Yucatan Gringos

Pretty little home just across the main highway from the beautiful white sand beach.. On main road to Chelem..Large 20m x 50m lot..will allow much more construction (or possibility of second story - WoW the view ) and a pool also.. There are not many beachfront homes left in Chelem area and the second row is starting to go fast so Grab Yours now…Remodeling in Mexico is very reasonable as labor is a fraction of U S A prices — Come visit the Yucatan Coast and see this beautiul area of Mexico..Many Americans and Canadians for neighbors.
What a great Retirement - Vacation home - investment ..Sooo many possibilities
Contact My Realitor To See or For Info…Prices Are Rising Fast — American Owner Building Larger Home —
One bedroom - One bath - kitchen - livingroom - All fairly large rooms..around (( 1000sq. ft.–living area ))

Bargin  At  $ 68,900

New home will be ready end of March and would like to sell this one

Contact Number USA or Canada 888-256-1767—USA Only (661) 3107916 - GEORGE MAZUN 

A wonderful Retirement home or Vacation home and rent out the rest of the time when not in use–Homes in this area rent for couple thousand month I believe ..

 Priced at $68,900 usd - great value - ready for pool and second story..

Second row homes going fast now as beachfront getting very costly !!

Contact Number USA or Canada 888-256-1767—-USA Only (661) 3107916 Toll free GEORGE MAZUM

A few pictures showing some of the progress on our home. . .

Stairs going in. . .

view from the roof

upper balcony view

carport takes shape

in goes the pool

bathroom tile

first floor interior takes shape

living room area

Taken By Our Friends Les and Nan

Well

, here is the new bridge to Chelem and Chuburna villages across the lagoon. A massive undertaking and mega millions to shorten the commute from Progreso ( a port town of 50,000 +- ) to the above villages with a combined total of about 7 to 8 thousand people-not quite sure of these populations ..Add this to the mega 8 lane beautiful highway joining Merida ( population 750,000 - 1,000,000 ) and the port of Progreso and one wonders what is in store for this area..In my opinion only in America do they waste such amounts of money on highways and bridges that will see little use..BUT really look good. Mexico seems to have a need or sees a future need for such things..Hmm maybe there is more planned in the future for this group of popular beach towns, as Americans and Canadians are moving here or just buying homes for vacations at a greater pace each year for a variety of reasons..This area and the areas to the east of Progreso are extremely popular with retiring folks from the USA and Canada. Hopefully there is much more in store for this area as far as the Mexican Government goes that will be built as infrastructure for more business and commercial activity, thus bringing the local economy a much needed boost..

one side of the 8 lane highway

The bulk of Baby Boomers still have yet to retire, using 1945 as a basic start, the vast majority will begin retirement in a few more years. Many of these will seek out retirement homes abroad.. Mexico will most likely see most of these due to the closeness to their motherland. Not to mention children and grandchildren.

Mexico is an inexpensive country to live in and has wonderful services folks have become accustomed to in the states. Merida has it all..Yes there is still a ways to go in the Yucatan Beach areas mentioned - BUT - I think the government may have a plan.. Hmm - Does everyone here want this area to become another Cancun..

This - If not today then manana ( Tomorrow ) attitude is very relaxing and a much slower pace to live in..

Well, guess time will reveal the reasons for all this massive construction -

For Those Of You Who Would Like More Info On Land Or Home Purchases in The Yucatan — Please Contact Our Friends At Mayan Realty — See Below

                                                       Mayan Realty

Free Contact Number USA or Canada    888-256-1767—-USA Only      : (661) 3107916

 Mexico. Our services at Mayan Realty go beyond the sale because now you are our lifetime friends. 

                                                           www.mayanrealty.net

Progress continues on our home. . . . The base foundation has been poured for the exterior stairs to the second floor.  .(Hurry!. . I am not too good at climbing ladders!). . But I just ‘have to’ get up to the second floor somehow, so my fear of heights has been tested as hubby cheers me on from behind, urging me up the ladder. . . Getting back down is another problem, but I have learned to ‘not look’. . just go backwards and inch my way down carefully.. . I can hardly wait for the steps to be formed over the slanted foundation of concrete . . .

Railings!. . . More progress as the railings for the second floor balcony area are going up . . . We are getting comments from people around the area who have watched the progress. . .They say it looks good! ..

That is great to hear. . .. More later. .

George Mazun, owner of Mayan Realty  poses with Bill inside the raw construction of our new home.

What are those concrete blocks hanging around for??. . curious . . Good way to anchor upper construction materials!. .Watch your head! . .

Geroge Mazun of Mayan Realty and Bill

up go the walls

Greetings to all, and apologies for the delay in making a post of progress on the construction of our new home on the beach in Chelem, Yucatan, Mexico . . .

We are in Mexico, staying in Merida, and making many runs back and forth to the construction site in Chelem . . Our home is growing rapidly, the walls seemed to sprout upward daily - while the workers busied themselves like ants in doing all the labor by hand. . . . We have watched them sift the gravel sand mixture for just the right texture needed to mix in the various concrete applications they are working on. . . Up a small wooden ladder go buckets of concrete and mortar; empty buckets travel downward as the refilled ones go back up - a streamline of efficiency for the hand labor process. .

We have also been busy checking out various supply stores for the items that we will be supplying . . . it seems that Home Depot has won out for most of our business as the bulk of our purchases have been made there. . .We are supplying the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, interior doors, lights and ceiling fans, the water system (the water filter, softener, pressure tank and pump, and two on-demand water heaters), and of course had to select the tile . . so many beautiful ones to choose from, that took a bit of looking and decision making. . .

It took some time to find the tub that I wanted ( my tina! ) . . as tubs are quite new items in this area, being as showers are more common. . but Home Depot just got a new line in that fit the bill perfectly. .. but - they seem to be behind on tub faucets. . .hmm. . . that has inspired what we hope will be a unique addition to our master bath.. . We will wait and see how this idea works out before telling you about it. . .

Meanwhile, the stack of supplies that will go into our new home has grown quite large. . . Our anticipation as we watch our new home develop keeps us eager to make as many runs out to the construction site as possible. . . . .

growing fast

 Adios to all for now. . .

Well. . I attempted to download a picture of our lot . . but alas, as seems so common of computers and the internet, some glitch prevented it. . . So, here goes without the picture.

At this moment, there should be lots of activity upon our lot. . . Excavation and preparation for foundation should be underway. . . We went with the first builder we had spoken with. . . after being assured that our initial plans would be followed according to our specifications. . . George Mazun (our real estate agent) is overlooking the project until we can get down there . . . soon!

We are scheduled to leave on October 14th, and plan about two months there. . We can hardly wait to see how far along the construction is. . . During our stay we have lots to do. . . Picking out the tile, bath and kitchen fixtures, lights, fans, doors and windows, everything that will go into the home. . . seeing to the many areas of detail and finish materials that will be used. . . Currently I am working on the detail plans and lists of materials for this, and George’s wife, Marlene, will be our ’supervisor’ over the builder for this and other areas of completion during the times that we cannot be there - As she was for her own home built by this builder - And we have seen their beautiful home and know that she can handle this. . .

Meanwhile we are searching for a rental to stay in while down there. . . so, if anyone knows of a furnished place with internet service that might be available for Oct. 15th through Dec. 10th, at a reasonable rate, send us a note!. . please. . a comment here will suffice. . And we will also be on the lookout for a second-hand vehicle at a reasonable cost. . . instead of a rental car for the full time we are there. . .

Aside of seeing to the construction process, we are anxious to visit friends and make new ones while there.  . One such friend being another ‘Marlene’ who lives not too far from the little house that we first had. . . You can find her actively participating on Yolisto - interviewing and profiling people new to the area. . .

That’s it for today. . .hoping to have more news - more often, and soon lots of pictures.

Life never goes as one plans it. . that is a given. . Dreams, wishes, plans always get more complicated and difficult to achieve as you work towards them. . . . Or at least that seems the way it has been in my life. . ..

According to our first ’set of plans’ - we should already be living in our new home on the beach. . . Walking the sandy beaches, sleeping to the sound of the waves, making new friends and discovering new places . . . But, we are still here in our little home in the woods in Texas. . . At this point we are unsure as to whether or not we will achieve our goal. .

Little stumbling blocks have been thrown our way. . Enough so that we had almost decided to give up the dream. . .But after several (or more) weeks of consideration, we decided to keep trying. . . The little house in Chelem had been sold, but the sale of our home here fell through. . It seems the housing market had something to do with that, in that the potential buyers of our home saw no way they could sell their home in order to buy this one. . . And there were other matters that appeared to be blocking our path. .

Currently we are attempting to get a ‘concrete’ list of what all will be included in the bid to build our home. . . Prices have gone up down there in Mexico, so we were not surprised in finding the first bid price given us quite some time back had risen some. . But it is not the small increase in price, but exactly what all the contractor will do for that price that we are attempting to negotiate now. . In listing all that we had been told previously (verbally) by setting it in writing, we were surprised to find that some items suddenly seemed to not be included. . We had agreed (previously) to purchase a number of items ourselves that the contractor would install. . . That was no problem. . Most of these items we had already located at various stores in Merida. . Yet the more we have attempted to get a solid reply on exactly what the contract will include, the more vague the answers we get back are. .

I have sent a list of questions with the request that these questions be answered individually and with clarity. . on matters that seem to be in the ‘grey’ area of whether or not they will be done. . We are awaiting now a reply back on these. .

Meanwhile, we have decided to get another bid. . and on this one we are requesting a price for the complete project. . . We have seen the work of this contractor on one of our trips down, and were very impressed by the quality and the workers. . (I am sure there are a number of good builders there in the Yucatan area, and if we were ‘down there’ at this time, could probably shop around . . but that is not the case and we are having to do this long distance. .). . .

So. . .that is where we are right now. . .awaiting answers back . . . We are still unsure as to whether or not we will even be able to make the move in the near future (other factors come into place here). . . But, we are still trying to work on our dream. . .

The second best reason for our move to the Yucatan of Mexico would have to be ‘location.’ . . This area being possibly that last place one can find affordable property, in particular located on the beach. . unless, of course, one has more financial resources than we do. . . A lot of research was done of other locations - the Mazatlan area was our first choice, but before we even got to the point where we could make a trip down there to research property, prices had risen above our ‘affordability.’. . . Obviously, too many others had the same idea as we had, for during the time from our research to being able to start the actual looking, a flood of buyers had driven prices skyward. . . So, on to other areas . . . and the Yucatan - the Merida and Progreso area - became our focal point. . and we discovered many other favorable qualitites to this location. . just about thirty minutes from the beautiful white city of Merida. . .

Sleepy little fishing villages along the coast were first being awakened by the interest of foreign buyers . . . Properties were still available at prices those such as ourselves could afford. . It appeared this was our opportunity to find what we were looking for. .

Which is what we did. . . But progress to make the move was much slower that what we had anticipated. . . Until lately, as it appears things have started to come together to enable us to make the transition. . . Buyers have appeared for our property here in Texas, though still not ‘cemented’ in the actual purchase. . And the sale of our small home on the beach is under way (as we found a beach lot to build new on). . Though still many factors have to be worked out. . and I have the monstrous task of going through all here to sort out just the essentials to take with us. . and I will have to figure out what to do with the rest. . and the reality of actually leaving our home here mixes with the adventure of starting over in our home on the beach - misgivings, anxiety, feelings veering from one end to the other, flood my mind daily. . . We have grown ‘roots’ here, along with making many good friends. . These will be hard to leave behind. . While at the same time the excitement of watching our new home come to life as it is being built, of joining in with a laid back culture, of making new friends and establishing new roots are just as enticing as the pull that this home has. . .

This is where we are right now. . . Anything could happen to sway the adventure to either direction. . One never knows what life will throw at you. . . So, I take it a day at a time, and see what each one will bring. . and leave the rest in God’s hands. . .

Our son Scott posed a suggestion for topics for this post. . . (as we are currently in the ‘waiting’ mode of getting things moving for our intended ‘move’). . . What are the top ten reasons for moving to the Yucatan?. . .

He suggested a few topics. . . the availability of beach front property (at a still reasonable price) in the area. . . the government spending of ‘many’ dollars for improvements in the area. . . the free trade zone. .  and I added quickly the more reasonable cost of medical and living. . the many Mayan ruins and cenotes to explore. . and a few others that I will expand on later. . . . But, after a few more hours of thought on the subject, I realized that the number ONE reason that we have decided to move to the Yucatan is quite simple. . . Why ‘not’ just plain ‘enjoy’ our retirement years. . .

At 60 years of age, and hubby several older, we are really ready to enjoy whatever years we have left. . . We have often, over the course of our married life, explored various locations for real estate that offers a more ‘exotic’ and peaceful way of life than the one we were living. . . We have moved around quite a bit in this journey, mainly due to the traveling nature of hubby’s work. . . Oregon was breathtaking. . .and we took to the mountains most weekends, awing in the pristine beauty of nature in the crystal clear rivers and streams, the majestic forests. . but my most memorable time was our stay on the coast. . .something about the water. . something about the constant rhythmic beat of the waves. . California was intriguing, and I quickly understood our forefather’s ‘westward ho’ reasoning. . Many other states were visited in our traveling lifestyle, but during the course of all these years, we still researched areas that had a ‘link’ with water and a laid-back lifestyle. . . Still, our choice of a living location was based on economic and family reasons. . . which brought us to this ‘home in the woods’ - that we ‘actually built ourselves’ and where we have made many friends that we will hate to leave. . .

But. . . there is a lot of work and upkeep to 17 acres of land. . . the yearly taxes on the place keep rising. . our home is comfortable and ’snug’ - but during the colder season that is just where we are confined. . . Why ‘not’ take off on an adventure to a warmer climate, into a home on the beach, and sample the simple life while we still have a chance???

So . . the number one reason that we are attempting to make this move to the Yucatan is simple. . . We want to. . .We want to sample the simple life. . . we want to stroll on the beach. . we want to watch the sun rise and set over the endless waters. . “I” would like to be able to ‘delegate out’ some of the many humdrum, endless chores that go with being the ‘homemaker’ - (be able to afford a maid!!). . to just take life easy and hopefully find more time to relax, to get back into my interests of writing and art, to savor the joys of this earth. . . and to welcome my family and friends into our home on the beach. . .

As a footnote. . . here are two sample pictures of some of my silly ‘art’ that is available on t-shirt, aprons, mugs and more at my gallery at zazzle.com. . . take a look and you just might find something that ’strikes your fancy’. . .and if you do (!) . . then maybe I can afford that maid!. . Best wishes to all. . .