Summer's End

Summer’s End

Southern Baja is lush, green and buggy. High season is upon us. The quiet of summer now coming to an end. I can hear the front loader spreading dirt on the road that leads up to our home and neighborhood hill. Numerous earth soaking, green leaving, butterfly producing rains drizzled and poured from the sky this last summer. We boarded up for one hurricane this summer and I am ready to take the ones still up, down, letting the cool fall air and sunlight stream in, morning, day and before the night.

Yoga and Healing Winds

Six months ago, I led my first official, street legal and Yoga Alliance certified yoga class the Sukhasana Yoga and Pilates Studio – our first yoga class to be offered in Spanish to the local community. Attendance has been consistent, averaging ten students per class. So far, mostly women. From time to time a new student will show up, curious about the practice, having heard about it from another and quietly rolls out a mat in our studio.

Fall afternoon in the rain 2015

Jackie Reeves, our beloved yoga teacher and manager of Sukhasana Yoga and Pilates Studio since 2009, has already written up and posted the November schedule. It is packed with inspiring variety, both in classes and time slots. Check out our group FB page for schedule updates November through April, the high season. Jackie is also our GM for Healings Winds during the high season and she Rocks! Check out the “More Info” button on Healing Winds Holistic Center from our Home page to view all four studios, the courtyard and more!

Outdoor Living in Baja

As summer nears its end, our summer projects at UBL Designs are wrapping up with artisans applying the final tiles, paint and carefully detailed hand crafted touches. Kitchen tiles, pebbled walkways, bright and cheerful bedroom and bathroom additions with sparkling side or skylights - to name a few - await the arrival of friends and clients who have been away all summer, entrusting us to work on their homes while they spend summers in cooler climates up north or overseas.

UBL Designs, previously known as Vos en Construction, has been one of the premier builders in the East Cape since 1991. Over the years, we have designed and built one of a kind custom homes, remodels, additions, provided design consulting for interiors – providing creative solutions to projects in progress that sometimes reach a halt when owners reach the “how do we finish this project” phase, as well as, created outdoor living areas that feel like a home in themselves. We have witnessed and been part of the boom, then recession in the East Cape building industry, and worked through all the places in between. Builders have come, some have stayed, some have gone. When asked who is our competition these days, my reply and opinion stands: there is no competition or comparison. Every designer, architect, engineer, builder, contractor – we all have our own style and philosophy in our design-build practice. The East Cape attracts an eclectic group of people from all over the world. For each living area to be created, either indoor or outdoor, there is a designer and builder perfectly suited for you.

June afternoon with family and friends 2014

However, due to our knowledge and experience, full time living in the East Cape for over two decades myself - all four seasons in each year, longer for my husband and business partner who was born and raised in Buena Vista, there is an area we love and are expanding within: designing and building Outdoor Living Areas. Our artisans are expert craftsman, patient, detail oriented and have worked with us for years, one of them for as long as the company has been around. Our team is set and ready to move forward!

In Baja, outdoor living is available and enjoyable year round. Whether you are relaxing or entertaining, surround yourself with greenery, the sky above, water and mountains beyond. Bring the indoors out and the outdoors in. Indoor-Outdoor Living is about creating seamless design as you move from one area to the next during your daily living. To share different ideas and inspirations for how we can create the perfect Outdoor Living Area for you and yours, UBL Designs will be hosting a Winter Garden and Outdoor Living Area Tour - January 6, 2016. Mark your calendars, hold the date and stay tuned for more details about the tour.

Home

Before the onset of gentle summer rain and downpours of this past season, Javier and I had agreed to thin out our yard. Less is more. We started a conversation and practice during our summer vacation in Oaxaca years ago, committing to the simplification of our lives. A conversation, intention and practice that is part of our every day. Some days we do better than others. All of our gray water from showers, lavatory sinks and washing machine is immediately used to water our plants. Our home is sited on the higher elevation of our yard, making all gray water runs easy to direct. The only water that goes to our septic system is black water from toilets and kitchen sink. We did attempt years ago to re-use kitchen sink water. A year and half into the experiment, hot and humid air, smell and… let’s connect this line to the septic, now! Living in the desert where water is scarce, all our plants are hearty, many live off gray water, most of them are volunteers – desert plants, as well as flowers, and trees. We started with a few and the multiplication began. The last four years have provided wetter summers than I can remember, this one taking the prize. Seeing all the purple flowers in bloom and the trees turn into a jungle this summer, not only inspired our ten year old daughter to suggest we get monkeys, but for us to leave all the plants as they are, blooming, a little buggy and definitely overflowing. While this might not work for another, it works for us. Our home will be one of the eight Winter Garden and Outdoor Living Areas on the tour. Every one of them - unique, beautiful and livable.

Purple flowers and Chappy the mystery dog, Fall morning 2015

To all our friends returning to Baja for Fall, Winter and Spring – Welcome Home! See you in the studio, hopefully on the tour, on the beach, next door, around town and at Chapito’s, for sure!

Kindly, Tehroma

Home and summer's end 2015