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Chronicle of the process of moving from USA to Mexico
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
The Xterra got purchased on Thursday of last week from a private owner in Mountain View. The car was found on craigslist. Today I was in the queue for about 1.5 hours at the DMV office waiting to get it registered - not so bad. When purchasing a vehicle you must register it within 10 days but the soonest that you can make an appointment is 2 weeks or more. Once I got to the counter it was a 2 minute procedure and a $923 check to complete the transaction. It looks pretty much like the photo of the silver one that I posted earlier except that it has the side body mouldings to protect the doors. It is a 6 cylinder model with four wheel drive and manual tranmission and has power windows, mirrors and remote door locks and cruise control (all of these are a first for me).
Last night I did some timeline planning for the move to Mexico.
Based on that plan we will jump in the Xterra along with MummaDog on or about June 21st and will arrive in Merida around the 1st or 2nd or July.
My next trip to Merida is tenatively planned for the week of March 15th.
Anybody want to buy a 1998 Ford F150?
Last night I did some timeline planning for the move to Mexico.
Based on that plan we will jump in the Xterra along with MummaDog on or about June 21st and will arrive in Merida around the 1st or 2nd or July.
My next trip to Merida is tenatively planned for the week of March 15th.
Anybody want to buy a 1998 Ford F150?
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Am trying to locate a good used Nissan Xterra as the travel to Mexico vehicle. If you know of such a vehicle, please let me know:
email: patrick@carnahan.com
Requirements:
email: patrick@carnahan.com
Requirements:
- Less than 50k miles.
- Known maintenance history - able to see records of oil changes and service..
- Light color-- White, Silver, Yellow or ?.
- Less power options is preferred but OK with power windows/locks, etc..
- Either a manual or automatic transmission is OK..
- Either 4wd or 2wd is OK. .
Last night the dissapointing news came in that the owners of the house on which I had made an offer had decided not to sell. Apparently there was not accord within the family over selling the home.
Meanwhile I am back to work and deeply positioned in DLL hell. After 1.5 days of trying to figure out why software worked on one machine but not the other I discovered that the most recent build release had been sent out with some .dll and .exe modules from about 3 months ago and the code had changed significantly in that time. There is no way that it could have worked but the failure symptoms were so weird that it was almost impossible to debug.
Am not sure as of right now when the next trip to Mexico will be. Perhaps March and if a house to purchase is not found then maybe a rental property can be locaqted to facilitate the move down and subsequent search for the right house. The house here in California cannot be put on the market until we have a place to go in Mexico.
Meanwhile I am looking for a used Nissan XTerra to replace the Ford F150. The XTerra seems like a good vehicle for the trip to Mexico and subsequent use down there.
Meanwhile I am back to work and deeply positioned in DLL hell. After 1.5 days of trying to figure out why software worked on one machine but not the other I discovered that the most recent build release had been sent out with some .dll and .exe modules from about 3 months ago and the code had changed significantly in that time. There is no way that it could have worked but the failure symptoms were so weird that it was almost impossible to debug.
Am not sure as of right now when the next trip to Mexico will be. Perhaps March and if a house to purchase is not found then maybe a rental property can be locaqted to facilitate the move down and subsequent search for the right house. The house here in California cannot be put on the market until we have a place to go in Mexico.
Meanwhile I am looking for a used Nissan XTerra to replace the Ford F150. The XTerra seems like a good vehicle for the trip to Mexico and subsequent use down there.
Friday, January 09, 2004
On my last night here I went down to the zocalo to see the flag lowering ceremony for the 3rd time. Each and every night at sunset a drum and bugle corp marches down Calle 63 into the full block park that is bordered by the cathedral built in the 1500s and the goverment palace and other historically signifcant buildings.
It is a beautiful ceremony and my eyes well up when I watch it.
The corp consists of 8 buglers, 6 drummers and the 6 other men who lower the flag. The ceremony lasts for perhaps 12 minutes.
As the sun sets the park is filled with people and thousands of birds arrive and fill the trees with their song.
The drums and bugles play as the corp marches in and proceeds to lower the flag. Many of the Mexican people place their hands in a salute position across their hearts as this happens.
Somehow I missed seeing this close up on previous visits. I think it will an event of which I will not grow tired. If and when you come to Merida, plan on being taken to see this.
It is a beautiful ceremony and my eyes well up when I watch it.
The corp consists of 8 buglers, 6 drummers and the 6 other men who lower the flag. The ceremony lasts for perhaps 12 minutes.
As the sun sets the park is filled with people and thousands of birds arrive and fill the trees with their song.
The drums and bugles play as the corp marches in and proceeds to lower the flag. Many of the Mexican people place their hands in a salute position across their hearts as this happens.
Somehow I missed seeing this close up on previous visits. I think it will an event of which I will not grow tired. If and when you come to Merida, plan on being taken to see this.
Today is my last day in the beautiful city of Merida.
At this time tomorrow I will be enroute to the george bush airport in amerika and then onto San Francisco. On Monday I will resume my normal life and drive 880 to Alameda to my trabajo of writing the arcane software codes that cause the automobiles to be assigned positions in big parking lots or on railroad cars and to be associated with booking documents.
On Tuesday we hope to hear that the offer on the Merida home has been accepted and then either Stan or I will be returning in about 5 weeks to close the deal. But anything could happen and things will take their course.
Adios.
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At this time tomorrow I will be enroute to the george bush airport in amerika and then onto San Francisco. On Monday I will resume my normal life and drive 880 to Alameda to my trabajo of writing the arcane software codes that cause the automobiles to be assigned positions in big parking lots or on railroad cars and to be associated with booking documents.
On Tuesday we hope to hear that the offer on the Merida home has been accepted and then either Stan or I will be returning in about 5 weeks to close the deal. But anything could happen and things will take their course.
Adios.
Thursday, January 08, 2004
At 12 noon today I was to get feedback on whether our offer on the Calle 30 property had been accepted. The family must concur and there is both a birthparty and wedding going on over the next few days at the house which is currently rented for events. Mexican people have their priorities. We now expect a response on Tuesday of next week after I return home to California. It sounds like signatures can be done via fax and there is no problem.
I found the bus for the neighborhood which is called Colonia Vicente Solis. The bus comes away from town on Calle 58 and then turns left on Calle 71 and then turns again on Calle 39 and then it rolls into the barrio and turns again on Calle 81. Manual who works at the B and B where I am staying told me to look for the autobus de rojo - the red bus with the name of the barrio written on the window. No problem.
The barrio is muy bueno.
Below are links to a few photographs.
Church Bells
Big neighborhood grocery
Internet / Video / Photocopy store
Nearby quick lunch comida restaurant
Jovens con perros en parque
Circle at center of barrio
Other jovens walking their dogs on leash
Baseball and Futbol (soccer) stadium
Nearby festive street
Zocalo of barrio
Nearby old church - maybe abandoned
Another nice nearby street
Stan and I are looking forward to good news on Tuesday.
I found the bus for the neighborhood which is called Colonia Vicente Solis. The bus comes away from town on Calle 58 and then turns left on Calle 71 and then turns again on Calle 39 and then it rolls into the barrio and turns again on Calle 81. Manual who works at the B and B where I am staying told me to look for the autobus de rojo - the red bus with the name of the barrio written on the window. No problem.
The barrio is muy bueno.
Below are links to a few photographs.
Church Bells
Big neighborhood grocery
Internet / Video / Photocopy store
Nearby quick lunch comida restaurant
Jovens con perros en parque
Circle at center of barrio
Other jovens walking their dogs on leash
Baseball and Futbol (soccer) stadium
Nearby festive street
Zocalo of barrio
Nearby old church - maybe abandoned
Another nice nearby street
Stan and I are looking forward to good news on Tuesday.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Well everything has changed again since the last post.
The house on Calle 78 is now a distant memory. I had placed an offer on the house. One which I think was too high in retrospect. I had gotten caught up in the frenzy of feeling I needed to make an immediate decision, the pressures of real estate people and probably the hot weather. I later had feelings that we were not ready for the magnitude of the restoration project and that the particular house was not special enough to warrant the effort and that the house might have been a sink hole for mucho pesos.
With much luck the offer had not been accepted by the expiration time of 12 noon yesterday (Tuesday) that I had put on the offer. Whew! At the stroke of 12 I felt great relief when nothing had arrived on the fax machine in the real estate office.
Plan B. Tonight I will make an offer on another property. It is a happy yellow house about a 35 minute walk or quick and easy bus ride to the center of Merida. I feel no hesitation about this. It is priced well, is completely liveable but still has lots of opportunity for improvements. It also has a big swimming pool that will be important to relieve the stresses of the hot weather. The house has a driveway and fences all around. When we drive from the USA to Mexico we will be able to pull into the driveway, move in and live confortably without any need for immediate action to bring the house online.
We will probably be the only gringos in the neighborhood. It will be fun and interesting.
Here is the Realator Listing for the house (again).
There is a bakery almost across the street where we can get our fresh pastries and such each morning. There is also a small business district a very short distance away which has a hardware store and other businesses.
Below are a few links to pictures that I took while inspecting the property.
Bakery nearby
Good fence all the way around good size lot
Kitchen
Back door of house with car on parked on patio
Swimming pool
2nd smaller pation where we will eat mostly outside
Changing room for men and women (2 sides) which will become nice bathroom and laundry
The house is currently rented for parties, hence the changing rooms. The pool is filled from the well. The house appears to have good infrastruture -- plumbing, 220 volt electric, etc.
The family that currently lives there is building a new house in the same neighborhood.
Tonight (Wednesday) at 8.30 pm local time I will be making an offer on the house and I think it will be accepted.
Yipee! Things seem to be working out even though there were a few days that were pretty stressful.
If the offer is accepted I will then meet with the attorney on Thursday or Friday to begin the process of setting up the fideicomiso.
The house on Calle 78 is now a distant memory. I had placed an offer on the house. One which I think was too high in retrospect. I had gotten caught up in the frenzy of feeling I needed to make an immediate decision, the pressures of real estate people and probably the hot weather. I later had feelings that we were not ready for the magnitude of the restoration project and that the particular house was not special enough to warrant the effort and that the house might have been a sink hole for mucho pesos.
With much luck the offer had not been accepted by the expiration time of 12 noon yesterday (Tuesday) that I had put on the offer. Whew! At the stroke of 12 I felt great relief when nothing had arrived on the fax machine in the real estate office.
Plan B. Tonight I will make an offer on another property. It is a happy yellow house about a 35 minute walk or quick and easy bus ride to the center of Merida. I feel no hesitation about this. It is priced well, is completely liveable but still has lots of opportunity for improvements. It also has a big swimming pool that will be important to relieve the stresses of the hot weather. The house has a driveway and fences all around. When we drive from the USA to Mexico we will be able to pull into the driveway, move in and live confortably without any need for immediate action to bring the house online.
We will probably be the only gringos in the neighborhood. It will be fun and interesting.
Here is the Realator Listing for the house (again).
There is a bakery almost across the street where we can get our fresh pastries and such each morning. There is also a small business district a very short distance away which has a hardware store and other businesses.
Below are a few links to pictures that I took while inspecting the property.
Bakery nearby
Good fence all the way around good size lot
Kitchen
Back door of house with car on parked on patio
Swimming pool
2nd smaller pation where we will eat mostly outside
Changing room for men and women (2 sides) which will become nice bathroom and laundry
The house is currently rented for parties, hence the changing rooms. The pool is filled from the well. The house appears to have good infrastruture -- plumbing, 220 volt electric, etc.
The family that currently lives there is building a new house in the same neighborhood.
Tonight (Wednesday) at 8.30 pm local time I will be making an offer on the house and I think it will be accepted.
Yipee! Things seem to be working out even though there were a few days that were pretty stressful.
If the offer is accepted I will then meet with the attorney on Thursday or Friday to begin the process of setting up the fideicomiso.
Monday, January 05, 2004
Well things have a way a changing quickly...
The house for which I was so disappointed to have missed appeared to have been available after all.
I have made an offer on it. The offer expires at noon tomorrow. The real estate office people think it will be accepted.
Here are links to some more pictures.
Front of house
Shed in back yard
Gutter system
Backyard Jungle
Back of house
One of two roof tanks
Kitchen in need of complete redo
Living room doors
View thru doors
More door views
Nice tile thru most of house
More doors
More doors
Living room
One of 2 front doors
Bad picture of garage from room behind
The house for which I was so disappointed to have missed appeared to have been available after all.
I have made an offer on it. The offer expires at noon tomorrow. The real estate office people think it will be accepted.
Here are links to some more pictures.
Front of house
Shed in back yard
Gutter system
Backyard Jungle
Back of house
One of two roof tanks
Kitchen in need of complete redo
Living room doors
View thru doors
More door views
Nice tile thru most of house
More doors
More doors
Living room
One of 2 front doors
Bad picture of garage from room behind
Thursday, January 01, 2004
¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
Things are going better today. I have checked into my favorite place to stay which is Casa San Juan and took a long afternoon nap in my room with the 18 foot ceiling. It is a much shorter distance to the city square and there are many places nearby to acquire food and drink and enjoy the action of centro. Often there is no one else in the house and one gets a sense of joy from being in a large and beautiful colonial home by themselves. Other times there are international travellers to share stories and drink coffee with.
Es muy bueno.
I have also found a better Internet Cafe. It is upstairs in the 24 hour coffee shop that is just a block away from the Zocalo. It is less expensive (15 pesos per hour or about $1.25 USD) and the equipment is better, especially the keyboards where I can now find the @ and / keys.
I am trying to contact the realtor who has a propery listed that looks quite interesting. About 2 months ago a friend who lives here in Merida sent an email and said that he thought it might be what Stan and I might be looking for. From the pictures it did not look like what I was thinking but when I visited Bud yesterday he encouraged me to go have a look and that is what I am going to do.
Below is a link to the description of that house.
Clean Colonial
Things are going better today. I have checked into my favorite place to stay which is Casa San Juan and took a long afternoon nap in my room with the 18 foot ceiling. It is a much shorter distance to the city square and there are many places nearby to acquire food and drink and enjoy the action of centro. Often there is no one else in the house and one gets a sense of joy from being in a large and beautiful colonial home by themselves. Other times there are international travellers to share stories and drink coffee with.
Es muy bueno.
I have also found a better Internet Cafe. It is upstairs in the 24 hour coffee shop that is just a block away from the Zocalo. It is less expensive (15 pesos per hour or about $1.25 USD) and the equipment is better, especially the keyboards where I can now find the @ and / keys.
I am trying to contact the realtor who has a propery listed that looks quite interesting. About 2 months ago a friend who lives here in Merida sent an email and said that he thought it might be what Stan and I might be looking for. From the pictures it did not look like what I was thinking but when I visited Bud yesterday he encouraged me to go have a look and that is what I am going to do.
Below is a link to the description of that house.
Clean Colonial
