So Close, So Very Close

At times, it seemed to take forever, but we were finally almost ready to move in. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust, but we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Every night, after the crew left, we came over to clean up. But we never did manage to completely control the chaos. Rubin finished the floors, a special challenge in the living room as we opted to use a porous clay tile around the perimeter of the room. Our home was built in an area that was once even closer to the beach than it is now and there is still a great deal of water in the ground. It was suggested by INAH, the National Preservation Society, that the use of these tiles would allow the water to evaporate and not move up into the walls of the building, which because of their age are considered historic. We have never seen this done, but felt that if it helped preserve the integrity of our home, it was worth the aggravation. We are not sure if Rubin felt the same way! I have to confess I was not too thrilled about the idea, but now that the tiles are laid am pleased with the results. The tiling had been completed in the bathrooms. Notice the dust! Mario and the crew had finally finished the staircase and railings for the upper landing and installed the circular stair case on the terrace to enable us to reach the upper roof top. At the moment we have no plans for this space, but perhaps, someday. Mario is a really nice guy, but extremely unpunctual, and we joked with him about buying him a watch, and a calendar! We learned never to expect him on the day he said he would be at the house and certainly not at the time he mentioned. The staircase was removed after the first installation as it was not level (high frustration level here), but, eventually, the job was completed and it looks great. The generator is 50 years old by the way, it is a wonder any of these men are still alive. Augustine did an amazing job laying the talevara tiles in the kitchen, which we immediately covered with cardboard as there was still other work to be completed. Why were the tiles laid before everything else was finished? We never did figure that one out, and just kept our fingers crossed that the cardboard would do the trick and keep everything intact. Elias, our carpenter, had started work on the interior doors. All of the openings in the house are different, so each and every door was made to measure. We showed him a picture of what we wanted and the doors are perfect. We were unable to save the original exterior wooden doors as they were just too dilapitated to repair, but Elias duplicated them exactly and we are thrilled with the results. We will have him back next season for a few additional projects. The electrician Mike installed the light fixtures and fans and after a struggle managed to get the vent hood installed in the kitchen. Mike, who told us his real name is Javier, works without a level, ruler or tape measure, so getting the fan level was a challenge. That project came close to driving my Mike out of his mind. Martin arrived to do the painting. We knew it was almost time to make arrangements for moving day. There were times we laughed, and times we felt like exploding. I learned a new phrase in Spanish, “Que estabas pensandos” which means "what were you thinking!" and I used it more than once. We arrived one evening to find piles of wet black concrete on the kitchen counters (so much for the cardboard). We realized that when Mike aka Javier figured that when a light fixture or fan was installed, it didn't matter if they were crooked, or if he had left a six inch hole in the ceiling beside it. If it worked, it was “OK”. We knew that eventually the water leaks in the bathroom would be tracked down and repaired. And that the walls could be repainted, again. We discovered very quickly that it was best not to leave the iron workers unattended as they were not the tidiest of craftsmen and they could not seem to grasp the concept of protecting the tiles and walls from the sparks that flew around as they were welding. We are still finding little black spots on the tiles on the staircase. We missed out on a lot the first two months of our trip this year, as we felt that we needed to be at the house every day, or no further than a phone call away. We cancelled plans with friends more than once because someone (that would be Mario) arrived at the house at 4:30 p.m. instead of 10:00 a.m. as he had promised. There were also nights that we were just too tired, or stressed, to go out. But, would we do it again? Definitely, in a heartbeat!!

Our Casita is looking like a house!

Well things moved along very quickly after we arrived on Nov 1. We had our plan all nailed down and got to it the very first day. We already mentioned our contractor, Jesus. He had all of the sub's lined up and the work moved along very quickly. Fabio was the young fellow who did most of the final concrete work before tiling. He would build forms out of old pieces of scrap wood and mix the concrete on the floor and build the final shape and let it harden over night. He spent a lot of time in the kitchen and as you can see the counters are just about done, then we tile!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesus and Chico unloaded all the tiles and thinset and grout for the whole house. I jokingly kept telling him that if he brought in many more bags I was afraid the house would sink in the mud! It just never seemed to stop.

The final shape of the upstairs deck and landing were completed. We decided to move the large door used to get to the deck. It was in the middle of the wall so we asked to have it moved, a little worried it was going to be a big hassle. But we had forgotten Jesus's famous words, "It's only concrete" so sledge hammers and chisels went at it and next day we had our new door.

And finally we get to see some tiles. They work from the top down so the ensuite bathroom was first to be tiled with the talvera tiles and we loved it. Bright and just the right colours. They took a few trips to Chosa our tile store but we eventually tracked down what we needed.

Our main tiler was a very nice fellow by the name of Rubin (Rubin is actually Fabio's brother in law, lots of family ties in the renovation business in Mazatlan). He and his helper, Chico did all the floors and the bathrooms. I must also tell you how unbelievably hard these guys work. It was very hot in the house when we first got here but they worked through it every day. Rubin also was a very good singer and we would always hear him just burst into song while he worked.

And we got our main deck finished. The tile and grout looked great and the first night it was done Sandie and I went up there after dark with some wine and beer to have our very first drink on our new deck. It was very dirty all around us but we could sit and imagine what our Casita was finally going to look like.

We also got our new window which will be great to keep the bugs out. We usually don't notice any but we do have a large tree just outside our window and just in case the screen would take care of any little creepies that we would rather leave outside.

Sandie also put the final touches on the tile design for the end our kitchen counter. We found if you make up the pattern first on the floor then have the tiler put it in place as is then we always get what we were looking for. When you don't then sometimes the idea gets lost in translation and the design is a little off. Then out comes the chisels and it gets knocked off and redone. Remember, "It's only concrete"

A Little Bit of History

Our new home is located on one of the older streets in Historico Centro and it is estimated that it was built approximately 125 to 150 years ago. Our street, Calle Venus, is especially narrow in front of the house and was, in effect, simply a carriage lane, As the houses are built right to the edge of the sidewalks, there is no room to widen it, ever. Works for us, keeps the traffic down to a minimum!

The homes in this area were huge, and our new casa was once part of one large hacienda, which has been in the same family for generations. As has happened to many of the older homes, many years ago the hacienda was split into 3 separate dwellings and given to the daughters of the family. Alterations were done to interior of the homes at that time. In the case of ours, from what we can figure out, the terrace at the rear was enclosed and the space was turned into a bedroom and bathroom. At some point a second story, not visible from the street, was added and the original peaked roof was leveled, which allows us to have a roof top terrace. Our casa is the middle house and two of sisters are our neighbours on either side. They were very patient with us through the renovation progress, which can be very loud and messy at times, and have told us that the finished product is 'gue bonito'. We really do feel lucky. As well as finding a house in Historico Centro, on flat land, on our favourite street, in our favourite neighbourhood, we also have been blessed with good neighbours! We have wandered around with the camera, just capturing a few images of our new 'hood. There is a real mixture of very very old, beautifully maintained, and also ultra modern. We have a huge ruin directly across the street from the house, and it fascinates me. The very old I love, the ultra modern, not so much. Guess it's all a matter of taste.

Where are we on the street? We are No. 71, and this is the 'Before' ...

and the "After'? We are moved in, and the house is done. I have just decided that you will have to wait to see the finished product, just like we did! Soon though, very soon ....

It's Only Concrete

Once we finally had the official ownership documents for our new Casa, we had to work quickly as we had only a month before it was time to leave Mazatlan and head north once again. We had a crew lined up and ready to go, and they were at the house the day after we had possession. There was so very much to do, it was hard to know where to start but our contractor, Jesus Guadalupe Castrejon Sanchez (he also answered to Chuie, Jessie, Maestro or Jefe)has done many homes in Centro and knew everything that had to be done. But Mike always was at the house asking him what was going on. He has worked with gringoes in the past so he was prepared for our pestering.

The first, and most important, issue for Mike was the height of all the doors. Each and every door was at least 4 inches shorter than he is, which was involving a lot of ducking, and the occasional very painful head bang. We really had no idea what would be involved to raise the heights of the doors, and were a bit apprehensive until we heard Jesus, our contractor, utter the phrase we would hear over and over again: "No problem, it's only concrete". He wasn't kidding. Out came the sledgehammers, and after a very noisy day, Mike was able to walk into every room without endangering his life.

Concrete is the main building material in Mazatlan, that and bricks. We arrived at the house early one morning to discover that the bricks necessary for building the walls on the roof top had arrived and were piled on the street in front of the house. How did they get upstairs? One by one, tossed up by one crew member to another.

The concrete and mortar are all mixed by hand. The sand and gravel required had also been delivered and they were piled in the corner of what would, someday, become our living room. We had no plumbing in the house at that point, and so an immense tank filled with water had materialized in the future kitchen. The sand, gravel and water were loaded into 5 gallon pails and were carried up the stairs to the second floor and then out to what would become our terrace.

The materials are all carried up a flight of stairs, the concrete is mixed by hand, it was hot, and they worked at it for days, with just a short break for lunch. And they still smiled at me when I arrived with my camera, and laughed with Mike as he attempted to 'help'.

Mike tried everything. He swung a sledgehammer (said it was very very heavy), laid a brick (somewhat crooked) and attempted to apply mortar to a finished brick wall (more mortar on Mike than the wall). Mike is very talented, knows how to fix toilets, install light fixtures, install drywall, just about everything a good Canadian man should know about basic construction techniques. He has discovered however that building a house in Mexico is a whole different story. Despite Mike's efforts at assistance, work processed smoothly, and we were still pretty much on schedule by the time we were ready to leave for Winnipeg in April.

We bought ... now we shop

Well the house is now ours. So while there is heavy duty construction going on at the Casita we .. sorry, actually Sandie decided we should go shopping. Although we wouldn't be ready for anything like tiles, or sinks or anything really for 6 months at least it was nice to take a break from grey concrete and look at something a little prettier. So we jumped on the bus and headed up to the Sharks Den. A great place in the Gold Zone where we had shopped before. They have everything you want, many of the beach vendors buy from Guadalupe and her son Gustavo so we knew we could find what we wanted there. And what we wanted were a couple of Talavera sinks for the bathrooms and a couple of light covers for the outside lights on our decks. And tiles to go along with the sinks. The house is over 100 years old and we wanted it to look like an old Mexican style home with all the modern amenities in it. As we would learn from our contractor over the months that meant we wanted "Rustico" or as nearly as I could translate, nothing will ever be square in the house, or smooth, or fit together right so don't worry about it, "It's rustico!" Well we weren't disappointed. The number of light covers was overwhelming as you can see. We ended up choosing 3 nice size ones.

And the sinks were crazy. They had them all over the walls, the floor and in the back room. They had big ones, smaller ones, round ones, oval, square, modern designs, fish designs ... just about anything you could think of. You wander around the place being very careful not to knock anything over, believe me there isn't a lot of room so you have to be very careful. Then you pick out what you want. Gustavo goes and gets an extension ladder and deftly gets it past everything without hitting something then climbs up and brings down what you had asked to look at. We picked out two that we thought would go well in our new house.

Then we had to find tiles to match. That was a job. Think of hundreds of colours and styles and patterns and then for you folks that know Sandie and I,to actually agree on the tiles we like. We did eventually manage to find a couple that we thought would match the sinks.

Then you get everything together and start negotiating. That takes quite a while. Gustavo starts really high, we remind him we are regular customers, he comes down a bit. We tell him "aqui vivo ey Mazatlan no soy touristo" or I live in Mazatlan I am not a tourist, he drops his price a little more. I ask for my seniors discount and remind him we'll be back for more things, he comes down a bit more. We shake hands and have a deal. He wraps them up and we take them home. Unfortunatly we don't have finished walls yet, or counters to put the sinks in, or paint picked out, or any plumbing but we have a crazy vision what is under all the dirt and rubble and now we have something pretty to look at instead of just grey walls.

Well ... we went kind of crazy

I guess it was inevitable that we would at some time want our own house. I thought we might rent for a few more years but Sandie had other thoughts. One day last Jan she was walking to work at Look gallery which is on a pretty and very old street in Mazatlan. She saw a small, old home which was listed for sale by a local owner. After a couple of phone calls we had a chance to look inside. I've enclosed a couple of pictures of the place which actually might convince people we went, ... well, a little crazy. We had a contractor check it out who told us that it looked OK and used an expression we would hear a lot in the next year when we asked our contractor about doing something, (It's only concrete!)and decided to go ahead and make an offer.

And then just like that we were home owners in Mexico!!!! Well home might be an exageration, we had walls which needed desperatly to be repaired, no water, no electricity, no lights, no toilets, basically nothing. But we both thought we could see the possibilities.

We then had to go through the process of buying a home in Mexico. Although we have bought and sold and renovated a number of homes in Canada when it came to Mexico homes we were absolutly virgins. But we learned quickly. First down here you have to realize the buyer pays all of the closing costs and you need a Notario which is like a super lawyer to handle the paperwork. He checks land titles, taxes, other debts and ownership and guess what; one of the owners listed had passed away a number of years ago. Then the drama starts; the paperwork goes of to the state capital in Culiacan and on the Mexico City. The Mexican legal system does it`s thing and eventually all the corrected paperwork shows up back at the Notario to sign. We also get what is called a Fedicomicio, or bank trust. The bank actually holds the papers on the property for 50 years when you renew it so it is a real leap of faith that some government doesn`t come along and change the rules and foreign owners are sent packing but the chances of that happening really are virutually nill in the modern times. We sign the paperwork, every page of the Fedicomicio front and back (roughly 100 pages), they give us the keys and the house is ours.

And then, `We went kind of crazy` journey began. For the next few posts we`ll bring everyone up to date on the work we had done to the house, some pictures, Mexican renovation stories, our selling of our townhouse in Winnipeg and the purchase of a condo and the final push and move in at our new house in Mazatlan.