The Master

Here's a picture of Luis and I waiting for our flight back to Mexico. This guy is the inivator. He's been hammering out copper since he was 5 years old. That's 45 years of experience. He has brought Mexican Copper work to a new level. He's business minded as well and runs a tight operation. Luis and I go back 7 years. I remember when he was sleeping on pallets above his dirt floor work area. It's amazing to see someone so talented get to really make it. Sitting in the airport I remembered when Antonina and I were driving to the shop once a month to pick and pack orders. Back then I did all the packing with little help. It would take us 2 to 3 days to get all the order together. While there it Margarita and Luis were always so kind lending us thier bedroom, feeding us breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'll never forget sitting around the large rectangle table in the kitchen for comida. It was a real honor to be let into their family.
Luis was so relaxed at the airport. Always with a smile. It reminded me why we got into this buisness in the first place. Tonina and I loved to find great product produced by true craftsman. So Much has changed. I'm rarely in the factory anymore and Luis hasn't hammered in a while. I guess that's progress. I can't remember the last time I even packed a sink. It's not bad in fact not having to load a trailer or make the midnight run to the border is a relief. I've had stitches in my nose when a crate fell on my face and ran my 1 ton van into a wall in the Saltillo canyon totaling the van. Some how I still managed to get the order up to the border. Change. It's been satisfing seeing Luis be able to come to Chicago and visit all his clients at the show. While at the airport he spoke of coming to San Miguel and coming to Los Cabos. He seemed excitied about traveling and experiencing new things. I'm excitied for him.
I can't wait to show him around Los Cabos and San Miguel!

TARGET is a must stop while in the USA

Okay I´m not the only one who believes that while in the states a Target stop is a must! Here´s Ann Dolan from San Miguel de Allende. We ran into each other while at the downtown Target in Chicago! If you live in the states full time you can´t fully apreciate why someone visiting Chicago would go shopping at Target http://www.target.com/ The only draw back was figuring out how to fit my purchases into my luggage.

Kevin was really excited to see the carts ride down the escalator! Sometimes it´s the little things. Later that night I over heard Tonya talking to her son and explaining how the escalator cart worked. Just don´t try to make it to the street with a cart. there´s some kind of magic force field that blocks the wheels of the cart from going up to the door. Kevin was pushing and pushing and almost made it to the door before giving up.

Cold Chicago

COLD. In one word that´s how I´d describe Chicago.

It rained every day I was there except on Monday the day I flew out. I don´t know how those guys in Chicago do it. I spoke with some locals and they said I must be suffering coming up from Mexico. Of course I said yes and asked how they deal with it? The husband immediately asnwered ,¨we stay in doors and have lots of sex¨. I guess that´s the plus side to living in cold weather.

Fernando Mendez´s latest project

Gabriela and I got to vist the new spec. home that Sr. Mendez and Assoc. are building. This is a great home with perfect views of the beach at Palmilla. Fernando has taken great care in the details.







The ceiling looks good in the photo but doesn´t feel so good when standing inside the room. It´s not square and feels a bit busy and confusing. Too much going on. Fernando asked our opinion and we gave it honestly. I was a little hesitant to say something that might come off as negative. It turns out Fernando already has plans to change it. Dry wall will cover it all creating a softer uniform valted ceiling. It´s nice to be asked to give an opinion on a job and it´s even better when you get it right.


We we´re studing the measurements for the counter top. These are the holes where a single post faucet and vessel mounted sink will be installed. I´ve seen this set up many times in construction but I´ve never seen it so precise and clean. He actually used the specs for the faucet and sink to determine where the holes should be. Of course this is the correct way but in my experience I haven´t seen it so well planned out. Usually the prespective is an after thought and that´s what it ends up looking like. I´ll come back and take some more photos when it´s all finished just to demonstrate how good planning ends in good design.


I love the great room! Super High celings give a catherdral, close to god feeling.

Hacienda Fucillo in Querencia

Here´s Gabriela in Hacienda Fucillo. Next to her is the wine bar. We went over there together to help solve some problems they are having. One problem they have is with Sub Zero. It´s a strange thing but the spring loaded hinge on top of the fridge broke in half. It´s not damaged in any other way. I guess it was just a defective part. as seen in the photo it broke at the thinest part of the hindge. I already called it in to our distributor and Sub Zero will warranty the part. That good news. The tough thing is Arq. Gustavo wants to deliver the home yesterday. This is one of those things that no one could have forseen because until the door was opened on the wine cooler you wouldn´t know.

Here´s the second issue. The outside door trim for Accurate needs a plate without a cylinder. This is no big deal. We have the trim in stock and can just change it on the job site. The inside is a butterfly( mariposa) thumb turn. It´s good to go out and see when these issues arise because it´s impossible for everyone to identify the correct model #´s needed. This way we save time and can make sure the mistake doesn´t happen again.

I love these wooden pocket doors. It really opens the room to the outside living space making one large area.

Back in Cabo

I'm back in Cabo now and here things are humming! The showroom looks nice and full and clients are coming in everyday now. The weather is still nice which I'm surprised. I thought it would be hot already although I'm not disappointed that I was wrong. This month makes a year since we signed the lease agreement for Plaza El Faro. We didn't open until the first of June 2007. Looking at the new pictures I added to the earlier blog titled Los Cabos Surcusal makes me a bit nostalgic. I can't believe all the changes in one year.

Friday afternoon Break

Sometimes we just need to close the store and do something fun! On Friday afternoon at the end of the weekly grind we went out for some fun on the karts. Just locking the store door in the middle of the afternoon and flipping the sign over to ,Be Back @ 5pm, was powerful. Hey we had more important things to do at the moment. When we got to the track another family was just finishing up with thier races. A couple of young girls were not enjoying the ride and I think they would have preferred
to be next door in Liverpool shopping. We joked about the father saying that he must be thinking,"I wish I had a couple of sons"! Soon enough they finished and we were on. Matteo got a special size cart so he could reach the petals. As Luis, Mario and I scouted out the 8 big carts trying to determine which one would be the fastest. I let Mario and Luis choose first then I took my que from the owner,"Oye Azul"! With our brain buckets on our heads we rolled out onto the track. Wow! I thought this ones got some speed! Immediatley I was making laps around Mario,Luis and Matteo. Trying to avoid Matteo was difficult. He's stratagy for winning was to run everyone else off the track! " Matteo this isn't bumper cars", I yelled thru my Helment. The next time I came around the track I saw Matteo spun out in a cloud of dust with tires all over the track. He looked okay so I kept my foot down on the gas. Next I see Mario just sitting as if he ran out of gas or was giving up. Later he tells me his chain broke off. He got into another cart and things got going again. Luis had a problem with his kart as well. Check out the photo. Later Matteo wipes out again and at this point I'm thinking this is his M.O.. He looked a little upset so I stopped to give the fatherly encourgement. Again back out on the track we we're all humming along. When it came time to stop Matteo had a hard time coming into the pit. He must have taken 4 extra laps before flying into the pits. " Break! Break! Break!" We all yelled as Matteo nearly cut several other kids off at the knees who we're waiting to get into the karts. Yea that was fun and it was hard to drive the Fiat straight and slow after that. We ended up for lunch at Fernando's Urugrayan Grill. We felt like formula 1 drivers coming in for grilled meat and beers after a gruling 6 hour race. We felt like a team. I felt great about the future as I talked about the expansion plans for Counter Cultures. Looking at Mario and Luis both with smiles and joking with each other made it all worth it. I'm sure next time we will fight over the Faster blue kart. If your going out to the track the 2 black ones and the blue one are the fastest. Stay off the green. It's 50 pesos for 10 minutes. Vale la pena!