It’s been so, so long since I’ve update farfrumwurken.com that I felt I needed to bring things up-to-date.  The things we accomplished could never have been done over the phone or through email – we got a ton of things done.  In the end, our casa was still not ready so we headed back to Vancouver knowing that we would be back in three short months.

Cut to the present time.  We came back down on November 4th (InterJet Airlines) into Cancun and grabbed the ADO bus directly at the airport.  This was a first for us.  We normally we grab a cab (600P) and get into Cancun City – stay the night at the Ramada Inn and then get the bus out the next morning.  Knowing that we had a home to go to (along with our ten (10) bags of checked luggage) we didn’t get too concerned about arriving after dark.

Our first night in the new casa was fantastic, we have two large sliding doors that lead to a curved terrace just outside our bedroom – to be able to sleep with the screens only, see the clear sky with stars a blazing, particularly in November was great.

We’ve been here in Merida now for two months, twenty-one days and it feels like a week.  We just plain and simply love Merida.  The workman have all but left Casa Amigos, it’s been Deborah and I and Jean for the last few weeks and it’s lovely.  The banging, the dust, the footprints on the floor, the early morning doorbells are a thing of the past.  My main task now is to get the art on the walls and fill it out with furniture – I probably have close to twenty large pieces of art that need to be prepared and hung so that we can add some color to this very, very white home.

At this time of year in January it’s like our fall NOTB.  The leaves are falling off the trees, the temperature during day is reasonable and it gets down right cool at night, the lowest temperature that we’ve seen has been around 46F, but it’s great sleeping weather.  We’ve done very little touristy things up to this point, but we did get to the Uxmal ruins and a side trip to three Cenotes (Santa Barbara) but there’s definitely more in our future when we get ourself some wheels that we can call our own.  Up to this point, beggars can’t be choosers, our contractor Adam, has lent us his Ford Expedition (Construction Truck) for the last couple of weeks, so Deb and I are out and about learning how to drive in this somewhat hazardous Merida road system.  I’m just about used to it and I can proudly say that I have had zero fender-benders, scrapes or bruises up to this point.

We’ve got friends coming down in February and March so things might get a little hectic, but we’re ready.  The casa is standing tall and the fridge and pantry is full, so bring it on.  We’re sad that we only have fifty-four days left here before we have to go home.  I’ve attached some pictures of what we’ve done to date, hopefully enjoy these and immediately get onto the AirBNB site and book some time here at Casa Amigos – you’ll love it.

Firstly, I can’t begin to describe what it’s been like here for the last 32 days since we arrived in Merida.  There has been zero, nada, squat, niente relief on the heat.  Locals are saying that they’ve never experienced such extreme heat before in May.  The page on the calendar has turned to June and that means “the rains” are coming.  With these rains it means humidity, loads of humidity.  Deborah and I never imagined how hot it could be – we certainly heard about it, but hell, we were sure that we could handle it, so we thought.  Since the arrival of June, we’ve seen the rains that never showed it’s face in May.  The other day, we were shopping at Home Depot, picking up some items that we’ve needed for the casa and the rains started, right on schedule.  I can’t tell you the noise that the rain made on the roof, it kinda sounded like standing underneath Niagara Falls with a tin cap on your head.  It was a “torrential” downpour certainly.  We made it out to our vehicle during a brief reprieve and decided that we’d head to Wal-Mart for some groceries mainly because they have a covered, underground parking lot.  Thankfully we have a honkin Ram 1/2 ton pick-up truck at our disposal with especially high ground clearance – we needed it.  The Wal-Mart underground lot was like a lake, people we’re wading around with their grocery carts with the water up to their shins.   When the rains come down, they really come down in Merida.

We moved into our friend’s Casa on May 29th and we’ll be here for the next thirty (30) days.  Her casa was built by the same contractor that’s doing our house and this place is spectacular.  We’re very lucky people to have friends like Elizabeth who offers us such a fantastic place to stay.  As I write this update, it’s just before 9:00 p.m. and the temperature is 90 degrees outside and inside our Casita it feels like 100, despite the fans going.  The sweat is running down my face and back and I’m just sitting here in shorts.  But all we have to do is “strip off” and jump into the pool and it feels like heaven.  With electricity at a bit of a premium in Merida, we’ve tried to be energy savvy and save wherever we can and just run the fans.  It is however impossible to sleep without the air-conditioning running.  So much about our trials and tribulations with the heat, the house is coming along in leaps and bounds.  The door-guy was installing the bedroom doors on Saturday and will probably finish these up sometime mid-week.  They started laying ceramic tile in the lower walkway and they’ve finished the concrete island in the kitchen..  I can’t begin to tell you how they constructed the island, it’s built like the Rock of Gibraltar, complete with rebar and cement down into the limestone and cement and rebar on the countertop section.  We had a little set back on the kitchen design, so we’ve had to make some last minute adjustments with the positioning of the fridge (moved into what was originally the pantry doorway) and having to create a completely NEW doorway into the pantry.  In hindsight, this will be a much better kitchen layout in the end.

For those of you who have followed http://www.farfrumwurken.com from the beginning of this build, we are getting close, extremely close.  I know that it doesn’t look like it from the photographs, but when you’ve got twenty-five guys on-site every day things happen pretty quickly.  I’d like to thank everyone who’s been providing comments, it is encouraging for us to say the least.  We don’t have long now before we get the keys, so stay tuned for the final results.

#CasaAmigo #MeridaCasa #MeridaRental #CongressCenter #MexicoRental

 

We arrived into Merida via Toronto, Nashville and Cancun on April 30th after spending five days in Toronto with my son and his family and two weeks in Murfreesboro, Tennessee with my wife’s family.  It was great to get caught up with everyone – we feel so isolated on the west coast that it was nice to get a hug and updates on their family life.

We’ve grabbed the first Platino ADO out of Cancun to Merida that we could (ADO only allows only a certain number of seats on each bus for “INAPAM seniors” tickets so we headed out on the 2:15 p.m. bus and took the 4 hour and 30 minute relaxing trip to Merida.  By the way the have a new terminal, it’s no longer at the Fiesta Americana Hotel, they’ve moved it to a new facility just a few blocks away and they call it Calle 60.

We’ve been here for three (3) days now, with Thursday and Friday was pretty much occupied with our builder Adam dealing with updates and clarifications on building components because we’ve been  unavailable for the past three weeks or so.  Today being Saturday, we had a day off from the building process and we were able to go shopping.  Luckily enough, there’s kind of a “black Friday” sale going on here in the spring as well as the fall, so we decided to pull the trigger on some appliance purchases.   It was kind of insane spending some huge pesos on four appliances and one mattress we did manage to trim the expense by close to 55% overall on savings.  Timing is everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Casa is coming along fantastic.  Both exterior and interior stucco is being applied to the walls, tiles are being laid, and meetings with the “iron guy”, the “aluminium guy” and “the kitchen counter guy” with the first one set for Monday at 10:00 a.m.   It was “Worker Appreciation Day” on Friday so we got invited to the big luncheon shindig that Casa Yucatan Construction throws for all it’s workers.  It was held at another Casa Yucatan project  site that was not far from our Casa, but I counted at the peak of attendance some fifty-eight (58) workers, some twenty-five (25) alone are from our project – so he’s got a sizeable crew and payroll as well.

It’s been eight months since Casa Yucatan Construction cleared off the forest and broke ground on the Calle 66 project.  What a transformation.  There have been regular, weekly discussions between all those involved with the project, and for the most part things have gone very, very well.  We’re finally into the flooring stage, so the boxes and boxes of tile have arrived and have been laid with care.

We’ll be arriving in Merida on April 30th and our plans are to stay there until we gate most of the things finished and ready for September rentals.  We’re extremely happy with what Adam and his team have accomplished in these past eight months, he’s built a fortress that will withstand anything Mother Nature can unleash.

#meridarealestate #mexicovacationrentals #mexicorealestate #mexicoproperty #luxuryrealestate #milliondollarrental #luxuryhomes #dreamhome #meridacasarentals #meridahouserentals #mexicorentals #merida #mexico #meridacongresscenter #meridaliving #congresosdeyucatan #snowbirdrentals #meridacentrorentals

We can’t believe the transformation in Calle 66 in these last six weeks.  On average CYC has had a crew of 25-27 guys working every day.  The tiles in the Bathrooms and rear bedroom suites are finally down and they look fantastic.

#meridarealestate #mexicovacationrentals #mexicorealestate #mexicoproperty #luxuryrealestate #milliondollarrental #luxuryhomes #dreamhome #meridacasarentals #meridahouserentals #mexicorentals #merida #mexico #meridacongresscenter #meridaliving #congresosdeyucatan #snowbirdrentals #meridacentrorentals

 

Yes, another month has passed and we seem to be getting closer than ever to a finished project.  The second floor in the main house is nearing completion.  The roof joist and block have been put into position and the final cement pour is due to happen by week’s end.  Thank god for those regular Friday pictures from Casa Yucatan Construction.  Deborah and I wait anxiously every Friday for those emails to arrive from the Construction office.  I’ve included below all the shots from our last batch.

Plans are still on schedule for a trip to Merida in late April or early May to do some tile pics and paint colors – so we’re getting closer with each passing Friday.  I spoke with the contractor today and he’s indicated that he’ll be starting the tile work in the Casitas by early next week.  I have to say that we are lucky as hell to have a good friend like Bob Phippard help oversee our project – We can’t think what the hell we would have done without Senior Roberto.  He makes regular calls to me each week if he sees anything of question.  Both he and his lovely wife Denice live just around the corner in their fantastic Hacienda home, so Bob regularly takes a walk through our build just to make sure that every thing is on target with the plans and if not, co-ordinates with Casa Yucatan to make it right.  We’ll be indebted to Bob forever to help us make this our forever home.  Thanks for following the Casa Amigos build on my blog and Facebook, it’s really appreciated.

How time flies, it’s been yet another month since I updated things so I thought it was time to share a few more pictures.  As of our last invoice/payment we are at 42.8% completed on our project, so we’re just about half way there.

There’s been quite a bit happen in the last 30 days at Calle 66.  We’ve had the rear suites put up, particularly ours on the 2nd floor, the walls and floors are in.  The rear stairway is in and the roof has been put in place.  What you have to understand here is that up to this point in time, there is NO wood, zero anywhere in this casa.  It’s all cement block, metal “I” beams, concrete and rebar – there should be absolutely no squeek in this place.   Once we get the structure up, I’m going to try to determine from the contractor just how many concrete blocks are in this place – my guess is in the thousands.

 

 

The plan is for Casa Yucatan Construction to work on the rear bedroom suites so that maybe, just maybe we can stay in these when we head back down in April.  If these are ready for us to sleep in with water and electricity, we’ll be able to save the $$$’s for a rental casa and maybe put those funds into a fridge or two.  We’re very happy with the progress made with hopes that we’ll be able to get the keys to the finished project sometime in July 2019.