Thanks, I'm thrilled that it seems cool to others. For me, it's very exciting. I've renovated houses before in the US but this is more like having a new house built inside an old shell. Plus, different construction than I am used to and I don't have to do any of the work. Since I'm retired I'm pretty sure that this will be my last house and it is really the only one that has been built to order and using an architect. All the rest, I did what I could with what was there as cheaply as possible. I'm still trying to be cheap on this one but it is easier to do here. I was lucky to retire and bail on most of my Calif real estate before this crash, I would not be able to do this otherwise. What encourages me though is that once it is done, it is paid for completely. For the first time in my life the house I live in will not have a mortgage, I can't tell you how incredible that feels.
The property taxes are very low here, mine are less than $200 US a year. In addition, I pay about $450 US for the trust that holds the property. So, I went from over $7000 US in property tax alone on my house in Marin to $650 - friggin awesome! Here's another one that just rocks my world. I don't plan on having any homeowners insurance on this house! I rather hate insurance companies as it seems that if something could really happen then they price the insurance out of range... earthquake insurance for instance. This house is built out of rocks and concrete, nothing to burn. It is in the center of the city where houses butt up against each other giving more protection from high wind. Hurricanes rarely hit Merida but they do sometimes and the house has stood for over 100 years and the roof is concrete. Floods happen occasionally but all the floors are tile and on this limestone shelf, it drains away really fast. So, I think I will self-insure for the contents I can't move upstairs in case of flood. I've got solid doors and 16' rock walls and a doberman with 2 backup dogs so I'll take the risk on theft as well. That's another huge annual payment I don't have to make.
I think I can live there for very little per month, even putting a hundred or more away a month in my self-insurance account. That means I can stop worrying about running out of money when I'm really old (as opposed to kind of old now) and not feel one month away from foreclosure if things get as bad as they are looking up north. If I had to, I could give up AC in the bedrooms in the summer, cable tv and my multiple cell phones (I'd never give up the internet though) and probably live on $500 to $800 a month. I hope I don't ever have to do that but it relieves my lifelong fear of being old and helpless in some flea bag hotel in San Francisco. I saw too many abandoned old people in my job and it left a huge mark on me.
This may be more than you or others wanted to know but I think maybe it is interesting because I'm doing it in Mexico and that has a lot of bad connotations for many Americans. I feel safe here, more cared for by friends and neighbors than I ever did in Calif. There are a lot of bad things happening but that's true everywhere, it mainly depends on what the news decides is important or will sell. If they published every murder or gang killing in the US it would terrify people. We ignore it up there because we figure we aren't involved in drugs and we don't go to those parts of town and so it won't happen to us. Even so, bad things happen to good people anywhere. It's a violent, dangerous world if looked at in overview but most of us live in places we feel safe and where we don't face that kind of violence around us. I feel that way here, although it doesn't mean I'd go live in southcentral LA or in Tijuana or Juarez either.
Sorry for rambling, I've been sick the last couple days and slept most of it so now I'm awake in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep.
Here's another pic of the pond looking the other way that the architect just sent me.
