You might have noticed that things have been pretty quiet here lately, and to be honest, it looks like it will stay that way until the end of the year. A lot has happened in my personal life, taking up most of my energy, so I’ve spent the past month either crashing in bed from exhaustion or binge-watching TV shows to avoid dealing with an endless to-do list. And you know what? I’m okay with that. These blogs are meant to be fun for me; I don’t treat them as a business. Real life always comes first.
I also felt overwhelmed with the personal finance content. Writing about saving money on groceries just felt boring, so I decided to take a break instead. Like with the gym, once you stop, it gets harder to start again. Anyway, I’ll leave all that for 2015. Meanwhile, here’s a little update on what’s been happening lately.
This past month, I decided to start work on my new house. After my breakup a few months ago, I stayed in our little house by the beach, which I still operate as a guesthouse, but I only own 50% of it. My ex lives 300 miles away, so I’m not worried about him showing up randomly, but I wanted a place that was entirely my own. Buying him out wasn’t an option, and since I like the idea of living separately from the guesthouse, it made sense to start fresh.
My new house is in front of a 90-acre land development, on a larger 2-acre lakefront plot we bought in the spring. This location gives residents access to the beach. The plot has a road leading down to the lake, enough space for 6-8 houses, and a nice view from the highest part, where my house is being built. I’m hoping my house can serve as a model for others who might want to build something similar on another plot.
To help with the building process, a friend flew over to be my contractor and supervisor for three months. I was exhausted from having builders around nonstop for the past two years, so I was more than happy to have him take over. Unfortunately, he had an emergency and had to return to Europe within a week of starting. I initially thought about halting everything until his return but eventually decided to take over myself. For the past month, I’ve been deep into construction mode, which has been both empowering and stressful.
Since the house is about a mile away, I walk there 3-4 times a day to oversee the work, draw plans, buy materials, and so on. Thankfully, my friend is still helping from a distance with technical things like plumbing and the electric system. Managing the team of 15 builders, who weren’t thrilled about dealing with “the lady” again, wasn’t easy, but I decided to put my best effort into it. To my surprise, we’ve made significant progress, almost finishing the first floor in a month. This has been my makeshift office recently.
The new house will be similar to previous buildings but with two stories. The first floor will have a kitchen, dining, and living room, while upstairs will have two rooms, each with a big bathroom, and the master bedroom will also have a walk-in closet.
In the end, I’m pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished in a month, but it’s been a lot to handle. So, to reward myself, I’m taking a spontaneous trip back to Europe! I just bought tickets to return in January. I’ll visit a friend in Madrid for a couple of weeks, then head to Paris to see family, and have a girls’ meetup in the South of France before visiting my grandparents.
I haven’t been back since September 2013 and wasn’t really missing it. I also haven’t left Guatemala since visiting Miami a year ago, which was fine with me as I used to feel the urge to travel 2-3 times a year. Usually, I prefer to travel in May or September for better weather and moods, but I found a $250 ticket from Cancún to Madrid, which was too good to pass up.
Preparing for this trip has taken up a lot of my time. We’ll leave the house to dry before adding the second floor, but during my absence, the guys will handle smaller tasks like countertops and storage. I need to draw everything precisely so I come back to pleasant surprises.
I also have Airbnb guests coming for 10 days around New Year’s, so I’m training the maid and handyman to take care of guests in my absence. It’s a challenge since they’re from a humble village and are quite intimidated by tourists, but I trust it will be okay. It takes time to teach them to pay attention to details and maintain cleanliness to an acceptable standard.
Napoleon, my Great Dane, will stay in the house while I’m away, which is fine with the guests. I had to buy him 150 pounds of meat for his raw diet, but the deep freezer broke yesterday, adding to the unexpected issues. He’s also found a local dog girlfriend who’s been stealing his food, so now she sleeps here too. I took her to the vet for a check-up and washed her in the lake since she was smelly. She seems to have adopted us as her new home, which makes me happy since Napoleon will have company and won’t be lonely.
As soon as she started spending too much time here, I googled about mating between a Great Dane and a Chihuahua because she’s quite small. Fortunately, her parents assured me she can’t have puppies, so that’s one less worry.
It’s been a crazy ride recently. Both my cars broke down: the Suzuki had a gas leak, and the Hyundai’s radiator burst. So, I’ve been on foot, making trips to buy construction materials, which has been far from convenient.
That’s it for now. Thanks for sticking with me, and if we don’t talk before then, I wish you very happy holidays and a wonderful New Year! See you in 2015!