Household

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It’s big news in my world

You may be scratching your head while you look at the picture above and thinking to yourself “what the heck is this picture of, anyway?”   But since I couldn’t show you how great the house smells, or how nice and shiny the floors are, or how there is no dust anywhere that I could find….I figured these four coasters laid in a decorative way on the table would tell you that we now have some help in the housework...

Just about done!

We are very near the end of both our courtyard project and the interior painting. So, we asked the architect a couple of weeks ago what day and time would be good for an end-of-project thank you party. He said yesterday (Friday) at 5 pm would be good. The work that remains to be done is a bit of painting and the final fix-up of the planting beds. Also the electrician needs to put in the lights in the planter...

The courtyard, AGAIN!

For those of you not interested in yet MORE construction photos, I’m sorry. But the courtyard project is really fascinating me and I just have to share. If you’d like to see my previous posts on the project here they are: first post and second post Since the three upper shed roofs are complete, the crew started in on the cover for the walkway. Everything is to be made out of concrete, but from underneath it will look like wood...

What’s for Dinner?

I promise to write a post soon that isn’t an update on a construction project. But we are pretty excited about the transformation of our kitchen that just was completed yesterday… Above is a picture of our kitchen from the marketing website before we bought the place. As you can see there are appliances and granite countertops, all of which is a part of the concrete structure. The concrete part is typical of Mexican kitchen construction, although most Mexican kitchens...

Salitre 101

I thought that you might want to see pictures of the salitre repair project in one of our bedrooms. We’ve learned a lot about salitre over the last couple of months. Salitre is a kind of cancer on the cement skin of the house. It’s caused by water leaching out the salt in the cement mix. It could be happening because of a water pipe leak, a drain problem, or ground water coming up from under the house. So usually...

The courtyard, continued….

  I thought I’d keep going with the courtyard remodel pictures. They should be finishing all three roofs this week, and next week the painters will paint the top part of the wall so they can use the scaffolding while it is still here. Once the wood was removed from the slab the maestro kind of splashed on and smoothed out a very thin layer of mortar to make the slab really pretty. Then he started installing the roof tiles....

Two week progress report

We are in the midst of our courtyard remodel. Above are a couple of “before” pictures: As you can see there are chipped tiles, a big empty space, an irregular step, overgrown plants, etc. The windows on the floor above take the southern sun directly so we are having shed roofs made with tile above the three upstairs windows. A shed roof with three posts will support a cover over the walkway area and also shield the doors below from...

Dusty and Dirty

That will be the name of the game here for the next month! The courtyard renovation project has begun, at the same time as the mason is here repairing the salitre on our walls. The salitre project should only take a week or so but the courtyard will take a month. I went to the Department of Agriculture with a man we were referred to for help with intricate Spanish conversations. We haven’t talked to the last person we need...

We are getting settled now

It’s almost been three weeks since we arrived, and we can hardly believe it. I won’t bore you with all the details but we are starting to feel like our old selves again. It is great to finally get some furniture to be able to put some things away. Our last couple of months in Washington and the month since we left really challenged our need to have an orderly home. Our king size bed was delivered a couple of...

We love it here

It has been a whole week since we pulled into town. It seems like much longer to us…and our former world in the Pacific Northwest is in the distant past. We really love our morning walks with the dogs. We have several different routes so far, but all of them include the malecon for some portion of the walk. Both dogs have turned into nice little walkers…trotting along beside us and only pulling on the leash when we pass another...

Home Sweet Home

We have been in Mazatlan since Friday evening….and here it is Wednesday! It has been a VERY busy time, but we have been having a blast. We spent two days at the B & B – which was wonderful but a pain since we had the dogs with us. Every time we went anywhere I worried they would bother someone but thankfully the only other guest was a working man who was gone all day. We couldn’t take them with...

Moving Day

Tomorrow morning, Sunday, we move in to our new home! Well, we move in the 12 boxes, 20 or so pictures, dogs, clothing and bedding that we brought with us, anyway! After that we will set out on an expedition to buy a bed, food, and all the missing household items that we’ll need to get our life started in our new home. We already purchased one item for our new home – a wrought iron and marble table that...

Road Trip! Road Trip!

Yesterday was a crazy day. We emptied all the remaining bits and pieces from the cupboards and washed them out. We sealed up all our boxes except our office box. Ran the library books back, to the bank for some cash, got Tiko’s wings trimmed, and put a bunch more things for Goodwill in the van. The buyers of our house had their home inspection, too. Oh, boy, was he a finicky dude. Put on a space suit to go...

FM3 and odds and ends

We are getting down to the last couple of weeks in the Pacific Northwest. It has been a very strange summer here – and not just because of the strangeness of wrapping up our life here. The weather has been cold and rainy, which is very unusual for August. It has made Paul and me long for Mazatlan even more, as if that was possible! On the urging of a friend in Puerto Vallarta, we decided to go ahead and...

Organized? Hmmm.

I have received a few compliments lately on the way I have organized our move. I think it’s kind of funny, because I don’t think I have been more organized than anyone would be planning a move of this magnitude. I mean you don’t just throw a few things in a box and head out….it is pretty complicated. I do think that what my organization has done for us, though, is give us a bit more cash. I have been...