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!

Another Snow Storm!

We have had lots of snow this winter here in St Louis. Our usual cumulative total for a winter season is around 17.5 inches. This year we have had way more or maybe it just feels that way! Today we are expected to have anywhere  from 8 to 12 inches. It has been coming down at the rate of an inch or two per hour and we have had THUNDER snow! I just finished shoveling off the front stairs and porch and I took a couple of photos.

I brushed off the snow so I could feed the wildlife a little extra

View from the front door

side yard

back yard

Carlos is wondering how long he can hold out. He hates winter and he can't retire for at least another year and a half. He saves up all his days off so we can go to Merida for a month in December, so he can't even escape to Florida to visit his sister. 

But I can! So this Friday I am off to Florida where I will stay with his sister pre and post cruise (5 days) and will float around in the Caribbean for seven days on the Norwegian Epic. My friend Mary will be joining me on the cruise, along with 4,100 others...it's a huge ship. 

Norwegian Epic

So I will soak up a little sunshine, snorkel and float in the Caribbean and dance until dawn (not likely but it sounds good) for almost 12 days!

Filling up the suitcase(s)

My current list!

The last two times we've gone to Merida I have brought things down that I either treasure or was afraid I wouldn't find easily. A few items I've hauled down, I've found at one of thee many stores I've explored. This past December I made a list as I either could not find the item at one of the many stores I visited or did not like the brands or it was way overpriced. I keep a suitcase in the bedroom and as I shop around St Louis, I check out the clearance items and add to my suitcase. Today I checked out all the items I've purchased since our return in January.

I never could find deep woods off around Merida! (and only 1.00 each on clearance)

More clearance items..7.00 us for the mosquito racket.

100% cotton percale sheets! (and only 20.00 on clearance!)

From Thailand, a treasured gift from a friend!

And so it goes... recently I have been concentrating on pillows for the couch and beds. Yes I have bought some and I think I will make some. As soon as the curtain rods go up on the French doors in the bedrooms I will get the measurements and try my hand on making some curtains with the grommet tops. I'm glad it's too expensive to bring furniture with us....otherwise my garage would be filled too!

Two of the pillow 

This is the material for me to make more couch pillows!

Valentine's Day Special

"The EX

Knife Sets For The Heartbroken

Valentine’s Day isn’t all chocolates and roses. For some, it’s Regret, Remorse,REVENGE. If your love life is currently traversing the dark side of the crystal, time to wield the EX knife set. Featuring five blades and a sleek holder, it’s perfect for stabbing and slashing ahead to better days—like February 15th"

This is the description of the knife set as pictured. Remember this knife set that I blogged about in December when I was in Merida? Here is the link in case you have forgotten.  Looks like I was wrong what the name of it was! Got an e-mail today advertising this on special of just $69.00 and on Valentines day too! It's interesting how many colors it comes in.... Do you think anyone would actually buy this?

(colors not shown are white, and chrome)

To all my readers and fellow bloggers, Happy Valentine's Day!

My house looks so lonely!

We were there and stuff was all about!

Without fresh flowers, clutter on the counter and just the flotsam of daily life, out house looks lonely. Everything was put away to keep the dust and cleaning to the minimum. I even took some of the few pieces of art off the walls. I didn't notice how lonely it looked the morning we left as we were in a hurry, as usual. Now seeing the photos that Arturo took it looks lonely and I hope the house knows that we are lonely for it!

looking lonely!

empty

Clean!

Our comfy bed is waiting for us!

Morning Surprise!

It wasn't in the forecast...they said, "snow flurries with no accumulation". I know I checked just before I turned in for the night... I always do! I checked St Louis, 'cause we live here, Philadelphia, that's were Carlos will be travelling to today and Merida, were we wish we were! I think maybe this poor robin wished he was in Merida too!

It sure looks pretty out!

From Rainforest to Hurricane...all for my kitchen!

Back when we were choosing our hard surfaces like pasta tiles and our plumbing fixtures, we also choose our granite counter tops for the kitchen. We spent part of a very hot day walking around the granite yard pausing here and there and discussing (sometimes heated) the granite each of us liked...that is Carlos, Roger (our esteemed architect) and I! I like the lighter granite with browns and blacks, Carlos was drawn to the more exotics like onyx and Roger liked the dark stunning ones like blacks, browns, blues. It ended up Roger and Carlos decided on the Rainforest as seen below. I was odd man out, but as I know that decorating is not my forte I was not too upset and was willing to go along with them.

Fast forward almost a year later and it was time to order the granite for the kitchen. As he tells it, Roger stopped and got a piece of the Rainforest granite and took it to the house. He laid it in the kitchen area and hated it! The colors just did not work with the kitchen. So back to the granite place and now Roger had to decide again what to choose. It was only days until Carlos and I were arriving for our December stay. It's a wonderful thing that Roger has spent so much time getting to know us! (since 2007) His new choice was called Hurricane and a piece of it is below:

Carlos loved it at first sight...I was ambivalent. Even though the rainforest was not my choice I had spent a year getting to love it.

 

 

After spending a month with the kitchen, I love the granite. It is a perfect color and I do need to say, "Hats off the Roger" he really does know Carlos and I! Now can I talk about the kitchen sink that I hate?

Will Hockey be in our life?

Last night Carlos and I went to the opening hockey game between the St Louis Blues and the Detroit Redwings. We have not been to a hockey game in almost 10 years. We didn’t know any of the current players, but the action was hot and the crowd, at standing room only, was hotter.  Carlos’ employer gave us our tickets, which at 160.00 US dollars each, was enough pesos for us to live in Merida for a week…. or two.

At one time our life revolved around ice hockey. Our son was an avid player, starting at about 4 years old. (He started skating at about 2 ½ years old) He played on a travel team and many of our weekends were spent traveling to such places as Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis or Champlain, IL. When we weren’t traveling to games we were getting up at ungodly hours for his practices. For several years Carlos participated in a men’s pick up league that played Friday nights at midnight. 

Carlos is in the blue Parkway jersey kneeling center

Warm socks, ear muffs and gloves were the fashions of those days and I could always be found with a steaming cup of hot chocolate in my hands. Than for several years our teen age high school exchange students we hosted were hockey players from Finland. Now we had three hockey schedules to try to follow. There were weeks we spent 12 to 15 hours in rinks, our garage was filled with really stinky hockey gear and I had several broken and cracked windows from errant hockey shots. As fast as it started, it was over. Our son finished school and went on his way. Carlos stopped playing and we hosted mostly girls who did not play hockey.

Our son at about 6 yrs old 

After the hockey game while waiting on the platform for the light rail train, Carlos turns to me and asks, “Do you think they have a hockey team we could watch at the mall rink in Merida?” Is he thinking that he may have hockey withdrawal? Didn’t we have enough hockey for life? Does he not remember those 4 am practices, or those long road trips with icky hotels and rampaging hockey brats? Tell you what, If my granddaughter or grandson plays hockey, we’ll come NOB for some of those games!