(Post 164 of 263)

The word of the day is BLISS.

(Post 163 of 263 — 100 posts left, I’m finally making progress! Thank you again to all the sponsors!)

(Post 162 of 263)

Part of the reason I’ve taken on so much at this time is to keep my mind occupied because Sunday was the 1st anniversary since Bast died. “Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” The only way forward is through, as the saying goes.

Today was the Home Depot run with my contractor. He said to me after that I am so organised and decisive that I’m the only woman in his life he’s not afraid of going shopping with, LOL! He picked me up at 9:00 and by 10:00, we were already on the way home. The Home Depot run includes just about everything I need to pick out that I’m not having delivered or need his opinion on, plus things like plumbing hoses and paint brushes. Finishing materials like wiring, caulking, and cement are included in his hourly rate. He’s really good at curbing my spending and making me think objectively. For instance, I needed taps for the bathroom refresh. Last bathroom project, he let me buy pretty expensive taps because I don’t expect to redo that bathroom again. This time, he had me buy bargain taps because I’ll be redoing that bathroom in the next five to ten years and that’s how long the cheap ones are supposed to last. But he also paid attention to the expensive ones I liked and found a similar style in the cheaper version, so I always feel heard. I really like working with this guy.

Work starts tomorrow and should last about seven or eight days, so probably through next Friday.

This afternoon, I walked up to Comex to order paint. I had settled on on a two-tone look for the new guest room, so I needed two gallons of the main colour, one of the accent colour, and one of white for the ceiling. I also needed a litre of purple for bedroom touchups. SURPRISE, Comex was having a buy a gallon, get a litre free sale! The fine print was I had to get four separate litres (not a gallon) in at least two colours and from a set selection of colours. Not only was the purple on the list, but also the dark pink for my exterior! So I picked up 3L of that and should be able to do the planter at the rear patio that is still orange. That free paint was at least a $750 value!

spoiler!

The paint will be delivered tomorrow. I just have one more thing incoming that my contractor will need, but it should arrive on Friday, a semi-custom wooden medicine cabinet with a mirror that I found on Mercado-Libre. Semi-custom in that I could pick the finish and from a couple of different interior shelf layouts. I couldn’t find anything locally I liked (Home Depot’s only option was badly rated) and I didn’t have time to actually have something custom made, so this was a good compromise.

I have a very full Amazon cart waiting that has bedding, towels, and a few other things, but I’m waiting to see how the labour is going to turn out before I go on a shopping spree. It was hard to give me a project quote so we’re just going off a rough idea of his hourly rate times the number of days, plus what I paid for the AC installation last summer. We did it that way with the bedroom last year and our numbers were spot on, so I’m not concerned, but I may decide that new furniture and accessories should wait till the next guest.

I can’t wait to get started tomorrow. The new AC in my bedroom should be in by late morning!

(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!

(Post 159 of 263)

I’m at the end of a much needed three-day staycation. Since I’m heading into a very full April, it was good to get caught up on chores.

Yesterday, Saturday, I had to be up and at ‘em by 9:00 because my cleaning fairy was coming by with a flete to pick up some furniture I was giving her. That done, I headed out to the Chuburna market for the sole purpose of having breakfast (my usual turkey salbutes with watermelon water). I was amused that I passed the Batmobile on my way!

I came in and gave the kitchen a good tidy, then decided it was a good day to make a batch of gyoza, Japanese dumplings. They are my favourite prepared food to have in the freezer. In Canada, I could get them surprisingly inexpensively at the supermarket, but here, the commercial brands aren’t great, even the ones at Costco. I was about to head out to the Asian Mart to get wonton wrappers when I realised I have ton of bread flour to use up, so I’d be better off making my own. I don’t like the results as much, they always end up very doughy, more like pierogies, but I also wasn’t in the mood to make a batch of 100 or so anyway, the way I do when I get the wrappers. The recipe for the homemade version only makes about 30.

So I instead got on Rappi and put in an order for the filler ingredients I was missing — pork, green onion, cabbage, ginger, fresh garlic. The slight premium to do a shop that way was worth it when you consider the time and expense of taking an Uber there and back. While someone else did my shopping, I got the dough prepped, kneaded, and resting.

The only disadvantage to doing a shop that way is you can’t leave notes about the produce. Had I ordered directly from Chedraui, I would have asked for half of a small cabbage, but I couldn’t specify that through the Rappi platform. So I was the proud recipient of a cabbage literally the size of my head!

I treated myself on Thursday to a brand new at used price food processor on the local buy-and-sell site, so I had the perfect tool to shred a ton of cabbage fast. I made enough for my recipe and then for coleslaw. That still left me half of the cabbage! I chopped it coarsely and popped it in the freezer, to be used as filler in chickpea flour omelettes.

I love oil and vinegar coleslaw soooooooo much.

As expected, my gyoza turned out super doughy, but still delicious! I usually make my own dipping sauce, but I had a sesame ginger commercial dressing in the fridge that I knew would be perfect with them. Yum, so good!

I still have enough for five meals waiting in the freezer. I freeze them like this on trays and then bag them. This way, they don’t stick together.

Baking is always ‘hard’ on my wooden counter, so I scrubbed it well and gave it a coating of mineral oil to return its shine. I’ve had this counter a year now and love prepping food on it.

Later Saturday, I got an email from a client asking me to name my price to read on Sunday a PDF proofreading job that would take about four hours. An excuse to spend half of Sunday upstairs on the mezzanine with Bonita and a huge pot of coffee and to earn a ridiculous amount of money for the effort?! Yes, please!

I slept super late this morning, Sunday, past 8:00, the first time in ages that I haven’t had to set an alarm. First order of business after playing with Bonita was to find and resolve the source of a leak in my laundry room, then put on some laundry. I’ve been so backed up on laundry between grey wet weather and the burglary. I think I will eventually cave and get a dryer to speed things up. When it’s super humid and grey, things just don’t dry, even in the house in front of fans! Anyway, I’m almost all caught up, finally.

About halfway through my work day, I came down to make a delicious brunch. The waffles are misshapen due to using an egg replacer and too much butter, but were delicious! The sausage is Argentinian-style chorizo sold by a gentleman who pedals around the neighbourhood on Wednesdays selling fresh cheeses and sausages out of a cooler. The orange juice is from a fellow on my walk home from Pilates who runs a small fruit stand out of his house and can be seen sitting in front of the house juicing impossibly delicious oranges all morning. I’ve been wanting to make waffles for ages to have as a post-workout evening treat, so I now have six waiting in the freezer.

After work, I did some pool maintenance — it’s ready to go but the water is still too unpleasantly cold to do more than just take a very quick dip. Still I’m keeping it on standby for when I really need it!