Wed, 4/30
Finally. We have closed on Monte Sol at last. It only took from our offer being accepted in November until the 30th of April to get to the closing table. The bank took forever to get it’s act together. To this day I still don’t know what took them so long. Closing was a bit of a zoo. I’ve closed on properties several times, but never in another language. Fortunately our real estate agent, Sandy Ramos was at the table fighting for our cause. She certainly knows her stuff and was our best advocate! She insisted on them giving us copies of things that they normally wouldn’t, which would help us avoid future problems when we choose to sell. She is very passionate about her profession and it shows. We simply could not have had a better person at the table with us. Well, that is over. We are now the new owners of E 4-3. Let the work begin!
Thurs, 5/1
First up is all of the running around to get the water and electricity turned on. To do that we had to get the plumbing and electrical certifications from the bank and take them to the appropriate offices. Fortunately after picking up the certs from the bank in San Juan, a kind Puertorican, overhearing the bank employee telling me that he had no idea where to find the electric utility company, directed me to go several blocks right down the street. Sure enough, there it was. As my Spanish is, umm rusty at its very best, I had to rely on the kindness of strangers. And I am pleased to report that there were many kind strangers to help me though the process. I like this place! After getting out of San Juan just in the nick of time (rush hour) we headed to the Home Depot for a shopping reconnaissance trip. We’ve got appliances and ceiling fans to buy and we needed to do some comparisons. We then headed across the street to Sam’s Club where we will be dropping a lot of cash. We have until the 6th to get the utilities on and at least beds into Monte Sol as that’s when we are out of our rented apartment in Luquillo.
Fri, 5/2
This morning it’s off to the water company in Fajardo to get that turned on. Then we have to head over to Ikea and see about beds and some furniture. Then it’s Home Depot time! We are ordering all of our appliances through them…because they will deliver to our apartment for free. Can’t wait. We are in the Luquillo apartment until Tues the 6th. and we have to schedule all deliveries to arrive on or before then. Ikea is the most important one since that shipment includes the beds. I don’t want to be sleeping on a tile floor-even for one night!
Tues, 5/6
Out of the Luquillo apartment and off to Monte Sol. Ikea arrived on Monday and we will be spending the day putting everything together. Home Depot arrives tomorrow. Oh yes, a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond is in the cards today. Have to figure out why no electricity or water, should have been on by now.
Fri 5/9
The last week has been a blur of endless shopping and work. I never thought that I would get so tired of pulling out my credit card. My advice is that you should buy Home Depot, Ikea and Walmart/Sam’s stock, because given what we’ve spent, each one should rise by at least five points. We’ve run into a few snags along the way. It turns out that the stack washer/dryer was too deep for the laundry closet, which turns out to be only 28″ deep. It had to go back. There are units that will work, but they will have to be custom ordered and, no surprise, cost more than you would think they should. Way more. Surprisingly the 26 cu ft fridge doesn’t look that big in the cabinet. It would have been nice to have a counter depth model, but none was available. The stove is a real gem. I’ve never seen such a versatile cook top. The new sink faucet went in quickly but the stove vent is going to take more work. It also turned out to be too deep for the cabinet. I have a fix, but it will require re-positioning the cabinet. Maybe not this trip. The counter-top turns out to have had water damage in the corner and is now soft from delamination. New counter-tops are planned, but not this trip. We want granite but unfortunately it take time to measure, cut and install. Definitely not this trip. But hey, everything looks nice for now.
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Kitchens look (and work) much better with appliances. Well, today’s project is the new split a/c unit going into the living room. We started with an 18,000 btu unit from Home Depot, but when the rep came out he pretty much convinced us that the unit was too small and wanted to up sell us to a 22,000 btu unit. After he left we got suspicious and did a lot of online research, all of which pointed to an 18,000 btu unit as correct. We then talked with Salvadore, the general manager for the complex and he offered to put us in touch with a local Carrier guy who he knew. Ruben turned out to be a very nice guy with many years of a/c experience and clearly a straight-shooter. He confirmed what we thought, that the 22,000 unit was too big and would cause us problems (like I had read) because it would over-compensate for the space. He recommended an 18,000 unit-just like we had thought. So, we decided that Ruben would be our new a/c guy and today he is installing our unit. He has his work cut out for him as the builder had done some crazy things like putting the drain in the wall too high and making the channel for the copper tubing with too sharp a bend.
What had to be done to get the a/c lines to the roof. Ruben had to cut a big hole in the wall to fix things. Not a big deal for sheet rock, not a small task for concrete. So what started out as a couple of small openings in the living room wall has turned into exposed re-bar and a 10″ X 16″ hole. Clearly patching and a new paint job are in the works. We were going to wait on color selection for the wall until later, but not now.
To back track a bit, yesterday the morning was spent installing the sink faucet, putting the vent hood up and positioning the stove and refrigerator. We decided that water line for the refrigerator was a “later” project and feeding it under/through the cabinets is going to be a real task. The afternoon we took off for a bit of a break and we went into the mountains to Guavate, a very small village known for it’s lechonerias, or pork places. The twisty, windy road is lined with wonderful eateries that become jam-packed on the weekends. Pit-roasted whole pig is a big deal, here! Dean and I had been to “El Rancho Original’ or “The Original Ranch” on our last trip and we were ready to go back. What they do is give the pig a deep brine and then slow roast it for hours on end. Everything comes family-style with large helpings of sides. Today we had the Spanish saffron rice with pigeon peas and roasted yellow sweet potatoes. More than enough pork, the two sides and three beers set us back…$32.00. You just can’t beat it. The other nice thing about a drive to the mountains is that at over 3,000 feet up, the air is permanently cooler with temperatures in the high 60’s-low 70’s. We had rain on the way up and it was quite cool, if not a bit chilly. So if you get tired of sun and sand, a quick trip to the mountains will refresh you. Interestingly, as we were going up the clouds were breaking over the mountain sides. They’re a little bit of “home visuals” for Dean. If it weren’t for the abundance of tropical vegetation, this could be almost like the Northwest. All of this change in climate is maybe 50 miles from Monte Sol. On the way back we stopped at the small town of Naguabo, which is on the coast and a few miles below Ceiba to check out a local fish vendor named Vinny’s that we had heard about. They were closed at that moment so we didn’t get to look around, but we will be back. We were told that Vinny’s is a place that the local fishermen bring their catch to, so it might be the perfect place to get local caught seafood. I’ll do a complete post on what I’ve found in the way of local food sourcing later.
At this point we feel like we are over the hump and can relax a bit. We have much more to do with the apartment like blinds, etc., but we are in and it is livable as is. Now maybe a little beach time!
I’m so happy y’all are finally closed and making progress on the renovations. The new kitchen appliances look fantastic! I’m sure by the time you leave, the place will be well on its way to ‘faaaabulous!”
It was interesting hearing about your trip into the mountains; the dinner at “El Rancho Original” sounded wonderful! And sourcing out local foods is a great idea, too. Can’t wait to see your rental website.
Jasmine says “meowwww!” which means, “where the heck are you guys???”
You are living my dream! I know all the places you are mentioning. Glad to see it is working out slowly. I live in NYC so seeing that you are from south Jersey, you understand high cost living. How are the taxes and utilities expense as oppose to back home? Is health care just as much as the States or mainland as people call it?.
Hope all works out, good luck!
Hi, glad that you found your way here to our Puerto Rican adventure. Compared to the Northeast real estate taxes are MUCH lower. If your home is your primary residence, the first $150k of your property tax value is covered by a homestead exemption. Yes, island real estate can be very affordable. Island sales tax is 7%, which is the same as New Jersey. Eating out is all over the board like everywhere. Goods tend to be slightly more expensive given the added shipping costs to the island. Food shopping is island-centric. In other words, cook/eat like a local and its very reasonable. Demand things that the locals don’t normally use and the cost goes way up. Not surprising since I’ve found that this is true no matter where in the world you are. Utilities are a bit higher, electricity is around .26kwh which means that you don’t leave things/lights on needlessly. But, with no fuel bills for the winter, it all kind of evens out. With year-round temperatures ranging from the low 70’s at night to the mid 80’s during the day, A/C (biggest expense) use is mostly driven by the level of humidity. The locals tend to use A/C only at night in the bedrooms. We haven’t spent a full month there yet so I don’t have a handle on the monthly cost, but based on the usage for the time that we were there, I am guesstimating electricity will run somewhere between $250-350 a month, using the living room a/c unit all of the time. Speaking of which, I am going to have to write a piece on the efficiencies of inverter A/C units. Healthcare is still a bit of an unknown. I have read various things but haven’t experienced any of it yet to comment. I do know that as a recent Medicare recipient that I am covered in PR. As I learn more I will certainly post it, so stay tuned-and thanks for the comments!