January 2009 - The condo was up for sale and attracting some interest. This meant we should get our butts in gear and find a house that would be suitable for a bed and breakfast. We called our friend and exclusive realtor, William Michael from Vallarta Escapes. He knew what we wanted and set about to see what he could find in a reasonable price range that would meet our needs.
It was about a week later that he some houses to show us. So off we went with the typical excitement you have when you are looking for a new house. We were stoked!
Well we came down from that pretty fast. Our problem was we were not really sure where we wanted to live. We thought we wanted to live in Puerto Vallarta so that is where the houses that he had for us to see were located. The first house was located back behind Fluvial which is a new district. It was nice house but it was a little far away from all the tourist amenities which was going to be a problem. That and there was just not enough room for a pool which had become a must have for me.
[caption id="attachment_330" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sometimes pool's come in a variety of colours!"]
[/caption]After the first day of looking Heather and I decided that we needed to make up our mind where we want to live. Puerto Vallarta, Bucerias, Nuevo Vallarta, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Sayulita? There were many choices so we started driving out to various areas just to try to get a feel for everything that they each had to offer.
Bucerias is a nice town. It has all the services you would want and a great beach. Ok, lets look there.
La Cruz de Huanacaxtle was small fishing village that had started to grow up with large condo projects and had an interesting feel to it. We thought we could look there too.
Nuevo Vallarta was a planned residential tourist community that gave us a Beverly Hills feel when we drove into. We decided that we can look there but we were not sure about it.
Sayulita is a great town. To me it had a sixties California feel to it. A surfing beach, great waves that still allow you to swim. It's drawback was it was on the other side of the mountain. We will think about it but it was just too far out for me.
That left us Puerto Vallarta. The reason we moved here. We loved the town. Friendly people, all the services. It is great.
After all the discussion between to the two us we told William Michael our preferences. He did his best to come up with something that would meet our needs and make us happy.
The next house was a 3 storey affair next to the Rio Cuale in Old Town. It was a nice place. Currently being operated as a small hotel and doing reasonably well. The rooms all had some kitchen facilities, they were comfortable and the house had a great view but there was just no room for a pool. We decided to keep it in mind but I really wanted a pool.
[caption id="attachment_331" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Shade and sun at the same time!"]
[/caption]There were many that day, some worth looking at, some not so much. Some out of our price league but fun to look at anyhow.
The next day we went out we went to see a house in Bucerias which we quite liked but again there was just no room for a pool. The other thing we found odd about Bucerias is that most of the houses were two bedrooms. At least those were the ones which were for sale.
From there we went to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle where there were two houses to see. One was definitely a fixer upper according to William Micheal. We walked into the house which was a one storey and it had the oddest feature. A knee-high rock built into the floor. WTF? No one could tell us why it was there. The house was being lived in at the time. It was not finished. No bedroom doors or jambs, just curtains. They had not sprayed the house for bugs in a while as we were stepping over cockroaches to get into the house. It was when we walked into the kitchen that William Michael calmly told us to step to the right as there was one coming right for us. We both take direction well so we did and watch it stroll on by.
From there we went to a house which was actually set up for and being run as a bed and breakfast. It was a nice place but was located across the street from the Sonic Gas propane station which played a whistle and shouted gas every few minutes. We liked the house but not the location.
After 3 months of frustration of trying to find a house & setting up a pre-approved mortgage we were getting a little jaded. It was a that point that William Michael reminded us that we had yet to look in Nuevo Vallarta. Ok, let's go see what Beverly Hills south has to offer.
Nice houses, that is what it has to offer. Every house we looked at was gorgeous. Immaculately kept, nice grounds. They were beautiful. Unfortunately they also had a nice price tag to go along with all that great stuff. We were not going to denied though. After 5 months in Puerto Vallarta we thought that living out in Nuevo might not be that bad. It will be quiet and it really is not that far out from town.
It was then that he took us to what would become Casa Madera. Wow. It was perfect! 3 bedrooms downstairs with their own doors and livable space on the second floor for us. A pool! A nice size pool and a hot tub! Man how could we be so lucky! And at a great price too.
However, we were still not sold on Nuevo Vallarta so we did not do anything that day. We did talk about the house a lot though. So we talked to our mortgage broker to make sure it would fit into our budget and he discussed it with the bank. After a few days he came back and said that yes it would work.
We let it sit for a while because we were not going to rush into this one. We did once already and were let down. A couple of weeks went by and we decided we needed to look at it again.
The second viewing was not as good. We then saw all the warts that the house had. It needed a lot of work. The bedrooms were going to have to be gutted. The palapa over the garage was shot as was the one just outside of the kitchen. And the kitchen, crap it was awful. Well, now we are going to have to rethink this.
[caption id="attachment_332" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I have a screwdriver, we can fix it!"]
[/caption]Again we discussed and discussed. Can we do the repairs that it needs within a reasonable budget amount. Especially since we are such handy kind of people. Eventually it came down to one thing. It was a perfect house for what we wanted to do.
So we jumped with both feet. And then the fun began.....
[caption id="attachment_333" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Just think Steve Austin, you can rebuild it! Hopefully it won't cost you 6 million"]
[/caption]
No comments:
Post a Comment