Today was the day to go pick up my new-to-me desk! The day went off without a hitch. The cleaning guy arrived on time and got to work on my suite so that it would be ready when the furniture arrived. My promised help told me they’d be there “around ten” and it was just shy of that when they pulled up. Off we went to La Ceiba. By the time we got through the very long queue to get through the entrance of the gated community, it was eleven.

The helpers are Mexicans I’ll refer to as M and R in this post. They work for the expat, D, who did the solar system on the house I’m minding and do all manner of labour. They’re really great and I’m happy they were available to help. D provided the truck and M and R the muscle today so that there were two trucks and four able bodied people to load, with the fourth being A, the husband of the maid at the house where I was getting the furniture, since D can’t do any heavy lifting.

M and R got to work dismantling the desk while I brought the bookshelves to the truck with A. I hadn’t actually seen the bookshelves in person and I gasped when I did since they are absolutely wonderful, deep enough for my biggest books and with heaps of adjustable shelves, as well as aesthetically pleasing.

We managed to get two bookshelves in Moya as well as the shelves themselves and some bits of the desk. M and R Tetrised the desk and the remaining bookcase into D’s truck. D had tie down straps, so he helped M and R get everything secure and off we went. It felt like we’d been there for ages, but we were out of there in 36 minutes!

I raced home ahead of them to get the dog out tied up and the gate open. The cleaner was just finishing up my suite, so that was perfect timing!

D took it slow because he didn’t want anything to fly out of the truck, which meant that he got caught in a big storm and all my things got wet. So first order of business was to unload his truck and dry off everything. The bookcases are solid wood, so it didn’t really matter, but the desk is particle board, so it couldn’t get soaked. That’s really not a great material for this climate and the desk isn’t aging well, but it’ll still serve me for a bit.

D took off once his truck was unloaded and then I backed my truck in to unload it. It was then time to figure out how to fit everything into my suite. The bookcases were a no brainer, but the desk was tricky. We tried a few configurations, keeping in mind that four months is a long time to be tripping over stuff. Finally, we came up with this:

I agree with M that it’s nice to have that “wall” separating the office from the bedroom. I don’t need the tables that were front of the couch and there’s plenty of room to walk between the desk and the end of the chaise longue. Once we agreed that this is where the desk was going to go, they reassembled it for me.

I asked if they’ll be able to dismantle, move, and reassemble it for me in the fall and they said of course, as many times as I want… but they agree with my assessment that the next move needs to be the last. Anyway, it looks pretty good, feels great, and fits in the room!

There is tons of space between the bed and the desk. We could have moved the bed closer to the bookcases and the sofa down as well, but I’m trying to keep the furniture rearranging to a minimum. This works absolutely fine for me.

Unpacking my books was like finding old friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.

The desk setup isn’t perfect yet, but I’m waiting to see where I’m moving before I start buying any bins or baskets. I am really pleased that the file cabinet drawer was able to hold all my files with room to spare!

Speaking of moving, I spoke to the maid about that and she gave me some invaluable house hunting advice. She says that a standard layout in Mérida is a house with two beds and a bath upstairs and a “cuarto de servicio” (service quarter — room with bathroom) on the ground floor for a maid… and that this is not advertised as a three-bed, two-bath! So she told me to widen my search criteria because I could be very pleasantly surprised by what a house with two bedrooms actually has. I did a quick listings search after I set up my office and was shocked to find a bunch of two-bedroom houses that do have the cuarto de servicio on the ground floor! What I found were much smaller houses than I’ve been looking for (ie. more manageable for one person) and, of course, the price is lower so that opens up my search radius!

I had to do a job this afternoon and by the time that was done, I was completely exhausted, having worked really late last night so I could be off this morning and then not having had enough sleep. I was also ravenous since I’d had breakfast at seven, skipped lunch because the cleaner was in the kitchen, and had only two small peanut butter wraps mid-afternoon. I really, really, really wanted to order a pizza, but I would have had to go pick it up.

So instead, I got some pork thawing while I put my room back to rights. By the time that was done, the pork was ready to cook and I was able to throw together a really yummy stir fry with udon noodles, the pork, and tons of veggies, plus Blue Dragon sweet chilli sauce. So instead of eating a carb heavy meal that wouldn’t have done me any favours, I had a healthy dinner (with leftovers!) that truly left me nourished. It’s important to be good and kind to yourself, even if it takes work to do so.

I’m sure I had more to say, but my brain is fried and I have to go do some prep work for a job I’m doing tomorrow. I rather can’t wait to get back to work in my new office. It’s so great to have room to spread out!