(Post 220 of 263)

There are just a few little details remaining and to move everything back in! I am so grateful to my amazing contractor, Alejandro, who made everything that bugged me right and brought my vision come to life.

I will do a proper tour and put up some pictures once I’m moved in and settled.

(Post 219 of 263)

I’m coming to a year of being a client of BBVA. There have been a couple of small hiccups, but, overall, I have been thrilled with their service. When I opened the account in October, they said that I would be able to get a credit card within six months. They kept that promise in February. At that time, my limit was pretty low and they said I would be able to increase it within a year. That happened last week!

I had a little popup on the phone app that said I was eligible for a limit increase. I thought that if I pressed accept I would start a process of having to go in to my branch to sign paperwork that would be preapproved at the branch level but have to be escalated up to CDMX for final approval, same as with my credit card. Nope, the increase went through automatically!

Increasing the limit on the card was getting important so that I could start taking advantage of “months without interest” promotions that would allow me to continue to build up my credit limit here in the hope of getting a car loan and/or mortgage in the future. The initial limit was just enough for my monthly expenditures. If I took a months without interest promotion, that would tie up my balance, rendering the card useless until it was paid off. Sure, I could pay with my debit card, but I get points with my credit card. It’s not a ton of money, I’ve been getting about $500 a month, but I haven’t had to pay for coffee in months and my last regular visit to the dentist was free. So not using the card would be like throwing away free money!

Getting this increase coincided with the new iPhone having been released and I am desperately due for a new phone. You can’t get by here efficiently without a working smartphone — life effectively runs off them. My XR constantly overheats and randomly shuts down, which has caused me issues with Uber. I’ve never had the top line current model of a smart phone and have had two lower-end iPhones that were not great. Time to get current. iShop offered me a rebate equivalent to current market value (!) for my XR if I exchanged it for a new phone, which dropped the price of the phone I want by nearly 20%! They also offer up to 20 interest-free payments on my BBVA card and, get this, the new card limit increase is almost exactly the price of the phone. So I can finance the phone at no cost and still have the same balance on my card as before for daily use and, of course, I’ll keep freeing up balance every month as I make my payments. I also have the option of clearing the balance without penalty if I want. I’m not sure if I get points for a months without interest purchase, though that would rather be like getting your cake and eating too. I’ll know once I buy the phone as that would significantly increase my points balance.

I did one of the months without interest promotions with Home Depot to see how it works and it’s a bit confusing, at least in the app. In my account transactions, I see the initial amount charged to my card on the day of but then they also have a debit for the first payment. It feels like I’m paying twice, but the math looks correct on the statement. I like that it’s very easy for me to track on my end because when you pay your card, BBVA spells out your minimum payment (clarifying that you will pay interest), the amount to pay to avoid interest, and then what you need to pay to clear the balance. You can also make an “other” payment. I do that sometimes mid month to free up some balance. Last month, doing that did not affect my Home Depot promo — they applied that extra payment to other purchases.

I appreciate BBVA helping me feel like I actually live here so that I can keep cutting my ties to Canada. Having a credit card here is really make my finances easier to manage because I have so many fewer cross-border transactions. I pretty much only use my Canadian credit card for business purchases now.

(Post 218 of 263)

I don’t think there are enough exclamation points to describe all the progress that happened yesterday in the kitchen!

Doors and doorframes were painted!

Interior door was cut and rehung!

One backsplash was sanded to show that we will get the perfect colour!

The new floor hasn’t cracked!

THE SINK WAS INSTALLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Post 217 of 263)

(Post 216 of 263)

Today, I had the final appointment for my dental inlay. As long as it heals well and I stop having pain, I shouldn’t have any more trouble for decades!

This video explains the inlay process better than I could:

Last week’s appointment was prep. It took three injections and about 45 minutes to freeze me enough for a 5-minute procedure. In Canada, I know they would not have waited that long. The dentist said that she believes me about that because she has a Canada-trained colleague (who happened to be the one who did the emergency repair) who needs to be reminded to be more patient when it comes to anesthesia because there can be dire consequences to hitting a nerve, the patient jumping, and then the drill causing more damage than it was meant to repair. I was shocked by how much material she took out — I could feel it with my tongue and then I saw the mould she took. The mould was of my whole mouth to make sure that the inlay matches my bite pattern.

The tooth was achy with the temporary material and I actually woke up at 1AM on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in so much pain I thought I was going to have to get myself to a 24-hour pharmacy. Thankfully, after much digging, I found a couple of Advil that did the trick. The dentist hopes that the pain will resolve itself once the tooth heals from all of the trauma of the last few weeks, but she did mention the dreaded R word — a root canal. I’m optimistic, based on the pain type, that I won’t have to go that far.

The inlay looks and feels so natural! For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a huge dark grey filling in the top left back of my mouth. It’s kept me from eating and flossing properly. Now, I yawn in front of a mirror and just see natural-looking teeth!

I’ll be finished with the orthodontic work on this day next month, when I’ll be able to just start wearing my retainer at night. I’m going to give myself a year’s break from dental work and then I’m going to see about gradually getting all my metal fillings replaced with tooth-coloured ones or inlays if necessary. I wish I’d taken care of my teeth when I was younger, but I didn’t have the kind of parents who took care of that kind of thing and then as a young adult I rarely could afford routine dental care, never mind more specialized treatment. I’m grateful to be somewhere that I can take care of such things now, before it’s too late, and maybe I won’t need dentures in the future!