(Post 185 of 263)

The short of it: demo day.

(Post 184 of 263)

Fun fact, my kitchen is about 250 square feet, fully twice the size of the motorhome (not counting the sleeping loft).

Yesterday morning, the carpenter came by to take measurements and to clarify a few things. He thought he was going to have to redo his whole drawing, but once I confirmed that he would do the half with the microwave and counter at 50cm deep and the cupboard at 35cm deep, something that was not reflected on the drawing, I told him it was approved without modifications! We did fine-tune it a tad by deciding that I will have adjustable shelves and he also wants to put in lighting over the counter, but that’s not a design change.

I asked how much more it would cost to do the backsplashes in the grey polished concrete, if such a thing is possible, and I got a wink and a “We already quoted you for that” response! They did the quote high, adding in extras like the backsplashes and drawers in the cabinetry, to account for customer changes and also give an opportunity to scale back. So I’m very pleased with that. I did add in a full paint job and a change of the water heater, so I’ll definitely be over the 60K originally quoted.

I was mostly off work yesterday, so I emptied everything that I could out of the kitchen, leaving only the heavy items — the fridge, pantry, broom cupboard, microwave, and range — for the workers to pull out for me. They were shocked that there was so little to do before they could start on demolition!

Yes, I took apart the Great Wall of Storage as well, priced the shelving to sell, and had it gone within a couple of hours! I accepted a low-ball offer, but was able to sell it without taking it all apart, plus while the pricing for that shelving has nearly doubled in the last year (!), the low ball offer was very close to what I paid, so I really made out like a bandit with it.

Everything is now in the guest room. It just made the most sense to set that up as my kitchen as it has more space, updated outlets, and all that built-in shelving. The fridge is by the stairs, the pantry and range are in the living room and the broom cupboard is in the bonus room!

The kitchen looks enormous:

The wall behind the fridge is even worse than I remembered. It is certainly contributing to a lot of the dust. The fridge is actually pretty easy to move, so I was back there recently (in the last three months) cleaning! They will be pulling that AC for me and filling in the wall, so essentially prepping it for when I put in a minisplit in the future.

Just three months of dust from the wall, eep! This photo also shows how I sacrificed some space behind the broom closet to have it fit flush with the pantry.

I promised myself I wasn’t going to order in a ton during the next three weeks, so I did a grocery order today for salad and sandwich fixings. It won’t be delivered till late, though, so I ordered a salad for lunch from FreshSpot (which is well named). After, I had a cup of coffee and some leftover extra yummy pan dulce from last night served oh-so-elegantly on a paper towel to limit the amount of dishes I have to do. So, yeah, this whole no kitchen thing isn’t starting out great, but, hey, the coffeemaker is set up, so I have my priorities straight. 🙂 And, yes, that is Dr. Strange’s mug from Spider-Man: No Way Home, a client gift this past Christmas! 🙂

We are nearing the first day of demo. As expected, the flooring is not coming up easily. It’s veeeery loud and I’m glad Ms. B is pretty much deaf now and is able to sleep through it.

First reno surprise that wasn’t a huge surprise is that the sink counter was falling apart and I can thank the rebar for it holding on as long as it has. So this really was the time to do this reno as I might have had to do it as an emergency in the not-so-distant future.

I keep questioning my decision to go with the dark grey for the counters, backsplash, and floor, but I couldn’t find tile I liked anyway, no grotty grout lines is my idea of heaven right now, and I can get colour with paint and furniture. If I were to sell the house before I do my dream kitchen, future buyers will be happy with a neutral space. So I think it’ll all work out well, plus I can see from my bedroom just how warm and saturated a neutral dark grey is.

(Post 183 of 263)

Yep, you read that title correctly.

So where did this decision start fermenting?

Well, I spend a lot of time in my kitchen and the cracked tile with badly stained grout frankly grosses me out, and has done so since day one. The kitchen never feels clean.

Function-wise, I’ve done pretty well with the weird layout, but I miss having a double sink with deep basins like I had in my motorhome. But the microwave needs a real home and I need the Vitamix and the KitchenAid mixer off the counter for reasons I’ll go into greater detail in a bit.

So dreams of a less grotty and more functional kitchen started from move-in and got progressively more urgent after I became the owner. I made a ton of improvements last year and did what I could with the grout, tile, and sink, but sometimes, all that can be done is to tear out and start over.

I was really trying to hold out, though, until I could do my absolute dream kitchen. I got the furniture I needed to create a mostly functional layout I can see myself living with longish-term, but I just could not see myself cooking in this kitchen for another 10 years with the way the counters and floor are. Plus, the sink counter is a little bowed and I’ve woken up a few mornings with chunks of concrete from under it on the floor. So it was going to require attention sometime soon.

But not in 2022, I promised myself. I was going to take a trip back to Canada this summer and buy a car in the autumn. Well, travelling to Canada right now is a hellscape of horror stories of badly understaffed airports and overpriced everything. There’s also no easy or inexpensive way to Montreal right now from Mérida. And I don’t have a dog sitter and, frankly, am not convinced I want to leave Bonita with a sitter. Finally, I only have one week that I know for sure I can take off and not inconvenience my clients. So travelling to Canada makes no sense right now. So I can take that budgeted money and move it to the house fund.

As for cars, there are long waiting lists and prices are at an all-time high as parts are backordered. This is not the time to buy a car. Moreover, the governor of Yucatán has announced an exciting plan for three electric tram routes that will serve 75% of my needs for travel within the city, have a stop essentially at my door, and be complete by the end of next year! He came through on time for the previous transportation plan, the Va y Ven route that goes around the periférico (ring road) so I’m confident that within the next 18 months or so, I will be riding in style to Costco, Centro, and even the southern end of the Paseo Verde. This plan has completely changed how I feel about my future in this city and I’m super excited about it!

So that’s a lot of money freed up to make improvements to the kitchen. Work is in a quiet time. And my friend Tim is nearing the end of his renovation and his contractor had time to take on my kitchen project immediately. I’m really in a now or never moment to improve the worst part of the kitchens to make it tolerable until I can do what I really want.

A different contractor? Yes, one who is a notch above the one I’ve been using because this is going to be such a visible job.

I’ve got a video at the end of this post that will walk you through all the changes I got a quote for, but I know not everyone wants to sit through 40 minutes of my rambling, so I’ve got some photos here to show what I’m starting with and what I look forward to changing.

Walking into the kitchen right now. The biggest changes to this view will be the floor, wall colour, back counter, and the Great Wall of Storage. The island and the blue cabinet are staying. This is also the only picture I took that shows the super inexpensive LED lights over the sink area that I don’t intend to change out at this time.

The plan at this point is for the counters and the floor to be dark grey polished concrete or maybe chukum, a local material. I love the idea of doing the polished concrete to have a flat surface with no grout lines. I have repeated many times that the floor cannot be slippery! Originally, we were supposed to pour concrete over the existing tile but now the contractor wants to take up the whole floor. So we’re going to talk about that some more and I am going to ask if it would be possible to tint the floor to make it more of a terracotta colour. I’m happy with grey for the counters, but I’m worried a grey floor will look unfinished.

To the left of the entrance door, we can see the exterior door that I am keeping for now but which will be changed at a later date, probably when I do the rooftop terrace. This wall is perfect the way it is, with the fridge, broom cupboard, and pantry that just fit perfectly.

However I would like the old AC pulled and the cavity filled in. That has not been quoted yet, but would be part of the painting scope that also has not been quoted yet as I decided to add it in after our first meeting. So more to discuss tomorrow when they come to take measurements. I do want an AC in this room eventually, an inverter minisplit like I have in the office and bedroom that are inexpensive-ish to run, but when I do that, I’ll be making other tweaks to make the room climate-controlled, which will likely include a solar panel. This old unit has never been turned on since I moved in and is just a dust collector.

The Great Wall of Storage has served me very well and taught me a lot about what I need accessible in my kitchen, but it is even more dust maintenance than I imagined in my worst nightmares. And I tend to not be too bothered by organised clutter, but this is a bit too much, even for me. It also feels like a lot of wasted space and potential.

After a discussion of my needs with the carpenter, this is the first version of what will replace the Great Wall of Storage. The microwave will have a logical place, I’ll gain another worktop (and outlets) for my small kitchen appliances, I’ll have a dust-free place to show off my cookbooks, and then I’ll gain a wide and shallow pantry for things like pallets of dog food, cans of Coke, cases of almond milk, my beer bottle empties, and extra paper towels. He showed initiative in adding those drawers, which I wanted but was afraid to ask for. Now that I see them and have a quote for this (which will be built in cedar), there’s no going back. Drawers! Drawers! Drawers! Believe me, if you had to live for five years with a kitchen with no drawers, you’d understand how I feel. 🙂

The blue cabinet that happened to match my island is staying. It’s exactly the right proportions to split up the kitchen. With the new cabinetry, I’ll finally have a real division, with the back half of the kitchen with the windows for cooking and clean-up and the front half for food prep. The front half does not get nearly a fraction of the dust and bugs that the back half does, hence this division and my desire to get the mixer and blender away from the windows!

Of the current sink area, I want to keep the shelving and baskets that I have to the left of the existing sink. I found drawers units that fill that space up perfectly. Well, I will if the last two get to me. Amazon has been having trouble with shipping them! I’m replacing the sink with a two-tub deeper model, so I don’t think the garrafones (20L jugs) will fit under the counter. So they will move to where I have the microwave now and the existing shelving will be repurposed for something else. I have not decided yet if I’m replacing the backsplash tiles. I don’t hate them and they are in okay condition, but the grout is gross. If I can find something I like better, I may add replacement to the scope. I’m already at a 60,000 peso scope, so it’s not like another 20,000 to bring me to the finish line is going to be a huge deal at this point!

I will confess I was very tempted to replace the range with just a stovetop after extending the counter, but I do like having the option of both my countertop and full sized ovens — very luxurious! So the range is staying.

Across from the range is another near perfect part of the kitchen. The food processor should be joining the blender and mixer on the new counter.

Another view of the sink area. I really think that once this is all refinished and has the new sink and all the drawers, it’ll look really good and be more practical.

Here is a very honest, if gross, picture illustrating why I don’t want to do any food prep or leave my Vitamix or KitchenAid on the counter by the window. That’s lizard poo. That showed up sometime between noon and 4PM today. Everything that touches that counter has to constantly be disinfected.

Can you see how off-kilter that sink is? Water runs towards the floor. The front of me is always soaked by the time I’m done cleaning up. There’s no actual caulk around the sink, just stained white concrete.

I tried caulking around the sink, painting the counter caulk lines, and caulking hairline cracks last year, but it didn’t really last.

Same thing with the floors. No amount of muriatic acid has been able to keep the floors looking clean. The floors are clean, believe it or not!

Just ew, ew, ew, ew by the stove.

This thing needs to go as well. It is clean, just stained. I need it to block out the harsh morning sun. I’m going to see about the cost of a replacement or else I may spray paint this one in the hope of giving it a new life. Speaking of paint, the back part of the kitchen is currently a very light yellow. I think I want to step that up a notch, maybe not quite as bright as what I had in the motorhome, but almost.

And just a few more things that I’ve already upgraded that I love.

My ceiling fans:

My range hood (doesn’t extract anything, but yay for light over the stove!).

And here’s that video tour I mentioned at the start of this post.

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I’ve been neglecting one of my friends and wanted to take him out for a nice meal to make it up to him and catch up. The other day, he posted some nostalgic photos of dining at Amaro in Centro. I looked up the restaurant and it seemed lovely and was well rated, so I invited him to lunch there today. I know he enjoyed dining there when there is live music, but that would be a late night, something I can’t afford right now. However I thought a Friday 2PM lunch in Centro would be lively enough and the joke was on me — the place was empty. Being a Centro restaurant in a prime tourist location, prices were a little high, so I was worried the lunch was going to be an expensive wash. Spoiler: it was worth every centavo and both my friend and I came out stuff and delighted. 🙂

For our first course of drinks, he went with his favourite of Bohemia Clara beer and I had a gin, lime, and cucumber cocktail that was very refreshing.

The courtyard of the restaurant is lovely. You can see the stage for the guitar player. I liked that we could enjoy the bright blue sky without getting baked the way I sometimes do in the terrace of my favourite Centro restaurant, Pita.

We were started off with crostini made from their homemade bread served with a fresh habanero salsa. A delicious and just light enough starter.

I had garlic shrimp. Do not let this simple plate fool you. The salad was exotic — I do not know what the heck the base was made of and never had a chance to ask! The rice was delicately seasoned. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and had this incredible onion, garlic, and white wine sauce that was delicious mopped up with fresh bread as well as corn tortillas!

My friend had the local dish of cochinita pibil. I traded him one shrimp for a cochinita taco, and it was one of the best I’ve ever had, not greasy like the cochinita I get at my local market.

I switched to a Patito Lager after my cocktail. This is a local craft brewer, quite expensive, but all their beers are delicious. I paired my beer with non-photogenic chocolate fudge cake topped with vanilla ice cream and a cherry. The cake was a bit dry, the ice cream more like ice milk, but together, they were decadent perfection.

Lunch for the two of us including a tip came to just over $1,200 pesos, very reasonable for the quality of the food and the location.

We then walked 10 minutes north to Santa Ana Park to attend to a Mayan craft fair, where an impressive storm was brewing!

So much of the “handicrafts” sold in Mexico are the same made-in-China tchotchkes you can find the country over. So when local artisans are in attendance, I like to show up with a full wallet.

I started off with this purse made of the same fibres as hammocks. It is fully lined and has a pocket inside for your phone. It comes with the beige bag, a clever way to advertise.

Then a mortar and pestle-like kitchen tool for grinding soft things like herbs and garlic:

Finally, another purse, the colour of which the iPhone cannot do justice, same problem as my office. It’s a deep teal jewel tone. I colour corrected as best I could to give an idea of the effect. I’m going to get a lot of use out of this one as it has just enough space for my phone, keys, and wallet, so perfect for the odd dash out to Oxxo or the tortillería.

)

My friend only lives 10 minutes from me, so I would have normally Ubered back to his place and walked home, but with that storm, I decided to do a two-stop trip and get dropped off at home, a smart move as the sky let loose just as we were pull up in front of my pink palace!

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There’s been major reforms to Mexican tax laws in the last couple of years and it’s getting pretty wild out there with a lot of misinformation, a lot of mistranslation, and a lot of freakouts about the fact that everyone, including residents with no tax obligations, need an RFC (tax ID). I’ve been waiting for a proper write-up about the situation to fully understand it, and this is it:

RFC registration obligation

When I got here, I had it confirmed by both INM and Hacienda that because I only have foreign-sourced income and I pay my taxes to a country that has a tax treaty with Mexico, I do not need to get tangled up with taxes here.

That has changed. Now, Mexico wants everyone to have an RFC, and you have to get it in person with an appointment. There’s a couple of reasons behind it. The big one is to cut down on identity theft because our CURPs (SIN/SSN) are public information. By making people get their tax ID in person, they can verify people’s identity. And then there is the added benefit of being able to then track people’s financial activities, with the idea being to of course prevent tax fraud/get more taxes, but also to make it harder to keep financial dealings under the table as a back-handed way to choke off the flow of money to the cartels.

The article I linked to above really spells out everything and will probably reduce panic. I think the July 1st deadline is what is causing the most headaches, but it’s not like you’re going to get slapped in handcuffs if you don’t have your RFC by then. Hacienda knows that’s impossible. The July 1st deadline is actually for something else, explained in the article.

The RFC is apparently now needed to buy a car, and I’m going to need one when I do the official transfer of the house to my name. I also expect to seek out more credit products from BBVA in the next months. So I’m going to get started on this project before I absolutely need the RFC as it looks like there are huge delays in Mérida. The SAT office is walking distance for me, so not a huge deal to get to, so I’ll get in the virtual queue for an appointment and take my appointment when it comes. All official dealings here on on ice until I sort this out, but, again, no huge pressure at this time for me. I am just a bit frustrated that I could have done this when I was last at Hacienda, but at the time the word from on high was if you don’t need one, don’t get one.

From the same blog, here is how to get an RFC:

New process for getting an RFC number

The process was easy and I now have my place in the virtual line at the tax office of my choice:

It’s pretty neat to live in a country where things change, modernize, and improve, even if change, modernization, and improvements can be scary!