Category: Mexico houses Page 3 of 4

Work started today on the second house. It is a lot higher up the hill so it has a better view. We want to take advantage of the view by completely removing the current balcony (shown to the left). I will be replaced with a thick glass, 3 ft. high muro con barandal. The second image shows the wall across from the balcony openings. That wall will be completely removed and replaced with ceiling to floor glass walls and a doors. This glass area will have to have some thin, unobtrusive vertical stripes or hanging strings to prevent bird hits, but the idea is to open this up as much as possible both for lighting and to expose the view. This is going to go pretty slowly as resources allow. Of course, if we are able to sell the other house that we converted to apartments lower on this same hill, we can use some of the resources to speed up the changes. Lynn is planning to use the house (above) as his office, so we are hoping that will allow him to keep the focus on the changes there.

Lorena and I ran down to Mexico for a few days to see family and visit the house projects we are doing there. This is the first time I have been back since the pandemic. It is amazing to me how easy it is to forget how good the cuisine is in this part of the world. The picture was taken yesterday afternoon in Tío Lauro’s atelier. It is a truly beautiful setting and the improvements he has made since we were here last are incredible. Lauro has a lot of work left to do, but you can see where he is going with the place now in a way that was not so evident before. The other thing about the place we like is all the fruit trues he planted in the garden behind the house that are bearing fruit. It is a little piece of paradise.

We are all but finished in the remodel of the first house and are moving forward to try to figure out what to do with the second one. The lot for the house is not that big, but the size of the house is not small, taking up the entire footprint of the property. We have started talking with an architect because we want to make sure to have a design the current house structure can support. In those discussions we have vacillated between two different styles. We are leaning toward a traditional/contemporary design whose outward appearance would be somewhat like the house on the bottom right in the images above. Lynn suggested we have the architect render the house also as a full blown contemporary style house of the type shown in the bottom left image. None of the interior of the house will be affected much but we want the outside to fit into the neighborhood and still have the kind of design that works for the way we want to use the place.

As for the first house, we are not sure what to do with it yet–we were thinking of keeping it and renting it out but we were approached by someone who wants to buy it from us. They are bringing us an offer in the next week or so. We will almost certainly sell it if it is a good offer because that will allow us to start in on another property.

This is the view from the apartments that are almost complete that are four or five blocks down the hill from the second house we bought and hope to remodel for ourselves. We were pretty amazed with the wonderful view. The following images are from inside the house. The unfinished box-looking things up on the walls are areas where mini-split air conditioners will be installed. The idea we have now is to keep the apartments for awhile. There are currently four of them but room for three more. Lynn said he would like to rent those out and let the income from the first floor finance the addition of the final three. We thought that was a great idea and is now our current plan.

Lynn gave Tio Lauro and Grandma Conchita a tour. The first image is of the opening between the two apartments on the second floor. The second is a similar view of the two apartments on the first floor. We were very surprised with how much natural light enters all of the apartments.

Lynn showed the apartment remodel to two potential purchasers last week with another one scheduled for the coming week. The floors are all in now with the shower heads, toilets, and painting to follow in the next week or two. We have decide to finish out the basement apartment before we sell and start soliciting renters as we believe having the place occupied will improve the price we can ask. We have had to go more slowly than would have been possible had we had more funding but are pleased with the progress. Lynn has his eye on some other properties that might work for our second project when (if) we get the thing sold. We will see how easy it is to attract renters soon–everyone with whom Lynn has spoken in the real estate world says there are insufficient rentals available in the area for apartments in our price range. We are hoping that is true.

The first house in Mexico is not converted to four (soon to be five) apartments with just the flooring, interior work, and some external doors to go. We put it on the market yesterday. You can see the offering here. The page will be updated with interior pictures as soon as the finish work is complete. We have our eyes on a couple of places for our next project if this one sells pretty quickly.

The end game for the remodel of the first house has really begun now. The final parts of the facade are a wall that rises to the level of the house to the left in the image to the left, large numbers for the street number of the building, and accent lighting for the numbers, pointing upward from below and pointing downward from just above the top windows.

Work is going on in earnest inside the house, too. The picture to the right shows the state of the walls inside the house. Plastering has started and our builder (and Lawyer), Lynn, has promised us pictures in the next day or two of progress that should give a better image of what we can expect for the final appearance of the house. The idea about what we are going to do with the building after the first phase is complete is still in a state of flux. We hope to have a much better idea of the possibilities within the next month or two.

We were looking at our map and browsing the internet and determined our house up on the hill in San Pedro Garza Garcia is only four miles from the largest building in Latin America (Torres Obispado) and a little over seven miles from what was the largest building in Mexico (Torre KOI) before that. I think we can so the both of them from the house on the hill but I am going to confirm that with Lynn, my brother-in-law and our contractor and lawyer or my artist brother-in-law Lauro who has promised us a couple of pieces specifically for the house that we can add to our collection of his work.

Lynn is our partner in this enterprise. It cannot be overstated how much it has helped us that at he is both a practicing lawyer and the owner of a construction company. He has deep connections in the kind of subcontractors and laborers as well as knowledge of the local economy and opportunities in the specific neighborhood where we are planning to continue this work. The economic realities in San Pedro are just as complicated as they are in the USA. Lynn has the finger on the pulse of raw material and labor prices, knowledge of what is a good deal and, more importantly, what is not, when to buy, when to sell, and about every other aspect of doing anything to do with real estate in his part of the world. We are glad to be in business with him. You can see his picture in front of the apartments to the right.

Work continues on the house on the apartments. The current schedule has the transition from work on the apartments starting in late December or early January. A couple of images of the current state of construction of the apartment transition below.

Lorena and I have been excited about this house. It is in a very quiet neighborhood up on a hill with just spectacular views. We cannot wait to take some pictures at the right time of day with the entire panorama. It is small enough that there will not be a lot of maintenance that needs to be done. We have a ton of things we want to do and, thankfully, there is not going to have to be a wholesale restructuring of the house like Casa Mexican #1.

Our builder, Lynn Neri, tells us there are going to be major changes in the appearance of the exterior of the house over the next 2-3 weeks. The area of the images marked in red is open to the soil in front of the house. A planter or two and a couple of trees are planned for that area. Tile for the entire facade of the house is scheduled to start this Saturday. I am not sure exactly what Lynn has in mind for the tile, but I am pretty sure it will create some pretty dramatic changes. After that, the clean-up and finish work required for the interior of the house is really minimal and should take only another 2-4 weeks. When the exterior is cleaned up and while we are still working on interior finish work, plumbing, and wiring, we will put the house on the market and start thinking about the next project.

It is difficult to explain how much work has gone on in the house infrastructure, but Lynn has been very hard at work. We are hoping for completion of the house–actually conversion to apartments within less than six months, keep in mind this is a part time project for Lynn. We are very, very pleased with the progress. In the meantime, we are working on purchasing house #2 and it is not a house we plan to flip. We want to keep it.

Lynn has made great progress on the house over the last several weeks. Most of the internal infrastructure (plumbing, electrical, support structure) is complete and now the final structural elements are coming into place before the face of the house will start looking much more modern. The stairs on the right lead to the second floor of the house from the sidewalk. There will be a sister set of stairs to the to the left that will lead to the first floor of the house from the sidewalks. Most of the openings in the front of the house that are not blocked in will be windows. Notice, there will be no balcony on this (the street) side of the house which adds quite a bit of extra internal space.

The tear down is complete, all the interior structural work is done, and Lynn has started to rebuild. Notice that he has reclaimed what used to be an exterior balcony on the second floor and a porch on the first floor to increase the interior floor space of the house. There is a ton of plumbing for new bathroom and kitchen locations, adjustment of walls to add less invasive and easier to access stairways, and removal of interior walls to improve the layout. Next will come the front exterior which should change the street appearance in its entirety.

Lynn esta llegando al fin de la demolición en la casa y, después de cortar unos agujeros para instalar escalares, esta limpiando escombro para poder empezar en construir cosas en espacios nuevos que son mas abiertos. Aquí están las ultimas fotos de demolición antes de empezar la reconstrucción.

Lynn is getting to the end of the demolition in the house and, after cutting a few holes for things like stairways, is cleaning out the debris so he can start building new things in the new, more open spaces. Here is the last set of demolition image before the building starts.

Read in English

El plan es de convertir la casa para una sola familia en un edificio con cuatro departamentos para estudiantes. Se empieza con demolición. La idea es de convertir el balcón y la entrada de abajo a unos espacios adicionales que están adentro de la casa. Después, unas escaleras, paredes, y otras estructuras permanentes tienen que estar derrumbadas para acomodar los cuatro departamentos estudios con baños, cocinas, roperos, salas, y ventanas con luz natural para cada uno. Con este fin en mente, el paso de demolición ha empezado.

Leer en Español

The plan to convert the single family home into a four unit student apartment building starts with demolition. The idea is to turn the balcony and the lower entry area into additional inside space. After that, stairways, walls, and some other permanent structures must be demolished to accommodate the plan for four studio apartments with bathrooms, kitchens, closets, living rooms, and windows with natural light for each of them. To that end, the demolition stage has been started.

English version

Lorena y yo hemos empezado un proyecto nuevo en México. Compramos una casa media viejita en uno de los municipios de Monterrey que se llama San Pedro. Previamente había escrito de esa casa aquí. El hermano de Lorena se llama Lynn quien es abogado y desarrollador nos ayudó buscar y comprar la casa. Él está administrando la remodelación para convertir la casa en cuatro departamentos. Esperamos que podamos venderla cuando esté completa y comprar otra en la misma área. Aquí está cómo se veía la casa que compramos.

La remodelación empezó ayer. El primer paso fue remover el balcón para extender la medida de los cuartos en el segundo piso de la casa. Al mismo tiempo su equipo limpiará la entrada de la primera planta de la casa. La nueva fachada de la casa será mucho más moderna y segura. Estamos planeando escribir de toda la remodelación y reportar que clase de suerte tendremos en vender la casa. Si todo va bien, intentaremos de nuevo con otra. Aqui esta el dibujo arquitectónico y sofisticado desarrollado por el diseñador (Lynn) para guiar su equipo en el reemplazo de la fachada.

La proximas fotos son del proceso de derrumbe.