Well, we’ve now been in our house for a few months now – and we love it!

I’ll have some upcoming posts talking about specific topics, including our home internet, smart-home, whole-house audio, and lighting.

In the meantime, here’s 10 things in particular that we love. If you’re building or remodeling, feel free to steal borrow these ideas.

Shoe nook near the front door

We don’t typically wear shoes in the house, so we had our builder create a nook for shoes. Since all of our kitchen cabinets were custom made, it was an easy upgrade. It keeps our shoes at hand, but out of the way.

Wall niches with LED lighting

Throughout our travels, and especially throughout Mexico, we’ve collected a number of art pieces. We knew we wanted a dedicated display area, so we designed art niches in the living room. We wanted it to be 3 continuous recessed shelves, but there was a supporting beam in the wall, so it was split into two niches with 3 shelves each. There’s also hidden LED strip lights with dimmer switches.

Plugs in bathroom drawers

I had installed power in a bathroom drawer when we lived in Austin, and we knew we wanted it here as well. It’s especially useful for Elizabeth; she can leave her hair dryer (and other electric hair appliances) plugged in all the time. Super convenient.

Garrafon pumps

Under each sink is a small electric pump, with a tube that goes into a garrafon (5 gallon jug of drinking water). And the pump goes to a small, single-inlet faucet. The result is a simple drinking water faucet, and the garrafons are hidden under the cabinet.

Dog Door

When we started designing the house, we had 2 dogs and one cat. Now we have 1 dog and 2 cats. It’s super convenient for them to go in and out to the yard as they please. They can do their business in the back yard, and hang-out outside when they want. The outside is a rubber flap with magnets, so it stays shut. And inside is a wooden, lockable door, so we can close and lock it when we want.

Double Shower Heads

This is easy to do when building, and it’s pretty sweet! There’s a traditional shower head coming from the wall, and then there’s also a rain-showerhead coming from the ceiling. You can select either shower-head, or a combination of both. It’s pretty luxurious.

Also, the shower controls are NOT under the shower head – they’re at the entrance to the shower as you walk in. That way you can turn on the water and wait for the hot water to get there, without getting wet at all. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference. And it’s really not much more work to do when building, before the shower walls are tiled and finished.

Trash Door

As part of the design of the front wall of the property, we have a niche for our trash barrel. That way it tucks out of the way, as opposed to just sitting on the sidewalk all the time (which is very common here). In addition, on the interior side of the wall, we have a small trash door, which allows to throw trash into the barrel from the interior courtyard. Necessary? No. A bit lazy? Maybe. Do I still like it? Heck, yes!

Tile Rugs

These are pretty common in traditional Mexican homes, often done using pasta tiles. Ours are simpler ceramic tiles, but we love the look of how they came out. We did these on our top-floor terrace, and on the front terrace outside Gary’s office.

Retractable Screens

All of our window screens (mosquito screens) are retractable. Which means when we’re not using them, they retract, and disappear. It’s a super clean look. When we have the doors and windows closed, we can retract the screens, and they we get only the clear glass – no screens. And when they’re retracted, there’s less chance of storm damage (things you have to think about when living close to the ocean).

The 3rd floor terrace is entirely retractable screens – so we can close it all off, and stay mosquito-free, or retract them all, and have unobstructed views.

Hurricane Windows and Doors

This was actually one of the more expensive components of the house, but it was an investment we wanted to make. All of our windows and doors are made by Kömmerling. They’re made up of two pieces of glass, with a layer of strong SGP laminate in-between the glass.

In addition to being storm ready, they’re also incredible at soundproofing. When you close the windows are doors, you can feel the quality, and the outside noise just disappears. As much as I love Mexico, it’s not a quiet country, and sometimes you just want quiet. 😉

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That’s 10 – for now

So, that’s ten things we love in our new house. I’m sure I can come up with another 10. Or 20. Or 30! More in a future post…