Gosh, how time flies! Suddenly it's Saturday and things are finally slowing down. Yesterday was haircuts for the trip and on the way we stopped at a fabric store to find some matching ribbon for our Oaxacan-style ties (braided cording with horsehair tassels). We bought the tassels some time ago after wresting the information of where he got his fabulous tie from the co-owner of a boutique store we favor, but put off changing out the elastic for coordinated ribbons until just before we had to have it.
Unfortunately, during the process of matching ties to ribbons, I managed to misplace one of the ties (Michael's!), so today I walked into town to the artsy-fartsy street with the shop from which we first purchased them. Luckily, they still had one golden yellow tie left. (Michael favors yellow.) So we're now ready for the cruise, tie-wise. No one else will have these ties to go with their tuxedos - hee, hee, hee! Most of our fellow passengers won't know where Oaxaca is, much less that they have a traditional style of tie.
And our kitchen cabinets did not arrive today. We're now being told Monday. I've told our people that they'd better pick up keys to the house as we leave at 1:00 AM Tuesday morning. It would be nice to find the kitchen magically transformed in our absence....but I'd like to be here for placement of the pantry cabinet.
Oh, well, sometimes you need to let go....
We won't be staying at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge on this trip - nor will we be able to enjoy the Hoop-de-Doo dinner show, but perhaps next time. Instead we have my old boss and hubbie joining us for the first part of the vacation at WDW and ressies for the second half.
One slight disappointment with our cruise is that the new ship is too large to stop at Key West - which I've always wanted to visit since seeing a Jamie Lee Curtis/ Arnold What's-his-name film, True Lies. (I've loved Jamie Lee Curtis since A Fish Called Wanda.) We will be visiting Key West on Disney cruise #12 before the Panama Canal cruise next May (if things don't change before then...). I've also got Jamaica on my bucket list, to visit Noel Coward's last home in Ocho Rios and drink a martini-toast to him. But another time. There's always time, right?
I've got Fiyero wanting his dinner, so I suppose I should wrap this up. Michael tells me that although the Pope will be celebrating a mass in Silao tomorrow, we've also got pilgrims arriving in town from Antotonilco, so fireworks in the morning!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
It's Finished! (Expanded after a TIM moment yesterday)
Whew! Having risen from my afternoon nap - this moving is hard work and we begin early in the day - Michael has brought the last little bits over to the new house, closed up the old house, and we're here now. Dogs have begun to acclimate themselves to the new house: piling on the bed at night, visiting the backyard for their doggy duty (thank heavens!).
Once the carpenter shows up with the new pantry cabinet and reworked crystal cabinet we should be able to free up some additional space in the bodega (it's a maid's room, but we don't have a live-in) and be able to finish unpacking. We've done well unpacking as we go (had to reuse the boxes), but there are still some to finish and things to put away.
This moving stuff is becoming less fun as we grow older. Maybe after the dogs are gone to their reward, we can change our approach and rent a furnished, all-on-one-level home. No, no -- we're in Mexico: we'll have to have an estate sale first, at least!
The new house is a bit smaller than the last one; I like to think it makes better use of the space, as it has the same number of rooms as before. It is certainly lighter and brighter - a welcome turn of affairs! The other house was more Mexican, perhaps, but this one is Mexican Modern with lots of large windows and glass walls. White, white, white! I'll eventually post a few pictures.
We have about a week-and-a-half to settle in and then we're off to Orlando for some time at WDW before the Maiden Voyage on the new Fantasy, followed by some additional time at WDW to decompress and then it's home. Michael will continue to work on the house (there's a wall or two that need some color) while I have a week's turn-around before heading to the Midwest to help my sister and her husband spiff up a house in our old home town.
On the Fantasy, it's a Western Caribbean itinerary, which we've never taken. A sea day getting to the western Caribbean, stops in Grand Cayman (mostly beaches, I hear), Cozumel (the Tulum Ruins), Costa Maya (the Chaccohoben Mayan Ruins), another day at sea getting back to the Bahamas then a day at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, and then back to the World for a few days. All for the Maiden Voyage on Disney's newest ship, the Fantasy: larger (4000 pax vs 2400 pax); a couple more decks; re-imagined restaurants (about time - bored with Animators' Palette) and an even more upscale Remy in addition to Palo. Bringing a swimming suit and a tux!
Once the carpenter shows up with the new pantry cabinet and reworked crystal cabinet we should be able to free up some additional space in the bodega (it's a maid's room, but we don't have a live-in) and be able to finish unpacking. We've done well unpacking as we go (had to reuse the boxes), but there are still some to finish and things to put away.
This moving stuff is becoming less fun as we grow older. Maybe after the dogs are gone to their reward, we can change our approach and rent a furnished, all-on-one-level home. No, no -- we're in Mexico: we'll have to have an estate sale first, at least!
The new house is a bit smaller than the last one; I like to think it makes better use of the space, as it has the same number of rooms as before. It is certainly lighter and brighter - a welcome turn of affairs! The other house was more Mexican, perhaps, but this one is Mexican Modern with lots of large windows and glass walls. White, white, white! I'll eventually post a few pictures.
We have about a week-and-a-half to settle in and then we're off to Orlando for some time at WDW before the Maiden Voyage on the new Fantasy, followed by some additional time at WDW to decompress and then it's home. Michael will continue to work on the house (there's a wall or two that need some color) while I have a week's turn-around before heading to the Midwest to help my sister and her husband spiff up a house in our old home town.
On the Fantasy, it's a Western Caribbean itinerary, which we've never taken. A sea day getting to the western Caribbean, stops in Grand Cayman (mostly beaches, I hear), Cozumel (the Tulum Ruins), Costa Maya (the Chaccohoben Mayan Ruins), another day at sea getting back to the Bahamas then a day at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, and then back to the World for a few days. All for the Maiden Voyage on Disney's newest ship, the Fantasy: larger (4000 pax vs 2400 pax); a couple more decks; re-imagined restaurants (about time - bored with Animators' Palette) and an even more upscale Remy in addition to Palo. Bringing a swimming suit and a tux!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The Move is Underway!
It has taken 4 men 45 minutes to manhandle the washer from the third floor roof-top laundry room down a twisty-curvy stairway (the stairs start with a run straight ahead until they reach a tight 180-degree turn, then continue straight ahead in the opposite direction until they reach a 90-degree turn) to the ground floor of this house. Once they walk the washer over to the new house, there will be only the dryer - which should be lighter, I hope (no pump, only a motor to turn the drum).
They seem to still be in good spirits. They'll probably be in better spirits when they discover that the laundry room at the new house is on the ground floor not the rooftop!
They've returned and gone upstairs to tackle the dryer....
They seem to still be in good spirits. They'll probably be in better spirits when they discover that the laundry room at the new house is on the ground floor not the rooftop!
They've returned and gone upstairs to tackle the dryer....
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Big Move
This time we're lucky, I guess. Our move from one house to another is only 2 doors away! Yes, we're moving from No. 14 to No. 20 (bracketed by No. 24 and 28A - go figure)! Guess the folks who built 24 and 28A didn't know that our new house is No. 20. I'd guess it had been there a while. And the street number is not displayed, so you can't really complain about those who numbered their houses later. Well, you can, but it would do no good!
And the big move is only 2 days away. We've been moving a room a day for the last week and a half (okay, so some days we didn't move an entire room). But the day after tomorrow is when we make the 'official' move. The movers are coming to move the big, heavy stuff: washer and dryer on the rooftop, fridge and estufa in the kitchen, some chests of drawers from our bedroom, the king-sized bed, the guest room mattress, the living room sofa, and those three umbrella bases, which probably weigh close to 250 pounds combined.
We've moved practically everything else ourselves, and will move the office computers, faxes, scanners, phones, and desks ourselves. The day to transfer our cable/internet/telephone service will also be scheduled for Thursday, if we're lucky. IF not, we'll work in two locations for a while. After that, the old house at No. 14 will be virtually empty. But we'll have a few days before we leave on vacation for any last minute things.
Readying the new house for occupancy has kept us busy.
Although the lease states that the condition of the new house is 'perfect' it was far from that - and we've got the pictures to prove it. We've removed the upper kitchen cabinets from No. 14 and they are being reconfigured for the new kitchen. The backyard has been scalped and we're waiting for it to spring back to life. (See comment later about a weed whacker.) The additional kitchen cabinets should be in place by this coming weekend. Cabinets and drawers have been lined (shelf lining paper is hard to find in Mexico). The maid's room has been turned into a storage bodega, with the extra kitchen cabinets installed there. The muck on all the windows in the house has been cleaned off (2 days for that); the house has been cleaned from top to bottom (another 2 days). We have installed purified water for the house (you should have seen me scaling the ladder to reach the tinaco and then hanging through the cupola's window to change the light bulb over the stairs). Paint has been chosen (Michael gets to paint while I'm in Indiana for 6 weeks painting a house).
The propane gas line has been extended into the utility yard for the dryer and the BBQ. Planters still need to be selected and planted to keep Fiyero from trying to walk the ledges of the terraces. Sixty-plus pictures have been distributed through out the house (we need to arrange their hanging; cement walls are not the same as drywall in the US). Moving the drapery rods from No. 14 to No. 20 plus a few new, longer rods has been arranged - also for Thursday. We've tried our hands at using a weed whacker on the back yard. Locks have been re-keyed. Lower closet rods have been installed. Chandeliers from No. 14 have been moved to No. 20 and installed. Additional lighting fixtures are being shopped for. We're also looking at some ceiling fans, outside light fixtures, additional blinds, and a combined microwave and exhaust fan unit.
Whew! Hope we're ready when it's time to shuttle to Mexico City for our flight to Orlando!
And the big move is only 2 days away. We've been moving a room a day for the last week and a half (okay, so some days we didn't move an entire room). But the day after tomorrow is when we make the 'official' move. The movers are coming to move the big, heavy stuff: washer and dryer on the rooftop, fridge and estufa in the kitchen, some chests of drawers from our bedroom, the king-sized bed, the guest room mattress, the living room sofa, and those three umbrella bases, which probably weigh close to 250 pounds combined.
We've moved practically everything else ourselves, and will move the office computers, faxes, scanners, phones, and desks ourselves. The day to transfer our cable/internet/telephone service will also be scheduled for Thursday, if we're lucky. IF not, we'll work in two locations for a while. After that, the old house at No. 14 will be virtually empty. But we'll have a few days before we leave on vacation for any last minute things.
Readying the new house for occupancy has kept us busy.
Although the lease states that the condition of the new house is 'perfect' it was far from that - and we've got the pictures to prove it. We've removed the upper kitchen cabinets from No. 14 and they are being reconfigured for the new kitchen. The backyard has been scalped and we're waiting for it to spring back to life. (See comment later about a weed whacker.) The additional kitchen cabinets should be in place by this coming weekend. Cabinets and drawers have been lined (shelf lining paper is hard to find in Mexico). The maid's room has been turned into a storage bodega, with the extra kitchen cabinets installed there. The muck on all the windows in the house has been cleaned off (2 days for that); the house has been cleaned from top to bottom (another 2 days). We have installed purified water for the house (you should have seen me scaling the ladder to reach the tinaco and then hanging through the cupola's window to change the light bulb over the stairs). Paint has been chosen (Michael gets to paint while I'm in Indiana for 6 weeks painting a house).
The propane gas line has been extended into the utility yard for the dryer and the BBQ. Planters still need to be selected and planted to keep Fiyero from trying to walk the ledges of the terraces. Sixty-plus pictures have been distributed through out the house (we need to arrange their hanging; cement walls are not the same as drywall in the US). Moving the drapery rods from No. 14 to No. 20 plus a few new, longer rods has been arranged - also for Thursday. We've tried our hands at using a weed whacker on the back yard. Locks have been re-keyed. Lower closet rods have been installed. Chandeliers from No. 14 have been moved to No. 20 and installed. Additional lighting fixtures are being shopped for. We're also looking at some ceiling fans, outside light fixtures, additional blinds, and a combined microwave and exhaust fan unit.
Whew! Hope we're ready when it's time to shuttle to Mexico City for our flight to Orlando!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Casting About
Castaway Cay is the name of Disney's private island in the Bahamas. An idyllic place to land after bobbing about in the ocean. The name reminds me of what we're presently doing: casting about for what to move next!
While hurried moves can be distressing, having a month in which to move house is almost too long. There's still that little voice in your head saying: Hurry up, time's a-wasting! Something might go wrong.
We're at that state. While we have a timeline in which certain things should be accomplished, there's a lot of wiggle room. We began with the concept of moving a room a day, but there was extra time, so some rooms got moved ahead of schedule. Then some planned events (the new gas line for the dryer, for instance) got delayed due to availability of workers. Cleaning the house took two days instead of one. While we've mostly adopted the Mexican approach to life - mañana - it still throws a wrench into one's plans.
So here we are at 4 am, wondering what's next. There is a point where everything will move to the new house and then we'll live there! But we're still in the stage of maintaining a life in the old house: the kitchen appliances are here, so we'll be eating here; the office is still here, so we're working here; and our bedroom is still here, so we're sleeping here. And since our internet/telephone/phone service is tied together - and you can't have service at two locations at once - the final move must be carefully choreographed.
We have, on the other hand, signed up on line to review the electrical billings of the new house. That is amazingly simple. Not that we can switch the ownership of the account to us without purchasing the property (where in the states they only care about who is paying the bill), but we can sign-up online to review the account if we have the name and number associated with it. And since bills are delivered door-to-door, we have the information for the new place, too.
It gives you an idea of what kind of deadbeat your landlord is, that's for sure! He presently owes $301 pesos in arrears. Which is a different concept here, too. Why pay my taxes when the government won't try to collect for a few years? How long does it take to turn off services? There's always mañana....
I'm sure we'll think of something useful to do today. Once the Mega opens I can get a pair of gardening gloves and attack the weeds in the new back yard. Our gardener didn't show yesterday and the dogs can't go over until the backyard is cleared up or we'll be brushing coats for days. We'll have help on Monday for moving heavy stuff (though the washer/dryer and kitchen appliances, for instance, will go at the last minute). And Tuesday the carpenter will be here to remove the upper kitchen cabinets which we're having reworked for the new house. We put the upper cabinets in ourselves, so they're ours to do with as we please - and it pleases us to move them. That means we need to bundle up all our dishes and stemware so they can move the cabinets to their workrooms - but that requires bubblewrap and the Office Depot doesn't open until later in the morning.
And today we're going to see the Luche Libre - Mexican-style wrestling by big guys wearing head-covering masks. Can you believe that some appear in movies wearing still wearing their masks?!? Bizarre. I'm hoping our friends can explain some of this mystique to us....
It's now about 5 am: Mega opens at 8; Office Depot at 10. Perhaps a little nap is required. In the meanwhile, we'll cast about for something useful to do.
While hurried moves can be distressing, having a month in which to move house is almost too long. There's still that little voice in your head saying: Hurry up, time's a-wasting! Something might go wrong.
We're at that state. While we have a timeline in which certain things should be accomplished, there's a lot of wiggle room. We began with the concept of moving a room a day, but there was extra time, so some rooms got moved ahead of schedule. Then some planned events (the new gas line for the dryer, for instance) got delayed due to availability of workers. Cleaning the house took two days instead of one. While we've mostly adopted the Mexican approach to life - mañana - it still throws a wrench into one's plans.
So here we are at 4 am, wondering what's next. There is a point where everything will move to the new house and then we'll live there! But we're still in the stage of maintaining a life in the old house: the kitchen appliances are here, so we'll be eating here; the office is still here, so we're working here; and our bedroom is still here, so we're sleeping here. And since our internet/telephone/phone service is tied together - and you can't have service at two locations at once - the final move must be carefully choreographed.
We have, on the other hand, signed up on line to review the electrical billings of the new house. That is amazingly simple. Not that we can switch the ownership of the account to us without purchasing the property (where in the states they only care about who is paying the bill), but we can sign-up online to review the account if we have the name and number associated with it. And since bills are delivered door-to-door, we have the information for the new place, too.
It gives you an idea of what kind of deadbeat your landlord is, that's for sure! He presently owes $301 pesos in arrears. Which is a different concept here, too. Why pay my taxes when the government won't try to collect for a few years? How long does it take to turn off services? There's always mañana....
I'm sure we'll think of something useful to do today. Once the Mega opens I can get a pair of gardening gloves and attack the weeds in the new back yard. Our gardener didn't show yesterday and the dogs can't go over until the backyard is cleared up or we'll be brushing coats for days. We'll have help on Monday for moving heavy stuff (though the washer/dryer and kitchen appliances, for instance, will go at the last minute). And Tuesday the carpenter will be here to remove the upper kitchen cabinets which we're having reworked for the new house. We put the upper cabinets in ourselves, so they're ours to do with as we please - and it pleases us to move them. That means we need to bundle up all our dishes and stemware so they can move the cabinets to their workrooms - but that requires bubblewrap and the Office Depot doesn't open until later in the morning.
And today we're going to see the Luche Libre - Mexican-style wrestling by big guys wearing head-covering masks. Can you believe that some appear in movies wearing still wearing their masks?!? Bizarre. I'm hoping our friends can explain some of this mystique to us....
It's now about 5 am: Mega opens at 8; Office Depot at 10. Perhaps a little nap is required. In the meanwhile, we'll cast about for something useful to do.
Friday, February 24, 2012
A Shout-Out
This is just a shout-out to Dorita Loca, who has a blog about San Miguel, too. She writes even less frequently than I do, but I love her take on things SOB.
Her blogs address is: http://dmgb.wordpress.com/
She's funny in person, too!
Her blogs address is: http://dmgb.wordpress.com/
She's funny in person, too!
News on the Housing Front
Our search for a new home seems to be coming to an end, but perhaps we should start with a quick recap of our homes in San Miguel.
Our very first house was arranged over the internet. A florid, organic style house (sort of Gaudi-esque, if you will) in what turned out to be a less-than-wonderful part of town. The pictures were true-to-life and what was said about the house was true - just not the complete story. I remember that we booked it while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, wired the deposit, and eventually saw it when we visited San Miguel for the first time. [Doesn't everyone make these decisions sight unseen?] We don't count this house among our homes as we didn't actually live there.
We had also arranged to meet and have dinner with two persons who wrote of their experiences in San Miguel on our first visit. I'm afraid part of the meal was spent moaning about how we'd made a terrible mistake over the house, how it wouldn't work for us, how the dogs would plunge off the built-in second floor balcony seats to a horrible death.
By the time we returned to California at the end of the weekend, our new-found friends had located a possible home for us, taken pictures of it and the neighborhood, and put us in contact with the owner. We consider this house to be our first home in SMA. It was lovely, in a working-class neighborhood, but not far from our new friends. Unique in some ways (shaped like a slice of pie), walkable into downtown, and with friendly neighbors, it had been the family home of our landlord who lived nearby in his newly-built house.
We met the owner the next time we were in San Miguel, a few weeks later, gave a deposit, got the keys, and arranged for some painting while we were gone. The lovely yellow walls had all been painted white since the pictures were taken and we needed some accent walls, ya know?
Except for the neighbors on one side who harbored a band (who practiced a lot), it was a nice place to live. However, there was only a very small garden spot inside the walls of the house for the dogs. We spent a lot of time picking up after them - if you get my drift. So when our promised year was up, we began to look for a place with a yard.
Perhaps a word is needed here. Like most homes in Mexico, the house was built out to the limits of the lot line: no front yard, no backyard, no side yards. Windows only at the front and back of the house (and in our case, skylights), not on the sides where one's neighbors also built out to the edges of their lots. Finding a house with an actual yard was a challenge.
We looked at many houses, some with large patios, but not yards. They would still require a lot of "picking up" - not that we don't even with a grassy lawn. What was the norm back NOB, was rare SOB. After a few false starts, we eventually settled on a home across town (further from Centro, but a flatter walk - some day I'll tell you about our hill in Col. San Rafael), made the deposit and started on the work. We were the first people to live in the house, so there was a lot of 'stuff' to do to it: three floors of tile floors needed to be sealed, kitchen and bathroom cabinets built and installed, and rough concrete steps to be tiled in addition to the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, draperies, et cetera to be arranged. We also had to acquire a stove and refrigerator which had been provided with our first home. This took about 3 - 4 months during which time we cooked by microwave and crock-pot, racking up large electricity bills (more on that another time, too).
The house - which had been built to be sold, not rented - still had an unfinished bathroom off the master bedroom. It was to be finished before we moved in - but wasn't. Then it was to be finished when we were out of town for several weeks on vacation - but it wasn't. Then we were going to go half-and-half with the landlord on the bathroom. Then they decided to sell the house and didn't want to invest any more money in it. You guessed it - it's still not finished!
At least the landlord decided to list it for sale once our lease was up and offered to let us rent month-to-month until it was sold. However, we decided that we didn't want to be at the whim of a possible sale (which could have taken a long time in this real estate market) and decided to look for a place that would offer us a longer term lease, perhaps 3 - 4 years. (What I'd love would be a long-term lease with option to renew for the rest of our time here! We're hoping that we've found it.)
Unlike our first landlord (we don't count that first rental since we didn't live there), who spoke English, our second landlord spoke only Spanish, so we relied heavily on our broker for communication, who was a god-send. (The story of our Spanish classes is for another day.) Now he served as our "renters' broker" as we looked for a new home.
We did find a new home - just a few doors away from our current home (#2), but he had to convince the landlord (Spanish speaking, of course) to 1) accept a lower rent and 2) to allow dogs. And he was successful! The rent was still a little higher than house #2, but workable and we knew the dogs would not be a problem.
But she didn't want to wait until our lease was up at the end of April, she wanted to rent the house to us as of March! It had been vacant for at least a year to our knowledge, but suddenly she was in a hurry! So back to our broker, who needed to get us out of our current lease early. And here was a snag: our current landlord thought our dogs may have 'ruined' the grass in the front yard - meaning, I'm not going to use the deposit towards your last month's rent, but claim it to repair the small patch of lawn. Typically Mexican, I'm afraid to say. Trust me, we know how much it costs to re-sod a lawn down here and it wasn't anywhere near the amount of our deposit! I was not looking forward to our meeting, as I might have gotten a bit huffy about things - and that's seldom to one's advantage.
However, our broker went to bat for us again, and convinced her that she was getting the best of the deal, even if we wanted out of the lease early and wanted to use the deposit for the new last month's rent, as we had invested over $26,000 pesos in improvements to the house that we wouldn't take with us. There was a meeting scheduled between us all, but it fell through at the last moment, and it was settled that we could leave early and not pay any additional rent. Whew!
That helped us afford the rather large deposit on the new house (first, last, and an equal deposit). So tomorrow our broker will meet us at our bank for the deposit on the new home and hopefully deliver keys to us later in the day. Our rental will not actually start until March 1st, so keys may have to wait until then, but the house has been vacant for at least the year that we've been here in house #2, so we're hoping that we will be able to get a head start on moving. Sometimes dealing with Mexican landlords can be a challenge. Even though the house had been vacate for over a year - earning no income - the landlord was very reluctant to lower the rent and it took some bargaining to reach a compromise we both could live with.
Since it's only a couple of doors away, we'll probably be doing a lot of the moving ourselves, saving the washer/dryer, stove, fridge and any larger (read, heavier) items for the movers. We've already contacted our people about extending the gas line to the laundry area for the dryer, working on the front door to the house (which is inside the perimeter street entry), and some other things that the landlord had at first offered to do before we moved in - until she settled for the slightly lesser rent. They're now all our responsibility, which I suppose is best since I know how I want things done....
So we have a list that will eventually get done, some sooner than later: install a gas line to the clothes dryer (luckily the water heater is on the second floor's balcony right above the utility yard), fix the front door's fit, re-tile the kitchen counters, get a newer hot water heater, replace the master bedroom's bathtub (we may surprise her and have a walk-in shower installed...), all in addition to a dog door, some interior accent walls (the house is very light and bright and white now), additional drapery rods constructed, and the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, et cetera. Luckily our chandeliers will work in the new house and so be moved from house #2 to house #3 (a job for our handyman from the first house whom we trust for electrical work). We also plan on having a pantry built for the kitchen and some storage cabinets for the maid's room (which will become our storage bodega as our maid commutes from her home).
Michael had thought he'd be moving house while I was in the mid-west for 6 weeks helping my sister and her husband rework their home in our old home town, but we better be moved and outta here before then. I'm itching to start work right now!
The library is packed and waiting to go; the guest room is next on the list (primarily furniture). Timing the switch over of our telephone/internet service will depend on when we move the office, but it needs to happen on the same day as the cable installation (our television cable service also provides our telephone and internet service). We can only have the service turned on at one place at a time, so the switch-over must be timed carefully. Once the office is up and running, we'll effectively have moved, even though there may still be rooms to transport to the new house, because we rely on the internet so much.
We're truly hoping this will be the last move for quite a while - years, actually - or ever, hopefully. Most of our friends here own their homes, but that's not an option we'll elect. Our other best friends have a 5-year lease on their home. It's getting so everyone at our Wednesday morning koffee klatsch automatically asks about the house search. Enough, already!
Let's hope it's done for a long while!
Our very first house was arranged over the internet. A florid, organic style house (sort of Gaudi-esque, if you will) in what turned out to be a less-than-wonderful part of town. The pictures were true-to-life and what was said about the house was true - just not the complete story. I remember that we booked it while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, wired the deposit, and eventually saw it when we visited San Miguel for the first time. [Doesn't everyone make these decisions sight unseen?] We don't count this house among our homes as we didn't actually live there.
We had also arranged to meet and have dinner with two persons who wrote of their experiences in San Miguel on our first visit. I'm afraid part of the meal was spent moaning about how we'd made a terrible mistake over the house, how it wouldn't work for us, how the dogs would plunge off the built-in second floor balcony seats to a horrible death.
By the time we returned to California at the end of the weekend, our new-found friends had located a possible home for us, taken pictures of it and the neighborhood, and put us in contact with the owner. We consider this house to be our first home in SMA. It was lovely, in a working-class neighborhood, but not far from our new friends. Unique in some ways (shaped like a slice of pie), walkable into downtown, and with friendly neighbors, it had been the family home of our landlord who lived nearby in his newly-built house.
We met the owner the next time we were in San Miguel, a few weeks later, gave a deposit, got the keys, and arranged for some painting while we were gone. The lovely yellow walls had all been painted white since the pictures were taken and we needed some accent walls, ya know?
Except for the neighbors on one side who harbored a band (who practiced a lot), it was a nice place to live. However, there was only a very small garden spot inside the walls of the house for the dogs. We spent a lot of time picking up after them - if you get my drift. So when our promised year was up, we began to look for a place with a yard.
Perhaps a word is needed here. Like most homes in Mexico, the house was built out to the limits of the lot line: no front yard, no backyard, no side yards. Windows only at the front and back of the house (and in our case, skylights), not on the sides where one's neighbors also built out to the edges of their lots. Finding a house with an actual yard was a challenge.
We looked at many houses, some with large patios, but not yards. They would still require a lot of "picking up" - not that we don't even with a grassy lawn. What was the norm back NOB, was rare SOB. After a few false starts, we eventually settled on a home across town (further from Centro, but a flatter walk - some day I'll tell you about our hill in Col. San Rafael), made the deposit and started on the work. We were the first people to live in the house, so there was a lot of 'stuff' to do to it: three floors of tile floors needed to be sealed, kitchen and bathroom cabinets built and installed, and rough concrete steps to be tiled in addition to the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, draperies, et cetera to be arranged. We also had to acquire a stove and refrigerator which had been provided with our first home. This took about 3 - 4 months during which time we cooked by microwave and crock-pot, racking up large electricity bills (more on that another time, too).
The house - which had been built to be sold, not rented - still had an unfinished bathroom off the master bedroom. It was to be finished before we moved in - but wasn't. Then it was to be finished when we were out of town for several weeks on vacation - but it wasn't. Then we were going to go half-and-half with the landlord on the bathroom. Then they decided to sell the house and didn't want to invest any more money in it. You guessed it - it's still not finished!
At least the landlord decided to list it for sale once our lease was up and offered to let us rent month-to-month until it was sold. However, we decided that we didn't want to be at the whim of a possible sale (which could have taken a long time in this real estate market) and decided to look for a place that would offer us a longer term lease, perhaps 3 - 4 years. (What I'd love would be a long-term lease with option to renew for the rest of our time here! We're hoping that we've found it.)
Unlike our first landlord (we don't count that first rental since we didn't live there), who spoke English, our second landlord spoke only Spanish, so we relied heavily on our broker for communication, who was a god-send. (The story of our Spanish classes is for another day.) Now he served as our "renters' broker" as we looked for a new home.
We did find a new home - just a few doors away from our current home (#2), but he had to convince the landlord (Spanish speaking, of course) to 1) accept a lower rent and 2) to allow dogs. And he was successful! The rent was still a little higher than house #2, but workable and we knew the dogs would not be a problem.
But she didn't want to wait until our lease was up at the end of April, she wanted to rent the house to us as of March! It had been vacant for at least a year to our knowledge, but suddenly she was in a hurry! So back to our broker, who needed to get us out of our current lease early. And here was a snag: our current landlord thought our dogs may have 'ruined' the grass in the front yard - meaning, I'm not going to use the deposit towards your last month's rent, but claim it to repair the small patch of lawn. Typically Mexican, I'm afraid to say. Trust me, we know how much it costs to re-sod a lawn down here and it wasn't anywhere near the amount of our deposit! I was not looking forward to our meeting, as I might have gotten a bit huffy about things - and that's seldom to one's advantage.
However, our broker went to bat for us again, and convinced her that she was getting the best of the deal, even if we wanted out of the lease early and wanted to use the deposit for the new last month's rent, as we had invested over $26,000 pesos in improvements to the house that we wouldn't take with us. There was a meeting scheduled between us all, but it fell through at the last moment, and it was settled that we could leave early and not pay any additional rent. Whew!
That helped us afford the rather large deposit on the new house (first, last, and an equal deposit). So tomorrow our broker will meet us at our bank for the deposit on the new home and hopefully deliver keys to us later in the day. Our rental will not actually start until March 1st, so keys may have to wait until then, but the house has been vacant for at least the year that we've been here in house #2, so we're hoping that we will be able to get a head start on moving. Sometimes dealing with Mexican landlords can be a challenge. Even though the house had been vacate for over a year - earning no income - the landlord was very reluctant to lower the rent and it took some bargaining to reach a compromise we both could live with.
Since it's only a couple of doors away, we'll probably be doing a lot of the moving ourselves, saving the washer/dryer, stove, fridge and any larger (read, heavier) items for the movers. We've already contacted our people about extending the gas line to the laundry area for the dryer, working on the front door to the house (which is inside the perimeter street entry), and some other things that the landlord had at first offered to do before we moved in - until she settled for the slightly lesser rent. They're now all our responsibility, which I suppose is best since I know how I want things done....
So we have a list that will eventually get done, some sooner than later: install a gas line to the clothes dryer (luckily the water heater is on the second floor's balcony right above the utility yard), fix the front door's fit, re-tile the kitchen counters, get a newer hot water heater, replace the master bedroom's bathtub (we may surprise her and have a walk-in shower installed...), all in addition to a dog door, some interior accent walls (the house is very light and bright and white now), additional drapery rods constructed, and the usual light fixtures, toilet seats, et cetera. Luckily our chandeliers will work in the new house and so be moved from house #2 to house #3 (a job for our handyman from the first house whom we trust for electrical work). We also plan on having a pantry built for the kitchen and some storage cabinets for the maid's room (which will become our storage bodega as our maid commutes from her home).
Michael had thought he'd be moving house while I was in the mid-west for 6 weeks helping my sister and her husband rework their home in our old home town, but we better be moved and outta here before then. I'm itching to start work right now!
The library is packed and waiting to go; the guest room is next on the list (primarily furniture). Timing the switch over of our telephone/internet service will depend on when we move the office, but it needs to happen on the same day as the cable installation (our television cable service also provides our telephone and internet service). We can only have the service turned on at one place at a time, so the switch-over must be timed carefully. Once the office is up and running, we'll effectively have moved, even though there may still be rooms to transport to the new house, because we rely on the internet so much.
We're truly hoping this will be the last move for quite a while - years, actually - or ever, hopefully. Most of our friends here own their homes, but that's not an option we'll elect. Our other best friends have a 5-year lease on their home. It's getting so everyone at our Wednesday morning koffee klatsch automatically asks about the house search. Enough, already!
Let's hope it's done for a long while!
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