Surviving Mexico

The design of our new living space was intended as a living room/bedroom combination.  We couldn’t move upstairs until the stairs were tiled and the bathroom completed but had to move most things before the handrail on the steps was installed.

The first items to get moved were those in the backroom.  That way, they would already be out of the way when my husband was ready to tile the backroom.  So my treadle sewing machine, the table, and chairs from my mother plus the cupboard where I kept all my fabric scraps found a new spot upstairs. My husband lengthened the shelves in the cupboard so that it was more spacious. It now serves as a mini-kitchen cupboard, the bathroom closet and fabric scrap storage.

Then the piano and the chairs I bought which were at the little house in Sunflower Valley came over.  We had to enlist a helper for the piano because even though it was a spinet and not an upright, it still was as heavy as a horse.  The neighbors thought we were moving out, but we aren’t.  I still will continue to rent in Sunflower Valley because we do not yet have electricity and internet services in La Yacata.  But we won’t be moving the piano again. Of course, now the little house is all drab again.  Guess I’ll have to work on livening things up there for my next project!

Curtains needed to be made for those new curtain rods from Harley the carpenter.  We went to 10 fabric stores in town.  Yes, there are 10 fabric stores in our town. In fact, I would estimate there are at least 30 since Moroleon is known for its textiles.  In 9 out of the 10 we stopped at, I didn’t find anything I liked.  In the 10th store, I found a lovely brown embroidered fabric but the girl working there said they didn’t sell by the meter, but by the roll.  Umm, ok.  Well, I didn’t need a roll of fabric.  I toyed with the idea of ordering fabric online, but in the end, I found a large curtain at the Bodega which I cut into 6 smaller curtains.  I also picked up a bath mat set there. I cut the elastic off the toilet tank topper and made a second little rug for the stair to the bathtub. Who needs a fuzzy toilet tank anyway?

Once the bathroom was finished, it was time to move the bedroom things and occupy our new residence.  Our king size bed went out the front door and was lifted onto Joey’s roof.  The large armoire is made up of two pieces, so it was brought up piece by piece.  The smaller armoire wasn’t so heavy.

I got it into my head that we needed bedside tables. I’m well into middle age and have yet to own a pair of bedside tables. It was time. In the past, I had seen some at the weekly tianguis (flea market). But you know how that goes.  Now that I was in the market, there weren’t any to be found.  We went to a place in town and he did have end tables, only they were $3,200 each, not for the pair.  That definitely was out of our budget. We stopped at the roadside tent where an indigenous man, his wife, twin toddlers and four year old have set up shop or camp or business or something. They had end tables but they were too short.  Our bed is quite a bit higher than the typical beds found around here.  We did end up getting some chairs from this place.  More about that in another post.

We happened on a truck full of furniture one day while picking up the tortillas and we stopped.  The guy had the perfect size bedside tables and we liked the style.  While we were negotiating a price, some lady on a motorcycle came and claimed both.  Drat.  We saw the same guy another day (bought a rocking chair but more about that later) and put in our order for a pair of bedside tables just like the ones that were snatched out from under our noses.  They were ready at the beginning of January.

I also ordered two water stands from the same guy, one for upstairs and one for downstairs.  My husband and son just rolled their eyes at that, but quality craftsmanship is worth the price and the wait in this case.  It was another 2 weeks for the carpenter to finish them and arrange to meet us for pickup.

Things were certainly shaping up!

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