SAME BUT DIFFERENT IN CUENCA

Since my return from the States, we have been in a whirlwind of getting ready for Thanksgiving and moving into our new rental home.

When you rent an unfurnished place here in Cuenca it is really unfurnished. No appliances, no shower rods, mirrors, curtains or even light fixtures. The upside of this is that most landlords are very happy to let you do any upgrades to the house, at your cost! We got a great landlord who is going to split the cost of most of the upgrades. So his offer of 60/40 was definitely a bonus.

Here are some pictures of our first tour through the house when the house was still occupied.

Entry

Living room

Family Room

Dining Room

We decided that white was not our idea of a paint color so when I was in Oregon and Washington, Randy went paint shopping with our good friends Chela and Alex . Then, Randy and Arturo our new friend and also Facilitator (facilitatorscuencaecuador.blogspot.com) had the floors sanded, buffed and sealed with 3 coats of varnish. They were the old parque floors that had to be waxed..and there were parts that were loose so it was like a big jigsaw puzzle! I returned to a fresh new home. I was not allowed to see the house until the last coat of varnish was dry.  Here is the empty house during its big "reveal".

Brenda Eddy Green, in the entry way

All shiny and new looking floors those are individual pieces!

Clarke Green, Living Room

Family Room

Clarke checking out the old Dining Room area

Randy Kimbler, where is the light?

View across the entry into the NEW dining area.

Upstairs landing. Looking into Master and 2nd bath

We had ordered furniture before I left for the States, and we had an agreement that it would be delivered on the 27th.. Thanksgiving day. Well we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Arturo & Beccas late that evening. But no furniture was delivered. The next day the furniture people called to say that as they were loading  they dropped one of the nitestands and it broke so they were not going to deliver any of the furniture... Arturo was not having any of that and after some very rapid Spanish they agreed to bring what was not broken the next day.. in the morning.  Morning came and went. Arturo's mother Chela is a wonderful cook and they called to say she wanted us to come over for Crab! Oh yum! So we walked over at 1:00. At 1:45 Arturo received a call that the furniture was about 5 mins out and was someone home to take delivery? Poor Arturo, he can eat about 10 crabs (hey they are small) so he was really disappointed that he had only devoured one when the call came. Randy I think on the other hand was happy to get the furniture and be done with the time consuming crab.

I stayed behind, working my through the crab Ecuadorian style.. ugh. eating part of the goods in the head and some icky brown stuff near the lungs.. its supposed to be a delicacy but I am happy to say, I did not take any pictures of it or my face while quickly drinking some lemonade! I have to say here, the crab meat was very delicious, and if I was not so lazy I would have eaten more, and the head makes a very handy little bowl to put rice, encebollda, and crab juice.. yummy!

At 3:00 I called Randy to see if there was some issues with the furniture. Yep.. the deliver truck broke down and the delivery folks had just gotten there with part of the furniture.. in the back of a pickup. At this point it was a race in front of the on coming Thunderstorm. They made it; and now we have a bed set up, and the furniture for the living room. We are still waiting on the dining room and coffee table as they are being hand made by the fellow who made the humidor and stereo table.

Old dining room, we like it as the living room

Another view of the living room door into kitchen

Family room, with this and that in here until we get more settled

Other side of Family Room

Entry with the handmade rustic buffet

2nd floor landing, we made it the TV area

Randy unpacking in our bedroom

Our new bed w/o its nitestands. We used boxes..

I think Randy, Chela, Alex, Arturo and Becca deserve a round of applause (insert here). They did a great job, and I am happy to say, I didn't have to lift a finger...well until we moved.. and then somehow I kept staying behind to unload.. hmmm I think I need a round of applause too...