What a Mess!

In my last post I wrote that I was waiting for the movers to arrive with the household goods and furniture that I had shipped from Ohio.  The company specializes in international moving from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico.  Their headquarters are in San Miguel de Allende, a city that is very popular with U.S. ex-pats.  They stored my stuff at their warehouse there until I was here in Mexico City.

Since the former owners were leaving the condo completely furnished, there were only a few pieces of furniture that I was shipping.  Most of the shipment consisted of artwork, decorative items, personal memorabilia. and a few kitchen items.

A couple hours after I had written my previous post, the movers arrived.  They were very happy that everything fit in the elevator and that they did not have to carry anything up the flights of stairs.  They removed unpacked the pieces of furniture and put them in place.  They also hung some of the artwork.  However, all of the smaller boxes were left to me to unpack (which I guess is normal procedure with moving companies).  Many of those boxes went into the office.  The former owner had sold the exercise equipment that he had there, so that was the room that had the most space.  After I had unpacked those boxes, the room was a disaster area with packing paper piled high.

The living room / dining room area was also a mess, but at least I could see how I was starting to make the place my own.  With the black-framed mirror and the black cabinet for my DVDs and compact discs the space looked completely different.  You can also see to the left, one of my paintings hanging on the wall.  

The antique-style table under the mirror will eventually be replaced.  We are going to look for a small black credenza that will fit in with the other black furniture on that side of the room. 

It will take a while to get the apartment just the way I want it, but we are getting there!

D-Day

Tomorrow is D-Day... as in Departure Day.  My friend Frank will drive me tomorrow morning to Cleveland Airport where my flight to Houston leaves around 11 A.M.  I have a three-hour layover there, and then my flight to Mexico City arrives around 6 P.M.  For this one-way ticket I splurged and purchased a first-class fare.  That, combined with my Silver Premier Status with United, allows me to check three suitcases weighing up to 70 pounds each without charge.  I am taking advantage of that opportunity.  I am taking three suitcases (plus two carry-on items), although none of them weighs 70 pounds.  

Fortunately, I am not flying into Acapulco.  That city has been devastated by Hurricane Otis which in less than 24 hours escalated from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane.  There is not a lot of information as of yet since the city remains isolated.  I read that the highway into the city is impassable due to landslides.  Hopefully there will not be many casualties, but since this is the strongest storm to ever hit Mexico's Pacific coast, I fear that the news will not be good.

As the storm moved inland over the rugged mountains, it quickly lost strength.  In Mexico City there is rain today, but, according to the weather forecast, the showers will end this evening.  When I arrive in Mexico City tomorrow, there is a probability of scattered thunderstorms, but most likely those are not the remnants of the dying hurricane, but just the typical late afternoon rain.

Empty House

Yesterday we drove back to my house to check and see that the liquidators had cleared out everything.  Except for a few things that the new owners had requested to be left behind, the house was empty.

I wasn't sure how I would react upon seeing my home of so many years empty.  It was a rather odd feeling, but no tears were shed.  Tomorrow the new owners will take possession of the house.

Today is the Day

Today I will vacate the house in which I have lived since I was three years old.  My friend Frank, who for many years has looked after the house when I travel, will come over later this morning.  

The first item on the agenda will be to go to the car dealership where I bought my Prius in 2017.  About a month ago I went there to discuss the sale, and we agreed to what I thought was a very fair price.  

Good-bye, my trusty Prius!

Because I have been spending half the year in Mexico, the mileage is extremely low for a six-year-old car.   I guess I am almost like that proverbial "little old lady from Pasadena".  I am obviously not going to drive the car to Mexico, and I have no desire to own a car down there.  The one thing I hate about Mexico City is the traffic, but my apartment is just a couple blocks from a Metrobus stop.  From there I can get to almost anywhere I would want to go in the city.  And Alejandro, of course, has a car.

Frank will follow me to the dealership.  After I sell the car, he will take me on some errands, and then we will go back to the house.  We will put my luggage in his car and vacate the house.  Tomorrow, the liquidators will arrive, and over the next few days they will clear out the house.  In the meantime, I will stay in a nearby hotel for my last few days in Ohio.  Since I will not have any transportation, Frank will be with me.  After the liquidators have finished their job, and before the new owners move in, we will probably go back to take one last look at the empty house.  I don't know how emotional that moment will be.  When Frank takes me to the airport and we say farewell, that moment will most certainly be emotional.   At this time, it is just starting to hit me that very soon I will say good-bye to Ohio and begin a new stage of my life in Mexico City.   

The Deal is Sealed

Even though the sale of my house went very quickly, the closing of the sale was not without some bumps along the way, a great deal of stress, and several sleepless nights.  I won't go into a long story here, but the fact that I am married to Alejandro, and that the state of Ohio has what is called "dower rights", created a situation that had me on the verge of a nervous breakdown for a while.  However, with the help of the kind lady at the title agency, we resolved the problem.  Yesterday morning, I received a call from my realtor.  He gave me the good news that the sale was finalized.  

It is hard to believe that in a few days I will vacate the house that I have called home since I was three years old.  The liquidators will come in and clear out the house, and next week I will be flying on a one-way ticket to Mexico!

Liquidating

As I mentioned before, my condo in Mexico City is fully furnished, so it is not necessary to move all of my belongings south of the border.  A moving company has already packed the things that I really want to have down there, and those items are on their way to Mexico.  The next step is to clear everything else out of the house.  I contacted a liquidating company that was recommended by my realtor.  Yesterday they arrived to begin the process.

They are taking an inventory of everything in the house.  First, I gave them a tour and explained the origin of the handicrafts (many of them from Mexico) which I have collected over my years of travel.  The liquidators are very knowledgeable about antiques and collectibles, but I am sure that these handicrafts are something new to them.  ("Do you know what 'alebrijes' are?"  "Are you familiar with the black pottery of Oaxaca?")  One of the liquidators took notes while I described the provenance of things.

I left the house for a while to let them do their work.  When I returned, many items had numbered stickers on them.

Every item that they think can be sold will be on an online auction which will continue for a couple of weeks.  Then I will have to vacate the house.  The winning bidders will come to pick up their purchases.  What was not sold will then be cleared out, either donated to charity or thrown away.

Today they are returning, and they say that they should be finished with the inventory.

It will be very interesting to go onto their website and see how much interest there is in a lifetime's worth of stuff.

Moving Day

No, I'm not leaving for Mexico just yet.  That's still about a month away.  However, yesterday, the movers came to pack up the stuff that I am taking down there.

Since the previous owners of the condo in Mexico City are leaving the place completely furnished, I do not have to move that much.  There are certain pieces of furniture, my relatively new TV, and a lot of my paintings and other decorative items that I want down there.  The moving company I have contracted is highly recommended and specializes in moving household goods from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico.

Yesterday morning the movers arrived with a U-Haul truck and packing materials.

  Within a few hours they had everything boxed and wrapped.

This morning they returned and loaded everything onto the truck.  It will go to Atlanta where they have another shipment, and then on to the Mexican border, and eventually to my place in Mexico City.

SOLD!

 

After the inspection of the house last Friday, I was told that there were only a few minor issues.  Apparently, those issues were inconsequential to the buyers.  Yesterday the realtor came to the house with another document for me to sign.  (I don't remember what it's called.) It stated that I am not responsible for any repairs prior to closing.

The wheels of bureaucracy will turn for a few more weeks before the deal is officially closed.  However, my realtor said that at this point he has never seen a sale not go through.  He confidently changed the sign from "SALE PENDING" to "SOLD".

Appreciated

As I mentioned the husband of the couple that bought my house is one quarter Mexican.  He said that he liked the Mexican influence of the decor, and, in particular, he mentioned the Mayan carvings in my office.

On the doors of the storage cabinets, there are woodcarvings that I bought on one of my trips to Yucatán.  I found them in the workshop of a woodcarver in the town of Izamal, about 40 miles to the east Mérida.

 

On the doors of the cabinets above my computer station, there are smaller carvings which I found at the Mayan archaeological site of Labná.  If I remember correctly, the father of the fellow who was the caretaker of the site was a woodcarver.  The son was selling his father's work at the entrance to the ruins.  Each carving is a Mayan glyph and means something in the ancient Mayan writing system.

My realtor later admitted to me that he had his doubts about those carvings, and even I wondered whether the new owner would take them off the doors.  But as it turned out, they were a selling point that endeared the house to the buyer.

Whew!

 

Before the sale of the house can go through, it has to pass an inspection.  That was really worrying me, because the house is over 70 years old.  I was imagining all sorts of scenarios in which the inspector found major problems that would hold up the sale and cost me loads of money.  Worry-wort that I am, my stomach was tied in knots fretting about the results. 

The inspector came last Friday accompanied by the buyers' realtor.  I left the house and ran a couple of errands.  Then I went over to my friend Gayle's house to kill some more time.  Shortly after I arrived, my cell phone rang.  It was my realtor.  He said that we have a "situation".  My heart sank.  "The inspector can't get the furnace to come on."  I said I was only five minutes away, and that I would come right over.  By the time I got there he had the furnace running.  I suppose it was slow to start because it had not been used all summer.  (Yesterday, we had a very chilly night, and I turned the thermostat up.  The furnace came on immediately with no problem.)

The inspector was done with his work and said that there were only a few very minor problems.  (I suppose that I will receive the list from my realtor on Monday.)  I felt as if a ton of bricks had been taken off my shoulders.

I also had the opportunity to meet the young couple that are buying my house.  They seem very nice.  They have been looking for a house for months, but every time that they put in an offer, they were outbid.  They liked my house better than any of the others that they had seen, so they are thrilled that their offer has been accepted.  The wife enjoys working in the garden.  Well, next spring she will have her work cut out for her, since this summer I have not had the time or inclination to work in the garden at all.  The husband is of one quarter Mexican ancestry, so he loved the Mexican influence in the decor of my house.  So, it really seems like it was meant to be, a "win-win" situation for us all.  I sold my house in an incredibly short time, and the buyers seem perfectly suited for the place that has been my home since I was three years old.

Exciting News!

My house has only been on the market for two days, but this morning I received a call from my realtor.  Four parties viewed my house yesterday, and one of them made a very good offer.  I have heard stories about homes selling quickly, but I never imagined that mine would sell so fast, especially since it only has one bathroom.

It will be more than a month before everything is taken care of, but if everything works out, I should be on a one-way flight to Mexico before the end of October!

Yippee!!!!! 

For Sale

Yesterday the house went on the market.  Monday morning the real estate agent put a sign up in the front yard, and within an hour my house appeared on Zillow and other realty websites.  Before noon I had received a call from a realtor asking for showing that afternoon.  Of course, I had to leave the house.  It was a nice day, so I went out for a walk.  I went around the block, and by the time I returned to my street, I could see that the realtor and the client were already pulling out of my driveway.  They had only been there for about fifteen minutes, so obviously the potential buyer was not interested.  

Later in the afternoon, a liquidator recommended by my agent arrived to look at what has to be cleared out of the house.  (Since the condo that I am buying is already furnished, I will move only a very small number of items from my house.)  They looked at every room and did not seem fazed even by a few larger items that I worried would be difficult to remove from the house.  Once I have a buyer, we can schedule a date for them to do the liquidation.

In the evening, I received another call to schedule a showing this afternoon.  So, I will have to get out again.

I am hoping that the house sells within a short period of time.  I am pessimistic since the house has only one bathroom, a big drawback.  But everyone tells me that the house will sell quickly.  Fingers crossed that they are right.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I don't have time to write a lengthy entry this morning, but I wanted to write something quickly since I have not posted for the last couple of days.  The house is going up for sale tomorrow.  The "deep cleaning" of the kitchen is on pause, and today I need to do a general cleaning of the whole house.  Who knows when someone is going to want to look at the place?  In addition, I am invited for lunch today at the home of a friend and former colleague.  So, I have to have breakfast, and get to work!

Deep Cleaning

I will soon be putting my house in Ohio up for sale.  In fact, tomorrow I have a meeting with a realtor.  Before I sell the house, I want to give the everything a "deep cleaning"... moving the furniture and appliances and cleaning all areas you don't see.

Before I left on my most recent trip to Mexico, I deep cleaned the two bedrooms and the living room.  Yesterday I began on the kitchen.  I moved the stove and cleaned behind it (what a mess!).  I started washing all the kitchen cabinets with Murphy's Oil Soap.  I cleared everything off the shelves, threw out stuff that I won't need in the (hopefully) short time that I remain here, and washed the shelves.  There is still a lot to do, and I expect to be very busy in the coming weeks. 

 

Hard to Throw Away

For over a year now, I have been clearing out my house in preparation for my move to Mexico.  I had a garage sale last year (too much work for so little money).  I have taken bags of clothing and household items to Goodwill.  I have received some cash for old coins and unused jewelry.  Small but treasured items have been packed into my suitcases each time I travel to Mexico.  A lot of stuff simply goes out into the trash.  Since my return from my last trip, I have been emptying more drawers, cabinets, and closets.  But on the shelf of my bedroom closet, there is something that must be thrown away, but I hate to do so.  There are a dozen large notebooks filled with slides from years of travel.  The slides are placed in plastic sleeves.  There are also boxes and even old carousel trays filled with slides.  When I retired, one of my goals was to get all of them all sorted and put into more notebooks.  I made a start on that but never finished.

I first started taking slides in 1973 when I made my first trip out of the country... three months spent in Mexico studying at the University of the Americas.  I had a Kodak Instamatic camera back then.  Eventually I upgraded to a 35 mm camera.  My former students can all attest to the many slides of travels to Mexico, Peru, Argentina and other countries which I showed them.  Dinosaur that I am, I still clung stubbornly to film photography after retirement, even though it was getting harder and harder to find someplace that would develop my film.  After the death of my partner in 2011, I joined the 21st century and started using his digital camera.  Now I am a dinosaur again, and some people are surprised that I take photos with a camera rather than with a smartphone.  

I know that I could convert my slides to digital format and store them on my computer.  In fact, I have an apparatus that does that.  I wrote a number of posts on this blog which featured photos from those long-ago travels.  However, I have thousands upon thousands of slides, and uploading them all to the computer would be incredibly time-consuming.  Even those slides which were protected in the plastic sleeves are showing their age.  It would take even more time photo-shopping them to make them look good again.  Every time I look at those notebooks, I think, "I have to throw those out," but, so far, I have not had the heart to do so. 

Fortunately, I have twelve years of digital slide shows from my travels stored on DVDs.  (Hopefully, DVD players will not go completely obsolete within my remaining years!)  Those discs, more than fifty of them, are already packed into a box that will be shipped to Mexico by the moving company when I make the final move.

Obtaining a Visa or the Joy of Mexican Bureaucracy

Today I began one of the things which I need to accomplish during the month that I am here... obtaining my Mexican residency visa.

Alejandro and I drove from his house to the National Institute of Migration located in the swank neighborhood of Polanco.  It was at least a forty-minute drive in typical Mexico City traffic.  We figured that they would give us the information on all the forms and documents that we need to have, and that we could make an appointment at that time.  The lady at the desk gave us the information on what we need.  We need to bring our marriage certificate (which I expected).  I have to fill out an application form from their website and print it out. I also have to fill out online an FMM (Forma Migratoria Multiple), what we used to call a "tourist card".  Travelers to Mexico used to get a "tourist card" to fill out on the plane as they headed down there.  Now an immigration agent at the airport simply stamps your passport.  However, that stamp in my passport does not suffice when applying for a residency visa.  I have to electronically register and fill out an FMM online and print that out.  And no, I could not make an appointment at this time.  I have to hand everything in at the "Instituto", pay around 400 U.S. dollars (credit card payments are accepted), and THEN you are given an appointment.  After the appointment it can take as little as one day or as long as a month to receive the visa.  I told the lady I return to Ohio on June 28th.  "Am I going to have enough time?!" I asked anxiously.  She said "Yes, you shoud have plenty of time".

Then we drove another 40 minutes to the Civil Registry Office where we were married to get our "Acta de Matrimonio" (Marriage Certificate).  When we were married in February, we were given a document, but the official "Acta" was not available immediately.  I knew from when we registered to get married that the office does not take cash payments.  The lady at the Civil Registry told us we had to go to a nearby stationary store / internet cafe where they would print off a form for payment.  We then had to take that to a nearby supermarket and pay the fee for the marriage certificate there.  Then we returned to the civil registry office.  We thought that we would immediately get the certificate... but NO, we have to return next Wednesday.  

I will fill out and print the necessary forms in the next few days.  Then on Wednesday hopefully we will get our "Acta" at the Civil Registry, and then head over to the Institute of Migration and get an interview date for as soon as possible.

I should have known that getting my visa would not be a simple process... this is Mexico, land of bureaucracy. 

 

 

 

A Stack of Vinyl

Over the course of the last year, I have been cleaning out the house in anticipation of moving.  One thing that I found was a stack of vinyl records from back in the day when I had a stereo console in the living room.  Some of these albums are more than fifty years old.  I even have the records that my high school band recorded.  I know that vinyl records are making a comeback, so I set them aside thinking that I might be able to sell them.

My listening tastes were not normal for my generation.  While other people my age were listening to the Beatles and other rock groups, I was listening to classical music.  I also had a selection of Mexican and Spanish music and a few movie soundtracks as well.

Yesterday, I was searching for a store that buys vinyl records, and I found a place not too far from me.  I went there with two bags full of albums.  As soon as I walked in, I got the vibe that they wouldn't be interested in my old-fogey records.  They said that they would look through them and that I should come back in an hour.  I ran some errands and returned.  They said that they didn't want any of them.  So, I hauled the two bags home.

There are some other places that buy records, but I don't feel like traveling all over town just to be told they aren't interested.  I know I could probably put them on eBay but, preparing for my move I have too much to do to bother with that.  There is a turntable in the apartment that I am going to buy.  I'll ask the owner if it still works, and, if so, I might select some of my favorites, and take them down to Mexico.

Packing Up

Two weeks from tomorrow I fly back to Mexico.  Ever since I made the decision to move down there, on each trip I have been packing items to leave in the apartment.  If all goes according to plan, this will be my last trip before I make the final move.  So yesterday, I started packing my big suitcase.  Within two hours I had it mostly full.  There are still some nooks and crannies that I can tuck some small items into.

I have packed some of my music CDs, books, treasured handicrafts (carefully wrapped in bubble wrap), and some artwork (including a couple of my own paintings).  And there are even some clothes in the suitcase.  I have plenty of clothes at the condo already, but they serve as extra cushioning for the fragile items.  

I still have to pack my carry-on luggage.  I might work on that today. 

 

The Next Step

I just returned from Mexico City last Wednesday.  I haven't even put away my suitcase yet, but I have to start packing again.  In just a little over two weeks, I will return to Mexico, and on this trip, I will purchase the condo that I have been renting since April of 2017.

As you may recall, the owner of the apartment is a Mexican who lives with his wife in Chicago.  He was a pilot with Mexicana Airlines, and that is why they purchased an apartment in Mexico City.  After Mexicana went bankrupt in 2010, the apartment was rarely used.  They didn't want to sell it, but they were reluctant to rent it.  Serendipitously I made contact with them, and they agreed to start renting the condo to me.  It was an ideal situation for us all.  They only charged me for the months that I was down there, and I paid the condo maintenance fees and real estate taxes (which they deducted from my rent).  It saved them from making trips down to Mexico.

After Mexicana went bankrupt, Eduardo, the owner, worked for several other airlines.  In March of this year, he retired.  They wanted to sell the apartment, and, knowing that it had become my home-away-from-home, they wanted to sell it to me.  Although the property is quite expensive, we agreed on a price.  Eduardo has to make a trip to Mexico City this month to take care of some business, so I am going down there too so that I can make the purchase.  He has a trusted friend in Mexico City who is a realtor and lawyer, and he will help us with the transaction.  I also plan to get my Mexican residency visa while I am down there.  Normally, U.S. citizens who plan to move to Mexico, need to make an appointment at a Mexican consulate in the U.S. to get a visa.  However, because I am married to a Mexican citizen, I can obtain it in Mexico City. 

So, the next steps in my move to Mexico City will take place soon.  After I return to Ohio, I can put the house up for sale.  Hopefully, that won't take too long, because I am eager to begin my new life in Mexico.  On the other hand, I hope it doesn't happen too quickly, since there is much that I need to do prior to making the permanent move.  

It would seem that the process is progressing along the time frame that I had hoped for.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there are no snafus along the way.  I am both excited and scared!

Back to Plan A

As you know, I am planning on moving to Mexico this year.  I was going to buy the condo that I have been renting for the last several years.  However, property prices have gone up in Mexico City, and the dollar has gone down a bit against the peso.  I would have to pay much more for the apartment than I will get from the sale of my home.  Granted, comparing Mexico City with suburban Cleveland in like comparing apples and oranges.  For someone from Manhattan or San Francisco, prices in Mexico City are a tremendous bargain, but for me the price was high.

While I was in Mexico on my last trip, I was looking at local real estate listings on a website that is somewhat similar to "Zillow" up here.  The prices for many properties in the neighborhood were exorbitant.  The owners of the apartment I rent were definitely offering me the place for a reasonable price, especially considering that they are leaving all the furnishings in place.  However, I also saw that there were a considerable number of bank foreclosures that were incredibly inexpensive.  Alejandro and I even walked around one Sunday afternoon, looking (from the outside) at some of properties that were listed.

For example, this house, just a short walk from the apartment was one of the listings.

It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and is twice the size of the apartment where I stay.  It is listed for 858,397 pesos, or about 49,000 U.S. dollars.  Now this place is actually bigger than what I want (after all, I am downsizing), and at my age I don't want to deal with stairs.  However, it is typical of the bargains that we saw in the neighborhood.  I was beginning to seriously think that I should buy one of these foreclosures.  Even though I would I have to ship more furnishings from Ohio and buy stuff in Mexico, I would still be coming out ahead.

Alejandro mentioned this to his friend who is a realtor, and he said, "We have to talk."  So, we got together one evening at a coffee shop and discussed the idea of buying a foreclosure.  It is much different than buying a property from the bank in the U.S.  While buying a foreclosure can be an excellent investment, it is not a good idea for someone hoping to immediately move into a place.  The residents of these properties have not yet been evicted, and the eviction process takes up to two years in court before the place is vacant.  Because the house or apartment is still occupied, it is impossible for a prospective buyer to see the inside.  (Well, there is no way that I am going to buy a place sight unseen!!!)  Furthermore, the evicted residents often take everything that they can from the property, right down to the kitchen counters and bathroom toilets!  So, I immediately scrapped Plan B and went back to my original plan of buying the condo that I have been renting.

I am making progress on Plan A, and I will discuss that in my next post.