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Looking Ahead

This weekend wound up being a good time to catch up on my bookkeeping, set up a budget for the next quarter, and start to work on my projected budget for the start of 2018. There is no doubt that I’ll be able to afford a comfortable life here, but I’m trying to pay down some debt and step up my retirement savings so I wanted to see if there was some fat I could start trimming right now. Absolutely. I have a few calls to make for that tomorrow.

It will be good for me to have a stable (ish) budget for a couple of years to catch up on some things. I’m doing absolutely fine for someone pushing 40 who just spent a decade gallivanting over about a quarter the planet’s land mass and I want to make sure I’m in at least as good a position 10 years from now.

I really didn’t go into this without a lot of thought. Setting up a home again is going to be a big expense and I had to be sure that it’s something I’m ready for again and that this is the right location for it. I definitely am certain on both counts. So that’s one of the reasons I chose to go with more house than I really need — I wanted a place to grow into.

I didn’t want to find myself wanting to move again in a few years, especially since I know I’m going to be in Mérida for at least four years. I really wanted a proper home base where I can receive people, pursue hobbies, and continue to grow my business. If I had continued to snowbird, I would have definitely gone with a much smaller place as I would have had to maintain two homes, but this will be a year-round home for me, something I had started to doubt I would ever have.

While there are a few things I’m not thrilled about with the house, especially the location of my office, there is so much more that I’m looking forward to and I’ve spent probably too much time in the last couple of weeks dreaming of how I’m going to set it up and doing some online window shopping.

The room I’m probably most excited about is the kitchen, which is huge and has great light from two windows. I am going to be able to really get back into cooking here, something that I’ve missed since I’ve stopped living in Miranda full-time and had access to a pantry.

I also know that I’m going to spend a lot of time in the rear courtyard off the dining room. I saw so many homes with uncovered exterior spaces that would have been difficult to make comfortable in the middle of the day.

The laundry room that I discovered on the second visit is such a bonus. I’ll be able to do laundry without there being noise in the house and there is so much space to hang everything outside.

My bedroom is going to be so airy and I’m ridiculously excited to have a closet almost as big as Miranda after squeezing into her tiny wardrobe all these years.

I’m thinking of turning the upstairs landing into my art studio, but I suspect a comfy chair might end up there to turn it into a reading nook. Regardless, it’s so bright and well ventilated that I’m sure it won’t be wasted space.

I really hope that I get keys with my lease on Wednesday so I can take you on a tour of my new digs. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak! This photo is taken from the centre of the living room (which you enter directly into from the front door). Looking ahead is the staircase to the master suite. To the right, you can see the dining room and the door to the courtyard. Both spaces that you can see here come with really nice furniture!

22 thoughts on “Looking Ahead”

  2. I am really thrilled for you Rae! It looks perfect, or at least close enough!

    Speaking of Miranda and Haven… That are your plans? Just leave everything there as is and deal with it when/if you return? What if leaks, damage or rodend intrusion is reported? I only ask because the cost of a special trip to Haven and the resulting repair costs might end up being higher than Miranda is worth. And I say this knowing how important she is to you.

    • Thanks! Wait till you see the rest!

      I consider Miranda a lost cause, to be honest. The whole overhang is rotted and she’s not road worthy. She’s also had at least one serious mice infestation. My neighbours do check in periodically, but I walked away knowing that she might not be habitable when I get back.

      Once I renew my temporal next spring for three years, it will be easier to leave Mexico. I was thinking of trying to go back for a week to bring more things on the plane, but that’s up in the air.

      The property itself is gaining in value so I want to hang onto it. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sell it in the not too distant future to buy a house here. In the meantime, it’s good to keep my ties to Canada to keep CRA from robbing me blind with a departure tax.

      • Well, all is not lost with her. The solar panels and controller can be removed and used either on the Transit Van you were thinking of or they can be sold. The appliances can be used in one of your little cabins on the property. Of course this all depends on you ever getting back there which is looking less likely. 🙂 Life has a way of changing our plans!

        • I would really love to go back and get the 12V stuff, but, really, how realistic that it would be worth it to get it back to Mexico? I’m really much better off looking at selling it off in the not too distant future. A yearish from now, I’ll be in a much better position to make a decision on going back to do a big sale of stuff that still has value. I doubt at this point that I’ll ever be putting a liveable home on the property.

      • My first tax assessment after I put the buildings onto the property put my lot at being worth $100, up from $0. My assessment for this year put my property at being worth $5,000. Our boom has started.

        My property taxes did go up a whopping $3 or $4 a year, though, to $434. 🙂

          • If it wasn’t for the lack of internet thing, I would be super optimistic, but right now I’m just regular optimistic. 🙂

            BTW, my house is currently on the market for just under $2 million, so about 150,000CAD. My landlords really weren’t sure about selling and are thrilled to have a two-year lease to buy them some time, but who knows what will happen in two years. It might be nice to at least be in a position to buy, even if that’s not what I choose to do.

  3. There’s no way the internet thing at Haven is going to sort itself out, but I like how optimistic you are! 😀

  5. Your future is a blank canvas in which you get to make all choices. I picture a very vibrant picture with lots of colour.

    • You are exactly right. I expect a lot of blank looks and people not knowing how to respond politely to how much they hate my colour choices in my house. 😀

    • Yes, I know, but I was making a joke. 😉

      I loved how you went with the colour metaphor, so apt for my life.

      • Sorry didn’t get the joke, having a bit of a challenge with internet this morning. Shaw came, upgraded, we had internet, left and we had no internet. Sigh!

        Looking forward to watching you bloom even more.

  7. Many of the houses I’ve seen down there are quite dark but they do use ugly fluorescent strip lighting. Your new place appears to be very bright which is wonderful. Does it have an interior patio as well?

    • The reason the houses tend to be dark is they are all squished together. I not only have no shared walls, but I have yard all around.

      By interior patio, I think you mean the inner courtyard that most older colonial homes have. No, I don’t. But the rear courtyard comes very close, as you’ll see when I am able to post pictures. 🙂

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