You may have noticed that things have been pretty quiet over here, and to be honest, I think they’ll remain quiet until the end of the year. A lot has happened in “real life” and that has taken up most of my energy, so for the past month I was either crashing in bed exhausted or binge watching TV shows to avoid thinking about a never ending todo list of online stuff I didn’t want to deal with. And I am alright with that. Those blogs are meant to be fun, I don’t treat them as a business, at least for now, and so real life will always have first place. Also, for some reason I had an overdose of PF stuff. I didn’t want to write boring posts about saving money on groceries, so I decided to rather not write anything, and then like the gym, once you drop it, it gets harder to go back on the horse. Anyway, I will leave that for 2015. In the meanwhile, here is a little recap of what happened lately.
During that past month, I decided to start the works on my new house. After my breakup a few months ago, I stayed in our little house by the beach, which I still operate as a guest house, but only own 50% of. My ex lives 300 miles away so I am not worried he will randomly show up, but I wanted to live in a place that was 100% my own. Buying him out was not an option, and if the guest house remains open, I like the idea of living completely apart from it, so both the guests and I can be independent.
My new house is right in front of the 90 acres land development, on a bigger 2 acres lakefront plot we bought in the spring to give residents access to the beach.
If you look at the image above, I have circled my future house. To the North is our 90 acres development, and to the East the streets of my village. On that 2 acres plot, there is a road that goes down to the lake so you can drive your car down, launch your boat or jetski, have a picnic on the beach… and there is space for 6-8 houses. I hope my house can be a model house so if people don’t want to build I can offer them a similar construction on another plot. Those houses will share the beach with residents from the development, but there is 100 meters of beach which is more than enough for everyone. My house is the first when you come in, it is the highest part of the plot so there are nice lake views and more privacy.
In order to help me with the building process, a friend of mine flew over and was to be my contractor and supervisor for three months. I was exhausted after having builders in my house nonstop for the past two years, and didn’t want to deal with any of it, so I was happy to offer him a cut to do all the work for me. But he had an emergency and had to go back to Europe within a week of the works being started. I thought about stopping everything and just wait for him to come back, but eventually decided to take over, so for the past month I have been deep in construction mode all by myself, which has been both empowering and nerve-wracking.
Since my house is about a mile away, I walk there 3-4 times a day, make sure everything is going smoothly, draw plans, go to town to buy materials, and so on. Thankfully my friend is still helping a lot from the distance with technical stuff such as plumbing and the electric system, but having to go back to managing 15 guys whose face just dropped when they heard my friend was gone and they’d have to deal with “the lady” again wasn’t the easiest.
Still, I decided to put my best effort into it, and am pleasantly surprised at the pace of things. In a month, we have almost finished the first floor. This has been my office for the past month
![IMG_5717[1]](https://reachfinancialindependence.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/IMG_57171.jpg "IMG_5717[1]")
just trying to use the computer in what will one day be my living room!
The house is similar to the previous buildings, but will have two stories, kitchen-dining-living room on the first floor, and two rooms upstairs, each with a big bathroom, the master also has a walk-in closet.
![IMG_5702[1]](https://reachfinancialindependence.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/IMG_57021.jpg "IMG_5702[1]")
and that is the view from my future room!
![IMG_5715[1]](https://reachfinancialindependence.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/IMG_57151.jpg "IMG_5715[1]")
In the end, I am pretty proud I did all that in a month, but it has been a lot to take in.
So to treat myself, I am going back to Europe on a whim! I just bought tickets to come back in January, I am visiting my friend in Madrid for a couple of weeks then heading to Paris to visit family, and having a girls meetup in the South of France as well as seeing my grandparents about 5 hours from Paris. I haven’t been back since September 2013 and was not missing it to be honest. I haven’t even left Guatemala since Miami a year ago and was happy with that too, when I used to feel the urge to go abroad 2-3 times a year. I usually like to go in May or September for the fair weather and people are in better moods, but I found a $250 ticket from Cancún to Madrid and it was just too good to pass.
Which means preparing for the trip has taken another good chunk of my days. We will leave the house drying before adding a second floor, but in my absence the guys will still do small things like kitchen countertops and storage, closets… which I have to draw precisely so I come back to a pleasant surprise.
I also have Airbnb guests for 10 days around the new year so I am in the process of training the maid and handyman to attend guests without me, which is no small task, they are humble village people and pretty scared of gringos. I trust it will be ok, but it takes time to have them pay attention to details and clean to an acceptable level every single day.
Napoleon the little Great Dane will also stay in the house while I am away, which is ok with the guests, so I had to buy him 150lb of meat since he is on a raw diet, and left them in a deep freezer… which broke yesterday. Yay for unexpected trouble!
He also has found an ugly little village dog who seems to have become his girlfriend, and since she is stealing his meat three times a day, now she sleeps here not to miss a thing! I took her to the vet for a parasite shot and washed her in the lake as she was so smelly, so now she seems to think we are her new home. I am kind of happy about it since Great Danes have separation anxiety so he’ll have a friend while I am away.
As soon as she started spending too much time around here, I found myself googling “mating great dane with chihuaha” as she is pretty small and I was worried about her dying from having to carry giant babies, but I found her parents in the village and they assured me she couldn’t have kids, so one less worry.
I don’t know if every mother thinks their daughter in law is never good enough for their son but I know I did. Then she was always there and in a good mood even when I bathed her and took her to get a shot so she kind of grew on me. Plus she is so eager to eat meat she does a really neat trick that if you throw food at her she’ll catch it in the air, like when you do that with peanuts and a drunk friend, except she never misses.
Oh, did I mention my TWO CARS broke down? The old Suzuki had a burst gas filter and was dropping gas as I drove, which scared the crap out of me once a guy pointed it out, I didn’t even dare drive it back to the mechanic, and the newer Hyundai had a burst radiator that blew off steam a few weeks ago, I changed it, drove for a day, broke the car again as a gasket got damaged by the radiator blowing, so I have been on foot for a while, which is super convenient when you need to buy construction materials every other day…
Meanwhile, some are taking it easy!
![IMG_5633[1]](https://reachfinancialindependence.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/IMG_56331.png "IMG_5633[1]")
That’s it for now, thanks for bearing with me, and if we don’t talk by then, I wish you all very happy and lovely holidays, and I will see you in 2015!
Pauline so sorry about the break up but I have to tell you, I envy your life. I think that its awesome that you are living the life you want to live and giving back to the community. Good luck with development and I look forward to following your progress. Have fun in Europe. Ohhh….I love homeboys girlfriend…she is cute ugly. Did you name her?
Thank you Petrish! I just call her “chuchita” which is an endearing term for “little female dog” around here, don’t want to get too attached if her parents come claim her now that she smells better and put on some weight!
Pauline, after the breakup and hard work, you deserve a break and a treat for yourself. Have a safe trip to Madrid. Good to know that you’ll be visiting your family. Good luck Pauline.
Thank you Jason, have a lovely holiday season!
Pauline, yes; every mother of a biy thinks that there is no girl good enough for their son – some just are not brave enough to admit it (or are so boringly politically correct). Have a great time in Europe and if you fancy popping around to the UK give us a shout.
Hahaha I knew it! Will do Maria, but I think I’ll already be freezing in Spain so the UK may have to wait for warmer days… happy holidays!
Wow you definitely have been busy! I love that you decided to head to Europe for a jaunt. It will do you a lot of good I think. Joyeuses Fêtes Pauline et bonne année 2015!
Merci Kassandra! Happy holidays to you as well. I am pretty psyched to go to Europe 🙂
Amazing progress Pauline! I can’t imagine building so much on my own. Well done.
I’ve taken a 3 month break from construction and have been loving the peace and cash flow replenishment. Don’t work too hard now Oki?
Cheers
Will try! Your place looks fabulous too. In the two years I have been building, concrete has gone up over 15% and some materials even more, so it helps getting extra motivation to finish asap. The low cost of labor makes for affordable construction as well. But a break is going to be very welcome! Happy holidays.
Bummer on the breakup, but you certainly have a lot of great things going for you and keeping you busy which can be just the right medicine. Taking a break from the blog is ok, let’s just call it a little siesta.
A siesta sure sounds good!
Napoleon… what a stud.
Haha she came to him! he was just happy to have someone to play with.
Whew I admit that sometimes when my life seems crazy I read your posts. lol! I’m kind of kidding but it does seem exhausting, at least I think for me it would be…but maybe it’s not as stressful as it seems? I think it’s great you’re headed back to Europe for a little vaca though and hope that gives you some rest!
It’s not all that stressful, just takes quite a bit of time and energy so on my down time I just feel like doing nothing and sleeping. Yes, Europe will be a great change of scenery. Happy holidays!
You never slow down, ever! I hope your trip home is nice and relaxing, for a bit of a change. I can’t wait to see the new house. You are averaging more than one new space per year!
I want to slow down, I swear! Hopefully that’s the last house, then I move there, the guest house stays on a separate plot, business on one side, pleasure on the other, me in a hammock all day 🙂
Pauline,
Thanks for sharing those challenging experiences. It makes my problems seem rather small in comparison. I have only to worry about repairing a leaking rental house roof.
However, when I do start feeling overwhelmed, I call to mind Abraham Lincoln’s words, “Most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Sorry about that Terry, that sucks. I love the quote, you definitely decide to be happy and sometimes it takes more work but it sure can be done.
Hey Pauline
Wow, when it rains, it pours! I read this post and your other post about the break-up and thought about how things just seem to come in clusters sometimes. Life is smooth for awhile and then it gets weird and chaotic for awhile.
I’m happy to hear that you’re taking a break and heading to Europe for a bit. A change in scenery and seeing friends/family can just help you feel better about things. Take care, friend!
Thank you Lindsey, I sure hope 2015 will be smoother 🙂 Happy holidays to you!
Stay strong Pauline, you’ll get through this. Your house is going to look amazing. One of my dreams is to someday build my own house. Hope you have a nice trip back to Europe. Relax and enjoy your holidays!
Thank you Thomas! Building a house is a dream and a nightmare at the same time haha.
I can completely understand – it’s been a hard year at our end, and I saw a great quote today about how emotional stability affects our finances. Happy holidays to you and here’s to a fresh start in 2015.
Same to you, hope 2015 is amazing!
Breakups are never an easy time but it often changes your life for the better. 🙂 You seem to have a nice life up there. The sun, the beach, your two dogs, your “hotel”, your online income… sounds like paradise! Here in Canada the cold months have started… it’s grey and cold and boring… I even went through a restructuring at my job and many of my friends were laid off just before Christmas…
Enjoy your break and have fun. 2015 will bring new people, new challenges and a fresh start!
Let’s hope so! I am really spoiled here, life is deliriously good, and I hope it only gets better from here. All the best to you for 2015!
Oh wow–sounds like you’ve had quite the month! I’m sorry you’ve had so many hassles :(. But, your trip to Europe sounds like the perfect antidote. I hope you have a refreshing and relaxing time with your family and friends. And hopefully your home will move right along while you’re away! By the way, I love that photo of Napolean in the bean bag chair, too cute. Take care and happy new year!
Thank you, Merry Christmas and happy new year to you as well!
I’m really sorry about the break-up :/ It’s never easy but I also admire you for braving all the obstacles your “new” life has in store for you. Can’t wait to see your finished new house 🙂 It already looks really cool and the view is awesome!
Mums always think that ;D My boyfriend is Austrian and I’m German. Naturally, his whole family didn’t think I was good enough for him. But that dog is really cute ^^ And after all, it’s Napoleon’s happiness that counts 😉
Thanks Andrea! Hang in there with the boyfriend, after a while of being nice to me I had no choice but being nice to her 🙂
Jealous of the view from your room! Hope you have a good vacation and cheers to 2015! 🙂
Thank you, happy holidays to you too!
Congrats on your new house! Your future view looks beautiful!!!
Thanks Holly, yes it should be pretty nice, not as open as the previous one but that means more tree, more share, cooler house.
I think we go through stages where we just have to take a break, catch our breath and reload on our energy. Sounds like you’ve been through a lot recently and some down time might be what’s in order. Take care and Merry Christmas! Here’s to a great 2015!
Thank you Brian, Merry Christmas and best wishes to you too.
“…so I decided to take over…”
Inspirational as always, Pauline!
unfortunately there wasn’t much else to do!
Wow, that’s a lot of information. You should have your own series on the Discovery channel or something. French woman takes on the wilds of Guatemala. I can see the commercial now! Have a great trip back home, and I hope you do have some nice surprises when you return.
Thanks for sharing your ups and downs. I recently went through the same thing and it was a great learning experience. Btw, that dog! I love!
I hope you enjoy your trip and come back refreshed and ready to go for 2015. Thanks for sharing these updates with us!
I laughed when I read the bit about the men answering to the lady from now on…haha…good! I’ve had some interesting experiences with contractors who don’t want to “deal with the lady.” Pish posh!
Enjoy your break and holidays!
The trip sounds just what you need Pauline. I hope you have a wonderful 2015 🙂
This is exciting. We hope that in 10-20 years we’d be able to save enough to get a small home somewhere near our city and build it ourselves. We do need to save a lot though 🙂
Best of luck and have a great 2015!
Thank you, Happy New Year to you as well!