John-the-architect's Home Building Adventures

When Sue visited San Miguel last March to check it out, she stayed with John and Emily. Emily is the sister of a good friend of hers, and they have two girls 7 and 9. John and Emily were here for three months, and we came in large part because of them.

Tonight, we reconnected with John and Emily, as they are here for four weeks for the Christmas break. We met them at a friends house, just down the street from where they are staying. John-the-architect and Helle (his wife), built a beautiful house in our neighborhood with a pool, elevator, hot tub, and a great view of the center of town. As I mentioned before, San Miguel seems to be an attractive place for architects to build second homes.


Hanging out in John and Helle's architectural masterpiece

Building a house here, and maintaining it, isn't without its challenges, as I learned from John-the-architect. The good contractors are very good, and the bad ones are very bad. The house has been operational for a year or so, and in general everything works well, although John-the-architect narrated some tales of pain to me. Examples:

• The elevator is still unfinished. He paid for the whole elevator, but got the shaft. (John's joke.)
• The jacuzzi-on-the-roof had some creative plumbing. The PVC water pipes were run through the chimney. It wasn't until they lit a fire and saw that the chimney had no draw were they able to discover this. Apparently the pipes pretty much blocked the whole chimney flow, and why would you put meltable PVC pipes in a chimney anyway? The plumbing had to be redone.
• Their housekeeper decided to move in when they were away. She had some parties, and regularly used their car. She dented it three times. She still has a job.
  

Despite all that, the home is beautiful. For me, I'd rather rent.