Day 11 - Second Visit

Joan here - We have all agreed that the house in Chapala Haciendas is "the one" but want to go back for a second visit. The first time you see with your heart, not your head. Thomas came by about 11 and off we went. We took more photos and measurements and all agree - this is it. There isn't much NEEDS doing to it, but of course, knowing us, there will always be stuff we WANT to do. First thing is paint! But it definitely is the one for us. We tell Thomas we will go for lunch and strategize and call him later.

We went into Chapala for a fabulous lunch of Beef, chicken, shrimp and cheese in a burning hot lava  bowl, then walked tShe market for a while and when we got home we called Thomas and told him we'd made our decision. He came around about a half hour later with the offer and he has now gone off to present it. We will have to wait for 24 hours to see what happens now. We've asked for a Sept.26 closing - the sellers want to get back to the US quick too - their son who is blind, had moved to Mexico but it just didn't work for him so he went back to the States and they need to be with him. The father has already gone  back so we're hoping that the mother wants to get back there soon too!  They are also selling off their furniture separately, so if the house deal goes through, we will start negotiations on the contents. We don't want all of it, but hope to get some, just to get us going. Spent the rest of the evening discussing how we will paint,decorate, renovate etc. The kids want to put in patio doors in the casita. It's also only one room so will check out how much to put on a bedroom. They also need to tile the floor as it's plain concrete right now.

The main house has the local terracotta tiles. It also has a fireplace in the living room and huge floor to ceiling windows everywhere, overlooking both the parking/front patio area plus the gardens and pool on the other side. We have all kinds of plans and are getting excited.
Having supper of leftovers - we're accumulating a lot - zucchini from the La Nueva Posada, Pad Thai and an assortment of dishes from Simply Thai (last night) and my shrimp and rice and salad from lunchtime today.The meals here are HUGE - could easily feed two.  Guess its' another dvd and bed again while we wait for a phone call from Thomas.

Day10 - more houses

They are all starting to run together. The purple house from yesterday is still no.1 til we get to Chapala Haciendas. A community closer to Chapapa than Ajijic and we find a house that seems to be overtaking the purple house as the no.1 choice. It has a casita, a solar-heated inground pool and its' on a double lot with lots of gardens and fruit trees, pomegranite, bananas, mangos, avocado, limes and sweet lemons. The main house has 2 bedrooms and a big living/dining room with open kitchen and laundry room and huge parking spaces. Most of the houses we saw wouldn't accommodate the van - including the purple house. We would have to extend the gates out another foot into the street to get them closed with the van inside. Will go home and discuss everything we've seen in the past two days.
Supper, another dvd and bed.

Day 9 - Househunting at last!

Have seen a whole bunch of houses - some just need too much work , some are too small and won't work for us, but one really stands out - in Riberas Del Pilar - a small community close to Ajijic (just minutes away). It's on the south side of the careterra and we would prefer the north side (quieter and a better view of the lake) but the house is move-in ready, gorgeous inside with a small inground pool. It doesn't have a separate casita but the rooms are set out so that Trevor and I could live upstairs and my mom and dad downstairs. This one is at the top of our list so far. It's a bit smaller than we would have liked, but so beautiful and immaculate we've all fallen in love with it.

Day 8 - Does this sunshine ever end?

Not really! Rain during the night, but the days are gorgeous. Nothing much to report today - trying to tidy the house and find stuff in boxes. Preparing to go on our first househunting trip tomorrow with Thomas. Each day ends with a dvd and bed.

Day 7 - Another sunny day in Paradise!

After breakfast we head out for a drive around the area to refresh our memory from last year. We had lunch at The Garden Inn here in the village - a gorgeous lush garden with tables set among the plants and chickens and peacocks running around. It's gorgeous - had a great lunch. Checked out one of the many galleries in the village and found some amazing Day of the Dead dolls and other local craft type stuff. Can't wait to start buying stuff to decorate our new place, once we have one. Another trip to WalMart for supplies and then we dropped some sheets off to mom's friend Pat who lives in the village We brought them down from Canada as Pat says she couldn't get anything as nice locally, then off home for another dvd and bed.

Pat's not feeling well so we arrange to get together later, and head back to the rental for dinner, a dvd and bed. Life WILL get more interesting once we get settled.

Day 6 - our new life begins

Well, we all had a good nights sleep and the sun is shining. The rental isn't ideal, it's quite small and my mom's bathroom is tiny but it's not for long. After breakfast, we wait for Thomas, our real estate agent, who is coming over for a chat and to plan our house-hunting strategy. We try to organize our stuff, which we had to unpack from the van and bring into this small rental with hardly any storage. A quick trip to WalMart for supplies (yes folks, even in Mexico there is a WalMart - sad eh). Our next door neighbour Malcolm invites my mom and dad in for a glass of wine. He is quite the character, about 80 years old and teaches ESP. Mom explains how we had to leave a lot of stuff behind, including her old wooden birdcage and turns out Malcolm is a woodcarver. He says to get a photo and the dimensions, and he will make her one. She's over the moon.

By this time Trev and I have a case of Montezuma's Revenge (I'm sure everyone knows what that is). We suspect the salad at dinner last night at the motel up in the mountains had been washed in local water, and boy are we suffering.

There is no tv in the rental house, turns out the owners are blind so it sorts of makes sense I guess, but it gets a bit boring by the evening, so we watch a dvd on the computer before its off to bed.

Day 5....are we there yet????

Up nice and early and on the road again. What can I say. I probably would not recommend this drive for a fun family vacation. There is not a lot to see or do along the way. If we drive again, this is not the route we will take. We get to Guadalajara around 3:30.....now it is looking a lot nicer.....green grass and palm trees. That's more like it. We are not far away now......only 40 minutes or so. It is nice to recognize things along the road. The drivers are still crazy but I am starting to get used to it now and just decide to go with the flow. There don't seem to be any sort of road rules so anything goes. After a short time we come over the final hill and there it is.....Lake Chapala. We made it we find the rental and wait for my dad to answer.....he has been here on his own since August 1st since he decided to fly with their cat Angel (smart guy). The rental house is surrounded by a 15 foot wall with 2 big metal doors in the parking area. He opens the gate and we pull in and.......the van does not fit in the parking area.....CRAP. After numerous attempts and angles, still no luck. We park across the street in the hotel parking lot and go for dinner at the hotel, La Nueva Posada, which is only 2 doors away from our rental house - and have a lovely supper on the terrace, by the lake with a Mariachi serranading everyone - this is what it was all about. We met the owner on our way out and had a nice chat - they're from Pickering and have been here 37 years. We explain our parking dilema and ask if it's ok for us to park in their parking lot overnight. She says she will check with her son tomorrow (who actually owns the hotel) but it's fine for tonight. We then talked to another neighbour who told us of a vehicle lockup just a  block away and for only $30 a month, our vehicle will be secure so we go up there and in no time, the van is tucked away for the night and we head off to our first night's sleep in our new temporary home. During the night the heavens opened again and we had an amazing thunder storm with lighting and torrential rain - this is the rainy season after all, but by morning, the sun is out and it's lovely and warm.