It is Mother’s Day in Mexico (not until Sunday here in the USA) and we just signed off on a piece of property closer to town where we hope to build a house. There is a lot of work ahead, but some of it is the kind we really love and we can get through the rest with such a great end in mind.
We were supposed to have the kick-off meeting with our house designer this afternoon at 1:15, but we started getting tornado warnings pretty early in the morning so we bumped the meeting until 11. There was a little bit of a storm and a good amount of wind at the specified time, but thankfully, it passed us up.
The meeting was great. We had it at the designers house. He is just a little older than me and he and his wife have very similar ideas about what they want their house to be as Lorena and I. Of course, it is nice to think about all the great things that are possible and that is fun, but the disconnect between what one can afford and what is possible is often very wide. Fortunately, Lorena and I have done this enough times that we know where we want to spend a little more money and, mostly, where it is OK to skimp. We liked the designer a lot and are looking forward to working with him.
The closing for the property where we want to build a house in closer to town (within walking distance) is on Friday this week. The preliminary meeting with the house designer is tomorrow and, hopefully, our current house will go on the market before the end of next week. With all this happening so fast, Lorena was quite pleased that she could harvest this spectacular Texas sunflower to enjoy while we start to prepare the house for showing and, also hopefully, a move. Houses in this area are currently staying on the market for 2-3 months, but the traditional school year ends mid-May and the buying season kicks in because people want to get moved in time to enroll their kids properly into their new schools, so we have lots of hope that the house will sell within that 2-3 month time frame. We are doing a little bit of a balancing act because the house in Mexico where we want to live while the new house is being built is not quite ready for us.
We spent the afternoon, yesterday, talking to the builder and designer, God willing, for the new house. I think it is going to be an incredible process that we will enjoy greatly, but it has dawned on me that, at a minimum, it is going to take at least a year. We have to get our current house sold, move our earthly goods into short-term storage, and move to Mexico. We will have to live with Grandma Conchita if the house at least one of the floors of our house in San Pedro is not finished. Then, the foundation will be put down on the property we are in the process of purchasing. After that, we were told it would take an additional eight months to complete the house.
Lorena and I drove over to look at the property and the surrounding neighborhood. It was just amazing because we are finding more and more stuff there all the time. One of the main things is the 4½ block (~0.3 miles) walk from the house to the “Historic Granbury Square.” But we found more shops and restaurants and a University arts training center, and fun neighborhoods, and etc., and etc. The designer called us right after we got home–we told him we would annotate some images of the things we liked and did not like about houses where we previously lived. That was very fun and informative and it is just the beginning of the process.
Lorena and I had a really interesting day today. First, I had a meeting with a professor from the Guadalajara campus of ITESM (important Mexican university system). There is a great chance we will be able to work with him as part of my day job. He is a gifted researcher and just an impressive individual.
After that, our builder, Brad, invited us to visit a house he had built in Granbury. The owners were beyond gracious in showing us their house. Our (famous) house designer lives just across the street and he came out to see us after we went through the house tour. We cam away from all of that with stars in our eyes. Everyone seems to know about the exact lot we have purchased and believe it was a brilliant move. That is yet to be determined, but we were VERY inspired and we LOVED the houses in that neighborhood–mostly all designed by our house designer.
THEN, I had a Signal message from Christian waiting for me when we got home from the house visit. It was the picture Christian took of my professor Troy after my PhD dissertation defense. All of it is all good.
Grateful.
Lorena and I drove to the office of our builder in Acton today to meet the guy who is designing our house. He is actually retired and only does projects that interest him with builders and customers he feels good about. We felt like we really hit it off with him–he is about my age, retired, and living in the same community. He and his wife walk together in the same area that Lorena and I hope to walk when the house is completed. Best of all is that, in addition to having many, many years of design success and recognition, he knows the specific, historic neighborhood where we plan to build and has ideas about what SHOULD be built there. It is especially gratifying that he, the builder, and Lorena and I want a house design that is more than something that works for us, but that will be of value to the community writ large. We are very excited about working with him and with Brad. I was especially encouraged by the attention they gave to what Lorena wants. It is great that her ideas are totally in sync with what is consonant with the ambiance of the town.
It is never the case that there is no drama when it comes to making large purchases (large being a relative term). The sellers accepted the offer, but changed the document to say “buyer is aware that property is subject to moratorium.” Our real estate agent called the city manager who told him that did not apply to our property because it was already platted, but our builder said that sometimes the higher ups do not know the actual rules, so he wanted us to sign and then take the seven days to figure out whether what the city manager said was actually true. So we signed. The ball is now in our court. If there is a moratorium, we have the right to pay $100 and back out, but if not, we now have the right to buy after we pay the earnest fee tomorrow morning. Really excited about that. In addition to all that, our builder introduced us to a rock star house designer with whom we will meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of him doing our design. Can hardly wait.
I always get nervous buying or selling real estate when an agreement on price has been reached and we have done all the signing our side, but are waiting for the other side to do the final signing. That is where we are now. We are chomping at the bit to get started, but will be moving in and out of storage and selling our current house before the first shovel of dirt gets moved. Best case, we are still 3-4 months away.
Currently we are in a one acre lot with a fairly large house out in the country. We really love the house, but it is a long way from civilization (25 minutes to the closest full-size grocery store. We decided that, as I am very close to real retirement now, we probably should get closer to town on a smaller, easier-to-maintain lot. Our offer to buy just such a place was just accepted. It has the added benefit that we can walk to a ton of different restaurants, parks, the river, the lake, coffee houses, live theater, etc., etc. And the grocery stores are five minutes from the house.
Lorena, very impressively, fixed the non-filling of our toilet by installing a new float apparatus. And she did it all while I was not looking nor aware by watching online videos. I am totally amazed, but not at all surprised. She can do ANYTHING!!!
I talked to my buddy, Bryan from Oregon, today and it was kind of surreal. They are having a spectacular, warm, sunny day there while we have rain and enough cold for Lorena to fire up the outdoor fireplace. We have gotten enough rain this spring that everything is very green. Even the lawns are all looking Willamette Valley, Oregon level green. We are planning to stay in tonight, eat a grilled ribeye steak, and enjoy that ambiance. Until then, Lorena is practicing on a watercolor that she wants to see if she can perfect. Pretty excellent first pass!
The weather here in our part of Texas has turned just about perfect for gardening and working outside. Lorena is in a near nirvanic state. When the weather is like this and she has some dirt and plants near by, she is wildly happy. She has gotten most of the maintenance stuff she wanted out of the way and is now moving on to special new projects, planting at least one new tree, putting borders around the trees in the front yard, making the ornamental drainage rocks flow more nicely in the landscape, replacing a bush that died, figuring out some new herbs she can plant that grow well in Texas, and the BIG project of working with a contractor to extend the sprinkler system and add some sod to manage erosion in an area where we are starting to get a little bit of an arroyo.
Yesterday we learned that we need to do about $700 worth of work on our irrigation system. That was after our 8-year old dryer’s motherboard went out and we had to buy a new dryer. This is the joy of home ownership. I think we have decided to downsize again, by a lot. We love our house, but do not need the hassle. In Mexico, we have plenty of local resources to work on these kinds economically. Here, not so much.
Well, shoot. We just found out our dryer is kaput and it is only eight years old. The repair guy was just excellent, but we all decided (he, Lorena, and I) that it made a whole lot more sense to just buy a new one than to try to repair this one. That is frustrating, but it is also just life. After Lorena finish lunch we are going to head out to Lowe’s to order a new one. Oh, well.
This is a nice view of the Huasteca from our house on the hill. The new Tesla plant is being built toward the left side of this photo and the large buildings right in front of the Huasteca, off in the distance, is the center of Santa Catarina. With the passing away of our next door neighbor and the funeral we attended this weekend, Lorena and I have been giving a lot of thought to what we are doing living so far away from family right now. Our idea is that we want to make the house in Mexico our primary residence while we still have Grandma Conchita and, maybe, while we are there start figuring out how to downsize. We have to figure out where to go before we can do any downsizing, but it is definitely on our mind.
We have been in our current neighborhood for just about three years now. Our next door neighbor, Darrell was a good friend during our time here, helping us out with one thing or another and reminding us it was time to do some seasonal maintenance or adjustments, always ready to stop and chat about local and national politics-we had similar ideas about most stuff. We were shocked when our neighbor across the street knocked on our door after church this morning to tell us that Darrell had passed away. It was a sudden and totally unexpected event for everyone. Lorena and I talked about the relative unimportance of whole swaths of our lives. Darrell will be missed. He was a good friend and a good neighbor.
Lorena returned from her visit with Christian in Boston today and life is profoundly better now that she is here. It is just not as nice when she is not where she loves to be in her house. I had fallen off the wagon on my diet and exercise program, but she has me up and going again–Salmon, salad, and asparagus for dinner tonight–high protein, low calorie, filling, and extremely tasty. I am in the middle of a bunch of heavy stuff at work so having her here is a huge help. She has to go to the doctor tomorrow, but that does not get in the way of managing her house and managing me for which both the house and I are very grateful. I think I might be working all weekend this weekend because of pressing requirements at my day job. It is not a problem at all when Lorena is here to keep things under control.
I had all kinds of big plans for my first day of work after the new year, but got off too a very slow start. I finally just gave up at about 3:00 PM and took a two hour nap. I did get a few things completed at work and, more importantly, after lunch at Panda Express, met with our friend Brad to discuss the addition of a bonus room to our house. He had some amazing ideas and we came away with a plan to get us started. He is going to have his CAD guy draw up the ideas as soon as Lorena can get him the house plans. From there we will make any need adjustments and negotiations and then proceed, step-by-step to do the work. He said we do not need to do it all at once only keeping in mind that certain things need to be fully completed and cannot be stopped in the middle. I think this might work OK. We will see what he comes up with.
Grandma Conchita has now displayed my dissertation in the highest place of honor in the dining room. I am very gratified. She is not shy about her pride in her children and I count myself a very fortunate man to be on her list of approved people. She was here for a few weeks and we are very happy she was here, but she very much likes to be in her own home. Hopefully we will be able to get down there again very soon.
The temperature has stayed in the forties all day with lots of wind and abundant rain. Lorena thought rightly that today would be a good day for a fire in the fireplace. I concurred completely. I am working on an assignment for my professor, Troy, at University of Nebraska so am not getting the total benefit yet, but am looking forward to reading my book and warming my feet with a hot cup of decaf (cocoa would be better, but that is definitely not in my nutrition plan. We have plans to use the fireplace a lot this year.
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