We arrived at the Notaria where we were met by our real estate agent, the owner of the house, and a translator who is in charge of reading every word of about a four page document in both Spanish and English. It was very straightforward, and only a couple minor details needed correcting before signatures were scribbled and the deal was done. All in all the process of buying a house down here is very simple. Money was all transferred through an escrow agency with offices in both Mexico and the U.S. Exchange rates through Schwab are within a tenth of one percent of the market rate, so that’s not really an issue, either. It’ll be a few weeks before we get our official title, and then that’s that. Utility bills are a few bucks a month (all are available online and take a few seconds to pay), property taxes are about $500/yr (pay in January and get 15% off), and that’s really all there is to it. Time to start moving in.

The home’s previous owner and his friend were convinced I was a baseball player. I get that one every so often. Must be the ever-present baseball cap. I’m always sorry to disappoint them with the truth. Lately I’ve been getting a lot of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, too. Those people are always super disappointed when they realize.

The walk between our rental and the new house is a pleasant one. Both are on opposite ends of the same neighborhood. San Miguel is made up of a number of different neighborhoods. We’re in San Antonio, and about a twenty minute stroll to the center of town, the Parroquia.

My mom asked me one day if there are any trees. I’m like, “Mom, they actually build around the trees here.” You see this sort of thing all over the place. Big old trees coming right up out of the middle of the street. Obviously, the trees were there first.

You never know what’s behind a wall, but a good majority of homes have some sort of courtyard, so just about everywhere you look there is a tree seemingly sprouting out of a home.

We aren’t great shoppers, but we eventually settled on a washer and dryer. It was only two weeks later, after it had been delivered and was sitting in our laundry room that it occurred to us that the dryer was gas, not electric. We should have known. It’s pretty obvious that this house never had a dryer before, and of course it wouldn’t have a 30amp power outlet even if it did. A few weeks later the dryer would still be sitting there unused, and Ali would be saying, “We really don’t even need it. It’s sunny every day.”

More strolling about town.

There’s really not a lot to do but clean. We have nothing to move in. We ordered mattresses which will be here before we move in, and went out and bought a single couch which won’t be here for another week. Appliances are ordered, but they’ll be two weeks. So one step at a time.

This was our one attempt at a family moving in picture.

I try not to take advantage of Ouest’s translator skills, but in appliance negotiations, she’s crucial.

There are a handful or rooftops and patios around the house. The water tank is the highest point, though. I never quite understood how these systems worked until now. A nice big solar water heater will go up here next to the water tank, but that’s about it for this particular rooftop. Ramone, the neighbors big dog, who lives on their roof, doesn’t like it much when we go up here and hover over him.

Fancy plumbing system. When I say the plumbing and electrical are much more basic on this house than they are in a boat, I’m not kidding.

It didn’t take us too long to realize that if we didn’t seal the floor tiles we were going to have perpetually black-bottomed feet.

When a perfectly good palm frond falls to the ground you put it to use.

While technically we could cook a meal at the rental house, what would be the point?

This is a popular Moroccan restaurant that opens a few nights a week. Out on the steps on the side of the building is a tiny little grill for whipping up kabobs.

Nighttime view from the third floor balcony. On this night I was carrying a couple pieces of luggage to the house. The next day we’d make two Uber rides with the last of our stuff, at which point we’d officially be in our new home.