Loreto Pictures

We have decided to create a blog specific to tracking the progress of our new house in Mexico in anticipation of it perhaps being useful for renting it in the future. In the meantime, the blog will act as a place for specific updates on the progress of our house. To kick things off, I posted some scanned in images of what our house will look like, the layout, and its location in the community. If you'd like to take a look, you can find it at http://loretobay.blogspot.com/. We've decided to name the house Casa de Turtle because we think we'll go with a turtle theme for it. We found some beautiful metal artwork of turtles in the town of Loreto and given we have a dog named Turtle, it just seems fitting!

I have also added feeds from the "Loreto Bay: Casa de Turtle" blog on the right side of this blog so it can easily be seen when a new post is done to that blog.

We Did It!

Well, we did it. We bought a house in Mexico. Actually it's just a plot of land at this point, but it will soon be a house. Maybe in 1 year, but I'm guessing at least 1.5 years. I can't buy that you can come in on schedule in Mexico. It's in Loreto Bay, which is outside the town of Loreto, located about midway down the Baja Peninsula on the Sea of Cortez. When we were landing in the plane and I saw the sea, I was in awe. It's truly beautiful. What is being built is basically an ecologically friendly community of 6,000 homes (eventually). None of the homes have yards, but most have indoor courtyards, some bigger than others. We bought one of the smallest homes with two bedrooms. After touring some of the houses, I can see how the big homes will be absolutely gorgeous.

Really cool things about the community

• Water: The plan is to not use the local aquifers for much longer (1-2 years hopefully). This is done by building a desalinization plant. They're also creating estuaries in the Aqua Viva community which will aid in plant and sea life creation.
• Power: build a windfarm to power the entire community.
• No cars: it's designed to be a walking community. There are very few drivable streets being built and some current streets are being eliminated. Streets that do exist for driving are designed to be made inconvenient to discourage it except to get in and out of the community.
• Salt-tolerant plants: the existing golf course is going to be redone with grass that will be tolerant to being watered with salt water to save fresh water. All the plants in the community are designed for the climate and to be salt tolerant as well.
• Adobe: the houses are built with all weather-facing walls built of adobe brick. This material transfers heat less quickly and keeps the houses cooler, reducing the need for air conditioning. It's also very, very durable.
• Organic vegetables: an organic vegetable garden is being created to supply the entire community with vegetables.

I'm very excited, but also nervous. It is a leap of faith that all these things touted will happen as planned. When we saw the houses they've already built are just as good as they had touted and they're just beautiful in the setting, that made us feel much more at ease. The community is just awesome; any community that has a 50% conversion rate of people who actually go down to have a look and buy must be doing something right. This release had a 60% conversion rate. The group that we were with had all but one couple buy a house. The very cool part is we spent the weekend with all these people and then, ironically, we all ended up buying houses right near each other. It was entirely possible that we could have ended up far apart due to which lots are available at the present time. Anyway, this means we already know a lot of our neighbors. We had a great time with everyone. I couldn't believe how happy I was when I saw one couple come into the contracts room after us and then when I realized we were neighbors, it was so great! We are among the youngest buyers, particularly me, but I've always liked the retirement community feel. After all, our place in Denver was basically that! It was mostly baby boomers. I would say the average age of buyers (and I'm completely guessing) was 50-55.

We originally were planning on buying in the Aqua Viva community, but when we saw the sea views, we changed to buy a lot in the Founder's community. This means that we are truly within walking distance to the beach ... a 1-2 minute walk at most. We are hoping we'll still have a view of the sea once the houses are built, but it's hard to tell line of sight without the structure actually being there. The houses right behind us have been built and up on their roofs, the view is nothing but spectacular right now. Even if we don't have the best view, I think we have one of the best locations in the entire community. We are right next to the lap pool (no excuse for not exercising), near the market (fresh fruits and veggies daily), near the beach club (probably won't join because it's expensive, but good to be near it), near the commercial shops, near the beach, and near some of the really expensive custom homes. I think it's always a good thing to have a cheaper house near more expensive, grander homes.

In any case, if someone had sat down and said, "Let's build a community that is absolutely everything D and M would like," this is what they would have come up with. It wouldn't be ideal of a lot of folks; some downsides being it is a desert landscape (though the air isn't as dry as Denver), it's in a foreign country, we don't have tons of space. However, we are both thrilled and extremely hopeful.

Mexico

We're off to Mexico for a long weekend. Have a great weekend everyone!