Today’s picture is the last picture of Casa Wendy 🙂
The master bedroom has a set of large sliding doors that open onto the great room, which looks across to the view down to the ocean. That’s pretty cool. What’s even cooler is that the bathroom has a set of very wide louvers over the Jacuzzi, that can open onto the bedroom, so that you can actually see from the bathtub all the way to the ocean through the bedroom and the great room.
I say “you” but it’s the universal you – it won’t be anybody who might read this post, since we aren’t buying it.
Now that’s what I said two days ago. Yesterday morning, when I woke up, Ethel flip-flopped on me again, and said “Let’s put the offer in on Casa Wendy”. Now, we knew that it had shown three times the day before, so it was gone, but she wanted to try anyway. So, in a spirit of cooperation, we did so.
At breakfast, we got a text – they’d accepted our offer. Again.
Now, stop reading if you know where this is going…..I got all excited, and started moving ahead with preparations. I made an appointment to get measurements for the garage and important rooms, I contacted my financial guy to make sure that I had the necessary cash for the earnest money, and….and I test drove the red Solstice that I had seen on the main drag every day 🙂
Every time I saw this car, I told myself (and sometimes Ethel) that, if I bought a place in Cabo, I would buy this convertible to drive around town. So I test drove it and made arrangements to have it checked out by a mechanic while we were back in Montana.
But Ethel….was not acting very enthusiastic about these preparations.
Finally we had it out. And she admitted that she didn’t want to buy the house. Again. In fact, she didn’t want to live in Latin America at all. We find this out seven and a half weeks into a house hunting trip in Latin America. 🙂
Well, all I could do was laugh. She wasn’t intentionally “doing this to me”. She simply didn’t know what she wanted. And it took a while for her to find out.
Since then we’ve had a few quick spats. I’m trying to keep clear of my own selfishness – my expectations, and my self-pity. But it’s a pretty big adjustment. I’ll probably be adjusting for a while.
In the meantime, we’re going home today. I don’t see any reason to stay, but I’m not really happy about going home either. I’m probably not going to be happy for a while. That doesn’t mean I get to be moody and morose and grouchy. So I’d better be careful.
We love the home. Absolutely love it. Everything about it. And were excited about buying it.
Then weirdness ensued 😉
The purchase contract was messed up. I mean, like seriously – it was missing some paragraphs. And had some confusing, and internally inconsistent, date issues. And they doubled the earnest money – I’ve never paid $48K in earnest money before, especially when the contract did not specifically have a “due diligence” clause.
But yesterday morning, Ethel woke up on Palm Sunday, and realized that she couldn’t go to church. That kind of put a damper on her enthusiasm. And she spent the whole day yammering back and forth with our agent and the selling agent, who took until about 5 PM to finally actually read their own contract and say “Oh, yeah – that’s all screwed up”.
And then, before we got the contract back, we went to the 6 PM AA meeting.
It was – if I have to designate an ordinal – the second-worst meeting I’ve ever been to in my life. Ethel thought it was the worst she’d ever attended.
Suffice it to say that it was a meeting in which a member – call him “Joe” – was picking up a 26 year chip. So, he announced his birthday, a friend gave a speech and gave him his chip, and then he gave a speech.
By this time, I’m already bored. I really don’t like focusing on members’ chips – we’re pretty much not supposed to do that sort of thing. I sorta think that you get your chip, you say “thank you” and you sit down. The newcomers in the room get to see that this program works for many of us for many years, and then you talk about the Steps and God, right?
It got loud and raucous. And then, the chairman introduced the topic – “Joe”. Yes, that’s correct. The official, announced topic was the guy getting the chip.*
I thought I was in Hell. Ethel thought it was a joke.
After about ten or fifteen minutes of people sharing about how great Joe was – including how he took “eight years off but came back” – I left and sat outside. I was…embarrassed. For those folks.
Ten minutes or so later, Ethel came outside. She finally figured out that they weren’t joking 🙂
Now, it could be great if here I said that this was a small, oddball meeting that had some weirdos in it. But, alas, no – in fact, this was the biggest meeting that I’d ever seen in that room.
I got self-righteously indignant and said that I’d never darken their door again. Ethel thought that that was an overreaction – but we both agreed that we couldn’t belong to that group. And that meant that we couldn’t buy Casa Wendy, or live in Cabo San Lucas.
So, we contacted our realtor and told her “Never mind”.
And that’s when Ethel decided that – Mexico is not for her. Not because of the weird meeting – we’ve been to plenty of good meetings in Mexico. But because she can’t go to church. I’d have gone ahead and bought Casa Wendy and just been more careful about which meetings I attended. But she took the whole thing as the first clear direction she’s gotten in a while – that she shouldn’t stay here. We had another place that we really, really liked over in San Jose, but by this time the entire country didn’t suit Ethel.
Yes, there’s an Episcopal church in Puerto Vallarta, but we haven’t actually been able to contact anyone from there. They don’t return calls or emails. So, can’t count on that.
So then we booked a flight to St Simon’s Island, Georgia, which Ethel had determined was next on her list.
And after we booked the flight – to Jacksonville – Ethel went to get us a rental car.
THERE WERE NO RENTAL CARS AVAILABLE IN JACKSONVILLE TOMORROW. OR IN ATLANTA. NONE. AT ALL.**
So this morning, we gave up on the East Coast 🙂 Took a long time to cancel that flight.
So we thought about going back to the Sonoran Desert. But Ethel, who suggested it, decided not to do so.
So, now, we don’t know what we’re going to do. Or where we’re going to go.*** And the main restrictions are Ethel’s desire to go to church, and Ethel’s demands to have dogs 🙂 (I understand both of these, BTW. But I’m not driven by them. Were it up to me, I’d just drop the dogs off at church, and head for Roatan :))
We may just give up and go home. I’ve also been in favor of this, for a while, since it has seemed that “nothing was good enough” – that we couldn’t agree on where to live. Now, home to Montana is okay – it ain’t Joisey. It doesn’t solve what seems to be my SAD problem, but it does allow us to go to church and play golf. Meetings? Meetings are still sort of strange – it seems that the Baffled Lot group is struggling, and I have no idea what’s happening with the Whitefish Group. It would be strange to walk back into a group that said that they were going to call the police on anybody who wouldn’t wear a mask.
It’s possible that we’ll try this again, when the British Antilles open up from COVID. All of those islands have Anglican churches, and almost all of them have plenty of golf. Of course, there go all of those years that I’ve spent expanding my Spanish vocabulary 🙂
*“Joe”, when he gave his speech, said that at least “95% of the people in the room he could call his friends”. When the chair announced the topic, he said that “For the five percent of you who aren’t Joe’s friends, the topic is gratitude”.
**Now, this morning, it turns out that we can rent a car at Jacksonville. But they are over $100/day. And they didn’t show up online until after we’d already cancelled our flight to JAX.
***You can read this as “Ethel doesn’t know where to go or what to do.” I’d go back to Jaco and buy the condo on the beach. But I’m just me, not us.
Yesterday, at dinner, I called it. We wouldn’t respond to Casa Samadhi’s counter offer.
There are three empty lots across the street from that house. Now, as far as I can tell, the fence at that street is the border or boundary for the Cabo Bello development, so I don’t know about the status of those lots – but they are for sale, and they are zoned residential with a 7 meter roof height.
And that would cost us a lot of our view.
So, I imagined myself two years from now, watching a front-end loader breaking ground across the street, and cursing myself for buying the place. So, we bailed.
Then, this morning, we heard that the contract on Casa Wendy had fallen through, and we already had a backup offer on that.
Here’s the roof:
Casa Wendy is in Ventanas. Now, it’s in phase one, which doesn’t have the lap pool, but it does have a very long, heated pool, and a gym, and great security. And we really liked Casa Wendy when we first viewed it.
The house itself has very little “yard”, but the roof is already approved for a pool, and the plans are already drawn. So that wall on the left would have a pool up against it. And, if possible, I’d have an Endless Pool motor installed at one end.
We’re waiting to hear back from the selling agent; we think we’re a little under what they want, but I sorta need to hear that from him. I’d kinda like to go under contract today with this.
But, even so, this afternoon, we’ve got several properties that we are looking at this afternoon. We don’t know what’s going to happen, and for all we know, we might see something this afternoon that makes Ethel say “Why would I want to live in that trash heap Casa Wendy?”*
I will say that, given how much KimPuckett likes this place, this is the first home that I’ve actually been anxious about. Usually I’m like “Whatever. If it’s God’s Will, and stuff”.
So I reckon I need to let that go.
UPDATE: if this Latin America thing doesn’t work out, then Ethel has designated St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, as the next destination.
*This is pretty unlikely. Here’s the listing link, and this house is completely tricked out. It’s the only place we’ve seen that ranks with the Dog House in terms of size and finishes. What we did with wood in Montana, they did with tile and stone.
Not Palmilla – we went there Monday. And not Medano – haven’t been there yet this trip.
We’re going to the beach at Cabo Bello.
We got a counteroffer from the owners of Casa Samadhi. So, before we counter their counter, we’re going to visit the house one more time, and then spend some time at the beach – which is effectively a private beach. Now, Mexico doesn’t allow “private beaches”, but the beach at Cabo Bello is very difficult to get to from the beaches east or west due to the rocks, so it’s pretty private to the folks who live there.
We’re dangerously close to buying this place 🙂
I keep telling Ethel to just go home; Ethel doesn’t want to sell the house in Montana. But she says that she’s “willing to sell it”. Apparently she doesn’t want to not sell it, knowing how much we could make from it – but she also doesn’t want to sell it. I think she’s mad at me for telling the truth.
That happens, from time to time 🙂
Now, we still have a full menu of places to see tomorrow, because this deal will not close today; the owners are in Singapore. Currently it’s 4 AM there, on Saturday. And for all we know, tomorrow we will see something that will wipe Casa Samadhi from our minds entirely.
It’s a beautiful home. It’s not perfect. It has the wrong plumbing fixtures – brushed nickel instead of rubbed oil bronze. And there’s no pantry. But it’s large, well laid out, views of the ocean from almost every room, open floor plan, and in the evening light, it’s almost surreal how lovely it is.
It’s also in Mexico, which is exciting – and terrifying!*
If we go under contract, then we’re going home during the due diligence – want to make sure that we do, indeed, want to leave after we get back home. Because Mexico is exciting – and terrifying.
*yes, that’s a fear, and, yes, I’m asking God to remove it. The fear is a bit more tangible, now that I know that Costco doesn’t have Tillamook in bulk, and the Selecto Chedraui wants $12.40/pound for it. That means a life without Tillamook.
Medano Hotel and Suites was a very nice hotel – but, well, they were noisier than we liked.
Not the room itself – it was the music outside, either generated by the speakers around the pool (playing loud rap – I actually heard profane phrases that were brand new to me) or the live music coming up from the plaza below. The latter was usually good, but, well, LOUD – and kept going till at least 10 PM, and I never keep going till at least 10 PM.
So we came a bit out of town to the CityExpress Suites, and it is very nice and quiet. And entirely smoke free. And no sounds at all at the pool.
Speaking of being smoke free – I should have mentioned, on Monday, that that was our 30th anniversary of quitting smoking.
Thirty years ago, Kim* had informed me that she was quitting smoking; I called up my sponsor, the Old Poop, and asked him what he did to quit smoking back in the dark ages. He said “I put ’em down, and sweated for a month.”
Understand – I had no intention of quitting myself. I just wanted to support Kim in her efforts. But the strangest thing happened – I was smoking while talking to the Poop. But, when I hung up, I put the cigarette out, and picked up the ashtray, and took it into the kitchen, and emptied it…
…and then reached up above the refrigerator, got all of our cartons of cigarettes, and the lighters, and took them downstairs and gave them to the neighbors….and Kim and I screamed at each other for six weeks.
Thirty years ago.
Never mind the health benefits – the lifestyle benefits are amazing. I became a runner and a triathlete** and a skier. Ethel has run races and even done a Half Ironman. Much of our life and social lives came out of these activities.
It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Contrariwise, drinking was taken care of without “any thought or effort on (my) part” – I put no effort into quitting drinking. The effort was put into the Steps, which meant that God took care of the drinking.
Amen 🙂
Update: we have the backup offer that I mentioned before on Casa Wendy in Ventana (I checked today – eight minutes from there to the meeting) and now we’ve put in an offer as well on Casa Samadhi. I’ve never put in two offers before – but until somebody accepts one, I reckon we’re free to play the field. The market here is what they are calling “hot”. I would have used that term, as well, until I saw what’s happening now in Whitefish. That’s just plumb stupid.
*this was eight years before she became Ethel.
**yes, I know – I’m using the verb “to be” for verbal shorthand. No, I’m not a runner – I’m an alcoholic who runs. Et cetera.
Yes, it sounds like a breakfast cereal for athletes.
But it’s actually a small gym – with an indoor 25 meter warm saltwater pool.
And it’s across the highway from Cabo Bello, which is one of the neighborhoods that we are interested in. So, there’s that.
There’s a wonderful swim center over in San Jose, with eight lanes and high tech electrolysis and fairly high membership rates. And, if I lived in that direction, I would definitely join them. But, in the event that we wind up over here (as opposed to back in Montana, which is still at least a 60% bet) it’s nice to know that there’s a swimming solution available.
My swim this morning was dog-poop slow – but, then, what was I expecting? I’ve done three swim workouts in the last couple of months, and I’m slowly ramping up everything after recovering from COVID. (Now I’m recovering from the recovery, which is something else entirely). I’m slower at everything else, so why wouldn’t I be swimming slower? But It’s Just The Way Things Are® and probably going to be for a while. One thing’s for sure – not swimming because I’m slow won’t make me faster.
I really don’t know what the rest of the day will bring – I’m assuming that we’re going to make at least one meeting this evening, but, other than that, everything is up to Ethel. I’ve done my workout. My day is over, from an obligatory standpoint.
NEWS FLASH – Ethel just put in an offer on a house – a back-up offer on a home that has an accepted offer. We’ve never done this before, but – oh, well!
Later on, I’m going to wonder – why didn’t we buy anything in the tropics?
COSTA RICA – Tamarindo and Jaco – Ethel didn’t like the crime (all theft, apparently, but a lot of that) or the Pura Vida – which is supposed to mean “easygoing lifestyle” but which I interpreted as “selfishness, lazily displayed” and my interpretation spoiled her perception. In addition – cost of living. Real estate was cheap; everything else was expensive, and taxes were high and going up.
PUERTO VALLARTA – too humid. As far as I can tell, that’s it. Now, it’s true that none of the locations had everything else that we wanted, but Ethel was mostly worried about the humidity.
LOS CABOS – Couldn’t get most of what we wanted in a single home. One home was reasonably close to a beach and had nice views but no access to golf and had a traffic situation that I didn’t like, one home charmed us completely but has a strange layout that makes things sort of unusable and had no views or security, one home had views and golf (expensive golf) but it was way over budget and we couldn’t insure what the view would be after it was built (and it was a year out) and one had a lot of good stuff, but Ethel didn’t like the cabinets and thought the developer might be sketchy – he did another neighborhood that she didn’t like.
HONDURAS – Ethel was worried about humidity and infrastructure.
COZUMEL – Ask Ethel. She used to love it. Then she read a lot of stuff on Facebook. Facebook’s good for stuff like that – you know, for making people dislike things.
FLORIDA – It has winter. Also, humidity. But it has everything else that we want. Of course, it is in the United States, which may mean that it’ll go crazy. I keep away from the news, but sometimes it tracks me down and runs me over.
THE REST OF THE WORLD – Ethel got tired, lost interest and didn’t want to keep going. Of course, a lot of these places have some COVID restrictions in place which mean “don’t come visit. You won’t have any fun.” But not all, by any means.
So, that’s it. Later on, we’ll be able to look back at this and say “This is why we don’t live in the tropics”.
Now, I would say that the only place that has everything that we want is the dry coast of the Big Island (or possibly Oahu, as well) but, well, that’s just too expensive. And, besides, we’re hearing that it’s just as theft-happy as Costa Rica seems to be. It’s occurred to me that almost all of the nice homes here in Cabo or San Jose are in gated, secure communities, or they have razorwire or other threats on top of their concrete walls, so it’s possible that this place is just as crime prone as Costa Rica.
Meanwhile, the market in Montana has passed crazy into the land of stupid. My home is now almost certainly valued in the 900s and might be getting close to seven figures. Ethel doesn’t want to talk about that – she’s tired. If we miss the market, then we miss it. I hope I’m as accepting after the fact.
Today we toured Rancho San Lucas, a development north of Cabo, and looked at a Golf Villa. Here’s a publicity shot:
This is by far the most expensive thing we’ve looked at. And, if we buy there, then we wind up buying the golf package, which is very expensive from a US point of view – although not too bad compared to other options around Cabo San Lucas.
However, the downside (apart from the expense) is – twenty minutes to the meeting.
That kills it for me, although Ethel’s still contemplating it.
Another issue is that – yes, there’s a beach club, but it’s a completely unusable beach. Which means that you go down about 300 yards from the beach itself, and sit in a saltwater pool. This seems strange to me; might as well sit at home in the bathtub and look at beach pictures. But Ethel’s still considering it.
I’m ready to give up and go home. But Ethel doesn’t want to do that. I’m not sure if she doesn’t want to give up, or she doesn’t want to go home. I suspect that the current weather in Whitefish may be discouraging her – rain and snow, but not good snow – but she’s getting a little uncommunicative. We’ll see what happens. I’m aware that I’m not steering – I’m just along for the ride.
Right now, I’d go buy condo 2D at Vista Las Palmas in Jaco. But Ethel says that Costa Rica is not her place. There’s also places in Cozumel that I’d almost buy sight unseen, but Ethel says that Cozumel isn’t her place, either, although she used to love it. We saw a place on Friday here that I was very interested in, but Ethel doesn’t like the cabinets.
Any place I say I’ll buy, she doesn’t like.
(Just now – “what are you doing, Sweetie?” “I’m looking at a place for us to stay for a couple of weeks”. So we’re not going home).
So we’re not congruent on what we’re wanting these days. Well, I’m pretty sure that what I’m supposed to do, when I don’t know what to do, is to do what I don’t want to do. And, since it seems that Ethel and I aren’t wanting the same things, then the safe thing for me is just to do what Ethel wants to do.
So I reckon we’ll be staying here for a couple more weeks. I don’t know if we’re going to keep looking, or just…well, be in Mexico. We haven’t actually gone to the beach yet in Mexico, really. We spent time near the beach at the hotel in PVR, and even a little bit on the beach, but most of our beach time was actually in Costa Rica. So maybe we’re going to just stay in Mexico and…..and stay in Mexico. Oh, well. It’s only time and money.
I’d like to look more in San Jose, now that we know that they have six meetings a week there, but for some reason Ethel doesn’t seem to get any traction when it comes to looking in San Jose. She talks about it, but nothing happens.
The Puckett Corona(virus) “Find Your Beach” Tour is coming to an ignoble and unsuccessful end. And we started with such high hopes. Too bad that Ticos seem to be cleptos and Nueva Vallarta has such high humidity. But I’m not running my life.
So we haven’t yet found That Place, For Sure, Without A Doubt, in Los Cabos.
Portugal and Spain have nice beaches, but Americans can’t go there. Brazil has nice beaches, but apparently you have to wear a mask everywhere, even in the bathroom. Uruguay has nice beaches, but you have to quarantine for seven days (and, besides, Ethel can’t spell it).
So, up until three minutes ago, I thought that we were going to Roatan.
But Ethel just found out that meetings have fallen apart in Roatan, so we don’t know if they have meetings at all. And, if they let meetings fall apart complete, they probably aren’t our type of AAs. So, dang. There went that.
Everything else I found out about Roatan sounded great, except that it’s more humid than we like (but apparently less than Puerto Vallarta and Panama). Golf, real estate, diving, church – all good news. But – no meetings? That’s a shame.
Of course, it may not be accurate. Ethel’s getting this news from a single person on Facebook. Bonjour! Meetings never stopped here in Cabo San Lucas, but quite a few folks never knew it – they simply stopped going to meetings because they thought everything was shut down.
If we’re going to Roatan, it’ll be Monday. Flights are easier then. Now, it’s STILL a 22 hour trip, but if we fly tomorrow, it’s $400 more, and three hops – here to Dallas to Miami to Roatan, with an overnight. If we fly on Monday, it’s here to Houston to Roatan, with a 16 hour layover in Houston. That’s easy pleasy lemon squeezy.
We’ve prayed for guidance and for His Will. I have to assume that we’ll get it. That’s what the Book of James says to do. The Big Book reflects that, by saying that after we ask, we’re supposed to take it easy and not struggle – the right answer will come. So, come, Right Answer! We’ze waiting rat cheer!
In the meantime, we’re going to Palmilla Bay for the day. It’s probably our favorite beach here in Los Cabos. We looked at some beautiful new construction yesterday afternoon, which is on the San Jose side of the corridor, and only a few minutes from Palmilla Beach. Maybe that’s how God will speak to us – while we’re visiting the beach.
If the waves start parting, I will know it’s God – but I won’t know what it means 🙂
Yesterday, we went back to the Charming House here in Cabo San Lucas.
One of the issues was the lack of a view from this home. Turns out that, if I thinned out the top of the large tree in the garden, there would be an ocean view from the bedroom sitting area. And this is the view from the top of the casita, where we already know we could put in a palapa:
It’s a lovely home. We are both charmed by it.
But we haven’t bought it yet.
Ethel is telling everybody “Jim won’t let me buy the Charming House!” But, actually, what I did was remind her of the things that she said were important to her in her next home – in the home itself, and the surrounding community. I’m mean like that – I remind folks of stuff. I think it was Nietzsche who said “Half of human stupidity is forgetting what you were supposed to be doing.”*
Casa Samadhi has a lot, but not nearly everything. The Charming House we love, but it has the least of the everything. The place that has the most of everything is El Tigre in Puerto Vallarta, and we may wind up going back there.
We’re looking at a couple of places today which have more of the everything, but we may not like them. That’s one of the things about this search – the homes have to have the attributes, and we have to really like them. If a home has everything, but it doesn’t make me say “wow”, then…just can’t buy it. Contrariwise, if we love it enough, but it doesn’t have everything, we might go ahead – and that’s why the Charming House is still on the table.
If we haven’t found it by Sunday, we may fly to Roatan. Roatan has reasonably priced beachfront real estate, great diving, reasonable golf, meetings, an Episcopal church, low cost of living, and health care. It does NOT have a Costco.
Maybe we can’t have everything.
*The other half of human stupidity is forgetting whom you’re quoting.
Fat Charlie's Diary 