(Post 123 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

Whomever said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend never had a leg shaving shelf in their shower!

It’s so small — even tighter than the bathroom in my motorhome, believe it or not, but it doesn’t have the annoyances of the master bathroom — the storage niche is slightly slanted so the soap doesn’t fly off, the drainage is adequate and doesn’t flood the bathroom, and there’s water pressure!

The push button toilet with slow closure lid is sooo luxurious. 🙂

I’d consider myself 90% satisfied with this project. My quibbles are cosmetic, not functional. I got a lot of value for my pesos and am very satisfied!

(Post 122 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

Nearly all done! Just have a few things to touch up Monday morning when my contractor comes back to help me move some furniture.

I still cannot believe the audacity of the three men who messaged me about my last reno update, telling me how to behave myself here. Of course tempers get frayed during renos, it’s a given. It’s crazy that I’m not allowed to vent after the fact without getting misogynistic, mansplaining, paternalistic, and entirely unwelcome messages about how I should conduct myself here. You know what, guys? I know I did better than you would have in carrying this project to completion satisfactorily and with no burnt bridges. Why? Because unlike you, I’m humble and I don’t think I know everything. I’ve been here four years and learn from observing locals because I live outside the expat bubble and in the local language. I have plenty of Mexicans friends and acquaintances here to go to for help in navigating my way around and to gently correct me if I stray. You have so much to learn from how successfully I live my life here and how well the locals respond to me and bend over backwards to help me out.

This project was delivered relatively on time and on budget, with the doors and the desk being well above anything I expected and coming well under budget. This project was a success. Was it perfect? No quite. Did frayed nerves on both sides require us to take a day off from each other? Yep. Was it a learning experience for both? Yes. Would we work together in the future? Absolutely. And my contractor even gave me a “client report card,” saying how amazing it was to do a project with someone who understood the work to be done but still trusted his expertise, got out of his way, knew where to push and where to give, and who never quibbled over money (which he didn’t take advantage of). We’re talking about December or early 2022 for the next project! 🙂

I’ll be back with a bathroom “after” tour soon as I find the time to go clean it (so much dust!) and stage all my accessories. 🙂