Liliana and I have finally made it, we are now in our own home. Five years after buying the property and the last 18 months in construction, we are finally home. For me it has been a long journey, as I went from living for over 40 years in the house of my parents in San Diego, then packing 2 bags and moving to Peru, where I rented for 5 years, then almost another 5 years renting here in Mexico. It took 10 years, but I have finally come full circle and am once again back in a house of my own, with a garage, my tools and a work bench, a garden with a collection tropical plants and palms, large outdoor living spaces (more plants), and most important a kitchen of my own design.

Although we had an architect who designed the basic layout of the house, Liliana and I were very ¨hands-on¨ working with the builder. Together we selected and even designed many of the details in the house. We took our inspiration from various sources; The Glass House, the garden area is encircled with 50 ft. of continuous glass wall. We like heavy iron beams, these were also used in the construction of the glass wall.The rustic brick wall as well as the cherry red paint in the kitchen comes from an Italian theme that we have seen in some of our favorite restaurants. A dislike for ¨straight¨bars on the windows, Lilian found a spiraling design that I modified for the 2 security doors and the windows along the street. We wanted wood floors which are seldom seen here in Mexico. With so many options for wood flooring these days, we finally decided on solid oak floors for the 2 bedrooms and the TV room. Large gray porcelain tiles were used as flooring for the rest of the house, these tiles fit together very close minimizing the amount of grout and creating a look of a solid a surface.