Tuesday, 07 Nov. We are having quite a learning experience, with trying to find the most suitable place for us to live, and it is exhausting. Our realtor Alonso took us to see some beautiful new homes, just being completed and put up for sale, at Cortijo San Antonio, on the site of a former chicken farm, and next to the grounds of an exclusive equestrian club. This is in an area of "greater Fortín" about a kilometer north of the main Fortín-Córdoba road, north of the
El Bosque ("the forest") neighborhood, and about 20+ blocks west Walmart on the paralleling Pueblo de las Flores road. The gated access to the development comes in from the main road, along a driveway with new houses on both sides, each with its angle-in parking area under the front of the house. The drive progresses into a sort of large cul de sac, in the shape of a tee, so the driveway does not make a full circle. In the middle there is a grassy public area with a huge
palapa covered patio with table, chairs and BBQ fireplace.
The 16 houses were all very different and dramatically styled, with angles, curves, balconies, and colors varying with each unit, both outside and inside. All attached, but each with totally different garden spaces tucked into the corners. After touring many of them - what fun - we of course would like the one at the back of the cul de sac best, thus the problem of driving to it. Would always, if you could get in, have to back out one direction past last three houses before getting into the other arm to the tee to make a turn. A beautiful spacious kitchen in this house. All had a maid's quarters on the third level, with laundry setup there. The head of the construction was there, and he was willing to make any changes we wanted, including a washer-dryer area on the ground floor. But, they were far from our loved park and quiet Fortin de la Flores
On the way back we asked to be dropped off in town. We walked to the park, bought a cup of rum raisin ice cream and another of mamey (in flavor, this tropical fruit is sort of cross between a sweet yam and a canteloupe). Then sat in the park and slowly devoured every speck while enjoying one of our favorite places and watching the activity at the end of day: people on the way back from work or school, exchanging a few greetings to those passing by us, listening to the birds and watching a few well-fed dogs heading home. We decided at that point, that no matter how convenient or beautiful all other houses were, we must live within walking distance of a park like this.
Tuesday, 08 Nov. Today Alfonso took us to a house in town that we had visited before, one of the three we are at this point considering. (Well, we might still be considering the huge house just south of Walmart. It is in fourth place though since it is not near "our park".) The white house we re-visited today is overpriced to our thinking (it's more than the exquisite Spanish colonial one we mentioned in an earlier post), so they likely will not take the offer we would make. It would need some remodeling to make it fulfill all the requirements we are insisting on, basically a home capable of us living on the ground floor. A bedroom, or area that could convert to one, must be downstairs if needed in the future when we're ancianos (old folks), as well as a full accessible bath. This house would require some remodeling: taking down a wall between the existing half-bath and a slightly lower level service area to add a shower.
Kitchen counter tops are limited and not usable to roll pastries on. Has a large pantry area or closet, and has good bedroom closets in the whole house. The floor tiles through out the house are a nice rose except for ugly ones in the kitchen. Would need full window screening. Good window spacing, but all of the windows are steel framed and require some regular upkeep -- many of the windows are jalousied, therefore hard to screen. Room layout both up and downstairs is quite unique, spacious rooms with high ceilings and overhead fans. The master bedroom has a walk-in dressing room and full bath. About 14 years old, and in a good location. Really has all we need or want.
Nice plantings and a mandarin tree in the back. Although we're not looking for a huge garden space, this house has ample opportunities for growing anything that this climate supports. Since the back yard is larger than we want, so we would probably put in a patio and or terrace much of it. The roof might have a leak, so Dan plans to ask Frank to bring his ladder over soon, so that he can climb up and check it out. Saw a wee squirrel in a palm tree whose fronds wave over the kitchen door, the palm growing in a wooded area of a large walled estate just north of this property. And we are told there is a rabbit that visits the grassy backyard, which is walled with densely leafed vines covering the high walls.
When leaving there today, we told Alonso that we loved the house he showed us last eve, but the problems we saw were that we could not count on getting our car to the house because of the problems with the driveway configuration, if a car was stopped in front of any of the other houses. Also, we are quiet private people and expect that the public area just out in front of the house would probably make for late evening happy hour noise. While many might enjoy this type thing, we wouldn't. And, likely, we would feel quite constricted in that tight concentration of homes.
One other house in the running for us is dark blue colonial style and about seven blocks south of the white house we visited this morning. It is maybe our dream come true house. Price is good. Location is good. We feel so very at home the moment we step onto the property. Very nice inside. Great kitchen. Unfortunately the living room is sunken one step, but with careful placement of furnishings, perhaps we will not fall over the edge. Has a lovely study, fireplace which we would likely seldom use. Gorgeous staircase. Floors are tiles in the dark orange-ish red. Lots of wood-framed windows all fully screened and barred. Nice but limited spaces for vegetation both front and back. Problems? But of course. We would need to build a full bathroom, and maybe a bedroom, utilizing part of the backyard-parking area, unless we do some other magic for the bedroom. Needs a roof built over the parking area if we want to protect our vehicle. Probably would put a patio on top of garage or bedroom-bath. No windows on south side, since it is attached to house there. Don't know yet about the condition of the roof.
Third place is not built yet. There are two really small and narrow houses being constructed two blocks further south of the blue house, just off Calle 11 Sur. The realtor assured us that it was not too late in construction for us to make changes. So we thought about what changes we'd like, and are to meet with the architects Thursday, to see's what's possible, at what price This house would have all we want and need, but in a very small way. No windows on the two sides of building, because it is attached to other houses. Does have a small garden out back and three bedrooms and two full baths upstairs, as well as one of each downstairs should our plan-modifications be possible to implement. All three places have room for house-guests, or if it comes to that, space for a live in maid/caregiver (which at present would cost about US$10 a day).
There was a house plan that we saw on the web in Fortín that we wanted to see. Dan especially liked the floor plan and lot layout. We finally saw it a few days ago. The house itself we could not get into because the manager of the property was gone when we arrived, but were able to look into the windows. Very much out in the canefields, so we'd have to plan to be absent the week in May they burn the fields, which María admitted was a like a scene out of hell (followed by several weeks of ashfall, until the rains return to bring it all to earth and wash it into the ground). Guess it did not matter that we wouldn't actually get in, since the location was too far out and the dirt road going into the new house area went into a low dip with slippery mud. We imagine it would flood at the low spot with every major rainfall. We were thankful to get out of there without sliding off the road.
Tomorrow Ania and Frank invited us for Carmen's birthday dinner. We are looking forward to that. Ania is a great cook! Their large property is filled with beautiful plantings. The annuals from the tropics that we put indoors at home, of course become perennial shrubs and trees here. The poinsettias have been in bloom since our arrival here. Also being that it is far more humid here, the mosquito population is booming. Not many flies however.
Oh, we had a surprise and luckily not a disaster past week. We have to light burners with matches each time cooking happens. Matches of the large wooden type were very hard to find. Dan had to light Carmen's fire when we had but the wimpy matches. Well one day we discovered that the new box of matches had burned on the end along with tops of some of the matches. What ever kept the whole box from flaming up? Must of been too close to a pan on stove which got hot. Matches are now safely removed from burners' reach.
