Friday, March 4, 2011

We did it!!

We bought a house!  Well, we are only a few days away from the actual closing, but I'm sure that anyone who is following this blog would like for us to stop this silly "but there's more to the story" line and just spit it out. OK, we are buying Casa de Las Lechuzas. It's just that the way this all happened seemed to be worthy of a good "story." I have to tell you that we were about to make an offer on another of the homes we viewed, one that came with some very desirable advantages, but at the last minute decided that there was so much right about Las Lechuzas that it had to be the one. With only one day remaining before our flight back to Norfolk we made an offer that was accepted and here we are. There was much we liked about all of the homes we saw, but Las Lechuzas met and exceeded most of the criteria we had placed on our 'want list.' The size is just right for us, but should we ever want to add a master suite upstairs, the roof is prepared to accept an addition.  The home was designed and constructed by Victor Cruz, a young and most talented architect. The more I see his work, the more I appreciate his creativity and his penchant for using curves in places where a straight line is the norm (see kitchen counters, island, and cabinets). He even carries this theme outside with the pool that allows for laps. The owners of the home ( a Louisianan and a Russian) worked closely with Victor to ensure that the needs of two foreigners were met, like built-in closets, storage areas, and laundry room. There is even a studio with half-bath, and an outside shower just steps away, not to mention a small bodega for garden tools, etc. To top it off, a huge garage with built-in concrete storage shelves and a sky light. Perfect for two guys who have parked on the street, sometimes a block or more from our home, for the past twenty-something years.

We are thrilled and extremely grateful that we are in a position to catch this dream and live it.





14 comments:

  1. Let's try this again. Congratulations! The house looks lovely.

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  2. Thank you - and glad your comment came through this time.

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  3. Congrats, guys. Hope to meet you down there one day. We're still quite a ways off from finding our dream home.

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  4. Beautiful! An you are only a few blocks away from our house! Love this neighborhood.......

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  5. Howdy neighbors! Congratulations. It looks like a wonderful house. And what an amazing transformation from before to after (courtesy Google streetview). I truly believe you bought at the right time. I've only been a Merida homeowner for a year and it's always a city I can't wait to return to. ESPECIALLY this time of year.

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  6. Thanks everyone! Hope to meet all of our new neighbors soon. We will be down sporadically for a while, but are thinking of ways to speed up the move.
    I'll be publishing some of the construction photos soon. Those guys that work with the concrete are true artists. Amazing to see how they do it all.
    j & a

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  7. Felicidades! What a fabulous house! Great choice! So happy for y'all! ~~gail

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  8. Thanks Gail, we are very happy with our choice!

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  9. Congratulations Alan and John. Beautiful house. Victor and his colleagues are working on our house too. It´s funny, in your house renderings, to see the guy in red shorts in the shower. He´s the same guy who is standing in ours. He gets around! Useless fact: I learned in a NYT Mag article these figures are called ¨people textures¨or sometimes ¨scalies¨.

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  10. Thanks Debbie. It looks like we might have to ask Victor to stop duplicating his scalies, or at least change the color of their shorts. I was showing some people at work the renderings and one of them asked "are those the guys that live there now?" (:D

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  11. Looks as if we are neighbors. Welcome to the neighborhood.

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  12. Thanks Marc - I'll be arriving in Merida tomorrow for a few days of setting up utilities, learning how everything at the house works, plus a few appointments here and there. Hope to have a little down time, but doubt there will be time for a Do-Nothing-Day. Well, on second thought, maybe Sunday before I return on Monday!

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  13. We just missed each other! We still don’t have internet at the house, which explains my tardy CONGRATULATIONS!!! What a great house! Don’t you just love it when everything falls into place, and you have that comforting "it was meant to be" type feeling?!!

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  14. Thanks Susan. Yes, it is comforting. And I keep thinking, OK, this has all gone so smoothly, we've got to hit a snag somewhere. Will try to post soon about my experience getting everything set up. It has all been relatively easy, but I have had some great help I will talk about.

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