The House We Bought vs The Home We Made

Over the years, Lorne and I enjoyed visiting Los Cabos so much that in July 2019 we made the decision to buy a vacation home here.  The plan was that we would make use of it a few times during the year and our kids would either join us on holiday or would be able to use it themselves or with their own families.  However, after closing on the sale in December 2019 and spending those first three weeks in our new vacation home, we found it very hard to leave, and knew we needed to find a way to spend more time here.  We solved that by making a permanent move here in September 2020 (check out the section of our blog “How We Got Here” to read the whole chaotic experience of purchasing this property).

We have now lived here for two years, and it took all that time to complete the renovations and projects we wanted to do in this place.  This was no longer our vacation home but now our primary residence, so we really needed to make some changes to turn it into a more functional, efficient, and comfortable living space.  It took quite a lot of time, a lot of patience, and a great deal of planning but we feel that we have really made this into our home and thought this would be a great time to share some of our before and after photos.

But first…  a bit about our condo.

Our condo is in the Cabo Del Mar Village, a residential development located northeast of the Cabo San Lucas Marina in the El Tezal-West community.  The development is made up of stand-alone houses, townhouses and condos with a guarded front entry offering safety and security to homeowners.  There are many families living here with small children, as well as many older people enjoying their retirement years.  The percentage of expats living here is about 20%, the rest of the residents are Mexican.

This condo was built in 2016 and we purchased it in 2019 for $210,000 USD / $273,000 CAD.  It is a penthouse unit approximately 1450 sq ft in size, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an outdoor patio with pergola covering, and comes with one outdoor reserved parking stall.  The HOA monthly fee is $100 USD / $130 CAD.

The unit came equipped with such things that you would expect to find:  a stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, over-the-stove microwave, washer/dryer, and hot water heater.  It also came with items you need for living in Mexico:  a 170-liter rooftop propane tank, a 1,100-liter rooftop tinaco (water tank), and a 5,000-liter underground cistern.

This specific unit was originally the developer’s display suite for when they were selling these condos.  They wanted to be able to show potential buyers how the units would look fully set up and showcase some additional options that buyers could upgrade in their units.  So this unit came with these “extras” such as:  a complete whole house water purification system, four inverter AC mini splits, hurricane shutters, and a 70” wall mounted flat screen TV.  It also came fully furnished, along with all sorts of décor (including linens/pillows etc) that the developer used for staging the unit. 

In addition to all this, the previous owner had left the kitchen cupboards full of brand-new dishes (place settings for 12), serving dishes, glassware (everyday glasses and wine glasses), cutlery and a whole set of cookware.  This place was totally turnkey – it had everything anyone would need.  You basically just needed to show up with your toothbrush and you would be set!

Since we have been here, we have also added some things to this condo.  The biggest was the complete kitchen reno we did in Feb 2021.  After the reno, we had the same carpenters make new sliding doors for the laundry room, and as well, a new headboard and side cupboards for our master bedroom.  We also had a propane line extended from the rooftop propane tank down to our outdoor barbeque, so Lorne would not have to lug the 20lb propane cylinders up the stairs (we use the barbeque pretty much every single day) and most recently we added four solar panels to the roof, plus a 7.5kw generator, to help keep our power running during the stormy season.

And now, without further ado…  ¡Bienvenido a nuestra casa!

The Patio

Our patio came with four wicker chairs (two shown in the “before” photo below), a side table and of course, that amazing view!  The first thing we bought for the patio was the barbeque, followed by a square patio table.  We used that table with those wicker chairs for the first year that we were here.  We have since changed to a high-top rectangle table to save some space and to give more access to the view.  We added deck tiling to one side of the patio to make a conversation area with two chairs (with pullout ottomans) and one end table. We had additional slats added to the pergola overhead to give more shade during the day. We strung patio lights around the pergola and covered the wires with some artificial ivy to add a touch of greenery.  Most recently we added some additional décor and signage to the conversation area wall.

The Living Room

Our living room was furnished with a sofa, coffee table, ottoman, side table, and a ginormous 70” wall mounted flat screen TV.  We gave away most of this furniture as we brought our own two black leather chairs from Canada, along with the coffee table that Lorne’s Dad made for us.  We bought a new black cabinet with more storage for under the TV, as well as an additional chair for the corner to add more seating.  We replaced the original ceiling fan and finished the room off with an area rug and some wall art.  We also painted the wall in the living room (which also runs the whole length of our condo down the hallway) a sage green colour. 

The Kitchen

Our kitchen came with a very, very heavy wooden dining room table and six high-back dining room chairs.  During the kitchen reno, we gave away the table and chairs and built a kitchen island with seating for four, plus lots of storage.  We replaced all the upper and lower cabinets and added additional cabinets along the west wall which changed the kitchen from an L-shape to a U-shape with much more room. We also replaced the original stove, dishwasher, and fridge with newer more efficient models.  (You can read our post “A Kitchen Renovation Story” to read all about our renovation). 

The Master Bedroom

Our master bedroom came with a king bed plus bedding, two nightstands, two lamps, a large dresser and a windchime hanging in the window.  We painted two walls of our bedroom with the same sage green as in the living room/hallway and repositioned the bed to the south wall to give us more room.  We had a new headboard built for the bed and replaced the nightstands with some side cupboards for more storage.  We replaced the ceiling fan with a larger one, added bamboo blinds, a chair for the corner (that matches the one in the living room), a small table with a lamp, an area rug, and some wall art.

The Master Bathroom

Our master bathroom is huge, measuring approximately 12’x12’.   It contains a large vanity (with six drawers and a massive amount of storage under the sink), a toilet, a large walk-in tiled shower, and a big closet area.  We changed out the light fixture over vanity mirror, painted the mirror hanging on the bathroom door and installed a ceiling fan.  Other than adding our own personal things, we made no additional changes to this room.  

The Laundry Room

Between the master bedroom and the office is the laundry room.  It’s a little alcove just large enough to hold a stackable washer/dryer beside a built-in mop basin.  We replaced the original tri-fold awkward door with sliding barn doors.  We replaced the original washer/dryer unit with a newer more efficient one, added a little trolly to hold our cleaning supplies and mounted some hooks on the walls to hold our brooms and mops.  The laundry room is also where our electrical panel is located as well as the controller panels for our solar panels and our backup generator.

The Office

The “office” was originally one of the three bedrooms in this condo.  It had a double bed, nightstand, and lamp as well as a wall full of closets.  We gave away the furniture and turned this room into our home office.  We pieced together some basic computer desks to form a U-shaped work area to hold my computer, receive amazon packages, and work on projects and crafts.  We added another computer desk on the west wall for Lorne’s work area.  We work back-to-back, but it’s easy enough to swivel around when one of us has a question about something.  We made some vinyl window coverings for the upper windows (way too much glare comes from these windows) and added a new larger ceiling fan with a light.

The Guest Bathroom

The guest bathroom has three entry doors, one from the hallway, one from the guest room, and one from the office, as it was meant to be shared between the two bedrooms.  We never used the hallway entrance, so we added a wire shelving unit inside the bathroom right in front of the hall access door, which fit perfectly.  (On the flip side of the door, in the hallway, we added a coat/shoe rack that also fit perfectly in in this space).  This bathroom has a small vanity (with a large amount of storage underneath), a toilet and a walk-in tiled shower.  Other than adding the wire shelving, the only other change we made was adding a new light fixture over the vanity mirror. 

The Guest Room

The guest room was furnished with a double bed, nightstand, and lamp as well as a wall full of closets and built-in drawers.  We gave away the headboard and nightstand and moved the lamp into the office.  We made a new headboard out of some room dividers, added a new nightstand and new lamp with charging ports.  We replaced the ceiling fan with a larger one, had a privacy blind installed on the north window and added a bamboo blind to the east window.  We moved the ottoman and side table that were originally in the living room into this room for added storage and for guests to be able to use, and as well, added an area rug, and some wall art.

While we were waiting, and waiting, and waiting through 2020 for COVID-19 to be over in order to make the move here, we constantly talked, and planned, and imagined all that we wanted to do with our new condo.  I really wanted to decorate and design this place to be something like a beach cottage, inspired by our beautiful ocean view.  So, I planned and researched.  I saved photos of beachy things that we could buy or replicate and found an amazing palette of beachy colours that I wanted to use throughout the condo.  

Once we arrived here, I tried so hard to make the beachy theme work, that is, until the kitchen reno happened.  We planned to have new white quartz countertops installed, but with the quartz counters being so expensive (they accounted for more than half of the original kitchen reno quote) my beachy dream started to ebb away. 

The next hurdle came when deciding what to do with the long hallway.  I really wanted to paint that wall and had my heart set on it being an amazing blue colour, like the ocean.  We picked up multiple blue paint chips from Home Depot and taped them all over the wall and I could not, for the life of me, decide which blue would look right.  The paint chips stayed taped to the wall for months until one day while I was out for a walk, I suddenly saw it – the perfect colour.  It was an accent colour on one of the houses in our complex and I instantly knew that was the colour we needed for this wall.   We contacted the HOA to find out the specific colour number, hired a painter and the wall was finally done – and we totally love it.

Finding that sage green colour for the wall changed everything.  That’s when I realized I needed to take a step back and let the house and its surroundings inspire what it should be.  As much as we live in a beach town, we also live in the desert, and it turns out that it is the gorgeous desert palette of golden sand, sage green, and terracotta brown that perfectly complements the beautiful blue ocean we see from our patio every day. 

Sometimes, the greatest renovation needs to be our attitude.  Once we realized this, everything else just fell into place, and the home we re-imagined turned out to be so much more than we ever could have imagined.

ps…  Don’t forget to check out the latest Snippets!