The Apartment

And so I live in Mexico with my husband, Jose, and his 15 year old brother, Luis.  We have a 2 bedroom apartment.  It is ridiculously cheap.  We pay approximately $165 per month.  The owner is really nice, but it's amazing how many little things that were overlooked here that I don't think would've been overlooked in a Chicago apartment.  Like shelves in the medicine cabinet or light fixtures over the bulbs that hang from the ceilings.

This is the building.  Our apartment is on the first floor and is on the other side of the building.  There is a little store out front.  The woman that runs it is a tenant and she sells junk food and soda.  I found it very convenient today when I was craving a pop and some chocolate.  It is also very typical for a Mexican host to run out real quick and by a 2 liter of pop when visitors drop by.  So having these little stores makes that easier I guess.  She also sells us water from the tank on top of the store.  I'm assuming that it is purified because I haven't gotten sick yet.  She fills our 5 gallon jug for 8.50 pesos, about 75 cents.

There are 20 apartments in our building.  However I don't really see that many people going in and out of the building.  Jose guesses that 10 to 12 of the apartments are occupied.  The apartments are really small. I couldn't imagine having more than 3 people living here.  Jose's aunt and uncle live in the same building and have 6 people in their apartment.  I haven't been to their apartment yet, but I have trouble imagining that many people and that much more stuff in the apartment.  However, these apartments are pretty luxurious compared to some of the places I saw in Mexico City.  So I guess I can imagine it, but I wouldn't want to live it.

This is the kitchen.  That is all the cabinet space that comes with the place.  And all the appliances.  Jose had to buy the refrigerator in the picture below.  I just realized today that the oven doesn't seem to work.  Or at least I don't know how to use it.  We light the stove burners with matches.  I tried lighting the pilots (or at least what I thought was the pilots) and that didn't work.  I have no idea where we would light the stove.  I can't get the bottom part of the stove to open.  But the stove dial doesn't have any degree markings on it.  So even if I could get it to work, I'd probably burn everything.  We're going to have to talk to the landlord about that.  As nice as he is though, I'm not too hopeful.

We purchased that pantry/cabinet my first week here.  It was just slightly over $30.  I think it was a good deal and holds all of our cookware.

During that first week, I gave the cats some cat food from a can and put it in the floor in the kitchen.  By the next morning, there were thousands of ants in the kitchen, lured there by the food.  I was appalled.  And surprised that they didn't carry off the bowls.  We told the landlord, but I'm not sure he has done or will do anything about it.  But after several trips to Home Depot, we fixed the gap under the back door and Jose sprayed around the building. We haven't seen any ants in a week and a half.

The bathroom is unique in that the sink is outside the bathroom.  It certainly ruins any feng shui the apartment might have.  But it is actually really convenient for the three of us when one person wants to shower and another wants to brush his teeth.

The bedrooms are pretty simple.  I absolutely love the tiger cover that his aunt gave us.  It's really soft.  Addison is that little bump under the cover at the foot of the bed.  She loves being in the bed when I make it.  I would like to get some sort of bedside table.  I haven't found anything I like enough yet though.

The rooms have built-in closets and drawers.  Which is great because we don't have to buy dressers.

This is Luis's room.  Jose jokes that I gave him the ironing board as a gift.  But really, there's a lot of space in his room.  He's a pretty simple kid.  He doesn't have a lot of stuff.




I have not taken pictures of the living/dining area yet, so those pictures will have to be in a later post.  After we got cable and the internet, I decided I wanted to change things around a bit.  I think I'll do that tomorrow morning before Jose and Luis get up.



This is our "back porch/patio."  It has our water heater and our gas tank.  I guess there are not gas lines that go to the apartments.  So we have to buy gas by the tank full.  And every time I want to shower, I have to come back here and light the water heater and wait about 10 minutes.  It really isn't so bad.  But I typically forget to turn it off.  Jose has to remind me.  I do love that we have a "utility" sink back there.  I find them so convenient when you don't want to use any of your indoor sinks to rinse stuff.  And I also love that I have a place to hang my running clothes when they are sweaty.



You may have also noticed that we have several different colored walls.  Jose thinks that the landlord didn't want to buy more paint and had just enough paint left over to make all our walls different colors.  Jose wants to paint some of the walls.  I don't mind as long as he doesn't want any help from me.  We don't know if we'll even still be here when our lease runs out in 4 months.  So it's not really worth it to me.

As much as I seem to be ragging on this place, I actually love living here.  As long as the ants don't come back anyway.  I had the chance to do some organizing last week and that was when I started feeling like it was my home instead of Jose's place where he's letting me stay.  It will be home for the next 4 months anyway.