Hot water heater showerhead!
For the hot water there are a variety of ways you can do that here. There is a reason why houses in the tropics don’t have hot water. Houses here in the Caribbean tropics of Rincon/Puerto Rico do not need a furnace so there is no central heating components (or any natural gas bills) but along with that means there is usually no huge water heater hooked in. So you can get an instant-on, a solar water heater, or if you just want a warm-ish shower, then you can get an electric water heater that attaches to the shower head and plugs in to the wall. While not the “best” per se, it is definitely the easiest for a do-it-yourselfer like us.   Britton can tell a little more about the shower water heater, but all I know is that it is SOOO much better than “YIKES! It is so cold in here” and just splashing water on you to avoid the complete chill-down. When we were here last summer it wasn’t so bad to be without hot shower water because everything was a lot hotter, but here in the winter it cools down to the low 70s at night with a slight chill in the air making it not so welcoming to jump into water that is nearly 30 degrees colder than your own body temperature.

We also set about getting water to the sink in the kitchenette of the cabana. We were surprised that there wasn’t water already hooked up when we bought the place since there was a sink and cabinets. So we contacted a plumber (Julio) who had been recommended to us by a real estate agent here. I can see why he recommended him. He and his wife were on time, friendly, gave us an estimate and stuck to that estimate, was a steady worker and spoke English (and Spanish) and even gave us a receipt! When we noticed a small leak, he came right back and fixed the problem. Service with a smile.

Here’s under the sink area before (with a hole drilled)

Julio and his wife working outside

If we had tools and knowledge of how to work with concrete we might be tempted to try and do this ourselves, but as we don’t it was nice having some professional help. Plus it took all day long -from 9am to 4pm- for the expert to do this work, so we don’t even want to guess what it would have taken us (Britton). While it cost us money, it is an investment in the property. We also found out while he was back there working in the concrete that it is plumbed for a solar water heater so we may install one in the future. Then instead of just the shower having hot water, so would the bathroom and kitchenette sink. But as it is now, we are happy to have running water in general!!

We love running water!! The finished product

Because this is post-construction, the pipes are exposed, but it is the back of the house and not visible unless you actually go back there.  He had to hammer drill (is that the right tool name?) through the concrete in order to tie into the pipes from the bathroom and then connect the outgoing water to the main pipe. (I am not a plumber, so I am not sure if that is the right jargon, but you get the idea.) As you can see, the piping doesn’t need to be buried because it never freezes here. All those little things we’re not used to in Colorado

Under the sink now

Early this morning -lots of drooping sad trees -even our peach tree!!

This year followed the tradition, but just a few days early. We went from 80 degrees on Monday to low 30s. And here in Greeley it wasn’t just a light dusting of snow either. They are saying close to a foot or possibly more has fallen since last night when it changed from rain to snow. All through the night our power was going off and on and woke us up about 4 times. When we looked outside by 4am everything was glowing from the white sheet that lay across the ground, trees and houses.

The snow is as tall as Schnoodle

School District 6 is closed as is UNC and some other institutions had delays, but not my work; I had to roll out of our nice warm bed (with our flannel sheets and down comforter) and into the cold white world. The trees were all drooping from the weight of the snow on their still-leafed limbs and there were quite a few broken branches littering the roads.

The young chickens don’t know what to do in the snow and Kitty got to sleep inside last night (he is usually a mostly-outdoor cat).  Schnoodle also got to stay inside during the day for the first time since her bloody incident. But she did venture out for a little while…

What I was really worried about though, was our poor Lil Big Apple trees. It was as if they were no longer there!

That little blip in front of the rose bush is supposed to be our apple tree!

So I went over to uncover them…Sorry the video is so crazy. I was trying to film while at the same time shoveling myself a path from one tree to the other.

We’ve thought about what that number would be, and we’ve determined that unless Britton is able to take his work remote with him that we would need to have a pretty decent income -at least as much as from one of our jobs- from the rentals. Right now, the rentals are more like a hobby business, which is fine and a great starting place, but if we want to go out on a wild limb like living full-time in Puerto Rico, we sort of want a net of some kind. And to do that we need more funds. And more funds means more properties (or fewer expenses related to our current properties).

Newest House Offer

So we decided to put in another offer on a rental property. It’s a short sale, which usually means it’s a long shot and a long time to hear back from the bank. But if it goes through, we would be happy; the numbers work and we could make a decent return on it. We would be getting it for roughly half what is owed on it. It doesn’t need a ton of work and we would live there if we had to (one of our qualifications for which houses to buy).

It’s funny how something as big as buying a house can become second nature after you’ve done it a few times. We’re definitely getting better and learning as we go. However, this short-sale thing is a first for us.  Let’s hope it goes through so we can make our next move across the board game of life!

Recruiting for the cooking class at Milliken’s Beef and Bean Day

Even before this new assignment at work, I’ve always been interested in nutrition and good food. But I’ve never been much for the cooking side of things. Eventhough I know that people who cook more at home tend to be healthier than those who eat out, I still just never got that into cooking.I love to eat good, whole, homemade, delicious and nutritious food, but always thought of cooking as a pain and only something Britton and I had time to do on the weekends. The work week usually meant (and sometimes still means) a quick throw-together of pasta or rice, frozen vegetables and fish or chicken.

It is still hard to fit in time to cook, but ever since I have been coordinating and collaborating to help facilitate a program called “Cooking Matters” in Milliken I’ve been intrigued with trying a few new things. In Cooking Matters we have a nutrition professor from CSU (Fort Collins) as well as another health educator helping to teach the course which is primarily geared at the underserved populations.

Everyone always has their usual bag of tricks when it comes to preparing food (like our evening throw-togethers), so a healthy cooking class helps to open your eyes to the wonders of all sorts of foods.

Cumin-Would be nice to grow in the garden -I wonder if it would do well in PR

In fact, I think I’ve found my new favorite spice: cumin! I’ve never even paid much attention to it until in the class we made hummus -which is just basically pureed garbanzo beans, garlic, salt and cumin -so easy! And the cumin makes all the difference! It is also what makes Mexican food so delicious. Not only that, but this spice, like many spices boasts health benefits as well such as being a good source of iron, helping with digestion, and even cancer prevention!

Anyhow, we had a bout of cold, rainy weather this week and weekend, so for fun, we stayed in and cooked up a bunch of food. Some of these included:

Hummus with pita chips
Pearl Barley and vegetable chicken soup
Chai tea
Enchilada lasagna -slice up whole grain tortillas into strips about the size of lasagna noodles -do not cook! In a cooking pan sautee chicken, add enchilada sauce, can of tomatoes, lots of spices like cumin and oregano, sliced bell peppers (and jalapenos if you like it hot), black olives, etc. Put this mixture on top of the strips of tortillas in a large dish (13×9) and layer as you would lasagna. Add shredded cheese and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Uncover for another ten if you like the cheese browned. Let sit for a bit. Add fat free greek yogurt or sour cream if desired on top.
Apple Crisp -Made with about 5 fresh apples with the skin still on sliced to about an 1/8 inch. Pumpkin pie spices (ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon), brown sugar and a tiny bit of flour. For the topping (the crisp): A little butter, brown sugar, quick oats, flour and more spices mixed together and put on top. Then bake in the  350 degree oven for about 30-45 minutes.

Slice of Carrot Cake!

Betty Crocker’s Homemade Carrot Cake -Made with 3 cups or about 8 freshly grated carrots and applesauce in a 1 to 1 complete exchange of the oil and decreased the sugar from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups. Also added nutmeg, ginger, and cloves in addition to the cinnamon that was called for. Added chopped walnuts. And made the cream cheese frosting Betty Crocker called for (but made with lower fat neufchatel cheese). This was SOO good. And not too terrible nutrition wise!

Yum! Lasagna

Then last night we cooked up traditional lasagana only we used ground turkey in place of beef and added a lot of vegetables.

Cooking is still a pain with all the prep work of chopping and dicing, recipe reading and substituting and of course the cleaning up afterward, but the results are sooo delicious and so much better than any pre-processed options out there.

So while I started out as the reluctant coordinator of this cooking class, I am definitely turning into a convert! Plus I’ve been able to meet all sorts of nice people in the class as well. I would suggest to anyone who has “food issues” -like being overweight, picky, or a fast-food fiend that the best help is a cooking class! Very practical and fun! You control what is in your food and therefore what goes into your body. It is a freeing feeling. Cooking matters! It really does!

We hope everything is ok with it after Hurricane Irene slid past. We have no idea what three months in the rainy season of the tropics could produce by way of plant growth or if there is a (new) leak in the roof or any other number of things. The good thing is that it is so far away that there is really not much that we can do about it anyway…

Thanks to the Kruses for stopping by from time to time to check on the place and make sure it is still standing.

Now we are thinking when we should go down again. Probably sometime during the wintry months…Over the holidays when we have lots of days off work, perhaps? Over Britton’s birthday which is in the middle of January? In the midst of the worst month: February? Quizas.

The house/property

Having the curse/blessing of efficiency and productivity even when at rest or on vacation we’re also starting to plan what we want to accomplish with the property while we are there next. I think we’ll at least finish the studio cabana but probably also start cleaning out the wooden house. Maybe even get rid of the rest of the bees since they only had enough time to take one of the four colonies when we were there last. 

The other reason I’ve been thinking of Puerto Rico is I’ve started reading Esmeralda Santiago’s newest book Conquistadora which is all about Puerto Rico in the mid 1800′s. I read When I was Puerto Rican and loved it and this newest one, while a fictional novel and not a memoir is also pulling me in. It is so rich with detail and a great story of a Spanish woman named Ana’s desire to make a life in Puerto Rico as her ancestor conquistadors did. So of course it makes me miss la Isla del Encanto. When I finish the book, I’ll write a short review here, but so far it’s really enthralling!

We’ve also been thinking of when we want to make our permanent jump across the pond to move to and live in Rincon. I think we’ve decided that we want to pay off one more rental property and save up a nice round number of dollars- the amount dependent on what we want to do with the property. We figure this will take less than 2 years.  Or if Britton manages to take his job because of an expansion in his company to Puerto Rico it might be even sooner! All in all we are still thinking of Puerto Rico as much as ever, just the type of thoughts have changed from if  and can we to when and how!

On our wedding day 6 years ago

I guess we are people who don’t just stand still. Even on our wedding day we were hauling things around and fixing stuff. I was almost late to my own wedding! So it’s only fitting. Last year we were painting a rental house, and this year we were back there again preparing it for new tenants. Lately it’s been a little overwhelming but we keep reminding ourselves that whatever drama we are experiencing is because we wanted whatever it is that is causing it. Remember that! We bring all that we have -better or worse- into our lives. If it gets too much we can always let it go, but until then…we’ll enjoy the chaos.

Things are already looking up. We think we’ve found new tenants for one of the properties and the other one is just about ready to be posted for rent. It’s also important to put our stress into perspective. Last year I was just about to lose my dad. So losing a few weeks rent, working hard, long hours and looking for new tenants is nothing by comparison. Life is about learning lessons and sharing lots of love. I think we’re getting our fair share of both

There is a certain quality (dare I say potential) about it that  makes it hard to take down

This would probably save us $120,000 and 2-3 years of time if we didn’t have to tear down/construct anew. We could have a maximum budget of approximately $30,000 and do the following in order of importance:

-New roof -est. $5,000
-New decking -est. $4,000
-Build another bathroom/laundry room that connects to the side deck so that we would have a main floor bathroom -est. $4,000
-Build a master bath in the upstairs bedroom -est $4,000
-Put in mold resistant drywall -est. $2,000 installed
-Remodel the kitchen with new fixtures etc -$4,000
-Install hurricane resistant picture window to provide ocean view from upper/master bedroom – $1500
-Paint exterior/interior -$1500
-Refinish existing wood floors -$1500
-Completely remove the outside bathroom that is located on the oceanside deck -$500

Total: Appx $28,000 =Pretty good! -These numbers have some cushion built in, but that’s always good to have when planning a remodel/constructing anywhere let alone somewhere that we are unfamiliar with.

Then at some point after we were living there we could also enclose or make a living area out of the lower part that is currently being used as parking under the house as well.

View of the house from the road

I think with this budget we could get it to look pretty sharp and feel much more open/inviting. It’s not a huge house so it would be fairly “easy” to do. I suppose all of our rental remodels make it seem somewhat less daunting than it would be for most anyone else.

We would still like to fix up the existing cabana and build 2-3 other cabanas that we could rent out to tourists or locals. And then possibly build a pool or do other projects. I think the pool we would do after we were living there though.

I am really happy that we have bought the property. So many new opportunities start opening up in front of us. It’s a really cool feeling.

Here are a couple of videos of both the houses on the property. It kind of gives you a better feeling for the layout of the land and structures as they currently stand. Enjoy!