Tuesday in San Carlos

Bruce and I went to our first Board Meeting of the Caracol Homeowners' Association this morning. Our construction plans were formally presented to the Board and other members that attended the meeting. Our builder, Carlos, presented our drawings and had written up a blurb to explain to everyone that we're not asking for anything extraordinary (we really aren't). One of the bylaws is that you have to have parking for three cars at your house. There really is no street parking because the roads are very narrow and the whole Caracol is on a hill. Most lots cascade down the hill with huge retaining walls. The idea is to have a wonderful view of either the west towards the Teta mountains or the east which looks out over Guaymas in the distance and the Sea of Cortez dotted with little islands. Either side is gorgeous; the kind of view you can look at all day and the stars and full moon have been incredible the last couple of nights.

Getting back to the variances, we are building closer to the property line than the bylaws allow because our property line is already more than a meter back from the street and we already have room to park a third car off the street. This is all very confusing really but we all have to follow association rules. Ofcourse, it's good and bad. The rules are written mostly to protect people's views. This brings to mind a house near Sayulita, where we used to live, that had a lovely view. The property just below it was bought by a couple from LA who built a four story house directly in front of that house completely blocking their view and lowering the value of their neighbor's house by hundreds of thousands of dollars....so you see the laws here are really meant to be a good thing. I just can't imagine someone doing that to another human being. Those are the kinds of things that started the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys (I think). I think with some people it's all about control. I'm sure there will be some sort of a law suit but in Mexico two gringos going to court over something like that seems very silly and makes us look ridiculous. It's embarrassing. People in town would drive out this house just to see it for themselves because it is pretty unbelievable.

There's a very interesting man in our association who thinks we should just design our house back a few meters because he thinks it would flow better, and a man who thinks we should change the side of the house that the garage is on....easy...just like that. However, keeping these suggestions in mind, we're not going to change the design and the committee did approve it so all is well. I am still trying to figure out why someone would want to make a change like that to a design that's been in the works for a year and designed by an actual designer. I'm not sure I understand it, but then I'm still learning about people. It just never stops.

The house is going to be great, not a big and fancy house but a culmination of what we both want and our ideas for saving energy and collecting rainwater. There are fantastic systems out there that don't cost an arm and a leg to design and end up saving money and our our environmental resources . Doing the math, we will have almost enough water to keep us going all year and then we'll supplement it with city water. In this part of Mexico you really need heat in the winter especially at night and though I would love a romantic wood burning fireplace, we're going to have natural gas heat in the fireplaces. We will have a pool. It is so hot in the summer and though not so hot in the winter, I'd still like to use the pool. However, I need a warmish pool. I am not a fan of cool water; never have been. We'll heat the pool with a solar heater. It's really interesting here in that a lot of people know a lot about having a "green" house. We've gotten a lot of great ideas from people including filtering and reusing gray water to water our plants and yard. It's all really exciting and now Carlos will go to the city and begin the permit process. We will break ground in July. I love thinking and talking about the house.

With our first meeting behind us, we went out for lunch at a little place called Evie's. It was good and it just feels like a new experience.....almost like retired life....going to a meeting and then going out to lunch with Bruce. I don't want to feel retired though and I really wanted to do something constructive because the day was already half gone. I am two thirds of the way done with my closet unpacking but I couldn't face it so I drove back down to the store and got ingredients for the world's best cookies...you know the oned with lots of butter, cornflakes, rolled oats, brown sugar, vanilla, almonds etc. I ate a bunch of batter, baked the cookies and ate about four right out of the oven. Now my stomach is so upset that I couldn't even manage dinner. I made myself sick and I know better, but they really are incredible. I really hope I can sleep tonight and feel great tomorrow because by messing around today I have backed myself into a corner and have to finish unpacking tomorrow, pack for Chicago on Thursday and do something to my hair. I'm really in trouble. Oh and if I could lose about 15 pounds before Thursday that would be really good too.