Our friends' adorable Mexican style house in Chelem

So, our very good friends, Dan and Luce, own a house that they remodelled significantly about 3 or 4 years ago.

 

Dan is here without Luce for a couple of weeks (: and ):, organizing his renewal of his Mexican residency papers.

 

So, Dan had us over for a wonderful supper (and again last night - he's a great cook!)

 

Here are a few pictures of their lovely home incorporating many gorgeous Mexican concepts, and Luce's very awesome decorating skills.  I love their use of colours and Mexican tile!

Luce's kitchen (okay, Dan's kitchen this week - ha!)

 

Love the countertop incorporating the beautiful Talavera tiles.

 

I hope I can keep my shelves as attractive looking as Luce does!

 

And my storage too!

 

Check out their beautiful bathroom, with side door out to the yard for ease of entering from the yard and not going through the house!  Great idea!

 

 

Their gorgeous pool!  It's so hard to remember when we first saw their backyard!  There was NOTHING there, just a very short little lot.  They've made it beautiful!  We've had many fun filled afternoons relaxing in and around this pool with all their lush greenery!

And their son owns a house 2 doors down that they rent for him, so if you're looking for an awesome warm holiday, come on down.  I'll happily give you their contact information!

Oops - car issues again!

 

So, while we were parked outside of our new house, our neighbour backed out of his driveway and into the side of our friend's car that we're currently renting!

 

Interesting situation - our workers saw the accident happen and came running to tell us about it.  So Vic and I went out and found that our next door neighbour had been leaving, with his son driving, (and probably both were drinking), and the Dad apparently guided his son out of the driveway.  Unfortunately, he did a bad job and back his pristine new car into ours.

 

After his vehement denial of his culpability (all in Spanish remember), and our workers insisting that yes, it had happened, and the marks on the back of his car, and the side of ours matching exactly, and tire tracks under ours very definitely proving that they had hit us, we called the police.  They were much kinder than I can imagine they would have been in Canada under similar circumstances, but did encourage the fellow to come to terms with us about paying for whatever damages had occurred.

 

He did, and we signed off a police statement that basically said that they didn't need to get involved because the parties had come to an agreement - interesting!

 

Anyways, not sure how much it would cost to have 2 door panels undented and repainted, we could only hope he would be good for his word. 

 

We skype called my friend, Pury, who is currently over in Belgium visiting her boyfriend, and she told us where to take it.  She didn't seem too worried at all - phewf!

 

Now we know why - we met the next day with the autobody fellows, and with a quote of $800 (pesos), so about $64., all was made beautiful in a matter of hours! 

 

WAY less expensive than in Canada eh?!

 

So, a little pesky worry, but in Mexico, all is well!  Another happy day. :)

Days start early and with beautiful sunrises!

 So, fall is still a very warm time in the Yucatan, so when we wake up it's often 26 or 27 degrees.

 

Which means that in order to keep up our work outs, Vic and I tend to get up, often before sunrise, in order to find the coolest part of the day possible.

 

This particular morning I was heading out for a run while Vic slept in.  Due to his sore knee, the poor guy hasn't run since June.  He does like his sleep though, so this is not a bad thing.

 

We have done a few 60km bike rides, usually starting well before sunrise, using our fancy headlamps we purchased from street vendors for 60 pesos in order to see the topes (speed bumps), and holes (or large puddles lately, as we have had some significant rains too)!

 

And I'm pleased to say I have found another running partner (although I sure miss my old one - okay, he's not that old - ha!). A mother of 4 from California who has taken a year sabbatical to spend here in Progreso with her kids and significant other, Sabrina, has become my 3 runs/week partner. 

 

We met on the street one day when I was out running, and she invited us to her boyfriend's birthday party the next night.  It's really very easy to meet other expats and snowbirds in Progreso, as we all tend to seek each other out and mesh quickly.

 

And after a hard workout, it's wonderful to come home to Neek Kaan, and the beautiful, newly remodeled swimming pool, with its new, never has to be painted again finish.  The water's always refreshing and clean, thanks to our super caretaker couple, Juan and Lupe!

A gorgeous morning!

A few new parts and pieces

As you can see, the kitchen has now all been torn out.  This week has started off rather discouragingly with the construction, as it's sometimes hard to see where things are going, but little things help!

 

Below are the glass blocks we've added to the kitchen wall to bring more light in from the south, without adding more heat from the sun, which seems to always shine here in Progreso :)

 

 

The window is out, so the opening gets covered up with some of the scaffolding planks when the crew leaves at night.

 

My hard working honey in his working attire!

 

Me with my new sun and moon for the wall in the backyard behind the pool.  I'm really excited about these, and their pattern of cutout clay matches the lamps we've chosen for outside exactly.

 

And my beautiful talavera sink to match the tiles we used in the backyard in our garden edges for the backyard bathroom.  And a glass block!  Okay, so pretty things help remind me that it will someday be great!!  Right?! :)

Supper out!

Yeah - a little time out for fun!

 

Our wonderful Mexican friends, Manuel and Piwi had us over to their beautiful new home in Merida for supper.

 

It was a little past my bedtime - Mexicans traditionally eat supper around 9 or 10, but a few hiccups with Piwi's "muchacha", in-house help, meant we ate a delicious lasagna and salad at around 10:45.

 

Most importantly, we had a fantastic catch up visit with both, and it was super to know that Manuel was fine after a major health scare this past summer.  Beautiful people, wonderful friends! :)

Back to work!

 

So, we're back at it, and many of our spring crew are back to work with us again - yeah!

Pepe (our 80ish year old electrician, Jose, our fun and crazy plumber/coordinator, and the young one, Camillo, the apprentice electrician/plumber.  They were here in the condo this day helping fix a leaky tap (okay, we had to replace it), and putting in a stove vent for us.  It was an all afternoon event, but a good chance to catch up with them.  4 hours x 3 workers, $200 (pesos), so about $16. Cdn!

 

 

Back at the house, new projects are under way.

Here below the guys are putting the second coat of cement on the walls, and starting some of the finish coat on the ceiling.

The kitchen window comes out!

 

 

So now there's just a hole and the wrought iron protectores in place. :(

 

It's still bright in the kitchen / living room area, before the new mud goes on.

 

And already, below is the beginning of our arched window above the newly centered kitchen window.

 

And the cutout for the window in the bathroom to be relocated to.

 

And more scaffolding being set up (note the old planks on the stacks of bricks!) to be able to reach the ceilings and walls to throw more mud!

 

And now things get a little scarier - watch for the next house photos!

 

Back at it in Mexico!

 

 

Okay, so if you thought it looked bad when we left in the spring, it has only gotten worse!  Ugh!

 

Here is our kitchen, with all the previous wall tiles, sink, etc. torn out.

 

And the bathroom - just a box now!

 

They've chipped out all the tiles in the bedroom closets in preparation for redoing the closets with the new tile.

 

And they're back to starting to do the inside walls and ceilings, so again, hand mixing the cement.

 

But then, the surprise!  Notice the pole sticking out of the hole in the middle of the living room floor.  This room is okay.  It has support under the floor.

 

So, the living room is okay.

 

Both bedrooms, the kitchen, and the bathroom, not so much!  Apparently, likely in the last hurricane, the water swirled underneath the entire house and dragged out all the sand, which was the support for the floor!  Or it all sank.

 

So, what does that mean for us?  We just about freaked when Juan told us that they would now have to chop out all the floors in the house, except the living room, use the debris underneath the new floor to form a base.  So, they have to break the floor all up, and we get an entirely new base for our new tiles.  Otherwise, the whole floor might cave in when we put furniture on it!!

 

So we were questioning how much this was going to cost extra, and imagining $1000's of dollars, likely $10,000 came to both our minds.  But, thank God and Juan (our concrete guy), apparently it will take about an extra week, and will cost us about $7000 pesos! Both of us breathed easier - that's about $600 Canadian.  How much would that have cost us at home?  I don't even want to think about it!!!!

 

So already they have removed the entire floor in the kitchen, and the bathroom.

They first dig out the dirt that is there, put it in a pile, put the "escombro" - chopped up pieces of the old tile, into the floor, then level the sand over that.

 

This is currently the floor in our kitchen!!!  Yikes!

And below, the bathroom!  But, they're working on it!!  You can see to the right in the picture below that they have opened up the wall between the spare bedroom and the bathroom where the laundry facility and linen closet will be.

 

It's been great to see some of the old team back at it.  Juan Carlos got a major haircut - he used to be the really shaggy haired guy!

Here he's starting to put the first coat of concrete on the entire spare bedroom.  They have taped and covered the windows to protect them from the mess!  He is working, practically in the dark, with hardly any air flow!  But he's still smiling!

 

And the new guy on the block (below)! 

 

And my two favourites from the concrete team - Juan and Manuel below!

 

So, we're back at it in full force!