Making Our House Our Home.....

I posted before about the electric and sewer being upgraded.  Most of that work is done now except for the final hook-ups, which involve the electric company and the city utilities department.  The contractor and his helper worked only 2 weeks total, which, in my mind, seemed real quick, especially for Mexico.  There's still a lot of work to be done, like painting, refinishing the floors and ceiling...  things that will take a lot more time.

But gradually, Bill and I are making our house into OUR home.  We bought a dining table and chairs and are in the process of having a matching book shelf made. 

Last year, Bill made friends with Fernando.  He's the guy who made new buckles for Bill's sandals.  He works with metal and glass....  our bathroom needed a decent mirror... 

Fernando made us not one, but two!

Custom made sizes....  and installed exactly where we needed them.  The photo on the left is in the bathroom...  the photo on the right is the door leading from our bedroom into the bathroom.  I haven't had the luxury of a full-length mirror in years!  So long, in fact, that I just groan when I catch my "these days" image as I'm heading into the bathroom.  Not sure it was a good idea ;-)

Note the towels hanging in the bathroom...

We needed to replace the towels and sheets that came with the house.

What fun it's been to buy colorful linens!  I've got orange and pink and green and blue and yellow towels...  and dark orange sheets and a set of light brown!  I'm replacing the linens gradually as we have to carry our purchases home on the bus....  a set of towels can be very bulky to carry!

We haven't done much with the bedroom yet.  That's a king size bed, and the bedspread that was here works just fine until I find something I like better.  There were no curtains at this window and we really need to replace the curtains on all 7 of the windows in the house.  So, until I'm ready to look for the curtain material, we bought this ...  well, I think it's a "throw"....  or maybe a bedspread?  Anyway, it's dark orange and white striped...  I have it doubled over on the curtain rod because at night I can look up through that gap below the fringe and see the stars..  Orion is bright and clear these nights!

This area between the sink counter on the left and the kitchen range counter on the right used to house the refrigerator.  But the fridge is huge and there was so much wasted space on and in the counters and cupboards on both sides.  We moved the fridge to another area and bought this 4 shelf utility stand.  It's perfect for the microwave and some of the kitchen stuff I use every day.

The couch is built in...  concrete base covered with huge cushions.  Neither of us really care for the cushions, but that's something else we want to think about before replacing.  But we did buy some accent pillows....  traditional regional embroidered covers...  so colorful!  We bought the hand woven rug to use as a wall hanging.....  those are lovely birds woven in the pattern. 

All of our personal things, like photos, artwork, souvenirs and knick-knacks are in storage in Ohio.  At some point we'd like to bring those here to include in this home.

That's a water cooler at the left....  everyone buys their drinking water in Mexico.  Those 5 gallon bottles cost about $1 US, and while some folks put a pump on the bottle, and some folks put the bottle in a metal "hammock-like" contraption that tips, we like having cold drinking water.  These coolers are inexpensive and available in many kinds of stores.

The inside of the house is quite comfortable as is, but I'm sure that our personal touch will make it more home-like to us.

Yesterday, we went to another garden center....  bought 25 more plants (had bought 28 a few weeks ago) .....  plants to attract birds and butterflies...   like Lantana and other colorful flowers and shrubs.  The fountain we got at Home Depot is now in its permanent place and there is even an electrical outlet closeby for the pump.

That white patch on the left is a scar on the bricks where there used to be something attached to the wall.  Either we'll work on aging the bricks there or maybe the flowers Bill planted will grow tall enough to hide it...   At any rate, this isn't the best photo and I'll be showing better ones later.

We are enjoying making this house into our home....  while shopping has never been much of a thing I liked, it's fun here in Mexico, where colors are vibrant and lively and extravagant does not have to mean expensive!

One last photo...

The tiny clay Nativity Scene I bought to welcome the Christmas season...

That's All For Today