Building or renovating a house is such a personal thing, so much depends on how you live and what is important to you.  An architect can only do so much, you have to get involved and you have to really think about how you live.  That said, a good architect is probably the most important component in the whole process.  They are the ones that know how to do what you want and there will be a zillion things that you don’t think about but the architect will, another zillion options that you have never heard of that they can tell you about.

Henry & Mimi look at original house

One thing that is different here in Mérida, and perhaps in the rest of México, is that many architects also function as contractors.  They have their own crews, their own sub-contractors and they are responsible for the whole job from design through construction.

I’ve mentioned before that I picked the architect before I picked the house.  I picked him because I looked at a dozen houses he had done and while some were not my preference in style I realized that I could live in any of them, happily.   His eye for lighting both natural and artificial is incredible, and light is one of the things I notice first about a house.  He keeps the design details simple and authentic; space, light and color flow through his houses.

Equally important is that the architect is honest and reliable.  I talked to the owners of the renovations, I searched for info on forums and I found a universal respect and a very high approval from his clients.  I finally found one guy who wasn’t happy and we went to see him.  It turned out he never really hired Henry, but they disagreed on the preliminary ideas and he felt he wasn’t listened to properly.  What it really sounded like was just a personality conflict, they didn’t mesh.  Not one person complained that he didn’t do the work agreed on, that he cheated them, that things were not fixed as they wanted.  The recurring comment from everyone was that he backed his work and if something wasn’t working, he fixed it.  He even fixed things on houses that had been done by one client and then sold to another, his work was guaranteed in a way not often seen.

Same area now

So, the first thing that worked about this renovation was Henry Ponce. Hiring him was the best and the most important decision we made.  He was easy to work with, funny and kind and he listened.  He told me when he thought one of my ideas wouldn’t work and he looked away and said nothing when he thought one of them was bad design.  I learned to interpret those silences and after re-thinking the ideas I changed to his version in all but a very few cases.   Not because he said anything but because when I really thought about it, he was just right.  A couple times I stood my ground and in a few of those cases he later told me he thought it worked.

When we moved in the first thing Henry said is that we would find things living here that had been missed or didn’t work right and he expected me to let him know right away and they would fix it.  The list has not been long but what I did find was dealt with immediately.   The other day, the water pressure seemed low so I called.  The plumber came and discovered that the float in the cisterna was stuck and the pump wasn’t coming on.  I call and someone is here in a few hours.    I don’t have to worry about who to call or how to contact someone, I call Henry’s guy and he gets it done.   It makes life in another country and another language a whole lot easier.

Looking at costs, I think that I have saved money by using Henry.  His fees are reasonable and they include the discounts that he gets from suppliers which means that I would have paid a good portion of his fees in increased costs for materials and labor.   If you consider that I am a foreigner and would never get the prices that he gets, I would spend an enormous amount of time looking for suppliers for some things, and that I would not know what to look for in many areas of construction and would be a prime target for shoddy workmanship, then it is the best deal possible – and that is without counting the benefit of his incredible design skills.

So, my number one piece of advice if you are considering a renovation or building a house in México, spend a lot of time researching and then hire the best architect you can.   It will pay off in money and in satisfaction with the completed house.

© Jonna for blah...blah...blah... Ginger!, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Post tags: Henry Ponce, Mérida House, renovation