Boxes are driving me crazy

I am shaking things up a bit. Instead of a morning photo you can see the sunset to the west in the top photo. We are truly right on top of the hill. The foothills in the photo are of Tiger Mountain, near the town of Issaquah.
In the photo below, taken the full moon night of January 22, you can see the...full moon.
I took this photo about an hour after the sunset. It was amazingly bright and the full moon hung like that in the sky forever. This is the beginning of the good2go2mexico moving sale....

and these are the boxes that have been driving me crazy.

When I decided to start packing, I just started packing and I wrote on the outside of the box, in both Spanish and English, just a few of the things that could be found in the box..china...crystal...dishes...glasses...radio.....on and on to the count of 30 boxes.....and sealed them right up. Only afterward did I bother to visit the Seattle Mexican Consulate website and research the border and customs regulations.

Every box must match an itemized list (photocopied 4 times), listing all items to be imported. Brand, model and serial numbers must be stated when listing electrical appliances according to the website.
Thirty useless packed boxes. That is what I have had in the living room for a week.

Of course, I had to unpack them and repack them. The good news is that in the repacking, I decided I did not need some of the things (like a couple of hundred little sea shells) and after consulting Bill on the items being packed and putting some of those things in the good2go2mexico moving sale pile, I now have only 19 boxes!!

How great is that! I am so proud of myself!

A menaje de casa is an itemized list that alot of people use to cross the border. It seems that it is most often used when a moving company is taking your belongings across for you or if you have huge amounts of things to take across or if you are just plain scared to cross without it.

It's our understanding that if you move and use the menaje de casa you will need to pay a Mexican customs broker to check your things and help you get through customs. And you pay alot of US dollars to the customs broker.

I am close to being blogread out about people and their Mexico moving experiences. The mexican consulate website for Seattle does not mention a thing about the menaje.
So we are just making the itemized list and calling it 'a typed list of household effects' (something like detailer lista de casa).
I have to run that phrase by Violeta, our spanish teacher....
The word menaje means household goods, but we are going to try not to use it.

So, anyways, then we will have to take the detailer lista de casa and 4 photocopied sheets of it and the following to the consulate:
application for FM3 visa
valid passport
police clearance letter
2 front view passport photos
proof of income for the previous 6 months
After all of the above is appoved, we are given the border permit for taking our belongings and also given our permit for taking our car and the trailer we plan to buy.

Well, I think this is how it will go, if it's a good day. I have read many things about folks being turned away at the consulate and asked to go get this or that apostilled in Olympia with the Secretary of State.

. This is Ian's collection of little leggo and playmobile ponies. I may be willing to give up one hundred pretty little seashells, but these guys are packed and ready to go.

Our 19 boxes, a number I am sure will continue to grow, are now each numbered and coded to the detailer lista de casa (I'm starting to like the sound of that, but I bet it's wrong) The list itself is very itemized with everything inside each box.

I'll let you know what the consulate thinks about that....

La Casa

7:10am shot from Tolt Hill
It is freezing cold here, but the sunrise can't be beat......
Mount Si....looks more like a warm weather sunrise, but everything outside is frozen hard.

This is Calle Durango....our street in Mexico...looking down the hill to town. #9 is on the right.
flowers across the street
mountains across the street
across and up the street

inside the yard looking at the propane tank, everything runs on propane. one day we saw a young man riding his bike and he was juggling his big propane tank across the handlebars of the bike. the street is right behind.
pictures are just a little out of order. we are going into the yard at #9
okay, now we are back looking at the yard and gate before we go in....the yard is huge here..
okay, below we are back outside looking at the mountains across the street. i worked hard to get my photos organized in a sequence, obviously I am a failure at that.....
still looking across the street, well at least it's pretty

okay, this tree is in the backyard, pretty bouganvilla up there in the tree
yea, a shot of the house and yard there are lots of lime trees, all kinds of bushes and trees that i will have to learn about, a big palm tree and thousands of fire ants. ....
a tree in the backyard
more yard and the small shed on the right
side of the casa

trying to get into the casa, this is one of the livable rooms where we will live while we work on the casa
inside the casa, to the left is the yard
below i am standing in the room where the above photo was taken, the livable rooms are to the left and the yard is to the right.....
the casa, livable rooms to the right
the yard is big enough to put in a soccer field.

looking out through one of the windows to the street outside
another view from one of the windows, to the mountains
ooh, bad bathroom, just had to show this photo
looking into the kitchen
this photo shows the shed out in the yard

back near the funky swirly brick room
funky swirly brick will come down
for those of you still wondering if there is electricity, note the hanging light fixture. I'm sure we will get a new one.
bedroom with aluminum foil covered windows. everything will be removed before we get there in march, we hope....it will all be removed....
ooh, another bad bath photo of a second bathroom.

our new kitchen
fireplace in our new kitchen and kitchen sink
storage room with fridge and bricked in wall
funky swirly brick room is in the photo below
one livable room

aren't you excited now that you have seen the casa? we cannot wait to get back down there and get started. we have ordered a spanish colonial architectural book and the plan is to be as true to the local style of architecture as possible while keeping the structure that is there now intact.

we just have a little work to do......................

An Alamos,Sonora, Mexico, photopost ..............

an arroyo in alamos
vendors line the alameda
the alameda before the vendors come
an alamos street
beautiful archways

soon all the electricity in alamos will be underground
the church plaza
palapa roofs and wrought iron and archways and garbage day
beautiful iron balconies at posada de don andres
palm tree cell tower outside town
view from the mirador

students at the church plaza
more beautiful colonial architecture
another quiet street
the church plaza
archways


back at the alameda
another photo from the mirador
a lake near alamos
an old church in the hills above alamos
along the alameda