Homemaking

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Plans Written in Sand

I had some pretty grand plans for today that included making another attempt at opening a bank account and trying to order internet service, as well as taking a load to the house and cleaning the master suite. Good thing I’m flexible.

Before I took off this morning, I had another look at the local classifieds in the hope of finding a fridge that I could have delivered to the house today. That’s the big purchase that will help set the budget for everything else so I really wanted it out of the way. I’ve looked at enough online to know that simple side-by-side fridges (my dream model) are a rare pearl because those with ice makers and/or water dispensers are standard. So I was looking at $4,000+ for a side-by-side. But a decent regular fridge with the freezer on top could be had from anywhere from $800 to $3,000 depending on size, brand, and condition. I would be happy to get a big one with plastic shelves (rather than wire shelves) that runs cold and is clean. I really don’t care much about the appearance, especially since rust is such a part of life here, so cosmetic issues weren’t major.

Well, I spotted a nice looking one for $1,500 that while small had everything else I wanted… and the guy actually texted me right back to say I could come this morning to look at it. So instead of heading to a bank, I ended up somewhere near the airport in a fairly poor neighbourhood where my truck fit right in, but I got a lot of stares when I exited it. That might be because I’d been driving in circles looking for the house. Who knows… 🙂

At any rate, it turns out the guy sells all manner of used appliances. The fridge was fine, but small, and I was happy when he said he had a bigger similar one. That one looked better, not that that was a huge part of my decision, and I really liked the size. Like the little one, it was plugged in so I could see just how cold it was. I asked how much and he said $2,000, which I knew from my research was a fair price. I asked him if he could recommend someone to move it for me and he said, “If you don’t live too far away and you pay the full $2,000, I can deliver it this afternoon.” SOLD! 🙂 We shook on it and I told him I’d text him with directions when I got to the house (having determined that it’s not “too far”).

I headed home (HOME!), which was super easy as I could just take the periférico and exit at Calle 21. I decided to detour to Chedraui to pick up cleaning supplies, but passed a Bodega Aurrera on the way that I knew would have what I wanted. I bought all manner of cleaning supplies and headed for the house.

There, I texted the fridge guy and he said he’d be there in “about” an hour. I changed into my grubbies and set to work.

By the time I’d unloaded my purchases, the suitcases and bins I’d brought from Chelem, and lugged the ladder up to my bedroom, I was already beat since I hadn’t slept well at all last night. At any rate, I got started in my shower with a spray that promised it could handle the mould in my grout. It sure did! I couldn’t believe how well it worked without any scrubbing. I hope I have as much luck dealing with limescale downstairs.

I didn’t do anything else to the bathroom and instead moved to the closet as that’s where I wanted to put the things I’d brought. I put together a bucket of soapy water. In doing so, I discovered that the tap in the kitchen is very loose. That does it; I’m paying for a replacement myself. I think the sink can be salvaged, though.

As expected, the shelf and the top of the cabinets were very dusty, but, to my surprise, the ceiling fan wasn’t, and neither was the one in the bedroom.

I spent about a full hour on the master suite before calling it a day. I changed back into my nicer clothes and went around the corner to a little tienda to get a snack and a cold drink. Minutes after I came back, I heard a honk out front. It was about 90 minutes since fridge guy had texted so I figured that had to be him. It was!

The easiest way to get the fridge to the kitchen was of course through the service door and down the service corridor. The guys rolled it in place and told me to wait a few hours to plug it in. Of course, I’m not plugging it in just yet because why pay power for it? So I just left the doors propped open with some rags to make sure the doors don’t accidentally close.

So here it is!

The only issue with it is that the handle can’t be switched to the other side. But with the layout of the kitchen being what it is, I don’t think that’ll be a huge issue. The fridge is an LG brand and the fact that it was still super cold when it arrived tells me it’s not a cheap model. LG fridges start at about $5,000 here for the smaller size, so I think I did pretty well. I’m very happy with it and don’t feel that I settled the way I would have for the $1,500 one. This is a fridge I’ll be able to live with with for a long time.

It was then time to head to Costco and then back to Chelem to give Puppy his supper. His lordship was on his absolute best behaviour when I got in, greeting me politely, then staying out of the way while I brought in two loads of things. After that, I gave him a treat for being such a good boy and told him to go get his toys while I changed. Sure enough, when I came back out, he was waiting by my door with his rope for tug-of-war and his ball for fetch! By the time I’d worn him out, I was dead on my feet, so I had a swim and then settled in for a chat with my mother.

The house is going to need a lot of work to feel like “home,” but I feel like I took a step in the right direction today. I’ll head back next Wednesday with another load and will hopefully make it to a bank as well!

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Priorities vs. Signs

I tend to have my financial priorities straight. This summer, it’s been very clearly save up for office furniture, save up for the house deposit, and then start looking for furniture for the house, starting with a fridge and a bed. It doesn’t matter how many awesome things I see in between, I need a roof over my head in November, a place to keep food cold, and a bed.

That hasn’t stopped me from thinking about what I would want for my house, though, and making a list so that when I’m ready to start dropping pesos, I’m not stopping at every shiny thing I see.

One of the things I’ve known from last summer that I really want is an IKEA Poang chair. This surprised me because I’m really not a fan of IKEA, but the Poang chair is absolutely incredible. It looks good. It’s light. It’s supremely comfortable. It’s very inexpensive. And it is the perfect chair for putting the lap back into laptop. I typed from one of those all of last summer and also during part of my time in Spain. I do prefer to work at my desk, but I sometimes like to take my computer to the couch in the evenings to do social or fun online things, so the Poang would be a better place to do that.

I doubted that I had a Poang in my future here in Mexico because there is no IKEA in Mexico. I would have to hope that an expat brought one from NOB or Europe, but accept that I would not get the combination I want, either a dark frame with bright cushions or one with dark fabric and a light frame I could paint a bright colour.

So what is a gal to do when a Poang chair with a light frame and dark fabric gets posted to her local garage sale site for 50% of the cost of that combination in Canada? Well, she makes an offer of 40% of the cost of that combination in Canada, of course. Priorities are one thing, but signs must be heeded!

Getting the chair was not without some drama. I showed up at the appointed time for the pickup meeting in MĂ©rida yesterday afternoon and the guy was a no show. He was not responding to messages. I gave up in disgust after waiting almost 50 minutes, very annoyed because he’d said our deal was only valid if I came that day and I’d taken time off work to go.

Several hours later, he messaged me with a bunch of excuses that may or may not have been valid, apologised profusely, and offered to bring me the chair this morning and said that he would throw in a Pyrex dish since he knows I collect them (from past discussions on the garage sale group). I was still leery, but sent him the directions to La Barca (again, only a couple of blocks away — easy for him to find, plus I didn’t want him to know where I live).

He texted me this morning to say that he was on his way and pretty much at the exact second I expected him to pull into the hotel parking lot, he was there and my faith in humanity was restored. 🙂

It’s hard to see from the picture, but the fabric is like dark denim. I was expecting dark grey, but this is definitely more blue. It totally works for me and now I have to decide if the frame is going to be pink, orange, or turquoise… I’m leaning towards pink since it’s not quite the right blue to go with orange and I have something else in mind that will be painted turquoise. 🙂

So I got the chair, the Pyrex baking dish, and two very nice (and heavy) brushed aluminium tea candle holders that I like and will use out of this deal. At 65CAD, even with the wasted fuel yesterday, I done good on this one. 🙂

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House Hunting Considerations

I thought some of you might be interested in my house hunting considerations. There is a lot to consider and I know that my first place won’t be “perfect,” but I at least want to be comfortable for the first year!

Location

Where I know for sure I don’t want to live:

  • Where other expats congregate, like the Santiago neighbourhood in Centro. Expats drive up rental rates and attract businesses and services with inflated prices. Plus, I came here to live in Mexico!
  • To live in one of the gated American-style car-oriented suburbs north of the PerifĂ©rico, like La Ceiba (was shocked to learn I could afford to rent there) or Las Americas or in one of the newer subdivisions within the PerifĂ©rico, like Gran Santa Fe.

I would consider living in any neighbourhood that:

  • Is within the PerifĂ©rico.
  • Is easy to drive in and find parking (pretty much excludes Centro).
  • Can let me walk to (in no particular order): a tortillerĂ­a, pollerĂ­a (chicken stand), produce stand, small grocery store, beer store, larger supermarket, a wide range of restaurants, a bank that would have me as a client, and a cinema. A mall with a Chedraui or other hypermarket, an Office Depot, and other big box stores (like Las Americas, Macroplaza, City Center, or Gran Plaza) within walking distance would be a bonus.
  • Has good bus service.
  • Is economically diverse.
  • Is not near a nightclub or party hall.
  • Is not near the airport (pretty much eliminates anything south of Centro).

Neighbourhoods that I have looked at and like, but are in no way the finite list are: Las Haciendas, Las Fuentes/Pensiones, ItzimnĂĄ, MĂ©xico, Chuburna de Hidalgo, Altabrisas.

The House

Must-haves:

  • At least three bedrooms and two full baths, ideally with one bedroom and bath being on the ground floor for guests and the other two upstairs.
  • Private outdoor space.
  • Older house built for this climate that will stay comfortable (to a point) without AC.
  • A non-scary electrical panel.
  • AC units in all the bedrooms (window or mini-split doesn’t matter).
  • Working doorbell if I have a front gate.

Would be nice:

  • Two stories.
  • A half-bath for visitors.
  • A pool.
  • Rejas (bars on doors and windows) and/or fully enclosed house (not worried about my personal safety, but I had bars on the windows of the houses in MazatlĂĄn and AlmerĂ­a and loved that I could go out for the day and keep the air circulating).
  • Built-in closets with organisers (super common!).
  • Traditional Mexican kitchen with only a ceramic countertop and maybe a few shelves — I’ve yet to see a single house with cabinets where the cabinets are logically installed. I’d rather design my own European-style kitchen with freestanding furniture.
  • Window screens.
  • A bright exterior colour or other distinguishing feature that would make my house stand out on the street and easy to find.
  • Intercom if the front door is a mile from the front gate if I have a front gate.

Things that I’m flexible on:

  • The neighbourhood.
  • Having gas in the house. I’m shocked to say this, but I would now be okay with not having a gas stove as long as my electric range is the kind with the glass/ceramic top, but with manual controls. My parents have one of those and they make cleaning so much easier!
  • Aesthetics — I would like a house with some architectural charm, like colourful tiles and dark wooden doors, but am ready to rely on paint to add personality.
  • The layout of the bedrooms so long as the guests are separate from me. I rejected a house where my office would have had to be on the ground floor because of the lack of light and limited air circulation, but that might not be a problem in another house.

Not quite deal breakers, but will give me pause:

  • Brand new construction that looks good but isn’t designed for this climate/will require AC to be comfortable.
  • Houses with laminate cabinets (kitchen, bathrooms, closets).
  • Super grungy tile grout (for some reason, grout is rarely sealed in Mexico and with there being so much tile in most houses, cleaning or replacing grout would be a huge undertaking).
  • Very dark ground floor (problem with the closed in houses).
  • Scary electrical panel.

Price:

I literally have not found a house I would want to live in that I couldn’t afford, other than the huge colonial mansions that would require a staff to maintain. So price is really not much of a concern. Based on what I’ve looked at so far, I expect to pay $5,000 to $7,000 a month. Less than $5,000 would mean I got a hell of a bargain and more than $7,000 would mean that I found a really special place worth splurging on.

Lease length:

At least one year, but since it costs so much to set up housekeeping and and it takes at least six months to get to know an area, I’d be willing to consider a two-year lease if I got a deal on the rent.

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First Dibs

Another large contract has ended, so I’m going to have a lot less to juggle in the next few weeks. The clients I have right now appear capable of filling any gaps in my schedule, so I’m happy to slack off a bit as I enter into August (August already!) and not look for anything else.

But yesterday was a pretty full day and I was looking at working late into the early evening when I got a message from a lady on the local garage sale group I belong to. She is an ex-ex-ex-expat in that she’s a Mexican who moved to Canada then back to Mexico and is finally returning to Canada for good. She’s doing some major downsizing ahead of return north and is pricing things to sell quickly.

Some weeks ago, she was selling a bunch of Pyrex dishes for very little and I unfortunately was too far down the line to score any of it, which was on my wanted list for ages. My kitchen has been very well equipped in Miranda, but one can never have enough mixing bowls that can go in the oven and the microwave and Pyrex is the best. It’s also super expensive and savvy thrift shops price it accordingly.  She was practically giving it away, but was vetting her buyers to make sure she got some that would appreciate and use the Pyrex rather than turn around and resell it for a profit.

Yesterday’s message to me was that she had three more pieces that she’d decided to part with since they don’t fit in her luggage and I could have first dibs on them! I couldn’t believe it because they were three of the exact pieces I wanted — a large bowl with handles and two medium-sized bowls! The colours, blue and orange, were a bonus!

Even though I really didn’t have time to go out yesterday, she was in Progreso and I needed some groceries. So it made sense to take an hour and a half or so to go pick up the loot. Well, not only did I drive into a major storm, but there was a huge accident right around Bodega AurrerĂĄ, so traffic was veeeeeeeery slow and there were no detour signs, resulting in a lot of confused people. I finally made it through the mess and across town to the seller’s home, which I found with no trouble using a combination of Google Maps and my GPS.

When I showed up, she asked if I’d be interested in a fourth bowl for a token sum, and it was another piece on my wish list, a small bowl I could use to heat up a bowl of soup or serve salsa in, and in a cute yellow! Yes, of course! Here’s my haul (which nests perfectly), for just $320 (about 24CAD or 18USD):

I only have one more type of Pyrex dish on my wish list now. I’m inordinately pleased with my treasures. 🙂

I then made my way to Bodega as best I could considering the one way roads and closures. I really needed to get home, so I got through my shopping list quickly. Just as I was heading for the till, I remembered that they sell roasted chickens, which would make a super quick dinner when I got home. I went to the chicken counter and there was just one left, but there was a time stamp on it that showed that it hadn’t been sitting long (only about 20 minutes) so I was pleased. However, there was also a man waiting for service… An attendant finally came out to serve us and started with me so I said that the man was ahead of me. He said, “Oh, I just want that chicken, but you can serve this lady first.”

Eep.

I said that I wanted the chicken, but, obviously, the man had first dibs on it. The attendant said she’d have more in about 15 minutes. I thanked her but said I couldn’t wait so I’d pass. The man told me not worry, his wife always takes forever to do her shopping and he could wait for a fresh one so, please, really, have the chicken that’s there.

I could have kissed him. 😀

Then came a very long wait at the till to pay. Bodega is affiliated with Walmart and has the same problem of not enough cashiers for the volume so I’m used waiting. It’s a good time to read trashy magazines. 🙂

To get home, I had to detour literally halfway to MĂ©rida, so I didn’t get in till well past seven. I bolted down some dinner, gave Puppy some love and attention, and went back to work. The job wound up being shockingly difficult and I didn’t finish till 11:30 (I thought I’d be done by 10:00!). I really hope that’s my last time having a job that finishes that late; it just messes up my sleep schedule too much!

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Setting Up My Command Centre

Today was the day to go pick up my new-to-me desk! The day went off without a hitch. The cleaning guy arrived on time and got to work on my suite so that it would be ready when the furniture arrived. My promised help told me they’d be there “around ten” and it was just shy of that when they pulled up. Off we went to La Ceiba. By the time we got through the very long queue to get through the entrance of the gated community, it was eleven.

The helpers are Mexicans I’ll refer to as M and R in this post. They work for the expat, D, who did the solar system on the house I’m minding and do all manner of labour. They’re really great and I’m happy they were available to help. D provided the truck and M and R the muscle today so that there were two trucks and four able bodied people to load, with the fourth being A, the husband of the maid at the house where I was getting the furniture, since D can’t do any heavy lifting.

M and R got to work dismantling the desk while I brought the bookshelves to the truck with A. I hadn’t actually seen the bookshelves in person and I gasped when I did since they are absolutely wonderful, deep enough for my biggest books and with heaps of adjustable shelves, as well as aesthetically pleasing.

We managed to get two bookshelves in Moya as well as the shelves themselves and some bits of the desk. M and R Tetrised the desk and the remaining bookcase into D’s truck. D had tie down straps, so he helped M and R get everything secure and off we went. It felt like we’d been there for ages, but we were out of there in 36 minutes!

I raced home ahead of them to get the dog out tied up and the gate open. The cleaner was just finishing up my suite, so that was perfect timing!

D took it slow because he didn’t want anything to fly out of the truck, which meant that he got caught in a big storm and all my things got wet. So first order of business was to unload his truck and dry off everything. The bookcases are solid wood, so it didn’t really matter, but the desk is particle board, so it couldn’t get soaked. That’s really not a great material for this climate and the desk isn’t aging well, but it’ll still serve me for a bit.

D took off once his truck was unloaded and then I backed my truck in to unload it. It was then time to figure out how to fit everything into my suite. The bookcases were a no brainer, but the desk was tricky. We tried a few configurations, keeping in mind that four months is a long time to be tripping over stuff. Finally, we came up with this:

I agree with M that it’s nice to have that “wall” separating the office from the bedroom. I don’t need the tables that were front of the couch and there’s plenty of room to walk between the desk and the end of the chaise longue. Once we agreed that this is where the desk was going to go, they reassembled it for me.

I asked if they’ll be able to dismantle, move, and reassemble it for me in the fall and they said of course, as many times as I want… but they agree with my assessment that the next move needs to be the last. Anyway, it looks pretty good, feels great, and fits in the room!

There is tons of space between the bed and the desk. We could have moved the bed closer to the bookcases and the sofa down as well, but I’m trying to keep the furniture rearranging to a minimum. This works absolutely fine for me.

Unpacking my books was like finding old friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.

The desk setup isn’t perfect yet, but I’m waiting to see where I’m moving before I start buying any bins or baskets. I am really pleased that the file cabinet drawer was able to hold all my files with room to spare!

Speaking of moving, I spoke to the maid about that and she gave me some invaluable house hunting advice. She says that a standard layout in MĂ©rida is a house with two beds and a bath upstairs and a “cuarto de servicio” (service quarter — room with bathroom) on the ground floor for a maid… and that this is not advertised as a three-bed, two-bath! So she told me to widen my search criteria because I could be very pleasantly surprised by what a house with two bedrooms actually has. I did a quick listings search after I set up my office and was shocked to find a bunch of two-bedroom houses that do have the cuarto de servicio on the ground floor! What I found were much smaller houses than I’ve been looking for (ie. more manageable for one person) and, of course, the price is lower so that opens up my search radius!

I had to do a job this afternoon and by the time that was done, I was completely exhausted, having worked really late last night so I could be off this morning and then not having had enough sleep. I was also ravenous since I’d had breakfast at seven, skipped lunch because the cleaner was in the kitchen, and had only two small peanut butter wraps mid-afternoon. I really, really, really wanted to order a pizza, but I would have had to go pick it up.

So instead, I got some pork thawing while I put my room back to rights. By the time that was done, the pork was ready to cook and I was able to throw together a really yummy stir fry with udon noodles, the pork, and tons of veggies, plus Blue Dragon sweet chilli sauce. So instead of eating a carb heavy meal that wouldn’t have done me any favours, I had a healthy dinner (with leftovers!) that truly left me nourished. It’s important to be good and kind to yourself, even if it takes work to do so.

I’m sure I had more to say, but my brain is fried and I have to go do some prep work for a job I’m doing tomorrow. I rather can’t wait to get back to work in my new office. It’s so great to have room to spread out!