Update On Our House Build In Mexico

Things are moving! The bones of the house are coming together. I find it pretty amazing to go up to our property every day and see the progress. Every day it looks more and more like our house. The one that Eben and I designed sitting at our kitchen table.

How the Plan Changed

Originally we thought Eben would be here for the entire build. Working side by side with our contractor, he’d be getting his hands dirty, saving us money, and directing the build. However, building a house takes money. About a month into the build, when some job offers popped up for Eben, we decided it would be smarter for him to go make some money while our contractor took charge of our build.

He’d be away working, but I would be his eyes.

I go up to the property every day, take pictures and videos, and he supervises the build that way. Because although I am there physically, I just don’t see things the way he does. He has that mathematical brain that can look at the videos I send him and respond, “that window isn’t at the height in the architectural plans”, or “that electrical tubing should be running here not there”, etc.

It’s Been A Learning Experience

I think it’s pretty common around here, but this is our first build and we are learning in the process, that if you the owner are not at the build site all day every day, mistakes will be made.

Our build is no exception.

Even with me going up to the site every day, sometimes I will get up there and Eben will notice something in the videos/pics that was built/dug/ran run.

Don’t get me wrong, we love our contractor and his team. They are very qualified and we trust in their capabilities. It’s just sometimes things are not built to our standards, or what we’re used to seeing in Canada, or not fully done like in our building plans.

In those instances Eben and I have had to make the decision, “Is this something we let slide? Is their reasoning for doing it that way correct? Or do we ask them to tear it down and do it again?” We’ve made all three of those decisions in different scenarios. That’s been a learning experience. To either be able to “to accept and go with it” which is sometimes harder for Eben who likes things done “properly”, or “to show them that it was done wrong and needs to be corrected”, which is harder for me, to get the courage to correct someone.

But we’re doing it. And it’s looking great.

I’ll keep you updated as we move forward!