2 replies to this topic

[Chamaco]

At least that's what my Mexican friend says.  She went to my house to open it for the Telnor installer.  I'm suppose to get Dish (Mexican version) tomorrow.  This is the first time things have gone right on the first try for me in dealing with my house needs in Mexico.

[Cyanide41]

Things go right from time to time and it's a nice surprise. The 1st rule to surviving living in Mexico is "remain flexible"

[Chamaco]

Checked my download speed last night.   5Mb/sec.  That's about twice what I get in my San Diego home (limited by distance to central office connection from my house).  A pleasant surprize.  And my Netflix account works from down there, so for $8/month, I have access from two homes.  I noticed it offered a lot of Mexican movies when I logged in from TJ.  They must recognize where the IP address comes from and taylor content to it.

 

I did a quick and dirty install of a combined VHF/UFH HD TV antenna.  Supposed to have a 50 mile range.  My TV scanned and found 28 digital and several analog stations.  The analog stations were all terrible reception, but the digital HD stuff from an antenna is significantly more crisp than that delivered over my Dish netrok system in San Diego.  I had heard they use compression with satelite and cable to squeeze more channels into the bandwidth and that OTA HD was better, but I didn't know how big the difference would be.  Unfortuanetly, I started getting pixilation and lost the signal for my GF's favorite station (for telenovelas) after an hour or so.  I could go out on the balcony and lean over to get an unobstructed southern view, so I think a roof mount would definitely work better.   I was impressed enough with the reception from my balcony that I think I may change my mind about getting Dish Mexico.  If I get a better long distance attenna for around $100 and put it on the roof, I think I'll be able to pull in at least 30 HD stations.

 

All in all, I'm now very pleased with the TJ home purchase.  The initial couple of months were frustrating, mainly because of the difficulty on receiving and paying bills, but I've got it to a managable point now.  If I can get my Zeta gas and electric bill payable on-line, I'll be completely happy with the situation.

 

One word of advice for anybody purchasing-  Although I'd buy my home over again just for the incredible view from the living room and master bedroom, if I could trade the brand new construction for something older, I would.  The workmanship is generally not as good in Mexico and I've found issues with the home that might be worked out on an older home already.  The overhead light in the master bedroom is stuck on.  I actually pulled the hand switch completely out of the circuit and the light stayed on.  Must be a short through the lamp fixture to a GND and they wired it hot with the neutral routed through the switch instead of routing the 120V thgough the switch.  The master bath overhead light stapped working.  Not the bulb.  And there's a two way switch (where you can turn it off or on via two seperate switchs on one circuit where (and it's not a hallway or stairway, the light is literally five feet from each of the two switches.  They routed the main line from the meter to the breaker panel with 12 guage wire.  And everything is hot/neutral only, no earth ground used in Mexico!   I pulled in some much heavier gauge wire from the meter to the breaker box, but ended up having to jack hammer some concrete out when the heavier wire got stuck in front of the house in the underground conduit.

 

I'm also going to have to go through the stove and gas dryer connections and re-do them myself.  I turned the valves off because I could smell gas.  The guy who installed the stove didn't make the mods for LP gas (default setup is natural gas) so the burners can literally blow themselves out because of the flow rate.

 

There are no required inspections or codes in Mexico and although I hired a home inspector with a degree in civil engineering to check the house out before I bought, he didn't catch much at all in the inspection.