(Post 161 of 263)

I have friends coming at the end of April, so I decided to just go ahead and get the guest room done properly. This turned, of course, into a “if you give a mouse a cookie” situation. The new guest room doesn’t have AC and it made no sense to by a unit for that room since it would get used so rarely. So I decided to buy a new one for my bedroom (quieter, cheaper to run, and with a programmable starter) and move the old one into the guest room.

So I figured, if I’m going to have workers in the bedroom, I might as well have them touch up the paint and give the bathroom a facelift, to essentially finish my master suite. And then, while on the Home Depot website, ooh, my dream fan for the mezzanine is in stock and on sale, so might as well grab it too! You know how it goes!

I contacted my contractor from last summer to see if he’d be interested in a hodgepodge of small facelift-type projects. I have had a lot of people say to me, “You’ll never see that guy again.” Ha. Just goes to show a blog never gives you the whole story. I’d no sooner messaged him that he was calling and we were making plans. He came by the next morning to have a look at everything and then we made an appointment to go shopping at Home Depot on Tuesday morning next week.

I ended up doing an online order from Home Depot because all but one of the items I wanted wasn’t in stock in Mérida. I was nervous about delivery times, but everything came within 24 hours! We still have plenty to shop for on Tuesday, so I’m sure he’ll be happy the heavy stuff is out of the way. I also made a Coppel order that I’m disappointed is saying delivery by April 20th, but it’s for one of the last things that needs to go in so the timing might work.

The AC shopping wasn’t without some drama.

I came up with a list of features my dream air conditioner should have and found one by Mabe that met all the criteria and was on sale at Elektra for $12,200, by far the best deal I’d found for any brand. More than I’d hoped to spend, but the inverter ACs are pricier, with the studies showing that they pay for themselves over time in terms of power bill savings. They are also quieter to run.

I ordered the unit and was given a delivery date of April 8th. I got no further communication from Elektra until I noticed a refund to my credit card! I was stunned that I didn’t even get a cancellation email because service from Elektra is normally good.

At this point, time was of the essence and I decided to just focus on my wish list and getting a good brand delivered quickly. So I went to Bomssa, which, spoiler alert, is the only place I’m going to buy appliances from from now on if they have what I want in stock. Third time ordering, third time amazed by the service and price compared to competitors. Bomssa’s website is frustrating in that they don’t give a lot of details. But there’s a link to Whatsapp with a human. So I reached out with my wishlist and was given two models to look at.

I settled on an LG unit that is normally priced at $17,200 but which they had on sale for $13,300. I’d seen the same unit was on sale at both Liverpool and Costco for about $16,000, so I was happy with the price. The attendant processed my order for me and confirmed my method of payment. I like that they have a mobile terminal, so you can pay with your card at delivery. And then I got two surprises: 1) I was getting next-day delivery and 2) the price on the site was if you wanted to finance your unit. Since I was essentially paying cash, they were able to drop the price further to $12,200!!! So I was going to get a better unit at an even better deal than I would have with the Mabe. Things work out!

Of course, this reno coincides with a huge stretch of work starting, but I think that since I know I can trust the guys to work cleanly, I should be able to lock myself in my office and work while they are here and that there won’t be as much disruption as there was last summer. I do think I’ll be out of my bedroom for a night or two, though, so I’ve got on the to-do list for the weekend to make sure my hammock is clean and set up in the “game room.”

April’s going to be a big month, so I can’t wait to enjoy its final weekend with some friends. Life really is starting to feel like it’s getting back to semblance of normal and it’ll be great to have a beautiful guest room ready as the requests to come visit start trickling in!