November 10 update

Since our last posting our focus has primarily been on our new house.



Our immediate goal is to get the house livable so we can move into it as soon as our stuff comes from the US. Livable to us means that it's clean, painted, and that the current electrical and plumbing systems are operational. We will do the renovation in stages after that. So we're going to live with a temporary kitchen in the short term, and some pretty ugly bathrooms. The electrical system is OK but that needs to be upgraded, as well as the plumbing. Also, in the future the plan is that we will put in-floor heating and new polished cement floors throughout the house... again, that will come later.

We found a work crew through our landlord; she owns several upscale tile shops here in Guadalajara and knows something about the construction business here. Anyway, she introduced us to Javier, the maestro, and his crew- 2 young guys (1 is 13) and his son and his nephew. We met Javier on a Thursday and they started work the following Monday. They have been working hard for 3 weeks now (how time flies!) Their focus has been to demo the nasty old built-ins in the kitchen and bedrooms, fix the walls and paint throughout the house.

The demo took a couple of days. When they took the kitchen sink and the dishwasher out, a pile of old chicken bones, not to mention 2 decades of filth, greeted them. More cucarachas than I could count. The workers were pretty grossed out, but the smell was like decent compost, not old chicken. Not as bad as you'd think.




After demo the crew tackled the wall repairs and prep. The construction of our house is totally different than what you'd find in the USA. No wooden studs with sheetrock over it.... here what holds houses up are cement posts (cement around rebar) and steel beams in the ceilings. The walls are adobe and/or clay brick. The supporting walls are quite thick. Plaster covers the interior adobe/brick, so the walls are smooth. Generally speaking the walls were in good shape but they needed to be patched and smoothed before painting. This is a time-consuming process and there is plaster dust everywhere. In some cases, where there were bigger holes, they applied some sort of heavy duty cement before plastering it over.



Three weeks into the process, they have pretty much completed all the painting. In the living/dining room and entry way the ceilings are covered in intricate plaster molding. Someone years ago had painted these details unpleasant shades of dark green, pink and copper. Then there were the years of smoking... putting a thick yellow film on top of everything. I had initially wanted to scrape the plaster details off and put in wooden beams- the plaster seemed fussy and out of sync with the rest of the house design- but after the painters applied the 10th coat of white paint and finally covered the yellow/green/pink/copper mess that was there, I could see how pretty the ceilings actually are. Sure it will look more like a San Francisco living room, but we'll save the $$ on the beams and spend it elsewhere. Those ceilings look like beautiful frosting, especially paired with the buttery pale yellow that we have had the walls painted throughout the house.




The next thing the work crew will tackle is the kitchen. The cabinets/appliances have been removed and what remains is a cement stair-like base that the cabinets and appliances sat on. The walls are covered with some kind of marble tile. Perhaps this could be pretty- I can't see it yet (kind of like those ceilings...) The tile is totally filthy.



Javier says that removing the tile, as it's cemented to the wall-will be very time consuming, and then they will have to replaster/recement the walls. Since we're not sure what we want to do with the kitchen yet (we may extend it) we are going to have Javier and crew remove that cement step and scrub/bleach the walls. I will outfit a "temporary" kitchen for now. We are going to buy the appliances we will use long-term but skimp on cabinets/workspace in the meantime.

BTW- the cost of all this work, including materials? $4000 US. I should mention that the house itself is about 4000 sq feet.

After the workers finish the kitchen, we will have them focus on the patio in the back on the house and then move up to the roofdecks- getting them waterproofed. We don't want a leak to wreck our beautiful paint job.

We also met yesterday with another painter named Lupe. He's the person who did the painting at George's B&B. He does beautiful work with decorative painting. He's going to come back in a week with a cost estimate for doing decortive painting, as well as his color charts and portfolio to discuss ideas. I'd like to apply deeper shades of color over the walls in a wash, and have him paint trim around windows, doors, etc. This is Mexico after all....

But life hasn't all been about the house. On 28 October we celebrated Lucy's 5th birthday. Her birthday fell on a weekend and to celebrate we met up with our friends Cristian and Liesl at a neat kids' museum/playspace called Trompo Magico. We've been a couple of times now and it's a favorite with the kiddos -it's kind of hands-on sciency like the Exploratorium, but then it has lots of indoor and outdoor play stations, like a place for playing "hospital" and another for playing "restaurant". All the playing props are provided. Anyway, afterwards we went to Liesl and Cristian's place for pizza and cake, and a good time was had by all. Lucy got a new dress from Cristian and Liesl, and a couple of puzzles and a game from mama and dad. Her comment later? "I had expected more." We explored that a bit and what she meant was that she missed having a big party with lots of friends. Next year.... Lily's birthday is coming up a week from today, and we will undoubtably have a similar low-key event.

On the FM-3 front, we dropped off the next round of paperwork and photos (which had to be professionally taken and not with a digital camera- that set us back 880 pesos) this past week, and we were told to come back next Thursday with the kids, so we can get the FM-3's finally, and provide fingerprints. I am skeptical that everything will be ready by then- they are sure to find some issue with some aspect of the paperwork and/or photos- but we will see. As soon as we have the FM-3's -AND I can get a decent fare to San Diego- I will fly up to meet our stuff in storage and oversee its transfer to the moving truck. Then I will fly up to SF to see friends and have a couple of days of shopping... then back here.

Generally speaking we are doing really great. The kids are happy and continue to love their life at school. They are having a great time with their friends and are always happy when we arrive to pick them up- and at drop off time. Andy and I are happy here- not missing the US at all. Sometimes I wish there was a great grocery store around here, but that's about where my pining for the US ends. Of course we sorely miss our friends- that's a given.