Sometimes with this kind of arrangement jobs can stretch out longer than anticipated. As workers sense the end of the job coming up, they have a tendency to slow down a bit to put off the inevitable. But a good architect can keep this to a minimum.

We paid the going rate for materials, with the architect getting all the bulk and contractor discounts he could. The architect’s management fee was 2,000 pesos a week ($180). The head of the construction crew earned 240 pesos ($21.50) a day, and the helpers earned 150 pesos ($13.40) a day each.

Work—and our first surprise—came quickly. It seems that ceramic tile doesn’t just pop off the floor when you try to remove it. To do the job right, the tile and as much of the old mortar as possible, needs to come out before the new tile is put down. It was one of the loudest, dustiest, and most time-consuming parts of the entire process. And we planned to completely remove the old tile from two bedrooms, a bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen.

In both bedrooms, there were permanent concrete bed platforms we wanted removed along with the old tile. These are a common feature in many Mexican houses—handy for having overnight guests since, in much of Latin America, guests bring their own bedding. Foam pads that fold or roll up are common and inexpensive, and when family comes to visit, they simply roll out their pads and bed down on the handiest platform. 

The platforms have a certain appeal, since you always have a place for overnight guests without having to store and wash extra linens. And you never have to sweep under them, because there is nothing under them. But it’s still like sleeping on the floor. And they limit your options if you feel like rearranging the room. So out they came.

Fun With Kitchens

We wanted a big, modern kitchen, as we like to cook. The kitchen in our house was tiny, with only the most rudimentary space for a stove and a sink.

But…there was a storage room directly behind the kitchen, so we removed the dividing wall. The result: a much larger space. We extended the counter space and added a center island. The island, the counters, and even the newly positioned double sink are made of concrete, mixed and poured on site.

Work progressed nicely. We added a few more projects. Then came our second surprise. We wanted the bed platform in the second-floor bedroom removed, but we hadn’t planned on replacing the floor tile there. We planned to fill the resulting hole with tile that was a close match to the rest of the room and then put our own bed over it.

As we said, however, these platforms are solid brick and plaster, so when this one was removed, it relieved the floor of so much weight that it actually sprung up a centimeter or two. This wasn’t a structural problem, but it did crack or loosen the floor tile in the room, instantly adding another complete floor replacement to our list.

Home Sweet Home - Eventually

We finally reached a point where the painter could come in to paint walls and trim. He also used an acid stain to color the polished cement countertop surfaces in the kitchen—a beautiful reddish brown.

Our painter custom mixed his colors on site using powdered pigments that he added to a liquid base until he matched our ideas…which produced one or two odd results. Sometimes getting what you want can be a dangerous thing.

However, as with most workers here, when we changed our minds and had them redo things, they didn’t even blink. We realized at one point that we’d been wrong about where we wanted a dividing wall in the kitchen, and the same guy who’d spent the previous day putting it up simply took it apart again, brick by brick. Work is work.

Finally, just two months past our original deadline, we realized that the hammering had stopped, the paint was dry, the dust had settled, and we had a really nice place to live.

Are there things we would have done differently? Absolutely. And we will the next time. This won’t be our last house in Mexico. We’ve been in this house less than a year, and we figure that our improvements and the fast-appreciating market here have increased the value of our investment at least 50% already.

The following is the first article Dan and Suzan wrote for the magazine:

• Taking Our Own Advice ~ Why We’ve Put Down Roots In San Miguel de Allende