Holy Moly...construction is going gangbusters!

Yesterday I received several e-mails with photos attached from Roger, our esteemed architect. Wow! Talk about getting things done. I never imagined that two weeks later we would not only have walls but a roof too. And he is already working on the arches and we have some of the added height on the perimeter walls.
Now Roger tells us that he is ready to start on the pool so he can finish the need to have the wall open...I guess he wants to get the hole dug using a bobcat or some such man toy. So now Carlos and I have to choose from pool design A or B and tell Roger which one we want. Carlos will be home from Houston this week and we will sit down and decide... In the meantime here are some of the new photos... Thanks, Roger!

View from the main house upper level

Building Commences....again

Carlos and I thought long and hard about building the casita...on one hand we thought two bedrooms were really not a large enough home and on the other hand we knew we had some under utilized space were we could make due with some hammocks. One of the deciding factors was the my brother-in-law accepted a position at Harvard Med School. Why was this a decision? Well it's in Boston and they currently are in Fort Lauderdale....my sister-in-law hates the cold and she was suddenly saying the Merida in the winter was sounding wonderful. As she home schools her two elementary age kids, this is entirely feasible that she and the kids would spend winters in Mexico! At our house, of course..

Maia, Sebastian and Ana. The two older are the kids who are home schooled.

So now we are starting the building of our casita which has changed into a master retreat (don't know yet what to call it) and have received the first photos of the construction.

The back of the property has been a blank slate!

The neighbor gave us permission to break through the wall to bring in materials and heavy equipment!

looks like a building site!

materials are in and the building has commenced

And the east wall is going higher!

So our architect and his chief engineer say that the majority of the work will be done by December..keep your fingers crossed...the kids are coming and really want the pool to be done!

Creating a Courtyard..

My house has a courtyard that is a total blank slate...really! Right now it is a dirt rectangle that just does not have any redeeming features....no trees, no plants, nothing! I have spent some time researching courtyards and plants on the Internet and playing with some ideas. Here is what I have come up with.

First the courtyards that I like:

Carlos does not like the look of green between the pavers

He does like the design!

And the type of fountain I like:

And the somewhat basic design I came up with:

The choices of plants will come down to low maintenance, natural mosquito repelling (citronella grass, lemon grass as well as rosemary!) and beauty. Some of the plants:

Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea of another color

Citronella

purple wandering jew

areca palm

rosemary

lemon grass

With a beautiful bench added around the fountain for relaxing, (love all three looks!)

I could add some pots of colorful flowers or aromatic herbs to the courtyard. 

And either pavers, stones or stamped concrete for the base...I have to discus that choice with Roger! I am really excited about some of the final decisions here in my courtyard! So whats in your courtyard?

We have the new design... and it makes me happy!

We sent Roger the photo of the bathroom I found (and was loving!) and some other suggestions. We had a 1 and 1/2 hour skype call and discussed everything. I walked away with some good feeling and I think we are going in the right direction. Both Roger, our architect and Arturo, our friend, property manager and adviser are on the same page as Carlos and I. Two days later and we have a new plan!

Notice we now have a master suite with with sitting area (or my computer area) dream bathroom and walk in closet! This is very different than the two bedroom with jack n jill bath of the previous design. Yes, I like the new design! Now we're talking!

Of course we are still in the preliminary design as the finishes have not been chosen! We did discuss the bathtub being made out of stone as well as ticul vs. creama maya for the shower. I have thought of maybe a chandelier over the tub could be striking! Time to start building...again!

I will miss St Louis...

Carlos and I have lived in St Louis since May 1979...that's 34 years. It's longer than I actually lived in my home state of New York....but I still consider myself a New Yorker! I think because we moved to St Louis as adults and do not have the roots of of growing up here and attending local schools, it has just never felt like our home. Don't get me wrong, I do like St Louis and love many things about it. St Louis has been good to us, we have had good careers, it's been good to bring up our son and we have met some fine people here who have become close friends. Recently I have come across two fine videos that really help me see what I will miss about St Louis. Take a look! The first one was done last year...It's called Here is St Louis and the second is more recent and called Here is St Louis Two. These were done by some excellent local filmakers and their firm is called Grain, Inc..
I have always considered St Louis to be part of the Midwest...like Iowa or Kansas. My sister who lives here also considers it the north South...like Kentucky or Tennessee. Soon we will be moving to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico and I have heard that many consider it closer to part of the Caribbean and others closer to Central Americas! Whatever it is, it has some of the finer attributes just like St Louis. It's easy to get around, it's a great place for families and I know there are many fine people looking for friends like us.

Casa de Huespedes

Original Plan

 Now, after much thought, we are back to building the casa de huespedes. As we do not have negative connotations about the title we are calling it the 'casita'. We were told by some that in the past, a 'casita' was the small house that was provided for a mistress by her provider, thus it's not used often here in the Yucatan.
But anyway, we have received some plans from Roger and they are good plans. However after much discussion, Carlos and I are thinking of making it our master suite and redesigning it as such. First we thought of just making it so we could convert it later. Than we discussed just going ahead and making it our 'dream' master suite. So after a week or more of discussion we have decided to go to Roger and friends for input and thought.We hope to skype with Roger this coming weekend and in the meantime I will continue to ask for thoughts from friends and family. So if you have any input, please comment!
Our reasoning:
There are no stairs to the casita..this may be important in the future
We can walk out in the morning and jump into the pool
It will be larger than our current designated master with another walk in closet
There is space for me to have small sitting area as well as desk...my own reasoning...remember Carlos has the huge study and music room upstairs
I can make the bathroom both spacious and add a bathtub as well as a washer hook up for the future

My primitive notes to Roger

Bathroom of my dreams!

What a Summer!

I have two weather bugs on my desktop, one of St Louis weather and one of Merida weather. Recently the temperature and humidity has been neck and neck. The last couple of days St Louis has pulled ahead! Of course we have central air and air conditioning in the car  It won't be so in Merida. But I have been talking up getting solar system so that we do not have the budget busting electric bills. So when we go to Merida in December we will be talking to whatever experts we can find. I may just have my brother-in-laws father visit us as he has installed it in his house in Puerto Rico and gone from a 750.00 dollar a month electric bill to receiving a check from selling power each month. Santiago Sr is an retired engineer and does major research before he buys anything. I know he would be a great resource for us. Now I know that CFE will not buy my excess power, but it sure would be great to have a zero bill! And you never know, perhaps that could change.... So if anyone out there has some experience with solar in Merida or the Yucatan I would love to hear about it!

How I am making time pass....until Carlos can retire....and we can go to Merida!

Added crown molding

Sometimes the days go by so fast and other times the days just crawl, but I have a year or more left to fill until Carlos retires. Now that our Merida house is mostly finished, I only have a little to do. Once we start on the pool and the (still undecided) casita, I will have more to watch and worry about. With excellent property managers (Arturo and his lovely wife Orelia) there is not much to worry about.

The property values here in St Louis are starting to recover and homes that have sat on the market for months are finally moving. This summer Carlos and I have decided that we will try to finish many of the projects here at our home and will cross as many off the list as we can. Some will be DIY, but others will be projects hired out. This past two years we have done a few of the larger and more costly projects. New flooring and french doors in the lower level, a new driveway, and a huge tree removed. A new roof and gutters were installed this past October, our insurance paid the most of it as it needed to be done because of hail damage. Other large projects that have been deferred really need to be done. Projects have mainly been chosen for our future sale of this house.

Huge tree removed!

Flooring and french doors installed

One such project is to have ceramic tile installed in the laundry room as well as some cabinets and a folding counter. We have the materials, but have not made enough effort to find a handy person to install. Most of our large projects in this house have been done by our good Danish friend, Mike, who we flew over from Denmark. (Kitchen and bathrooms done by Mike) He was our exchange student 30 years ago and our only cost for his services was his airfare and expenses! However Mike is caught up in his Danish life and is no longer available. 

So it seems that this summer will be a summer of projects...here in St Louis, though I really wish it could be projects in Merida! 

Merida via Google Maps

I used to spend alot of time walking the streets of Merida using Google maps, street version. However the views getting so old now, almost everything has changed. I've gone back today and looked at my house and it's still the old version, taken sometime after 2007 but before 2010. It was really easy to explore where friends had reported restuarants or coffee shops. I even traced some of the paths to newly owned home reported purchased to see what was happening! The streets views of Merida have changed so much in the past few years. More houses have been rehabbed. Business have gone in and out of business. It's not much fun to walk the streets via Google maps! I wish it would be updated! I feel like a walk....

2007-20011

Now

Nothing much is happening..... at least right now!

It's spring here in St Louis, but in Merida the 'hot' season is just starting. We had a skype meeting with Arturo yesterday and he forwarded us some photos he took last week. Since none of our new projects have started there was really not much new to see.
However, the property owner next door is building something in his backyard and has raised the wall between our property and his. It looks like he is building a one or two bedroom casita. Whatever it is he has just saved us a few thousand dollars on our wall! Yeah! Now it will be back to the drawing board for our architect as our wall was going to be a much different design.

Before

After wall height added

Architects Plans

I'm eager to get some things going. We have a list of items we want to add/modify in our original house and would like to finish those before we go on to the pool and the still undecided about casita. Our item list includes things like screen on all the window and doors, water softner unit, new kitchen sink...I hate the one installed, protectorants added to several window and the door out to the roof, and some drawers added to the kitchen and hanging bars added to the bedroom closets. In all I think there were about 85 additional items to tweak or add. 

Love the faucet...hate the sink!

Carlos has been able to schedule the entire month of December off, so we well be in Merida as we were last year...Maybe this time we will have some company!