August 4th, 2007

Saturday
We were close to calling the guy about renting the big walled house on the street of Quintana Roo, when we stopped by the house at “La Gachupina” just to see how much progress there had been in the last week. The “contractor” (there is really not such thing in Mexico, but the term is close enough) was at the house and he showed us what had been done during the week. The house had a kitchen and at least two of the toilets installed. They were done with the exterior painting, but they were still behind on the carpentry area. The doors were still unmoved and the closets were not even started, the stairs had no railing either.
If it had been in the US, I would have guessed there was no way they could have it done in less than three weeks. In Mexico, things work a little bit differently; it all depends on which workers show up.
The architect came as we were looking around the house. She is very nice. She has tenure at one of the local Universities and got her graduate degree in Italy. She is a very educated woman, but incredibly down-to-earth and easy to approach. We talked about the house, about Coatepec (her family is a very old family from the area) and about all architecture and the World. It was a very nice experience to get to meet with Eva, the architect, and to learn from her what the timeline might very well be for the house. She did, at this point, let us know that, if the carpenter did not slack, it was going to be ready by the 15th.
After leaving “La Gachupina”, we were very sure that that was the house we were going to rent. The house at “Quintana Roo” was wonderful in many ways, but had more variables than the “Gachupina” house, starting with the amount of space to deal with and up-keep it might take.