The contractors started on Saturday - marking out for the new patio off the casita and measuring and marking for the removal of the windows and the installation of the new french doors. One of the tangerine trees has to come out and one of the pomegranite trees - but that's ok as we have way too much fruit anyway - even though we give bags of everything to Maria and Jose every time they come, we still can't use it all up, so we won't replace them.
One of the bouganvillas, the biggest unfortunately, also had to come down as there is going to be a new hallway from the casita over to the laundry room which will become the casita's bathroom. The old fountain around there also had to come out but we're going to reassemble that in the front courtyard somewhere.
The current front door on the casita is going to be changed to match the new french doors and there is also a door out into the street which will be blocked up completely. The electrical wiring is currently on the surface of the walls so the walls have to be channeled out to hide the wiring and some outlets added, then the walls painted and the floor tiled and we're ready to go.
We also have to move all the potted plants (very large and heavy) which are around 2 sides of the pool. The surface there is gravel with a channel underneath to take away any excess water from either rain or the pool overflowing, and all the gravel is coming out and the area is going to be concreted so we have a solid surface on which we can put out lounges - and a few of the pots. Currently when we sit out in the sun we sit on the large pool patio which is at the bottom end of the pool, but we are going to put a cover over that and turn it into a bar area so we had to find somewhere else to lay in the sun. For some reason we don't use the lawn area on the far side of the pool????
The work is expected to take about three weeks altogether then Shelley and Trevor can finally move into the casita and we can get Colin's desk into his office - where they currently sleep.
So other than preparing these areas for the builders we have been busy shopping mainly - we found a fabulous yard sale in Ajijic yesterday and we hit paydirt. The people were unfortunately moving back to Ontario (her husband is very ill) and they were selling EVERYTHING. Unfortunately we were too late for the larger pieces, couches, armoires, etc., but we bought Colin a new golf bag and we got an absolutely enormous pot - almost 5 feet high which is now standing in our courtyard. We also got a large assortment of serving dishes which are beautiful an ice cream maker and a crockpot (halleluya) - can't buy one of those here for love nor money. They obviously brought it from up north. Trevor also bought a bunch of guy-stuff - a box with compartments full of screws and such and a bucket full of other interesting looking stuff. Certainly well worth the stop. We had hoped to pick up a bunch of other things on our list while running around but all the stores we wanted were closed (it was Sunday after all) even the place where we wanted to have lunch so we ate at Mom's instead - nothing special so won't be going back I think.
We had picked up another blue flowering vine from the garden centre to add out front so will have to get that planted today before it wilts in the heat - we waited a bit too long to plant the first two and one of them is struggling now.
When Colin cut down the very large bougainville from near the casita, he cut it into 3-4 ft. lengths and we are going to try and re-root them. Apparently all you have to do is cut a little wound in the bottom and then stick them in the dirt and in 4-6 weeks you have new bougainvilla plants. This will save us a ton as we need to spread them all around the walls both inside and outside down the side street where our walls are quite bare.
So all in all, a very productive time. Will keep everyone posted on the success and wish you all a Happy Halloween.
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