We finally got some mirrors installed in the bathrooms. This is no small miracle, considering that small mirrors with no frame can cost $35 or more, and the people who make the mirrors often decorate them with frosted swans and flowers. I suppose that increases their cost/value, but - not my style at all. But after poor Mom and Dad had to check their images in the reflection off the TV, we felt a little embarrassed, and with the next check set aside some big bucks to get some mirrors made. Luckily, we found these medicine cabinet types for only about $79 at a hardware store. We had to put them together, but Andres is good at that kind of stuff. Medicine cabinets are hard to come by here so they actually look pretty cool in our bathrooms, and they are very practical since we were hiding the medicine under towels in the linen closet for want of a better place to put it. Now we have them on the highest shelf... and Agustin cannot get to them. That feels good.
Interestingly enough, I didn't mind not having a mirror around. It was peaceful in our house with no mirrors, and though I've never been a vain person, it got me away from worrying about what I looked like or how my clothes looked on me. Of course, that is probably why every time I saw a picture of myself I would give a little gasp, haha! Well, we are back in the land of living and mirror-life - no more lala land mirrorless house - and actually we have even found some cheap ($15) full lengths that we bought too. So now there is no excuse not to make this diet work...every time I pass by my bedroom door that mirror reminds me...
duh, Kari, how original.But for those of us just getting out of those teeny-tiny (as Tin would say) starter apartments and into something with more than three floors (that are your own, mind you), the bills can be quite overwhelming. And that is without the need for heating or air conditioning! Just the electric bill is over three times what we spent in the apartment, the phone bill is higher (probably because I am using the Internet more, but also because now we are in a "rich" residential zone, where there are more taxes, whereas before we were near the poorer residential area Comite del Pueblo, so prices for basic services were lower). In our apartment we didn't have to pay for water, since the monthly dues took care of that, but here in our new house we pay like $20 a month. Gardening and upkeep, cleaning supplies to clean five bathrooms (don't laugh Andres - even if I don't clean them regularly I DO buy the supplies!), even furniture and wall hangings to try and fill up the space a bit! It is so weird to go from an apartment where you could barely move to a place where your voice actually echoes for lack of "stuff." It is quite fun, in a way, because I no longer have to fear those U.S. shopping sprees (that is, until the house gets cluttered again and we have to sell it and use it for storage and get our very own mansion).
