“Hello? Bueno?” I answer my phone with my usual trepidation… I’m very nervous to take phone calls from numbers I don’t recognize… as I’m never sure if I’m going to get another opportunity to stumble all over myself, tongue tied and unable to understand the person on the other end of the line. I answer anyways and I’m not disappointed… a stream of Spanish enters my ear and I’m straining to understand… I ask if he speaks English – “Hablas Ingles?” Nope, no such luck. The fact that I don’t speak much Spanish doesn’t seem to register and so he keeps chatting away and really all I hear that I’m “sure” I understand is my name, our address, the word “architect” and “pagado dos mil pesos” (pay 2000 pesos). I immediately start to steam…they want me to pay the architect for the repairs?!?   How DARE they try to get any money out of us for the damage THEY caused during the construction of the house next door… I am NOT having this (very one-sided) conversation about paying – this needs to go through the landlord… so perhaps it is a good thing he understands none of my English tirade as I search for the landlord’s number – like hell I’m paying a cent to these idiots – they can answer to the landlord. So I find the number and clearly recite the numbers in Spanish and say (I’m sure without any grammatical accuracy),  “telefono esta numero para dos mil pesos” (telephone this number for 2000 pesos). I hang up so furious and frustrated.

The nightmare that has been the construction of the house next door has been months in the making. A photo is worth a thousand words… check out how closely they are building and just how HUGE this place is – it dwarfs our more than ample house (the “little” yellow one to the right!).

During those first few months when we worked so hard to secure the house, there were just a few piles of bricks on the empty lot beside us. Once we moved in, there were two weeks of blissful silence and lovely views and then it all started. And we are told there will be 3-4 more months to completion – but let’s be real, in Mexican time, about another 6-8 months more. Just managing expectations for myself. So far, we have had 3 bikes stolen from our back porch – the boot marks on the 15 foot cement wall that surrounds our yard gave the workers who we believe stole them away… it would appear that they scaled the wall and took the bikes out the back of the property that leads to a federal natural reserve. Because each employee that enters the colony is searched before they are permitted to leave at the end of the day, we know they could not have taken the bikes out the main gate. A meeting of the colony security, the landlord, the company security followed – the landlord was very frustrated that he pays good money for “ineffective security.” From this conversation the addition of increased security in the yard, including electric fencing and cameras, was agreed to. It’s a little weird having a camera monitor mounted in the kitchen. I really resisted having it on all the time – I don’t wish to become any more paranoid about safety than I already am. It simply keeps a running 30 day video feed of the perimeter of the house in case we need to reference it if other mischief occurs. The Company has specific rules about employee safety.

Funny thing happened the day after we returned from summer – more than 2 months since the bikes disappeared – A knock came at the door. We open it and find two of the workers from the construction site standing there with one of our bikes. We figure they were unable to sell it, and so returned it – it was in terrible shape, the tires finished, the rims bent. Is it possible it was an act of goodwill, for all the hassle they’ve caused us? Is that my naive Canadian wishful, hopeful thinking surfacing?

…and our house woes continue…we also found, upon our return from summer, a huge crack in the wall in the dining room and a very significant puddle on the floor. We did a walk-thru of the house to see if any other damage, and found all the walls on the construction-side of the house cracked in numerous places. So another call to the landlord, and two weeks of daily repairs later, everything has been reinforced. The dishes still rattle daily in the cupboards when drilling and digging and hammering are consistently happening on the other side – we tease that one day we will open the cupboard for a plate and there will be a worker staring back at us. The house next door is being constructed so close to ours, I’m sure not more than an inch separates the two walls, (as per photographic evidence at top) so we hear the hammering and drilling and singing loud and clear – there is one worker who sings while he works – at the top of his lungs – really big, operatic performances of Spanish tunes playing on the radio…and if you can get past being stared at as you come and go from your house, and if you can deal with the literal headaches from all the hammering and drilling, the constant rattling of your dishes and the stench from the porta-potty right outside your front door that is never emptied, it is kind of endearing.

I am still stewing from the phone conversation moments ago, thinking back on one hassle after another related to this house and that house being built beside it, and the nerve the architect has to ask for payment for their mistakes, when I glance up at the clock. 12:15… hmmmm… I wonder…. oh no! I was expecting a courier to pick up the deposit we were putting down on a sailboat rental at Valle de Bravo for the Independence Day long weekend at 12:30… Oh dear… could it be?  Now I wonder if maybe that phone call was the courier confirming that he was coming to pick up the money… which happened to be for 2000 pesos… oh no!!!  And could it be that he was simply confirming my name and address and that the word I heard as “architect” wasn’t actually that word… they do speak so damn fast… and now I realize that I’ve sent the courier who is coming to pick up the deposit for a sailboat for our family holiday to the landlord to collect…. OMG!!! I’m beside myself; I’m laughing so hard the dog has taken cover in her bed… can and can’t quite believe I’ve done this… my language blunder is going to require a bit of damage control…

First I must get the courier to come back and then I’ll deal with the landlord…

I’ve been texting back and forth with the man whose boat we are renting – Mansell made our first contact via email, collecting details, including asking for his banking information to e-transfer the payment… when the response to this request was simply and literally, “No Way Jose,” Mansell then deferred to us. We sent the next email to explain and ask how he would prefer payment be handled as we were really interested in sailing when in Valle and didn’t want to lose the boat, having no idea how much in demand it might be…and then he revealed that he thought it was a scam we were running! Lol!…

So I text him and try to explain that I think I just refused his courier and sent him to my landlord to collect!!  He phones me and we have a good laugh about it and he assures me it will be fine…he will be in touch with his courier, whose habit it actually is to call ahead before arriving (oops!!)…

Turns out the courier’s call to the landlord was never answered…

Whew!!…I didn’t have any “splaining” to do this time!!   🙂