And then there were two... plus new heaters

Recent pictures of Lunes the beast.

The cold snap a couple weeks ago sent me into a panic, as the living-room still had no source of heat other than the fireplace, which I don´t intend to live enslaved to as long as I don´t have to.

So we ran to Daniel Hogar and quickly purchased a couple of the famous Fagor accumulators, and had them installed at either ends of the place, one in the kitchen and the other in the living-room under the big picture window.



I say famous because they are sort of well known for allowing installation without any pipes (no water, they work with high density bricks that accumulate heat and release it for hours after they are turned off) and for their efficiency. Uruguay has split rates according to the time of day (you have to apply for this special rate regime) and so you have them on during the "cheap" hours of 11pm and 5 pm, and the timer turns them off during the expensive hours. This keeps the house warm at an affordable price.

Of course, immediately upon their installation, the weather turned warm again. Same as when I glassed in half the bbq area and the wind shifted west, after months of blowing from the east. I now know: winter it blows from the west, summer from the east.

But the difference with the heaters is huge, especially in the morning. They seem to be too much for the current weather in terms of capacity, but we still have not seen real cold. Another investment was the custom-made screen for the fireplace. I ordered it by phone from my old math teacher, Jack (the best math teacher in the world) and amazingly it fits like a glove. I had to describe the shape of the fireplace, then give him a bunch of measurements, design specs, and incredibly, a week later he brought over a perfect-fitting screen.

So we now can light the fireplace with no fear of setting fire to the house. I did so the other day when the house was invaded by crazy bees (they´ve been out of sorts because of the grassland fires in Argentina, invading several houses and killing a beekeeper last week.)




I don´t know if it´s puppy addiction, or fear that Lunes will be lonely and spoilt, or what, but I´ve been searching for another dog for a few days already. Yesterday we went to the Sienra veterinary clinic in Maldonado, and I remembered to enquire if they knew of any dogs needing adoption. "Tons" said the doc. One hour later I was holding Tulu, a ball of dark brown and black fur, funnily enough brought by the husband of an American friend of my mom´s. He said 9 were too many, so now he´s down to 8. Tulu is a type of Turkish rug that is very fluffy and long haired.

Lunes had such a crazy and eventful day yesterday (we were out and our cleaning lady decided she "looked hungry" so she fed her the equivalent of 6 of her rations, or a day and a half of food, which she gulfed down in seconds. When we came back minutes later, her stomach had ballooned, so our scheduled trip to the vet for the shots was quite timely. Then, after ballooning and the vet experience, she had to share her box in the car with the new guy. Immediately she identified bullying and biting opportunities, Tulu is a tiny furry thing, a bit of a baby, maybe 5 or 6 weeks, and he can barely walk, but he has a mighty, angry bark, something Lunes is not used to and makes her take a step back.



The only tricky thing is the feeding time, as she eats her meal in 23 to 29 seconds (I´ve timed it) and he takes about 20 minutes to go through his. That gives Lunes 20 minutes of agony trying to find her way to his dish... I could put him inside for the food, but I am hopeful that she will learn to respect his food... maybe naively so...


Pictures of Lunes with El Cabeza, the dog from the neighboring farm at La Carolina, who comes to visit us once or twice a week, and ALWAYS if we are having company (read bbq). He's beyond adorable, has a fantastic, gravelly bark, is a great guardian dog, and unfortunately is very poorly cared for (basically starved). He has been a bit shocked by the appearance of Lunes, which sent him peeing on every square inch of my patio. He is seen in the pictures withstanding her pestering while he mostly ignores her patiently...

OK, so we got the house, we got the dogs, what's next? The picket fence of course!

Introducing Lunes

Her name is Lunes, she arrived yesterday, to try to bring some life into our home after someone took off with our beloved Fabiana on Easter Sunday.

What a change! We inherited Fabiana with the house, all grown up, and used to being on her own, living outside, and just demanding a lot of affection whenever we were outside the house.

This is a whole different ball game. Lunes is one month and a few days old, the last of her litter of Weimaraners from some guy who sells them out of Maldonado. I had been growing increasingly nervous at being at home alone, with no Fabiana, watching how our yard reverted to the birds (the uber territorial teros, the woodpeckers who are not content with the yard but actually want our house, etc.) and then yesterday a mean evil crucera snake showed up in our bbq area downstairs, proof that we needed a dog (or two, and a cat, and some chickens) ASAP. So I googled "Uruguay cachorros", meaning puppies, I clicked on the Mercado Libre link that showed up (our equivalent to Ebay), and within a couple of minutes I was congratulated on my purchase.


I called the guy on his cell phone. "Do you have transportation?" I asked. He said his motorbike was in the shop being repaired but that he had the car. "OK, can you drop whatever you are doing now and drive to Punta del Este right away with the dog? If you can, you got a deal," I said. "It´s an emergency."

Barbi was on standby, waiting for the word to go pick up the dog in Maldonado, but instead, he rushed to the ATM, withdrew the money to pay for the puppy and was home in what, maybe two hours tops since my initial googling. Not bad, this technology. Now Lunes is sleeping on my lap, and I´m wondering how the rest of the day will go. I already had to close the living-room door so she doesn´t drop into the abyss from the stairway landing that has very cool steel wire symbolic guard rails. In the living-room floor she has shown a predilection for my irreplaceable tribal rugs from Turkey, pulling at the wool yarn and trying to chew off the applique wool flowers.

The Ikea storage box was great for yesterday evening when she was exhausted and only wanted to sleep. Now she´s mastered the art of jumping out, with or without the pillow-towel mattress. The shower stall, which is not too confined, easy to clean, etc., feels lonely to her and prompts the high-pitch wailing... anyway, I can´t complain I guess, as long as Lunes is here it will never feel too lonely anymore.

Coming soon to a hill near you

Cerro de las Espinas seen from Punta Negra, with some of the roadwork done.


So our little spec of world may not remain unknown or remote for much longer it would seem.

This is thanks in part to interest sparked by our house (multiple lots of land and houses have been sold in the past one month citing Arrancopelito as the reason of the purchase decision, believe it or not) but also in a much larger sense because of the massive Latitud Sur project just 2km behind us commanding the Cerro de las Espinas (Thorn Hill if you were to translate the name) with its breathtaking views of everything from Punta del Este to Punta Colorada and Laguna del Sauce, hugging a huge golf course, and topped by a 5 star hotel on the tip of the hill. www.latitudsur.com.uy

What can I say, I feel a bit nostalgic for the Barra de Portezuelo that never was for me. When I fell in love with this place the road was unpaved, hence zero traffic, only one or two houses built, absolutely nobody at the beach ever, etc. Now that we're finally living here, cars drive by, the beach parking lot has at least 2 cars every day and as many as 8 on weekends, and in the Latitud Sur project website, MY BEACH is marked as "Beach Club."

The Latitud Sur hill, with a working farm in the foreground.

Then again, my guess is that somewhere in the near future we will have a couple of restaurant options which don't exist at present (to begin with, at the hotel). My guess is also that the hotel will have an indoor swimming pool and spa that I may want to become a member of. And who knows what other conveniences will come our way. The plans call for a "shopping area" on the edge of the compound, for example. But also, I won't be coy about it, the rise in property value can be felt by the week right now. What I was happy to sell for 35k last week, today feels cheap at 45k.

Hence we are retrenching, selling the one lot in the obvious area half a block away from the beach and buying 3 lots further inland, with crappy access right now, but with amazing views, in a location more secluded from what I expect will be increasing traffic in years to come, and at "not yet discovered" prices.

The hill seen from Barra de Portezuelo

This decision comes after a bi-athlon review of the entire area which included a 3 hour bicycle tour of Punta Negra (which left me with a bit of sun stroke despite the rain, the sun here is very strong) and a one hour adventure hike yesterday with the realtor, which included climbing 12-foot ravines, getting lost in the thorny brush, and overcoming the terror of the crucera (the nasty viper). We didn't see any vipers, although the 2 feet high cushion of dead grass would hide them from view. I wore plaid design rain rubber boots to protect me. By the second or third ravine ascent or descent I stopped caring about the snakes and started fearing the realtor. He could have killed me and buried me in that spot and nobody would have ever found me. Luckily for me, he is into commissions, not killing clients...

A country road approaching the Cerro de las Espinas

What about my Punta Negra survey... well, I saw an area that I sort of liked, especially because of the views of the hills, including the Latitud Sur project, and I saw a lot of things I don't like. What I don't like is the close proximity of houses to each other. Lots are small, 600 m2, or 6,000 sq ft, often narrow and long, meaning all the houses are too close to each other, and in a place where being outdoors is much of the allure, it feels too "communal" for me.

In some areas some people have bought multiple lots, and those have built better houses, with nicely kept yards, and mostly with very nice views.

My least favorite part, ironically, is the part closest to the beach, within two blocks of the beach, let's say, which has been built in a sort of Mad Max shantytown style (the house that looks like a cross between a ship and a medieval watch-tower, for example), which coupled with the sandy, windswept terrain, makes it feel pretty depressing. There are quite a few extremely small and extremely inexpensively built shacks in wood that are absolutely beautiful, but there´s a lot that isn´t good looking at all.

These two houses I would call "transitional" in Punta Negra. Tidy, not a "found materials" shack, clean yards, but still ugly and tiny.


Further up the hill and before entering the forest there a couple of nicer houses, more desirable in my opinion. A realtor explained to me that when the subdivision went on sale originally, they started selling only the first couple of blocks by the sea, which was where there was electricity and roads had been made, and that they went on sale for USD3,600 payable in 96 installments. That's why the shanty feel on the beachside strip. As time went on, prices rose and new buyers had to buy further inland, and at higher prices, thus the better houses in the back, just before reaching the forest parts, where in general terms prices and construction quality drop again.

In sum, there are now quite a few cheap lots for sale for anyone less anti-social than me, which will trebble or quadruple in value in a couple of years. My prediction. The other option is to buy several lots and houses on a "keep buying up anything next to you that comes up" basis and then average out the price. Dollar averaging but for real estate rather than stocks. If I were not so in love with this place, Barra de Portezuelo, I would buy a bunch of lots there. But prices here are suddenly getting borderline out of my range, so I will get some more here before I turn my attention and money to Punta Negra. In any case, the whole area has a big boost coming.

Lego for grown-ups

OK, so it´s all Randy´s fault who´s been pestering me asking for info on building with containers in Uruguay. I once happened to mention that my brother has a set up with two 40 footers for caretakers home and storage, laid out parallel to each other and with a detached roof covering both of them and generating a covered patio in between, which prompted Randy´s enquiry, and brought the subject up, where it has remained in the back of my mind for a couple of months already.

Now that we have empty land in Barra de Portezuelo (near Punta Negra) and Las Grutas (Punta Ballena), little money, and worst of all, NO ONGOING BUILDING PROJECT, when talking to a shipper this week I remembered to ask about the containers for Randy, and I seem to have opened a can of worms. It just so happened that this shipper was somehow connected to Multicontainer, the Uruguayan company that sells and customizes containers for other non-shipping uses.

The results of the initial enquiry were that a dry, non customized 40-footer costs USD2,600 plus delivery which all the way to Punta del Este is about USD500. Of course, this needs some sort of foundation, connection to utilities (water, sewage, electric), plus all the adaptation work and materials. Because they said that the prices for their finished products depend on the configuration, I have obtained an estimate for a standard 40-footer turned into a 2 bedroom dwelling, with a basic kitchenette (no appliances, this is Uruguay) and bathroom with no water heater.

The design, materials and finishes are pretty horrible if you are design-conscious, and very correct if all you need is inexpensive shelter. With vinyl walls and ceilings, awful kitchen and bathroom fixtures, small ugly windows and doors, and the most insteresting I think, the original wooden floors of the container refinished (more on this later), the price quoted, tax included with delivery and placement on the spot with a crane comes out to about USD12k.

These are pictures from the other company making the containers, Frimaral, but they are indicative of the depressing design that seems to rule in Uruguay container homes... nothing like the www.fabprefab.com fare...

Up to yesterday I was wondering how much I´m able to blow this price to smithereens... I always fantasize about being able to be thrifty-cool, but it happens on few occasions, such as with our kitchen cabinetry, which is thrifty cool, mostly, except for the expensive granite countertop. But then Randy on the Southron forum mentioned this other company, Frimaral, and their website would suggest that a) they manufacture the actual containers, and b) they are able to do with them whatever you want, unlike the other company that told me that joining vertically stacked containers was a problem, and c) my guess is that based on their size and manufacturing capacity, their prices may be lower.

I was further encouraged by the pictures on the site showing openside containers, which come with those sexy looking industrial doors. I had been thinking "too bad, those doors are so cool but they´re located at the end of the container. But no, they can be installed on any side! That means great views potential and full safety/weather protection.


Amazing doors! Am in love....

So now the challenge is to come up with something thrifty cool to dump on the lot where the pool is, to contain a storage room (Barbi´s tool room!), a bathroom and a large room that can be extra guest quarters, or gym/spa area. No, I´m not building a yoga room.

A most important function will also be to serve as wind barrier for the pool lot, which is so windswept that I have referred to it as "the steppes." If we somehow create a barrier that can give trees and plants a chance to grow, then slowly we will be able to expand a green barrier. Another potential use to this is to serve as the support for solar panels to heat the pool eventually. They would face North, which is where they have to face (in the southern hemisphere) and i would not be messing with the actual house´s roof, or just plunking them on the ground, which I´m not too excited about.

The Setai is alive!

Well, I thought that after who knows how many years from the original noise, the whole project was dead. In fact, if I remember correctly, some investor(s) had pulled out. Maybe with things so bubbly now they decided to give it another go, or maybe they were dealing with licenses and such all along. Whatever. Welcome back Setai is what I say. All the more so if, like the WSJ says today,

"Between $110 million and $130 million will be spent on the development, with plans to build a luxury compound including a spa, 10 cabana hotel suites and 40 private houses on the La Juanita beach and in the nearby woods. About a mile up the road, the 300-acre Laguna Escondida project is planning a 70-room hotel and 240 housing lots."


On other matters, I have to say that after about 40 days of being in our new house, we feel soooo priviliged to be living where and how we're living. The house gets nicer by the day. The last pieces of furniture and missing curtains have arrived, we now have two couches, a nice LCD TV, DirecTV, a cleaning woman who comes three times a week which is as much as I can handle the interaction (plus pool and garden people), a lawn that is getting nicer every day, and expanding into the non-lawn areas quite fast, a sweet dog that makes a big fuss when we come back home, and friends who come and spend the weekend or a few days of their vacations with us.

Not being on vacation myself, it makes me feel luckier than if I were. I punctuate my work-day with walks on the beach or along country paths (watching cows graze, the dog chase the hares, it's too bucolic) or swimming at the beach or in the pool. And "my office", overlooking forest and sea, from where I stare out the windows and watch the falcons chased by the swallows, the ducks flying, or any other of the myriad National Geographic scenes that unfold on an hourly basis.

I credit ourselves for our conscious choice to make this happen, against blank stares or outright discouragement by many people, but I also credit the success of our business for allowing us to build this house, and last but definitely not least, our architects' genius in making this house the way it is. I know we made a million little choices along the way, but they were all informed by their gentle prodding, or simply us choosing from options produced by them that we had never imagined or contemplated. Also, some things I was just informed of, in a no-nonsense kind of way, as in "The living-room roof is now 1.5 meters lower. Anything higher is out of the question." Now I look at my ceiling and think, "how could we ever have lived with 5m high ceilings if 3.5 feels sooo high?" I remember one very funny exchange with Fabian where he emailed me a list of questions for us to decide on 10 issues, in the form of "multiple-choice quiz." I was really proud when he said I scored 9 out of 10.

I talk about this house as if it were a huge palace, but no, it's just very simple, comfortable and as big as I could afford when we made it (only 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms). Still, as simple as it is, it literally stops traffic. Every day we get people driving straight into our car park and getting out to take pictures. We go from proud to annoyed to proud to annoyed, but in the end it's good news I think.

Scary storm and potential good news

It looked like a horizontal twister or something, and when it started pounding us I have to confess I got a bit scared. In the end, no damage, and a good chance to test the windows for leaks. I doubt that it can get much worst than the amount of rain that fell yesterday, or the wind-strength (Uruguay´s classic horizontal rain).

First we had the big scary twisting cloud come through...

Then all hell broke loose...


The poor garden guys had to seek cover in our barbeque area for about half an hour before they returned to work... Rather than declare it a "rained out day" they went back at it for hours after the worst part of the storm, even though it was still raining on and off...

Then, sun again, and even a couple of rainbows to end the day on a good note.



Onto the good news. After a very eventful day (semi-stalking of my friend Tamara by a local who approached her at the otherwise empty beach early in the morning, and mentioned he had "seen"us yesterday in our pool, later befriending by Tamara of 3 other cute guys at the beach of which she approved, heavy traffic at the house between garden people, pool people, cleaning lady, etc.), while I was trying to nap after the storm to rest a bit from so much excitement, I heard Tamara, ever the friendly one, welcoming a female voice to the house. I got up, went down and was introduced to a lady (American residing in Punta for the past 30 years or so, former owner of a restaurant I used to love) who came to introduce herself as "your new neighbor" and to inform us she had purchased four lots including 2 hideous houses to be demolished and replaced with a house in the style of ours. This is like winning the lotto for us, as the two existing houses on the lower end of our block are quite an eyesore to us, and the empty lots around them always a question mark, instilling fear of further ugly construction...

Also, her and her Uruguayan husband were such nice people that it was great to know they´re our new neighbors, intending to live here year round, rather than having four small and ugly empty beach houses, having a single house with lots of landscaped land around it, and inhabited by cool people!

A further boost to my ego was her statement that they had always loved the area but had decided to go ahead with this project after they saw our house and the fact that we had almost one acre of land between the 3 plots. This is validation for all I had theorized but without any proof that my reasoning was right every time I went ahead and bought another plot. (Why do you need another plot? To raise the value of the land around me and ensure that other people are encouraged to build on more than one plot, keeping the density of the block low, preserving and improving the views with more greenery.)

Anyway, we have to wait and see what comes through in the end, but I have high hopes, as they even asked to contact our architect. Funny thing was that I was suggesting this same investment to other people until a couple of days ago, and someone I didn´t know went ahead and did it. Now I think I will try to buy more land on the block if it comes up for sale...

New Year´s Eve

Our traditional program: a rushed dinner at my Mom's with family and friends, then a sprint down to the harbor for the countdown, and dancing until the knees gave in. New Year's Day in a coma after way too much champagne...

Mirtha and Coco

Cousin Nacho, Barbi and pretty pregnant Rosina
Lots of women in sexy dresses everywhere...

A very mixed crowd with lots of children and a few grannies as well

My brother Rafael commands the dance floor, well, the street

The Mirthas, Mom and Aunt

The count-down