Tag: courtyard

Living overseas, Mexico, Retirement

2022…and so it begins!

Happy New Year!

The holidays were very good for us here in Mexico. We enjoyed a visit from our daughter, Stephanie, and we had a great Holiday Open House to show off the home renovations and let Stephanie meet some of our friends and neighbors. Ziggy and Marley liked the attention Steph heaped upon them!

Having the Open House also forced us to get the artwork on our walls. Now we can show you the finished product — part of it, at least.

Here’s a short video showing the living room (no sound this time). We are particularly pleased with how the fireplace turned out:

You may remember there was a lot of purple in the living room, especially on the fireplace. We decided to make the fireplace the same color as the walls and add a row of tiles from our local vendor of Talavera style pottery and art. We hope to put more Talavera artwork in the front courtyard and on the patio. Love the colors!

Here’s what our office/TV room looks like now:

And here’s the guest room and guest bath:

There’s more artwork to install. Deciding how to decorate the master bedroom comes next. But with most of our art on the walls, Leslie and I feel much more “at home” now.

What’s next? Landscaping and an improved front courtyard. We know the fountain in front needs to be moved because it’s right in front of the door and a few people have come close to falling because of its location. We’ll be working soon with a landscaper to develop a plan, ensuring that we have blooming plants all year round and a nice herb garden as well.

A few photos below to show our Christmas decorations. And we hope 2022 will be a better year for everybody!

Hasta luego!

The stockings were hung and the tree was trimmed!
A great place for our olive wood Nativity set from Bethlehem.
Living overseas, Mexico, Retirement, Uncategorized

Walls and ceiling done; no floor yet!

Today (Nov. 17) marks four weeks of construction and the new master bathroom is taking shape in our Mexican casa. It may not be quite as large as we expected but it will have two sinks with lighted mirrors, a walk-in shower with a rain-style shower head, and a vanity area for Leslie, with a nice boveda ceiling.

The two orange plastic tubes are for electrical wiring. You can see where the two sinks will be on the north wall, with the shower on the left.

The crew is putting in the plumbing and electrical, which means the floor is still dirt. They’re starting on the new laundry room and the new kitchen, too. We think everything is on schedule.

This is where the shower used to be. Once they level the floor, the washer and dryer will sit side-by-side in this space. There will be a floor sink to the right for our maid to use when mopping the tile floors. This will be where the toilet was.

We’re selecting tile, faucets, fixtures and kitchen appliances now. So many choices!

One huge change has already happened. The new master bathroom and kitchen renovation was Phase One. Changes to the front wall and entry into the courtyard was to be part of Phase Two. But our architect, Juan Allera, proposed doing all the work to the front entrance now because it made sense. I asked how much that would add to the total project. The figure was fairly low because it’s mostly labor, so we gave the green light. Most of the front wall is gone now!

Workers start taking down the front wall of the courtyard.

We still hope to be back in our house by Christmas, but some of the appliances are going to take a few weeks to deliver. Fingers crossed!

More to come as work progresses. Hasta luego!

Once the column on the left comes down, the guys will make everything look great. Then we will put planters on top of the half-walls with plants growing up to increase privacy. We removed the gate and plan to replace it. Design to be determined.