White and blue

The whiter it is inside, the more the landscape stands out. Love it.

Kitchen cabinets are all white already. The new sturdy industrial stove is in place already, but I forgot to take a picture yesterday. It looks quite Frankensteinish, but super cute. They promised to replace the oven handle, which in stark contrast with the very squarish boxy appliance, they decided to make in turned wood, with curlicue shape. We laughed when we saw it, the guy did not see the joke, said it was like that because it was for "domestic" not commercial use. His "homey" touch.

Against the black granite counter top, the white wooden cabinets look very sharp. It will all be softened with some nice hardwood dining table (probably teak, I have a beautiful, huge one in mind) and with some leather (a couple of Barcelona chairs upholstered in distressed, light-brown leather, comfy and classy) and some rustic-looking linen upholstery for the two sofas. I think all the furniture will stand out nicely, but for the same reason everything has to be very carefully chosen, no so-so anything because it will stick out like a sore thumb...


The pool covered in the blue glass mini tiles.

We are now entering the final part, for good. The pool is almost finished, pending the landscape engineer´s drainage works. Because the plot is on a slight slope, with the land falling off in two different directions, we have to be careful with the drainage so as not to end up with a flooded pool, a clogged pool filter or dampness in the downstairs area of the house.

Therefore, the landscapers (Punta Ballena Jardines I think they´re called) will take care of all major structural re-arranging of the land, smoothing out the entire area, that now looks like a lunar surface, installing underground drainage channels in order to avoid water/dampness problems, and also adding layers of sand, good soil and lawn on some portions of the plot.

Last, and and very importantly, they will install the sprinkler system wherever there is a lawn (immediately around the house and between the house and the pool) and also on the perimeter of the 3 plots, so as to be able to start planting trees and shrubs to create a green barrier closing off the main road and hiding some of the neighboring houses from our direct view.

This is all quite costly for us. It may be peanuts compared to U.S. or European costs, I´m sure, but at this point it´s quite a financial effort, so that´s why we are so late in starting with it. Also, it´s the kind of thing that we failed to budget when planning the house (good thing, otherwise I may have ended with a smaller house) so at the end of the construction it feels like a big ticket item that we didn´t bargain for. Good to know for next time.

With regards to the actual gardening, I have decided to engage the services of my cousin and her partner, who, even at regular non-cousin rates are considerably cheaper than similar-quality landscaping firms or designers operating from Punta del Este.

I liked it when she told me that for each type of plant or shrub or tree she has a favorite supplier, rated in terms of value as quality of the specimen vs. price. "I have a palm-tree guy" she said by way of example, "that plants the palm trees himself." It sounds pretty obvious, but from what I know around here, landscape designers mostly work with a single purveyor, that is, with a single nursery per project. Maybe they alternate between two or three nurseries, but that´s about it, and locally, the good nurseries are pretty expensive, and so are the landscape designers´ services. I´m thrilled to finally be able to start thinking about trees and such. I have to temper my enthusiasm because of the natural constraints of the land (winds, soil) but I´m optimistic that I can grow quite the jungle out there eventually...

Barbi goes for a swim

The tiles are actually dark blue glass, the tiny kind, what we see here is the paper that glues together a bunch of them.

Today was a beautiful, warm sunny day, and we went to the house with Barbi and our friend Jorge, to meet the kitchen guy. The pool has been tiled, finally, after a very rainy period. They actually had to pump out the water accumulated on the bottom of the pool in order to do the tiling.

Going industrial in the kitchen

Picture of a cousin of the kitchen stove we will have custom made

Through no fault of my own or of my architect, I find myself with kitchen cabinetry built around a stove that has been discontinued in Uruguay. We´re down to the finishing touches, the painter is painting the kitchen and living-room already, and the thought of having to chop my drawer-unit in order to accomodate a stove that is not even the one chose originally really threw us and Fabian into a funk. Worse yet, the ventilator is already installed, and a new, larger stove would ruin the alignment between the cabinets, stove and ventilator. All very depressing.

Enter Mr. Juan Carlos Martirena, from Mercado Libre and Deremate auction sites. He specializes in restaurant equipment which he makes from scratch. So after posting a fake order for one of his listed stoves (see above) we got in touch and agreed he will make me one to fit the space. I am so thrilled. I always liked industrial, and in fact the stove we had chosen was a "fake industrial" one, so now we will get the real thing. They are pretty rough looking, sort of so ugly they are cute. Tomorrow he will drive to the house to measure the space and bring some catalogue for us to choose from, discuss specs, etc. It feels like a real luxury, custom appliances, and it costs the same as the one we were planning to get. Low tech, but built to our specifications, with gratin burners in the oven.

Let´s hope it turns out OK. I´m insisting on supersizing the oven insulation, on account of the wooden house and the fire risk. We once purchased a custom-made oven in Turkey that almost ignited my husband´s restaurant... it was glowing re-hot, zero insulation.

The Russians are coming!

If like me, you are the daughter of a rabidly anticommunist soviet emigre, and you dislike black leather overcoats, you will receive news that Russian buyers are disembarking in Punta del Este with at least a bit of apprehension. And if you have read books on the recent history of Russia, or follow Putin's comings and goings, or worse, the global spread of the country's new staple export (mafia, rather than communism), aprehension will turn into flat out alarm.

Thus, my reaction at the Madrid airport lounge when waiting to board my flight to Montevideo. "Look!" I whispered to my husband, "KGB!" OK, my dad was a bit on the obsessed side, but in the end he was always right, no matter how much fun we made of his paranoid behaviour. The object of my comments were two slavic-looking gentlemen in their late 30s or early 40s, impeccably dressed in only slightly cheesy but very expensive looking clothes, with that stiff posture that only a couple of years of law enforcement or military training can impart, and displaying an evident master and servant relationship. "I mean, Russian mafia!", I corrected and updated myself. My heart sank as my husband confirmed he had heard them speaking in Russian. "Why are they going to Uruguay?!?!"

Until recently, in my mind the Russian mafia had seemed very distant, something for Eastern Europe or Brighton Beach to worry about, but since finding out they virtually took control of the Spanish coast, becoming heavily involved in real estate, and that they had penetrated our neighbour, Brazil, they became a much less remote threat in my mind. And now they were in my plane!

On cue, at the first dinner party at my Mom's since our arrival, I hear Kiki (not her real name), a star realtor in Punta del Este, boasting of her recent sale of million-dollar homes to two different Russians. "It's because in a past life I was Russian" she explains. "I was hanging with Tolstoy, doing the dacha and the samovar thing, and they can feel that connection so they gravitate to me." Well, do Boris and Sasha not know each other, I wonder out loud. "Yes! Can you believe it? They actually turned out to know each other! It's that connection I have with the dacha and Tolstoy and the samovar, they can feel it," she insisted.

The dacha and the samovar running joke was still warm when last night I notice it's pretty late and my Mom is not back home. She calls a while later, explaining "The Russian and the French guys just left." Oh, I ask, "Was it Boris or Sasha?" No, my mom says, "This one was Alexei, and he was very straight to the point, he knew exactly what he wanted and wasted no time."

"Of course" I responded, "they have no time to waste. And what (real estate) have they bought?" They each got a penthouse in a new development on the Mansa beach side, whose prices range between $750k and $1.3 million.

Finally arrived (updated)

It was a lot of travel, from Kusadasi to Istanbul, then after a couple of days, our flight Istanbul-Madrid-Montevideo, followed by the drive to Punta del Este on a rental car, stopping by on the way to check out our house.

We arrived on a gorgeous, summer like day, and were rewarded by the spectacle of a whale frolicking by the shore in the Pinares area of Punta del Este, visible from the car even. We went down, took some pictures, all very cute. The whale flapped a large tail, and an entourage of sea lions danced all excited around the whale, to the delight of dozens of onlookers at the beach and on the road. If the electrician you were expecting at your house was late, that's why, all the trades were there.


Can't see much in the picture, but that black dot there is the whale with the sea lions...

That same day was heavy on construction sites as well. We stopped by Arrancopelito, and could not wipe the smiles off our faces. The house feels fantastic. We knew we liked the way it looked from the pictures, but standing on the deck looking at the sea and the forest, and the tons of birds chirping on the yard below, it was great. The living room feels huge, and the way the windows frame the views is awsome.

Seems that we will be inheriting a dog. Apparently, many dogs were born at the site in our absence, but this one is the only one remaining right now.


One wall in the stairwell has been clad in wood, following the facade wood cladding.



Then, after lunch, quickly on to Brava 28, a building where marabierto has furnished the model unit, and where my Mom was contemplating buying an apartment. (More on that later) We had to go up and down dusty dark stairs and in screeching elevators (building is in the last stages of construction), checking out different units, their floor plans, views, exposure, etc. etc.

That over, my mother decided to show us the apartment she's renovating in the Peninsula building. The Peninsula is a landmark Punta del Este building, kitty-corner with the Plaza de los Artesanos square. She bought a 110 m2 2-bedroom apartment on the 8th floor, with amazing views of the harbor, the square, the Brava side, and through the end of the peninsula. A huge living-room as well. She's giving it the marabierto treatment (complete renovation, new floors, kitchen, bathrooms, and much more, followed by full furnishings from marabierto), and putting it back on sale.

So, a lot of real estate/construction site for a first day, just the way I like it :-)

On the move (updated)

Above is the picture taken from the 3rd floor of our Kusadasi, Turkey house, of the container loading operation. So the truck came 8 hours late, but the loading itself was very quick, and soon we were left in an echoey house, with strewn cardboard and bubblewrap and string everywhere, and virtually no furniture except for a few items.

We sold our AC units, our many propane gas bottles (for cooking, heating and hot water), our car, our TV, and we'll see if we can sell some of the stuff left behind. We also gave away to Gulnur, our cleaning woman, a lot of stuff, from furniture to kitchen wares, clothes, even all the food in our fridge and cabinets. That was good, she was delighted, as she got a cash severance payment (which she never expected) plus lots of stuff to take away, and a subsidized purchase of a large screen TV. It felt good to make her and her husband happy, as she has been so great to us. We will miss Gulnur.

Barbi spent all day in Izmir the day after we sent our stuff, handling customs. Now, we had hired (as required by law) a customs broker, who didn't do much at all. Barbi spent 10 hours in the Izmir harbor, which he said was pretty scary, and ended up having to pay bribes to 4 different customs officers in order to allow our container to leave. Very annoying because a) everything we were doing was completely legal, and b) we had engaged the services of a customs broker to handle the proceeding.

On Monday we flew to Istanbul, said goodbye to our friends there and left on Wednesday. The schlepping of the luggage (5 suitcases, plus 2 laptop backpacks, plus other "hand" luggage) was not something we were looking forward to, so we left all but the hand luggage in the airport. We stayed in the Tunel section of Istanbul, in a beautiful old, renovated apartment with our friends Jackie and Zeynep, who as always, were the most generous and gracious hosts.

Tuesday night we had dinner with a bunch of friends, it was great. Some of them I hadn't seen for years.

Me, Nahim, Umut, Sinan, Barbi, Haldun, Serai, Sema and Volkan. I know, Turkish names are so different...

Leaving Istanbul we were made to pay 374 euros in excess luggage, which sparked a fight and nasty outbursts from me. Actually they only charged us for 10 of the 50 excess kilos we were carrying... The trip was a bit longer than I expected, because of a 5+ hour layover in Madrid, which I thought was going to be shorter. There was nowhere to lie down, my back and feet hurt, so I ended up lying on the cold marble floor. The new Barajas airport is OK I guess, not pretty but better than the depressing shabby old one. The problem is they have those rows of seats with the individual arm-rests to prevent lying across several seats...



We loaded on interior design magazines, as usual, to the delight of my Mom. The flight Madrid-Montevideo was fine actually, we slept for about 9 hours, skipping dinner.

Thursday, we arrived at 8 AM in Montevideo, rented a small car, drove straight to see our new house, hang out for a few minutes with the whale in Pinares, Punta del Este, and finally arrived in the store at around noon.

Penguins

A rescued penguin release in Punta del Este a few years ago...

September 23, Playa Mansa, pic published in El País...

Nadine´s babies, Blitzen and Dash, with penguin. They are supposed to winter in Brazil, so I guess this one is on a layover.

I've developed a thing for penguins. It all started with the March of the Penguins, and really took on a life of its own after I visited SOS Fauna Marina in Punta Colorada last year. Why I had never visited before I don't know. We've driven past tons of times, but I guess it doesn't look too inviting. It was so amazing how they responded to people like dogs. The director of SOS does not encourage it, because he says they become domesticated too quickly and then they are "spoilt." So he keeps only a few critters on the "public" area of the rescue center, the ones he "pimps" for donations because he has to make money to feed them SOMEHOW.

Then Nadine shared a photo of her dogs playing with a penguin in Montoya, and I became very jealous. I want to go play with the penguins! I want a pet penguin and a pet sea lion! (It's illegal possession of endangered species, so out of the question.)

I just came across a picture in El Pais about a return of rescued penguins to the sea that SOS Fauna Marina just staged in la Mansa beach, in Punta del Este. I guess I've missed all the penguin action this year, but hopefully will arrive in time to catch the whales...