Kyle Hepp

March 17, 2011

So many people asked for updates on the apartment remodeling when I did the survey to find out what you all wanted to see more of on this blog. I promise that I’ll keep you up to speed on everything that’s going on but I haven’t been able to say much because there hasn’t been much going on!

About two weeks before we left for this trip, we finally, finally, FINALLY got all the permits that we need. The last one we were waiting on took forever because the girl who was in charge of approving it was on vacation. For an entire month. And there was nobody else who could do her job and give us a yes or no. Oh Chile.

So with two weeks left to continue working, we were at a crossroads. We could either leave the workers carrying on with the next steps (re-wiring all the electric cables and putting up the drywall that we need to add in a few places) with someone else overseeing their progress. Or we could leave the place as is until July when we’re back in Santiago for longer than a week. We chose the latter. Seba studied the equivalent of civil construction engineering and doesn’t trust that anyone else could do as good of a job. That, and he’s a control freak. I get it. I’m the same way with flying. I can’t fall asleep because I don’t trust that the pilot is going to stay awake. I’m an idiot.

We’ve basically resigned ourselves to the fact that we won’t be able to move in probably until the end of the year. Of course, I’m a little upset by that. I mean, c’mon — is there anybody in the world who would be thrilled by the fact that they’re going to have to continue living with their in-laws? But, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. At least we own an apartment. At least I know we’ll eventually be able to live in it. There was a time when I didn’t think even that would ever be possible. The bright side is that the longer we take to begin the rest of the remodeling, the more money we’ll have saved. So we’ll either not have to touch our current savings to do the work, or we’ll end up doing cooler stuff with the extra money (a more likely scenario).

The plan is to have the electrician and the guy who has to put up the mini-walls do their work as soon as we’re back in July. They’ll work for about three weeks and right as they finish, we’re going to Mexico for a short trip. Then when we come back from Mexico, depending on weddings and what not, we should have approximately another month and a half in Chile to be able to keep working, which is when we’ll get into the good stuff — the bathroom and the kitchen. After that, we’ll be off to the U.S. for another wedding. When we leave for that trip we plan on leaving furniture makers working on a few things for us — a custom made bed and a really cool bookshelf are the two priorities. So by the time we’re back in Chile, ideally they’d be done and we could move in. I’m not counting my chickens, but I have hope!

Anyways, people are always asking what’s going on, so I figured I’d update — there is nothing to update. If you don’t hear about the apartment for several months this is why. It’s hard to move forward with the plans when we’re not on the same continent. We’ll get there eventually.

Here are a few photos that we took most recently. More walls have been knocked down since the last time you saw it.