And HERE (and THERE) I am!

There was no way to salvage the original floor. So tiles it is. Now to think of the wall color...

Whew. So much time has passed. I think this is the longest I have been without writing for decades.

I got to the US on July 4th, pup and cat with me. Before leaving I had taken a huge gulp of Mexico and as always, my heart squeezed when getting on the plane. I did not want to go and I sure did not want to stay long. Long enough to sell my house up there (up here) and come back.

And then, Life did its thing. Again. It surprised the heck out of me.

I landed, made my way to my house and ... fell in love.

I fell in love with my little home, with the Comfort, the Ease, the freshness of the cooler air.

Every time I turned on the hot water, I wanted to tell someone: It works!!! I couldn't take enough baths the first couple of weeks. Don't even get me started on the dishwasher.

My little cottage, the one I was here to sell, was enchanting me all over again.

And so, I let myself get enchanted by it. Lila and Tiji were too.

Day after day my kids and I loved it and got loved by it. We gathered, laughed, cooked, ate and celebrated. I barely left the house other than to take walks with my pup.

I asked for guidance as to how to part with it while still loving it and still enjoying it every minute with it. Of course, guidance showed up beautifully and thanks to the kindness of the new owners, I get to be here long enough to see the leaves change color. It's a gift.

Meanwhile, Casa Sama is humming along. I get photos, I get texts and I am mostly at peace with the progress.

BIG BIG HUGE thing happened a couple of days before I left and boy did I not see that one coming: talking with Ricardo (the electrician) I happened to mention how I had been trying so hard to get electricity to the house before resorting to the solar panels. He listened and then he casually said: "I think I can get you electricity. Give me 24 hours to confirm."

WHAT???? After all these months, after talking with so many people and making my way to the CFE multiple times, he thinks he can get me electricity??

And guess what? HE COULD . And he has. The day he sent me the video of plugging his power drill at the house, I screamed all the way down the very quiet street of this little island.
UNfreaking believable.

Of course, it was so easy to go down the road of "why did I meet him so late in the game?" and I right away decided to not do this to myself. Because if I do, oh boy... there are many many things I am going to wish I had done differently in the beginning. Many. But I didn't and here we are.

I am here is the US, slowly ushering a home back into a house while on the other side of the world, a house is being finished so that I may turn it into a home. It's a strange process, I feel it deeply.

I think Casa Sama is going to be super sweet and beautiful. Rigo and his team have put in a tile floor (there was no way to salvage the initial mess) in the main room and redone the patio. They fixed the shower, too. SO PRETTY.

Once they finished fixing things, they started beautifying.

Last touch will be the paint.

Truly, I didn't think the shower could be saved.

I love it when I am wrong.

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And oh... Casa Sama is getting a baby. Because I love when people I love come visit me, we are building a small rustic extra room in the garden. Approximately 8X10 feet, (but man it looks smaller in the photos...) it is going to be so great to have that space to lend out, I am super excited about this.

I cannot say that I am 100% trusting that I will get there and all will be well because somewhere along the way, in the last year or so, I have lost this wide open naivete. Good or bad, I don't know and it doesn't really matter. In some ways, not much would surprise me. But also, I choose to trust, even though I now know how trusting can turn out.

Because how else are we going to greet the morning, each day?

So... off we go. Lovingly emptying this home and talking with the makers of that other home.

In a few weeks I will gently close the door to one and get on the plane towards the other.

Contrasts.

Life.

Baby Casa Sama