Our latest stint in Playa del Carmen involved far more than our extensive kitchen remodel. First, we received our remaining items from long-term storage. Then, we took advantage of the help on-site to tackle a variety of smaller jobs around the condo. Our goal was always to make our home base more comfortable and inviting.
Storage Wars
Back in January, in frigid Las Vegas, we loaded the remaining contents of our storage Pod into a moving van. We were hoping that our furniture and housewares would arrive two months later when we were next in Playa del Carmen, before our remodel—no such luck. The mover didn’t have another job in our area during our original time window. Our treasures were stuck in the shipper’s warehouse in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. So we had to wait until our return from Argentina to get any of the things we stored away five years ago.
By then, we were still in heavy, dusty, demolition mode for our kitchen, but we had to find a place to put all of the new boxes and furniture in our bedrooms and elsewhere. Many of the boxes lined our living room as we attempted to stack items in a manner that kept them out of the way and safe.
As it is, we know we are missing at least one box. Our shipper says they don’t have it and I don’t have much hope it will turn up. We don’t believe there was anything priceless in it, but we will probably never know for sure.
The Big Spread
Having found space for all of the boxes, we then had to unpack them and start distributing the contents around the condo. Normally, I would consider this a fairly mechanical if somewhat tedious task. I mean, if I sent you a random box of housewares, you would more or less know where to put in your house without a lot of thought. We had unusual complications with that process:
First, because we didn’t have a kitchen yet, anything destined for the kitchen had to be put aside. This meant triaging every box to see whether its contents were ready to be unpacked.
Second, we couldn’t simply put stuff anywhere because our condo is a rental and we can’t leave personal items we care about unlocked. We knew we had to reserve an additional closet for our belongings, but we couldn’t be sure there was enough space until weeks later when we could finally use it in our kitchen (which also has a few locked cabinets). We have to leave enough space for our guests to keep their belongings during their visit, so it is a bit of a balancing act. It was an open question until the very end if we would need to rent a separate storage unit.
Working With Small Spaces
Finally, consideration had to go into what belonged where. What should I leave in the locked spaces in our bedroom, in our guest rooms, and in the kitchen? How much space do things take? I mean, I didn’t really want to have to go into a guest room to get my shoes but it was probably OK to leave a spare blanket there, right?
Since I was restricted to a small space during our remodel, it took a couple of weeks of processing the varied contents of our boxes, and collecting like items, before a decent arrangement started taking shape. As Diana was marshaling the remodel forces during this time, the task primarily fell to me. By the end, we were pretty happy with where everything was placed, so items we need frequently should be safe and readily available. No separate storage unit is required.
When A King Is Not A King
Another unexpected wrinkle came when we replaced the king bed frame in our master bedroom with our king bed from California. The mattresses from Mexico are for standard king beds, our bedframe from California was, naturally, a California King bed. Our mattress was four inches too short.
Diana jumped into action looking for a proper mattress. She did extensive research and found that there was nowhere in Mexico to get a California king mattress. So, one had to be ordered on Amazon and delivered from the US. It was a little dicey because it seemed she was ordering the right mattress, but you can never be sure, especially in another country. It took three tries to get a mattress delivered from Amazon.
Worse, when it arrived, it was shrink-wrapped and looked tiny. We were scared to open it, lest we had to figure out how to return the now-expanded bed. It took us close to half an hour to find the size marking on the packaging. Only then did we expand it, Diana was holding her breath the whole time. As you can see from the pictures, she got it right. Even better, it’s more comfortable than the prior mattress. Hallelujah!
Laundry Room Redesign
In addition to the kitchen, the other must-do was to reconfigure our non-functional laundry room. Initially, as you can see in the pictures below, it contained a water heater, an in-floor wash basin (like most Mexican residences), and a washer/dryer combo unit stuffed into the corner.
The big problem was the location of the water heater, which prevented the dryer door from opening much, meaning it was impossible to see if you got everything out. In my case, I couldn’t even reach part of the dryer drum because my arm was too high to get under the door. Frankly, no one, i.e. not us nor any contractor, could figure out how the combo unit was even placed in the room given its height and the locations of the water heater and wash basin. It will forever remain a mystery.
After much discussion, we decided to place the combo unit where the wash basin was. But there was a problem, the unit was so deep it would prevent the laundry room door from opening. We originally devised a way to make it fit the washer by altering the door, but it might have been awkward. After nearly completing the kitchen, our contractor proposed carving space out of the concrete wall behind the basin for the water attachments. Much noise and dust later, it worked, by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin. Now, we can open the dryer door fully and I can even find missing socks, although I haven’t found a way to check the fourth dimension, yet, which is where all we know those missing socks are hiding.
Hard Water No More
This region of the Yucatan peninsula is one big slab of limestone, hence the ubiquitous, underground, freshwater cenotes (caverns). But all of that limestone has to go somewhere. It leaches into the groundwater in the form of calcium, making for some very hard water to get to our condo. That calcium then accumulates on the inside of all fixtures, clogging our faucets, showerheads, water heater, washer and dryer, new dishwasher, and new ice maker. Even the toilets need to be flushed out every six months to maintain a sanitary flow.
Since we now had space in our laundry room, we chose to install a rather large water softener system to protect our new appliance investments and minimize maintenance overall going forward. Although the system itself seems decent, the installation was a bit of a cluster. As is often the case here, the installer just winged it and didn’t bother to ask anybody about how to hook it up properly. The first attempt had the system attached before our water meter, which was a big no-no. As a precaution, I often follow up on installations, so I had our building maintenance manager check things out before signing off on the work. Had I not, I would have been fined when the problem was inevitably found later and I would have had to pay someone else to fix it.
OMG, The Pump
The other issue was the pump the installer said we would need due to the low water pressure. We weren’t sure, but the installer said he would remove it if it wasn’t needed. As the system was installed before the kitchen was complete, we wouldn’t know until later.
What we did find out right away was the pump is REALLY LOUD, with a highly annoying variable pitch. Any time any faucet or shower nozzle was opened in the condo, a sound like a high-pitch leaf blower rang out in the middle of the living space. The noise could wake the dead in the condo across the hall. That was not in the brochure. Our installer said, “That’s what a pump sounds like, you should know that”. This was unacceptable, so we unplugged the pump.
Once the kitchen was done, we determined the water pressure was not awesome but acceptable. So, we had the installer come to take the pump. They offered us a refund but said they would have to keep the 16% sales tax. I responded with a thinly veiled threat to take up the matter with the local business police. Lo and behold, we got all the money back.
Filtered Water
One benefit we get from our rental manager is the on-demand delivery of five-gallon water jugs. Since the region water isn’t suitable for everyday drinking, it’s nice to be able to not have to purchase and lig this essential a few times a week. But, a filtered water tap would be endless and I could hook it up to a built-in icemaker in our new fridge, relieving me of another hassle of constantly making ice.
Diana found a decent unit we could put under our new kitchen sink and things were looking up. Naturally, the installation was problematic as the guy putting it in didn’t bother to read the directions and the installation had to be redone. Eventually, it was all sorted and my new challenge is to not create too much ice, lest it go stale. This is a task I’m happy to manage, if only by making more cocktails as needed.
Bathroom Cabinets
Another job we had done was installing cabinets under all of our bathroom sinks. Frankly, the bathrooms just looked a little raw and unfinished with the exposed plumbing and lack of storage. We used a carpenter who does a lot of work in our complex and we could see did good work.
We are very happy with the results, but it, too, didn’t proceed without a hiccup. One of the cabinets had the door configuration backward. Even though we had mentioned it and the carpenter had agreed, he forgot to correct his notes and the delivered product was wrong. The whole unit had to go back to the shop and we were charged a bit to make the fix. Oh well, at least the finished products are to our liking.
We even had the carpenter remove and replace the countertop and sinks in the master bath with a quartz countertop and dual sinks. There was lots of wasted space, but no more. This job did cause another dust storm but the guys did a pretty good job containing it and then cleaning it up.
New Patio Fans
Next on the docket was getting two fans on our main patio. This involved getting the contractor to install wiring and additional mounts for the fans, we also took the opportunity to add a plug on another wall on the terrace. The fans each have a light and use a remote control, which works most of the time. Sometimes, depending on sunspot activity I guess, one controller receives the signal while the other doesn’t. This means one light is on while the other is off. Trying to turn off the one that is on just toggles them both, so one is still on while the other is off. The only thing we figured out is to play with it until somehow they get back in sync. At least the fan modes are consistent, which is what we really wanted anyway.
Light Switches and TVs
Another activity was to reconfigure many of the room light switches. Often, the most useless light was the first switch I reached for or there were just too many switches. For example, the first switch in our bathroom controlled the light in our shower. There were four separate switches in the bathroom, one each for the shower, the toilet, the sink, and the main area. WTF. I only wanted two. So, we went through the house moving and consolidating switches in the plates. In this case, less is more.
Then came mounting TVs on the walls. Two of the TVs were sitting on cabinets. Putting them on the wall would clear up flat space for guests to use and make the TVs safer. Of course, this involved figuring out where to mount them, opening concrete walls, and placing new outlets. Honestly, neither of the TVs is perfectly positioned. I can tell you we didn’t want to deal with more concrete work. Perfect would be the enemy of good here. They work well enough and they are out of the way.
A New Solar Panel System
Finally, I wanted to put solar panels on our roof. I had been interested in doing it in California but never pulled the trigger. The ROI period seemed large and I wasn’t sure how long we would stay in the Bay Area. Our all-electric condo has pretty high usage, what with all the appliances I described plus four AC units. High usage in our area means extra high rates, so our bimonthly bills could be quite large.
The hiccup here had to do with our roof. It was in poor shape, a fact that we didn’t learn until shortly before the solar installation. So, we scrambled and found someone to redo the roof. Again, my building super inspected and had them do the job better. I’m so thankful I’ve got a native speaker who can look out for me.
After getting some quotes, I settled on a pretty responsible solar vendor. It looks like we will hit breakeven in four years. I still have an electric bill, but it is much smaller and I’m less anxious about running the AC. Overall, this seemed like a no-brainer to me.
What odd jobs are on your to-do list?
