look at. Failing that, to sell. To make glue out of (do they still do that?). Or (in some places) to eat! All together now: “To every season…turn, turn, turn…”
el suelo — floor, ground. This is a fun one. You might watch someone tropezar y besar el suelo (trip and do a face plant). On the other hand, besar el suelo que pisa ella would be “to worship the ground she walks on”. Or él, depending on your preference. Let’s say you’re all set to kiss the ground someone walked on (taking these lessons a little too literally!). Just as you’re puckering up, you watch them trip and fell in a most ungraceful, humiliating way. Why not skip the middle-man (ground) and just go ahead and kiss them while they’re down? The other option (upon seeing them tumble from the pedestal you’ve kept them on), is to stand there laughing at them. Pero podrías ponerles la moral por los suelos (you might sink their morale to an all-time low).
el techo — ceiling. No creo que el precio de gasolina ya haya tocado techo — I don’t think gas prices have hit their peak yet. But you wouldn’t care about the price si tienes plata para tirar al techo (if you have money to burn, literally “if you have silver to throw at the ceiling”).
la teja — roof tile. A couple of fun expressions refer to things de tejas abajo (of the world; due to natural causes) or de tejas arriba (of the heavens; due to supernatural causes). To remember, just think whether the root of the problem can be located “above or below the tiles”.