Sabado, 14 Enero. Cool and rainy. Dan on computer, working on a letter to his clients letting them know what changes to expect with our eventual move down here. Carmen with her ebook.
Domingo, 15 Enero. Cool and lluvioso again. Dan at computer reading and Carmen reading on her Libre again. We are finding more sources of free books on line. Sent one on to Frank that we both enjoyed.
Lunes, 16 Enero. Finally some excitement today! We met with Iliana, her husband who speaks some English, and her mother, the owners of the property we are trying to buy, along with the realtor, Manolo and Agustín Limón, the notario, at noon in Cordoba. Thinking all would be said and done, so that we could fly back to Seattle. Wrong again. First of all, the notario did not have all the paperwork completed since he was waiting for some more info from the owner before typing it up, so we needed to come back at 4pm. A little more delay, what else is new? The sellers had driven down from Monterrey (where Carmen's brother, Gurney happens to be in charge of constructing Lowes stores at present). They needed to leave very early the next morning
Delaying the meeting presented quite a problem, since the banks closed at that time and our down payment check to Illiana could not be deposited and credited to her account immediately. We all, not the notario, walked a couple blocks to the nearest Santander bank, where we both had our bank accounts. Waited a bit to talk to the bank manager, and then found out the following: Cashier's checks are limited in amount, so they are not an option we can use. Account to account transfers also have a daily limit, less than what we needed to pay today. The only alternative was a bank-certified check, which we could give to Iliana, after all papers were signed later in the day, BUT, we had to go to the bank that actually had our account to get such a check. We all rode in her car to Fortín and our bank where we opened the account. The lady that we are familiar with in this bank was not in today, so we had to deal with someone else. Never as easy as it could otherwise be. In writing the check, Dan followed his usual procedure of writing out the amount in words on the written line, translating to Spanish. Nope - that was not acceptable, he had to revise the wording a bit, so he had to tear the check up and write out a new one. This of course was not noticed by the bank teller until all the processing of the check had been done. This is no small process here. Involves signatures of three people at the bank and a great long time. We all rode back to Córdoba in Iliana's car, happy to at least gotten thru this one hurdle. They let us and the realtor out in downtown, and then proceeded to another government office for another task, working on the capital gains tax issue Iliana would have to deal with the sale was complete. She has maintained her voting address at the Fortín house, so that this will not be a problem for her. Manolo's office and home are downtown nearby and we got out to get some lunch before the 4pm meeting.
Lunch - do you really know what a hamburger is? At the little eatery we picked today, it turned out to be a slice of pressed ham, a slice of processed cheese and the tiniest piece of ground mystery meat (hidden under the other two) that barely saw the griddle. The roll was fresh and delicious. Topped off with a piece of flan for dessert. We have had some very good burgers down here, this was the exception.
We were all back at the office at 4pm. Took a couple hours to finalize and sign the now complete Buy/Sell Agreement. Iliana got our certified check. Was a difficult decision for us all, since the government here has still not okayed the sale yet. As set up at present, a penalty clause says we lose money if we back out, and she loses the same amount if she backs out. And she returns all our deposit if the government does not allow the sale. The house comes off the market immediately. Ultimately not being able to buy the house seems unlikely at this stage of the game, and we would be sorely disappointed, as this is the house we want.
Manolo said he would help transport all our items (a few household implements, small tools and clothing we're leaving) to the blue house either Tuesday or Wednesday, so when we got home that evening, we packed. Good thing that he did not have time to move our goods until Wednesday. We attempted to separate everything into items to stay at the house for us until we return in June, and the items we need to exist here until we fly north this time. Many mistakes were made. Out of bed during the night as we remembered things, as well as changes throughout the next 24 hours. Amazing the amount of stuff we have accumulated (it mostly fit in one layer in the bed of Manolo's FAW pickup).
Martes, 18 Enero. Today we were at the notario's office when he reopened at 4pm (after the two hour lunch break when many businesses in the city close), presumably to discuss our Mexican wills, and the power of attorney which will authorize Ania to sign in our stead, on the actual purchase later at the end of next month. He did not arrive til 5:30pm, in a happy mood, with a screwdriver in his hand. Guess he was out screwing around? Up to now, the notario had refused to hold our final payment check, but we explained to him that no one other than the person the check is made out to can cash it . Still he shook his head no. Then Dan told him that the only other choice we had was to leave the check hidden at our friends' house til they returned from the Pacific coast at the end of February. He leaned back in his chair, let out a hearty laugh, and said, OK, that did it, no way were we putting the check under a mattress or such. As long as we put it in an envelope so that he did not actually see it, he will hold it and give it to Ania when she comes to his office for the signing of the final purchase escritura. We are feeling very good about leaving soon now. We were to come back Thursday, to sign a new, comprehensive paper going to SRE, since all the previous documents had been rejected due to all the sequential and confusing changes to the building's location/address in Fortín.
Miercoles, 19 Enero. Busy day of our life. Well--our present life. Hardly the amount of business that we used to do. How did we ever have time to work?? Walking from one place to another does take longer than driving of course. Plus Carmen tells Dan what she wants to express, when she wishes, and that all takes longer. This morning we checked the bus schedule again. Figured out our preferred way to get back to Mexico City airport. Remember that Dan cannot find ink cartridges here to fit our printer? We took the cartridge we have to the place in town where he got one filled a few weeks ago. This time the lady was going to charge us twice the price. Was it because Carmen was along? Dan of course pointed out that last time it less, so the price was lowered. Carmen carefully kept her wits about her and held the ink cartridge upright as we wandered thru town. No small feat when one must keep ones eyes on the sidewalk at all times because of the unevenness, plus constant chattering while looking around at all the sights. Next we went to the bank to get the final certified check that we will leave here at the notario's office for when the house sale ultimately happens. This was all easier this time.
We now anxiously waited for Manolo to arrive at 1:30pm. He did not. Finally he backed his pickup truck up to our door at 2:30pm. He brought a friend along, who helped. Everything was put in kitchen and the master bedroom. Carmen stowed things away as quickly as possible. Dan took some needed additional measurements and pictures, since we will not be in the house again til June. And yes, we have now created another problem (getting our "stuff" out of the house) if the sale does not eventually go thru. But it will, won't it?
Jueves, 19 Enero. Yep, the notario had us sign a NEW batch of papers to send into Xalapa, hoping they can finally understand the location of this property we are trying to buy. Last week the country tried to prove that we were buying within the 32 miles from the ocean. We are not. This is not allowed unless purchased thru a trust. No, the notario had not started on formalizing the papers for our wills. Dan had carefully typed out all the info he needed, so what is taking so long? He told us to come back Monday and he will hopefully know whether the SRE office in Xalapa had accepted the papers he was sending to them on Friday, and he would try to have the wills and power of attorney ready by then. Apparently Carmen showed her unhappiness, since she was sure we would be flying away by Saturday. The notario asked Dan if Carmen did not like it here and why did she want to go back so soon.
Sr Limón Krause is becoming quite friendly. We figure he is near 70. Today he was feeling talkative, and showed us how the ultraviolet forgery scanner for money (bills) & checks works--most interesting. We paid him today with a big stack of bills, for some of his work. Will take someone awhile to scan them all, although all these bills were issued by Banamex's ATM in Fortín.. We do not have a final bill yet, so he will wait for the final account settlement til June. Says he trusts us. Then he showed us all the trophies he had won and what they are from: hurdles foot racing, auto rallying and go-cart racing.
Carmen will admit that she went thru an angry stage when we found out that we needed to be here thru Monday at least. However she reserved most of it til we were back home--lucky Dan. She was ready to leave here yesterday. She definitely does want to move here, but until our cats and things are here with her, she wants to be where they are, and there's LOTS to do in Anacortes to prep for the move. Remember it was Carmen's idea to move here to make our life easier. Also it was Carmen who wanted to buy a house now instead of wasting money on a yearly rental. Dan came around to agreement with all of this, convincing as Carmen can be. Since it all had to be done in Spanish, Dan's facility has definitely improved on this trip.
Dan is eager to start on work on the house--and Frank's construction guys are ready to pitch in on anything we want to do there. In deciding which house to buy we had several things to decide upon. One, if we purchased the brand new built-to-order house we were considering, Dan would have no fun working on it. Two, if we had chosen an older not-quite-right house, we both would have had too much work to do the rest of our lives, and never had the true comfort of the house. Three - our choice. This being a house in really good shape, that Dan can have some fun with. It needs nothing done, but has room for various projects that will make life easier and more lovely in the end.
Ideas for the blue house include: New full bathroom and closet the on lower level to be put between the dining room and the other structure which is a laundry facility. This area is presently outside at the back of the parking area which has pavers on it. The dining room space would become a bedroom, should we ever become infirm enough as ancianos to want to avoid the stairs to the upper level. At the same time the roof of the new room will be an open terrace, accessible from the master bedroom upstairs. Sometime we take off the cracked tiles off the upper roof and recoat the cement roof, then put new concrete roof tiles on. (The clay tiles we can save from this operation will be stashed to insert in the lower roofs to replace ones that crack in the future.) Next? Last year when we were in San Marcos, we very much enjoyed the rooftop covered deck. Yep, this we might have too, someday. Should be able to see forever up there. It will be three stories up, and will need a welded metal stairway from the new terrace to the roof (also giving us easy access to the tinaco up there). Dan says he'll start another blog to consolidate all the building and renovation details, and pictures, as we experience them.
Of course there will be many flower boxes added, and plants added in front and back of the house, for Carmen to care for. We already have the three bugambilia trees, and other smaller plantings. We spent time today at a plant nursery. So many to choose from. Oh, what fun we have in store. We hope our chosen house will be a place of long term joy for us.
Viernes, 20 Enero. Today our big experience was going to a restaurant which is three blocks from our house. It is a beautiful spacey open structure with roof partly thatched and partly tiled. It has a large outside charcoal grill. Prices seem good. We were served a plate of tortilla chips with a molé sauce over. Very good. Dan had a Filete Tampiqueña, tender thin beef with a side of rolled enchilada and thick refries with a different taste - good. Carmen chose the BBQ pork ribs. They were good, but hard to cut from the large bones. Seemed to take more energy to get them to the mouth, than what they gave in return. Both had garnish of slice long green grilled pepper with a bit of heat, plus Carmen had a grilled white onion. Carmen was hoping for the lamb meal, but it turns out that it is served only on weekends.
After the meal we decided to walk down past "our house." We actually were to the west one block and walked the extra few blocks down past a new development of houses where we had toured one of the houses a couple months ago. Here we walked another block further south and discovered there is a dirt road going further south thru the cane fields, which looks mightily intriguing. As you see, we are near the south end of town. We then walked the one last block to the east, then three north to our house. Yep, it is still there, just waiting for us.
From here we walked straight north to the main road between Fortín and Córdoba, 10 blocks. Dan wanted to visit a store there to look at a wood treatment for all the wood in our house. They will deliver the 19 liter (5 gal) bucket when we need it. Next we walked on a curve back south past a couple blocks of open-front flower shops. Oh my, petunias, impatience, geraniums, gardenias, gerber daisies, roses, palms, orchids, on and on of all those semi-tropical delicacies that we so carefully care for outside in the summer and inside our house for the winter in Anacortes. How will we ever be able to limit our choices?
