(Post 262 of 263)

In August, my wildest and most improbable dream for my life in Mérida came true: I got access to a proper lap pool within reasonable distance of my house. For months, there had been rumours of a gym complex being built in the same building where I have Pilates and that it would have a semi-Olympic-sized pool. When the gym finally opened, I investigated. After a tour of the facilities, I signed up on the spot! I really needed a change-up in my exercise routine and I’m still pinching myself!

Some August miscellanea before I give another glimpse of my new kitchen.

Here’s Alma being a weirdo. I just love when she glares at me. I cannot believe she’s been here two years!

Another task I had for the movers in August was to move that giant heavy armoire out of the way so I could access the outlet behind it and add an extension cord to charge my devices when I’m on the couch as well as run a fan without having an extension cord running across the room into the hallway! Such a small thing, but so luxurious!

Of course, I had to go see the Deadpool and Wolverine movie at some point. I cannot believe I saw Deadpool 1 when I was visiting here in February 2016 and also Deadpool 2 when I had just moved here in 2018!

Chili’s was serving very inexpensive mojitos, so I went with one of those in lieu of my usual margarita. They then served me the best ribs I’ve ever had.

I’ve been going to Pilates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, first mornings, now evenings, for years. I’ve substituted the Friday evening class with a Saturday morning class. I go swimming after, then get a Starbucks if I’m in a hurry to get to work. If I’m not, I get brunch. I found this lovely oasis, 100% Natural, with view of a Sam’s Club. Those are enchiladas like I used to get in Mazatlán, so good, and they have bottomless American coffee.

Contrary to popular belief, my girls do get along and hang out together.

In August, I kept refining the kitchen setup and got into a groove with meal prep, cooking, and resetting the kitchen.

I started off the month with the island covered in this pretty but very cheap contact paper. It was a really good match for the space, tying in the different wood tons of the room and the pattern from the stove surround, but I knew immediately it was a temporary solution.

A few weeks into the month, a neighbour posted on FB Marketplace that he had remnants of this contact paper, which fit the kitchen even better and looked to be better quality. It was a funny transaction — I was back home with my treasure in under 20 minutes of him posting, I lived so close by. But alas, it started lifting immediately.

A couple of days later, the algorithm struck again. When I saw the item, I thought, if this is an easy transaction like the island was, it’s meant to be, but I’m not forcing it. I reached out to the seller and the item was available but he absolutely could not deliver. I asked him my flete guy from July could contact him directly so they could arrange a pickup. He said sure. I contacted the flete guy and asked if he was interested in what I knew was going to be a heavy job. Certainly. He got in touch with the seller. An hour later, the phone rang. “I’m going to pick it up today between 6 and 7. When I get there, we’re going to let you know and you’re going to transfer him the money. I have something else to do tonight and you have Pilates anyway, so I’ll just park it in my garage and I’ll deliver in the morning.” And it was that easy, other than having to deal with the money transfer while walking to Pilates. When I came out of class, both men had sent me this picture:

Little Miss I’m so simple and humble and don’t need granite countertops now has a granite countertop:

The counter exactly 1 metre across like the island is but a bit longer. It also has a lip to fit over the edge of a substrate. So I’m going to have the long edges of the island cut down so that you don’t see the corners peaking out like they are now. It’s not a priority at the moment and I want to wait until I’m ready to do a few more carpentry tasks in the room. The thought is to have another island fabricated to replace the metal table and get it a granite top also — it won’t be hard to get a close-enough match as I’m seeing that same granite all over Marketplace. I’m even thinking somewhere down the line of committing enough to this new layout to pull the sink so I can have the contact paper countertops replaced by granite as a permanent solution, then having cabinets made for underneath. By that point, it might also make sense to reface or even replace the ash cabinets and have them extended to the ceiling, to make everything match. But for now, the kitchen is really functional. Improved aesthetics can come later.

The counter was covered in paint, you can see the worst of it in the foreground, but it scraped up beautifully. I cannot believe that I now have this incredible workspace in my kitchen where I don’t have to worry about water spills, scratches, or stains. This is where I feel I need to talk about money. The island was 4,700 pesos delivered. The counter was 3,000 pesos delivered (both amounts include generous tips to the moving crews). Even adding in contact paper, risers, and a few accessories to make the cabinets more useful, I got my dream island for under 9,000 pesos. There is no way I could have foreseen that getting my layout anchor piece was going to be so inexpensive. I’ve been looking at big islands for a long time. They are very expensive, especially when you start adding in drawers. I really feel like I got a gift from the universe to make up for some of the money I lost to the scammers.

You can also see in the background one of my new cabinets! I really would have preferred darker cabinets like the island to offset the yellow, but it’s what was available. I got the little drawer unit for under the microwave separately. It’s a close-enough match to raise the microwave to the perfect height. I love having my cookbooks accessible like that.

I can’t believe I have only one more sponsored post to do and it’s going to be a kitchen tour.