The ‘doo’ detector

Somewhere in my 4th decade, someone mentioned to me that I wasn’t a very optimistic person any more.   Somewhere in my 3rd decade I changed from a half-full glass person to a half-empty glass person.  I did some soul searching and decided there was truth to the comment in that my actions would lead one to that conclusion.  But that wasn’t how I felt about life.  The truth was more complicated.  I was showing the effects of several years in the business world, as an entrepeneur which is more often than not, an ‘optimistic’ word for a world of civilized warfare, where you and your competitors fight for the same thing, without end and without quarter.  .    The daily cycle of victim/perp, tends to harden ones outer shell, which after several years, becomes one’s demeanour.  But it doesn’t have to change one’s inherent character. 

I decided to consciously alter my demeanour to present a more accurate reflection of my character.   It was also right around this same time that I became aware of the main principal that was guiding me in the business world (and by proximity, my personal life as well).  I realized my success wasn’t as much the result of what I was doing right as much as it was the result of what I was NOT doing wrong.   I call this ‘using your doo detector’.    ‘If you dont step in dog shit on the way home, you dont waste valuable time washing your shoes later’.  A corollary of that is ‘you dont stink either’. 

Just because a person has a good ‘doo detector’ doesn’t guarantee success, (not stepping in it).  Over the years, I worked with several people who ‘had a feeling’ that such and such was a rip-off, or a con, etc.  Yet, they went ahead and in the end, stepped in it.  I most often saw this when one of my friends got a ‘hot tip’ on a stock.  I’d say something like, ‘you really dont buy that crap do you?’.  They’d usually answer, ‘not really, but I’m not an expert on this stuff.. he (the tipster) is.’    It really did turn out to be ‘crap’.  

I think ‘doo detection and avoidance’ is as valid a talent for success as is doing the right things, making the right choices.  Furthermore, if your ‘do it right’ talent is OK and your ‘doo d/a’ talent is great, you will be successful, in all things these apply to.  Of course, if you’re blessed in both categories, your success will be overwhelmingly successful. 

I saw this ‘doo d/a’ put to good use the other day, right here in Montevideo.  A friend of mine was looking at purchasing a property.  He loved the place.  The price was right.  But he didn’t get good ‘vibes’ from the neighbour.  Most people I know wouldn’t have even considered this is a reason for ‘not’ buying the property.  But this person’s ‘doo d/a’ talent is unqestionably much better developed than most of us.  He made up his mind to look elsewhere.   I’m sure at some point, he’ll find another place he likes just as much and just as important, his ‘doo d/a’ detector wont be flashing a ‘brown’ alert.   

Help wanted

 

Every time I read the want ads, I find something I didnt know before.   Probably (hopefully) because my Spanish is getting better…  or maybe it’s because there’s so much to learn there.  

First of all, the distinction between male and female seems much greater than at home.  At home, you cant specifically ask for a particular sex unless the job specifically requires that.  For instance, you cant advertise for a male for as a horseshoe salesman just because few blacksmiths are females.  You certainly can not specify age range.  They do that here a lot.  Chicos, chicas (boys, girls)… Under 25… not over 40.. between 18 and 25. 

Some observations

• Many ads provide email addresses only.  Others you must come to the address at certain times.  Domestic help is almost always a phone number, frequently a cell.  I dont understand that because the caller has to pay
• Most advertisements are in the section ‘feminino’.  I always thought that was female.. but I see lots of advertisements for guys there…
• In the masulino section, I only see ads for guys…  carpenters, electricians, albanils, mostly trades.  Discrimination on this level isn’t allowed in Canada. 
• The section where they exploit women (girls) is called Trabajos Especiales.. Where else would you see salaries of U$S1000. 

If you are thinking of working here, you might want to try the following employeement/placement agencies.

 Manpower
http://www.manpower.com.uy

KPMG
http://www.kpmg.com.uy
email: bys@kpmg.com.uy

WorkOffice
postulantes@workoffice.com.uy

PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers)
http://www.pwc.com.uy/rrhh

Advice
http://www.advice.com.uy

Ascende
http://www.ascende.com.uy

Sunday stuff

  Gay pride:  Toronto

Today it was 27 degrees back home.  Thousands of people lined downtown Toronto’s streets Sunday afternoon to enjoy the city’s Pride Parade, Canada’s largest gay pride celebration.

Here in Montevideo: 

Random things from the Gallito, the telephone and life in general… 

Ouch.. my too still aches..  woke me up and has complained every few hours.. non stop….   Cant wait to see the dentist tomorrow.. 

My wife’s cousin calls.  Says ‘are you cold? I’m freezing my ass off’.  I say ‘The heat’s on.  What are you using?’  ‘I’m using estufas’.  ‘How many, just one?’  ‘Yah, I’m freezing to death.’  ‘Cold tonight eh?’ ‘Yah, very’..

CTI – the most aggressive cell provider in Uruguay, is advertising a colour screen Motorola F3 in a prepaid kit.  400UYP.

I see someone has written and is promoting software to handle the new taxes. 

ITAU is making a push for amortized mortgage loans with flexible terms.  Bank Boston never did. 

Buquebus is offering packages from Montevideo to

Buenos Aires family plan 2 adults, 2 children tween 3-7, 2 nights for 6 payments of U$S39 (per adult)

Termas (hot spring) in Arapey, 3 nights for 6 payments of U$S47 (per adult)

Bariloche, 7 days/4 nights (long bus ride eh?) 6 payments of U$S108 (per adult).  Sounds good.  I brought my skis down to Uruguay.  The moving guys laughed at them here in Montevideo.  Good thing they didn’t see my boots. 

Cataracts- Iguazu falls, 7 days/4 nights.  6 payments of U$S64.20

Tacuarembo (northern Uruguay-it’s a bit warmer there), 2 days/1 night.  6 payments of 520UYP.

All inclusive stay at Arapey Thermal Resort y Spa (hot springs) for U$S57/night per person, aparto with 2 bedrooms, 4 adults

I’m sitting here with a friend from Buenos Aires who is jumping up and down because her candidate just won the mayoralty race.  I just saw the new governor of Tiera del Fuego…  In school, I learned about Tiera del Fuego as the most remote place on earth.. the bottom of the world–like being on the moon or something.  And here I am, watching the elections, covered in snow.  Wow. 

Movistar announces new, low, low rates.  Now prime time is only 7UYP/minute.  (U$S0.30).

It’s cold outside.  My daughter came in Uruguayn style, collar up to her nose.. 

The Immigration process (2nd attempt)

This post is taking a lot longe than 6-8 weeks to complete, as first promised.  Have no idea how long it will take.  But we’re working on it.  It’s ambitious.  Want to include everything, from what you need and how you do it at home to the final process of getting you residencia definitiva here. 

Because this is a work in progress, this will change every few weeks or so, possibly showing up in another place on the blog as major changes take place.  Today, June 24, we’re adding sections on birth certicate and proofs of salary. 

You have to get certain documents from home to start the process.  Amongst these are your ‘formal’ birth certificate.  Not the one you carry around with you.  The actual original one that was signed by the doctor (or midwife) who brought you into this world.  It has to be a certified copy.  That means it has to be stamped and signed by the ahj (authority having jurisdiction) in the place the certificate was issued. 

Here’s a copy of what one looks like from the the 40’s in the province of Ontario, Canada.

   Notice the following:  at the bottom of the certificate, #2, the official stamp of the province (state) and signature of the AHJ, Judith M Hartman.   At the top of #1, notice the stamps and signatures of the local, Montevideo escribana and the official seals of Uruguay.  On #3 you see where the local consul has certified the copy.  You also see the stamp/signature of the official translator who signs the original copy and her translations.  NB.  My birth certificate does not show the country of Canada on it anywhere.  I was asked this question by someome from the US.  Back in the 40’s and 50’s who’d have thought globally?  Not state government agencies, that’s for sure.  As long as the consul certifies it, there is no problem. 

Accompanying the originals of the birth certificate, is the separate certification (see below).  You get this from the consulate in the country where the birth certificate is registered. 

 

Once in Uruguay, all these above documents must be translated into Spanish by an ‘official’ (graduate) public translator.  See the following:

   Rosario Lazaroff is the public translator.  The escribano must also sign and put official stamps on the document. 

We’ll do the police letter at a later date.  While I’m trying to locate mine, hopefully, someone kind will scan and email me their FBI or local PD report.

When you’re here, you need to provide your escriabano with proofs of your income.  In my case, it was a salary from up north, converted to down south.  I brought with a copy of my last year’s income tax return.  To make things even tidier, I had our accountant write a letter stating my last year’s salary.  Armed with that information she created document #1 for immigration.  Immigration didn’t like it, so they asked her for more information, proving the income by showing banking statements, #2.  There was one more request from them.  Since she based her opinion of my income on a document provided by a Toronto accountant, they asked for a Uruguayan accountant to certify the Toronto accountant’s letter.  When I locate it, I’ll post it alongside #2. 

   

Once you’ve produced the other documents, like your passport and the FBI or PD’s report and given them all to the immigration (or your consultant), you move on to the physical requirements of getting stuff done here.  The first thing you usually do is get your health checked out.   

Our friends, Charles and his wife Luba (pictured below), have been kind enough to take pictures of some steps along the way.  This is the place you go for your health card. 

The address is Bvar. Artigas 1331, phone # 400-1510. It is between Rodo and Chana. If you go by on weekends or late evening, they take the sign about Carnet de Salud down. Only when the sign is up can you get your exam. 

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to go to all the places here in Montevideo you will have to go and take photos.  We’d like to make this post as visual as possible. 

Home heating

 

This is a good time to do this post.  We’ve had an unusual, but not uncommon, past month.  It came in with a bang, a cold bang… Then it mellowed a bit, then it went cold, then it mellowed again.  I think today (and the past few) have been mellow.  I had to pack a mattress in the car this morning in my pyjamas – outside.  I didn’t feel cold.  Try that in Toronto in December.  hah. 

This is somewhat typical of most winters.  Even though it’s not supposed to get cold until July, you get the odd cold spells lasting a day or two starting in May.  I think it’s been down to 1 or 2 degrees a few nights.  Practically speaking, that’s as low as it ever gets in July/August.  I guess in July and August, there are more days like that.  That’s what distinguishes the winter from the late fall. 

Those of us from the north, have respect for the outside weather, but what we really take for granted, is the weather inside.  My memory starts in Toronto in the early 1950’s and goes to the mid 2000’s.  In houses or apartments, except for when the heating broke, it was never, ever cold.  My parents set the winter thermostats at 22 degrees and that’s where the entire house stayed; kitchen, bathrooms, hallways, no exceptions.  In the 50’s we had coal fired radiators.  When we moved to the suburbs, we had oil fired central heating.  When I moved out, I lived in older buildings with losa using oil fired boilers.  The last apartments I lived in had forced electric, central heating and a/c.  When I moved into houses, all were gas fired, forced air central heating/air conditioning.  Again, there was never a single place anywhere in the house, including the basement, that varied by more than one degree from the thermostat setting. 

The only time I was ever cold living in Canada was one year when I lived in a trailer, like Jim Rockford.  It was forced air, gas fired heating.  When it came on, you were warm within 60 seconds.  When it went off, you were cold within 2 minutes.  It was a constant cycle of cold and hot.  The reason I bring this up is because some kinds of heating in Uruguay are like that.  I notice that effect, (not as dramatic though) with split, forced air heating.  It also depends on where you are in the room.  If you are sitting in the path of the heater, you get warm, (and windblown) when it’s on.  When it goes off, a few minutes before it comes back on, you cool off.  The bad news, in a bigger room with a high ceiling, if you’re not in the path and near an exposed wall, you may never warm up.  This is the case in our bedroom.  If you sit near 2 exposed walls, with the split past you, like my wife, she needs an electric heater to heat her feet under the desk.  Strange isn’t it?  We’ve got rads in that room, a split in that room and she still needs an electric spot heater.  Let’s go to rads next.

This house had a radiator system when we moved in.  It had cast iron radiators, about 80 years old.  We had them checked out before the renovation and they were in excellent condition so we kept them.  There were parts of the house that were never heated.  For instance, the kitchen, bathroom and service area.  These were areas used by the help and in those days, possibly to this day, owners didn’t heat those areas of the house.  Well, we’re north americans and we couldn’t conceive of not heating any room in the house, used by staff or not, (we dont have staff).  So we added modern, aluminum radiators.  Once we got the bugs out of this system, it works just fine.  So why is my wife cold?

In Canada, we set the temp at 22, 24/7.  I haven’t done that here, not yet anyway.  Why?  Because when I lived in an apartment, for the past year, the heat only ran from 7pm until 11pm and that kept us warm for the next 20 hours.  Houses in Uruguay have high heat mass.  Once you heat up all the bricks and mortar, it will radiate that heat for a long time.  But I found out that doesn’t work here in the house.  Because we use radiators, not losa, pipes buried in cement.  With rads, most of the heat goes into the air.  With losa, it heats the concrete which heats the air.  With rads, you heat the air.  Concrete doesn’t escape out through holes around doors and windows.  Air does.  So we double up the heating time.  8am til 12pm and 8pm until 12am.  Iron rads take over an hour to come up to full heat (and they hold heat for 2 hours after the boiler shuts off).  My wife’s desk sits next to an iron rad, 2 exposed walls with windows.  It doesn’t warm up until 11pm.  That’s why she uses the electric heater. 

So here’s my advice to you, the newcomer or you the resident who is uncomfortable during the winter.   If the house or apartment is without northern style insulation, with Uruguayan style windows, losa is your most cost effective option.  If you’re going to buy or rent an apartment, pay the extra few bucks and buy one with losa (or subfloor electric resistance heating).  If your building is more than 10 years old, have your architect inspect your piping.  Buildings from 25-35 years ago have a practical losa lifetime of 40-50 years.  That’s if the pipes are kept filled ALL THE TIME.  I know of buildings that had their losas drained for various reasons during the offseason and those pipes will not last as long, nor are they likely as efficient as they used to be.  

Your second best option is central boiler, radiator system.  As I stated above, because it isn’t heating the struture, it’s heating the air, there will be swings in temperature because it goes on and off more frequently.  Radiators aren’t everywhere like losa, so areas of the room will be colder than others.  The idea of putting radiators under windows is a very effective moderator when used with insulated walls like back home, but here, they’re not insulated.  So it’s cold near those uninsulated walls, farther from the radiators.  If you’re going to be sitting somewhere or working somewhere, place it as far from a cold wall or window as possible.  If you place it next to a rad, that’s fine when the rad is working, not so good when it’s not.  Rads are frequently set into a wall, which measn when it’s not working, there’s less wall between the outside and the inside. 

If you have or will use rads, I have a suggestion for you.  I am putting reflective insulation between my rads and the outside walls–silver side facing inside.  When a rad is placed on an outside wall, half the heat it produces heats the outside wall and makes it a nice place for a homeless person to lean against in July/August.  If you put reflective insulation between it and the outside wall, more of the IR heat will radiate into the house and when it’s off, less heat will radiate away from the house.  If your rads are totally exposed, this may not be aesthetically pleasing, but it will please your pocket book.  In our case, all the rads on outside walls are inside wooden cabinets with screens on the room side, so it cant be seen.  I expect this will put out a lot more heat than before.  You dont need to do this for rads against an inside wall. 

The next best option is a split heater/airconditioner.  If it’s a heat pump, using reverse cooling for heating and not resistance (like a ceramic heater), it wont be as expensive to run.  Uruguay is full of chinese units of questionable quality but it appears that they break under warranty, and when they’re fixed, they dont break again. 

 With electric heat (radiant or oil filled rad) this is the only way you’re gong to feel toasty..

If you rely on spot heaters, like plug in electrical or wall installed gas heaters (like Mike has), you’re going to be miserable in the winter.  I’m sure there are some exceptions to this rule, but I have yet to experience one.  Most of our friends use spot heating..  Not a one of them is comfortable in the winter. 

With losa in our apartment, we didn’t even notice the winter last year.  With the radiators, I do feel a little chilly some mornings when it turns cold for more than a couple of days.  Then, I’ll dress up scandinavian style, with turtle neck, shirt, sweater and vest.. 4 layers.  And then I’m fine.. 

Opening a bank account – Part I

  For most banks in Uruguay, (with the exception of most local banks like the BROU), there is one set of rules for American residents and another for everyone else.  For instance, you can NOT, EVER open a bank account in most international banks here if you are a US citizen, resident or resident alien.  This isn’t an opinion or an observation.  Its the law, as set by the DGI. 

Most international banks in Uruguay shield all of their clients information with Uruguay’s bank secrecy laws.  These laws allow the banks to deny inquiries for any information about their clients with the exclusion of a criminal warrant, given by the courts where there is proof of criminal behaviour, (eg. money laundering or fraud).  Your information will not be released to a taxation agency like the IRS or CRA. When an international bank operates in a country where secrecy laws shield clients AND they elect to apply those laws to ALL clients, without exception, they sign an agreement with the IRS pledging to refuse to open accounts for anyone presenting a US passport or where their birth, citizenship or residency is listed on a different identity document, (eg. the back of the Cedula).  

Furthermore, ALL clients are required to sign a W8 or W9.  With the W8, you swear that you’re not any of the above, nor are you ‘fronting’ for someone who is, under pain of criminal prosecution for perjury.  If you are one of the above, you sign a W9, which authorizes the bank to notify the IRS you opened an account here and allows the IRS to query the bank for all pertinent information about your account any time in the future they decide you’re a person of interest to them.  

The process of opening an account in a foreign bank is not as simple as it is up north, but it’s not prohibitive.  You need your proof of identity, (passport or cedula) and references from your old bank (or a ‘good word’ from a current client) and 5 references in Uruguay.  (Dont be put off by that..  any one person in Uruguay can rustle up 4 other names for yo as a refernce).  Then you sign several forms (see below), and you should make a small deosit in CASH, but yes, you CAN deposit a cheque.  You may not want to do that, (see previous post), but yes, you can do it. 

Most international banks will let you setup accounts in major currencies.   I deal with the ABN Amro and highly recommend them.  I was directed to them by my friend.  He took me in and sliced through all the red tape in a few minutes.  30 years of banking experience can do that for you.  Next week I’m opening up an account by myself and we’ll see how well I do .  

If you’re not fluent in Spanish, you must find a branch with a person fluent in English.  Banking is just too important to leave to chance.  The ABN in Pocitos on 21 de Setiembre is one.  The Discount bank has fluent, english staff in Ciuded Vieja.  My rep at ABN worked a few years in the Pacific North-West.  Her English is perfect and, just as important, she understands how we do things up North.  Whenever the bank’s policy here differs with what northerners are used to, she already knows its coming, explains why it’s different, explains it or apologizes for it.  

At the ABN, (I assume this is true of all international banks), you can have multiple currencies.  I keep 3 savings accounts; pesos, USD and CAD.  The reason for the CAD is to be able to deposit cheques from home, (like income tax refunds), without having to change the money to pesos or USD.

Chequing accounts are also avaialble.  The ABN wouldn’t give me one immediately, when I opened up the account.  They said we needed to ‘prove’ ourselves first.  After they see some account activity and how responsible we are as customers, after a number of months, we could apply for a checking account.  Keep in mind, we originally opened the account as tourists–not as residents.  This may have had an impact, but not necessarily.  Banks here are very somber IN THE BEGINING.  Once you’re a customer for a few months, you become family.   Then you can kiss your account rep when you greet them, (yes, we really do that). 

  ABN application form

    The ‘infamous’ W8 form in English and Spanish

The following is all the pertinent pages from the rule booklet that include all the rules of the bank.  I thought this was a booklet you get to keep as a reference.  You certainly can ask for a copy to keep, but the one they give you includes a section for you to sign at the back (see last page below) and the entire booklet is kept in your file, to prove you read and agreed to the rules.  Interesting eh? 

                  

How is rent paid? How is rent collected?

 

There are several common ways for landlords to collect and for you to pay rent.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but it sums up all the ways I’ve paid and collected. 

• Administration.  You hire/you pay an administrator to collect rent for you.  Most real estate agencies provide this service.  If you own a lot of rental properties, you may go this route.  
• Owner collects/pays to.  An owner can drop by every month and collect the rent or have it mailed to them.  If picked up, it’s almost always cash.  If mailed, it is by cheque. 
• Payment in advance.   I’ve seen this done about 30% of the time.  You pay/collect for the whole year or half the year up front.  Usually in cash, but sometimes by cheque. 
• Autodebit.  This is quite common if the owner has a bank account.  It is one of the most common ways people pay and collect rents in Montevideo.  See the forms attached for an idea how this works. 

forms-abac-persona-fisica.pdf

• Abitab/RedPago.  These are the little shops that many Uruguayans pay their bills at.  Before autodebit (see above), these were much busier.  There have been many posts on this kind of business.   That’s probably because we see nothing like it up north.  In the North, the banks took this business on at the beginning, leaving no room for another industry to popup.  Here, banks for some reason didn’t want to do this, so up popped these bill paying shops.  These are often used by the administation agencies, like the reference above.  The administration company sets up an acocunt with RedPago or Abitab (the biggest) and when you get your monthly invoice, (you need an invoice to pay a bill in an Abitab/RedPago), it states which agencies you can use. 

We have 4 rental properties.  One in the boonies, uses an administrator.  The other 3 all use autodebit.  With autodebit, I find it easier to manage things.  If you’re a northerner who is looking to invest your retirement savings in rental properties (instead of stocks or bonds, etc), autodebit is a very simple and painless way to collect the rent. 

Do you suffer from allergies?

 

There was a post on the Southron forum about air quality in Montevideo.  Consensus amongst us ex-pats is that it’s so little, it’s nothing to bother a northerner about. 

Pollution aside, there is something you should keep in mind if you plan to live here.  Allergens.  If you’re allergic to anything, until you’ve lived here a few years, you wont know if there’s something new here that will set you off.   It’s likely to happen in the first 12 months you’re here, but sometimes things like molds and spores and even pollens, are suppressed for some environmental reason for a year or two.  I wasn’t so lucky. 

As a kid, I had hay fever, took the scratch tests, found out I was allergic to everything, but only ragweed was bad enough to do something about.  For many years I lived on Chlortripolon in September, then switched to the new drugs, like Claritin.  By the 2000’s, it hardly bothered me.   But last November, it (or something else), hit me like a truck. 

A few days before my birthday in late November, I awoke one morning to a stuffy nose, itchy eyes and scratchy throat.  Over the next 2 days I tried everything I knew, but it just kept getting worse.  It got so bad, I couldn’t sleep.  I was going to book a trip north and hide out for a few weeks until whatever was in the air here, went away.  Fortunately, my wife’s friend knew an allergy specialist and got me in to see her that  evening.  She prescribed me Prednasone, a steroid nose spray and a strong eye drop.  Well, was I surprised.  It was totally gone in a few hours.  After taking the meds for a couple of weeks, I stopped and it never came back.

Moral of the story.  If you are allergic to anything, you may find new allergies here.  Whatever I had was not something the body had ever experienced before and it reacted violently.  If that happens to you here, get in to see an allergy specialist.  If you pay them privately, you can get in same or next day.  I think it was the Prednasone that stopped it cold.  It’s a very, very powerful drug.  I’ve used it before.  Most transplant patients are on it.  It should just about stop any kind of allergic reaction you run into here.

This November, when I see her again, I’m going to ask for a set of scratch tests so I know what it is.  I think it’s a tree.  She thought it was a grass. 

This old house

 

I’ve never seen this show on TV.  I’ve only heard the title.  The title seems appropriate for this post.  If this content is at odds with the TV show, I’m sorry.

 I wasn’t going to write any more.  My toothache beckons Tylenol extra strenghs, but I just finished reading Mike’s recent post, http://www.amavericko.com/2007/06/house-problems.html and I cant leave the laptop until I comment on it.  I would have commented on his site, but it is so funny… really, really funny, I felt a serious comment would be like disrespectful. 

This is going to be short.. just touching on a few things that Mike mentions, to make sure no one out interprets his ‘rant’ as an argument against buying a property here and to add credibility to what you will think is just his bad luck.. it aint. 

First off, all of the problems he described are because the person who renovated that house, didn’t do it to fix it up.  They did it to make it look cute.  From Mike’s many problems, you can tell the renovation either didn’t address existing problems or it was so poorly thought out, the modern renovation caused dozens of problems by itself.  If Mike (or anyone else) were to buy an old house, his architect would have gone over the place with a fine toothed comb and picked out those problems, and others Mike hasn’t seen yet, lurking behind a wall or under a floor. 

No one buys a house here without having ‘their’ architect check it out first.   Up north, we use home service experts who do this.  In Uruguay, we use architects.  Would you buy an older house without a home inspection?  Of course not.  Would you rent a house without one, of course you would.  As Mike said, better to pay your way out of a lease than get stuck owning a disaster. 

The part about the drain pipe isn’t an isolated instance.  On top of my very expensive condominium building, they drain the entire roof with 3 pipes.  None of them are particularly large.  Each section is separated from the other.  Do you know what happens when debris blows into one of those drains.   One or more light fixtures in the penthouse become showers.  Who’s the moron architect who puts a single point of failure on an upscale apartment building roof?  Well, it’s not in the building code. 

Hey Mike..  you’re not alone buddy with the showers that slope away from the drain.  I have asked this question over and over again…  And to add insult to injury, I have paid my hard earned money for 3 bathroom renovations and none of them slope properly.  In my most recent master renovation, I figured I had it made by putting in a bathtub instead of a shower… guess what they did… they sloped the tiles around the bathtub away from the bathtub… now I have a 2nd story squeegee job.    Gotta hand it to the albanils here, they are consistant.. all of them. 

Most Uruguayans use electric heating in houses.. Gasoil (diesel) in apartment buildings in Montevideo.  Electric in Punta del Este… they dont have natural gas out there in the boonies.  We installed a modern gas boiler to heat the house and provide hot water to the taps.  I was worried about gas too.  Never worried about it back home but here, yes.  Because ours is a central unit, tucked away in a room in the basement, we vented the room to the outside just in case something happens to the pilot light.  

Mike’s complaining about his master circuit breaker popping.  It’s a new service and I’ll bet it’s picking up a leak to ground.  I had that in my apartment.  Changed out the master breaker for one with a much great tolerance.  The downside is if you stick your hand in a socket, you’ll get a nasty buzz before it trips out.  Better that than coming home to a warm refrigerator.  Maybe the owner will fix it for the new renter.  Too late for Mike.  He’s going north for the winter.  Wow..  Never heard that one before.  We’re upside down now. 

The following images are courtesy of Santiago Tezanos, a local architect who wanted to share this information with us.. 

    

Dear Irv,

Attached please find three self explanatory situations of membrane and surfaces.

option 1: an open air terrace, with a drain, over another terrace. Membrane going “up the wall” on the left, and a “french door” window opening on the right.
option 2: is a rooftop edge (azotea).
option 3: is a typical wall/window situation. Exterior is to the right, interior to the left.
These are not “generic” details but specific details from a project by my office, so some issues might be very particular to the project, therefore solved in specific ways (such as a drain in that position). However, any of this details should be easy to build by any local albañil.

Domestic help additional costs

 

This is a very ‘taxing’ week.  Every time we turn around, I learn of another fee we’re supposed to be paying.   We better be careful or people will stop coming to the blog for fear of more bad news.  We’ll search for more optimistic material next week

For 25 years, (more or less) we had a cleaning lady for the 3 months of the summers.  2 years ago, the last time we got to use the summer house on a regular basis, we were paying her UYP300 per day.  Since we started living here, we have the same cleaning lady.  She takes the bus from Piriapolis 3 days a week.  /Recently we increased her daily pay to UYP400 plus bus fare.  

2 days ago, she told us she wanted us to pay her holiday pay, but she didn’t want to take holidays.  She just wanted the money.  She didn’t demand it.  She told us to check with our lawyer to make sure we were doing it the right way, paying her only what she is entitled to under the law.   We had no idea such a thing exists because she’s a casual employee, working freelance a few days a week.  Tonight we met with our lawyer and she explained our responsibilities.  

There are 2 issues.  The first, supposedly exists only in a few left leaning (or perhaps social conscience) countries like Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay.  It’s called the Aguinaldo (Christmas gift).  Find out all about it here:  http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguinaldo.   In North America, this roughtly translates into Christmas bonus, but here it is compulsory for wage earning employees and equal to one months wages.  You pay it twice a year, end of June and end of December.  At the end of June you pay the person a half month of earnings and you do this again at the end of December.  In total, it’s the equivalent of a month’s pay.   In our case, she averaged UYP4000 per month, so she is entitled to a bonus payment of UYP2000 on June 30th and again on December 30th.

The 2nd is  the equivalent of a northerner’s vacation pay with an interesting twist.  If you work 5 days a year, all year long, it would total 20 days, roughly 3 weeks holidays.  In our case, she works 60% of the workweek, so she would be entitled to 12 days paid vacation pay per year, but she doesn’t want the time off, she wants the money instead.  So for the month we pay her the holiday pay, she will make double for 12 days. 

Our lawyer created forms to use for this past year (see attached).  We’ll modify this for next year, etc. 

 

Since our lady started working full time in January 2006, I’d say we’re just over a year behind, so we need to pay her for the full year’s back pay up to Dec 31/06 and for her first Aguinaldo payment the end of this month.  In total, we should owe her UYP7,200 at the end of June.  

But she told my wife that she feels bad about this and she only wants it for 2007.  So we will pay her the UYP2000 on July 1st and again on December 31st, (increased by 33% because of the increase in base pay).  At some point in 2008, she will ask for her vacation pay and we will pay it at that time. 

Something you should keep in mind when budgeting for domestic help.