Living in Paradise
People frequently tell me how lucky I am to live in Paradise. And I agree – don’t get me wrong. Yet every paradise has a bit of purgatory in it. It is an unavoidable fact. Not EVERYTHING is perfect ALL the time. It is early September and we are in “second summer” (my term). First summer is May to mid-July and is much like the summers that I experienced when I lived in the US. Sunny, breezy, temps in the…
Summer in the (near) tropics
Living in the sunny climes of BCS is a dream – most of the time. The occasional hurricane – Hillary was our latest, and she didn’t produce much – and the monsoon-type rains and 100+ degree temps are the “dark side” to living here. We are mostly protected, and don’t get the brunt of most storms, but we still get our fair share, and the infrastructure isn’t built for large quantities of rain. WHY? – you ask. Don’t these sorts…
Tropical Flora
The plants here are NOT what I’m used to. I have spent most of my life in temperate zones, so living in a hot climate brings new challenges, adventures, and beauty. Many of my plant photos are from walks – along the Malecon, around the neighborhood, etc. These were in the yard at our previous rental house: Who knew there were so many beautiful types of HIBISCUS? And BOUGAINVILLEA? And the other things, that I really don’t know what they…
Things I see…
I think most of us snap pics on our phones, thinking that we will share them. I know I do, and yet I rarely get around to sharing. I’ve been going thru my phone pics and here are some fun ones: HOUSE – there have been lots of changes, and some stable periods. We are finally settling in and feeling like it is HOME. CAUGHT MY EYE – sometimes you say, I’ve gotta take a picture of that otherwise no-one…
Mas Construction
Forgive me if you speak Spanish – there should be an accent over the “a” in mas (meaning: more) but for the life of me I can’t make it work. Work, however, is AGAIN happening in the house. Every time we start getting settled, and enjoying that we don’t have workers traipsing in and out of the house all the time, we end up discovering another “project” that needs doing. Today began the demolition phase of some small projects on…
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Haven’t even finished getting ALL the construction photos up, I’ll get there eventually. Today we had a new, might I say refined (?), addition to the house. For those of you that have been here, you will easily see the magnitude of the changes. We ordered drapes and outdoor cushions for the house. Some windows have not had any covering since we moved in. Others were “the best we could do with what we had”. Living Room The drapes make…
Some days don’t go to plan…
We bought the house in October. We started renovating in November. This has been far more stressful than I’d expected. The house is large, but we have been squeezed down into a small amount of space because multiple renovation jobs are going on at one time. We knew the palapa/roof construction was going to be disruptive. The palapa and pergola are DONE!!! The counter/bar is in, the stairs from ground to roof are done. YAY. We are paused on the…
Construction begins – Week 1
We’d only had the keys for the house for 2 weeks when the first load of construction materials arrived. Our FIRST priority with the new place – making the roof accessible, and having a comfortable place to hang out and watch the sun go down over the water. That is going to involve a lot of demolition and construction. This is going to be fun, right? 😉 Watching construction has always fascinated me. The calculus of what happens when, how…
Backfilling: October 21st
The last (nearly) three weeks have been a combination of spectacular highs – excitement, joy, disbelief – combined with exhaustion, chaos, and endless decisions. A potent cocktail!! In addition, we are STILL waiting for internet service at the new place – so all internet needs require a trip back to the rental house. Thank goodness we have the place until the end of the year!!! So… we closed on the house on October 21st. It was a thrilling and draining…
SJC and the BEST News
In all the hubbub about the house, we’ve realized that (1) it is a BIG house, and (2) it is only PARTIALLY furnished! Since nearly all of our worldly belongings were sold last year when we realized that we were Accidental Mexpats – that means that we have very little to bring into the house – and, LOL, for now it is all still “up North”. How do we solve this problem? We’ve looked around at furniture and appliance stores…