CASA DE LOS VENADOS (Revised February 2009)
Calle 40, No. 204
Valladolid, Yucatan, C.P. 97780
Mexico
Phone: 52 (985) 956 2289

”A house is a hobby…”
We have wanted a traditional hacienda-style house rich in historic heritage
in Mexico for a long time. Interest started when John was a freshman at
Lewis and Clark College and had the opportunity to spend his freshman year
abroad in a "home stay" with a family in Puebla, Mexico, learning the language
well enough to speak and be understood.
When we were married over twenty-five years ago, our interest slowly
continued to grow and further intensified. Together, we spent many
vacations at Club Internacional de la Cancun time share, where John and his
father owned eight weeks.
Clearly, Cancun does not offer such an opportunity to find a traditional
hacienda-type house since it developed about 30+ years ago from a fishing
village to a major resort area. We looked on and off during vacations for
seven years in Puebla, Oaxaca, then in and around Merida. Puebla, while
appealing, is too far from Cancun to facilitate back and forth trips
transportation and time-wise. Oaxaca was the same situation, but so
appealing to us, that we looked, but could not find any property that was in
our price range, and within an easy walk to the Zocalo. Plus, everything we
saw in Oaxaca is historically protected, not just facades, but the entire
interior of the houses as well. Most of the houses we saw were made of
adobe with walls in extremely bad repair or in mounds of rubble.
Thus, we moved our search to Merida, the seat of the Yucatan, only to find
that while there we many appealing properties in Merida near the Zocalo – it
was just too urban. So, we continued looking at small towns and villages
outside of Merida all the way to Valladolid and the surrounding area. In the process,
we decided we are more "city mice," than “country mice," and agreed
living 20 kilometers from our nearest neighbor in the countryside was not for us.
After this hacienda-hunting experience, we figured out what we would like to have.
In July 2000, we asked a prominent lawyer with family ties in the Yucatan to
recommend a local, knowledgeable contact to help us find a property. He put
us in touch with his wife's aunt Emma, who lives in Valladolid with Ray Berst, her
American born husband of 35+ years, two sons, and a daughter. In
September 2000, when Dorianne went back to Chicago to manage a meeting,
John eagerly drove to Valladolid to meet Emma and Ray at the old
hotel El Mesón del Marqués on the Zocalo. He discussed with them our
desire to find a hacienda-style house over coffee in the charming colonial style
courtyard. During their conversation, he found out Valladolid was a
tranquil city of approximately 70,000+ inhabitants, which was overlooked by
many house hunters for years because the mind set was that historically the
wealth was in Merida, the seat of the Yucatan. To date, there are still less than
a dozen or so American’s in the town, and we like it that way. The new wealth and
development was in Cancun for the last 30+ years. This mind set left
Valladolid midpoint between them, with little or no economic reason to
"modernize" or tear down old buildings to build modern ones; it was a time
capsule of wonderful old buildings just waiting for someone to come along
and “nurse” them back to their full glory and historical identity.
From our viewpoint, Valladolid appealed also because only the Centro facades are
historically protected, not entire buildings, as was the case in Oaxaca. For
our purposes restoration would be much easier and less costly. Ray and
Emma leisurely drove John around town in the Centro area, while the Berst’s
pointed out several old hacienda-style houses that had been remodeled by
either Mexicans, or one or two Americans. So far the tour was disappointing.
Driving back to the Zocalo, John saw a large old rundown, high walled house
on Calle 40, a quarter of a block from the Zocalo. High up on the facade a
sign looked like someone had simply taken a paint brush and roughly painted
right on the wall, " Se Vende Esta Casa ," with a phone number. At first
John thought it was so close to the Zocalo and so large that we probably
could not afford it. Emma prevailed and called the phone number using her
cell phone and arranged with an attorney who answered to have the
caretaker at the property open the house and let John see it about an hour
later. No one had lived there since 1964, when a cousin of the owner was the
last person to live there. Vallasolitanos whom we met since the visit seemed
to be very specific about the year because the cousin had just purchased a
new car in 1964. The second day he owned it, he parked it in the house
inside the main door. A portion of the roof fell on it, totally crushing the
vehicle. He moved out shortly thereafter so the story goes and only a
caretaker had watched the property ever since.
During the walk through, John saw a large 55 foot square central courtyard
with a magnificent sour orange tree, an indigenous jica tree, and overgrown
shrubs, or scrub brush jungle. Looking at the virtual jungle of mixed plants
in the back of the house, he saw the potential the house offered. It was
bigger and better than anything we had looked at in Oaxaca, Puebla, or
Merida. John asked Emma to inquire about the price. The asking price
seemed surprisingly within reason. John drove back to Cancun with thoughts
of negotiating a deal for purchase, renovation, and dreamed of living there.
That evening, he called Dorianne in Chicago, who was preparing for a business
meeting, and described what he saw that afternoon. Dorianne agreed since
the excitement in his voice was overpowering and convincing that we should
make an offer. John called Emma that evening and asked her to make an
offer for the property.
Subsequent, laborious negotiations and bargaining required a month of back
and forth dialog. We finally came to terms with the 80+ year old, spinster owner
from Merida, who inherited it. This hacienda-style house was one of a
number of properties that the female line in her family had inherited many
years ago. The male line in the family historically got the income-producing
haciendas in the countryside. At one point, one of the interesting antidotes
about the negotiations is, he asked for the name of her US bank where she
wanted our bank to send the wire transfer of US dollars. Her lawyer said
she did not have any bank account and did not want US dollars. She firmly
wanted the full purchase price in CASH, in Mexican pesos! (To this day, we
still has a mental picture of her putting stacks of bills in a steel box under
her bed, or somewhere else where she keeps her money and valuables.)
Through her lawyer, we told her she would have to come to our bank in
Cancun to get the money. He said he was not going to hire an armored car to
carry that amount of cash to the next meeting to close the deal. Finally, we
compromised. Her lawyer agreed to take a certified check in pesos made
out to his Mexican bank and he would get the cash for her. Then, three days
before we were to close, she decided she would not sell to a foreigner. The
day was saved by our fast thinking attorney in Cancun. Luckily he already
had a "shell" Mexican corporation set up for another client who had decided
not to use it. Finally, through her attorney, she agreed to sell to the
Mexican corporation, but not to us as foreigners. All of these
hurdles to jump over now seem to add flavor and humor to the story.
Though, at the time, each delay seemed like a monumental crisis to resolve
for which we thought that each might be a "deal killer." Within 36 hours, we
become the owners of a Mexican corporation!
Once the closing was completed on October 10, 2000, John immediately set
up an appointment with William Ramirez, our original primary architect, before he
flew home that evening from Merida, via Mexico DF to Chicago.
Coincidently, we had admired his work at Xcanatun, an historic old hacienda
which he restored from a cattle and sisal hacienda into a luxury boutique hotel
and restaurant, 12 kilometers north of Merida, on the road to Progresso.
(Thinking back, right after we made our first offer on the hacienda, John
called our friend Mane Montes de Oca and asked her to find out the name
and location of the architect who restored Xcanatun. We remembered
having lunch there in the renovated machine shop earlier that year with
Mane, former director of public relations, at the Museum of Contemporary
Art, in Merida.) Our fear was that the architect would be someone from
Mexico City or other distant location out of our reach. Lucky for us, it
turned out to be William Ramirez, who owns his own architectural firm in
Merida. He had received a number of architectural awards for his work
restoring old haciendas as either small hotels or single family residences.
During the first meeting in November, John showed William a number of
books on Mexican architecture with Post-It Note-marked pages to give him
an idea of the type of house that we hoped he would create for us. These
were suggestions to incorporate as many of the features we liked for our
preferred life style. William immediately sensed what we wanted. Our
design vision was finalized with the statement that we wanted to honor the
simple traditional style of the 400+ year old structure, yet have the inside
look like it was done by Luis Barriagan! (the famous Mexican architect whose
signature look is contemporary and very understated).
William did not disappoint us. His initial sketches and subsequent floor plans
now reveal the vision of five duplex guest suites with an additional self contained
two-bedroom duplex suite for us. There is a large landscaped
garden in back of the house complete with a pool, fitness center, bar and
pergolas, as well as a landscaped courtyard in the center of the house. At
the time the house was built by the town's alcalde, the Royal appointed
mayor. (Remember Mexico was a Spanish colony then). He had most of the
ceilings constructed 8 meters high (as most other “important” houses in town only
had 6 meter high ceilings), befitting a man of his importance. Almost all the
rooms are 5 meters wide which is the maximum they would cut the vigas
(wood beams) that held up the stone ceiling. Most of the walls are approximately
one meter thick, constructed of rubble stone. Each of the five guest suites
(ranging in size from approx. 1200+ to almost 1500+ square feet) have a two
story living room area and a bedroom loft. All of the bathrooms have indoor
showers. Three of them have an additional outdoor shower in their own
private garden. The central patio has a portales roof covering approximately
15 feet of the perimeter all around the 55 foot square courtyard, with a
large stone contemporary fountain in the center. A roof top deck has been
constructed on the front portion of the house’s roof with its own bar, bathroom,
and covered seating area for viewing the Cathedral across the street when the lights
turn on each night, illuminating the steeples, and to watch the blazing
sunsets to the West.
Needless to say, the project is a passionate, combined labor of love for both
of us, in cooperation with William Ramirez, who shared our vision. One
interesting feature now complete is the sala grande in the front of the
house. It is approximately 78 feet long, 16 feet wide and 25 feet high.
Dorianne asked William to design and install a musician's balcony at one end
of the room. The room will be a show place open potentially in the future to
the public for live musical performances, as well as art exhibits of our
extensive collection of Mexican contemporary and folk art.
We have also had brief discussions with the Chairman of the Board and the
Executive Director of the new Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico, DF, about
using our sala grande for exhibitions and /or borrowing pieces from our
collection of folk art for exhibits they will show in the Museum in Mexico
DF. We have chosen to become financial contributors to the new Museum
Arte de Popular (MAP) as members of their support group “Friends of MAP,”
since we are strong believers in their mission and their ability demonstrated
so far by the construction and layout of the new Museum’s exhibit space and
the assembly of a quality permanent collection to accomplish their goals.
Plus, we have chosen to loan MAP a number of pieces from our collection for
exhibition at MAP and other traveling exhibitions.
As a matter of fact, the house and our entire collection of art are a
restricted bequest for the public benefit. Our goal is to "give something
back." We want the house to be a living structure, honoring its history, but
moving forward as a quasi public facility for the performing and visual arts.
The restricted bequest of the property, its contents, the collection and an
endowment will provide broad flexibility to use the structure in the future
after we are gone.
Another goal is to share Casa de los Venados with our many current and new
friends we will meet throughout the rest of our lives. Included will be the
people of Valladolid whom we hope to involve in helping us plan cultural
events that will enlighten, entertain, and educate the community in the
facilities of the house. We started this process with a fiesta honoring
John’s mother's birthday, on December 21, 2000. At the time, the current
mayor and his family, a number of other prominent city residents such as the
assistant mayor, and the town historian, etc. were our guests at the festive
event.
In February 2004, we invited approx 70 people to a fiesta in honor of John’s
parent’s 62nd wedding anniversary and to share the progress that has been
made in the remodeling project. The guest list included the head bishop of
the Cathedral, the general who commanded the local military brigade and is
now the chief of police, the new mayor and her family, the former mayor,
who is now the Federal Congressman from that District (who is the cousin of
the previous mayor, and coincidentally, the brother-in-law of David Rivero,
our current architect and general contractor), another former mayor and his
family, who is now our lawyer), and many other new friends. In the mean
time, we have a new life-long hobby, since Casa de los Venados is a
masterpiece that will never ever be truly finished, as long as we are alive.
Our expectation originally was, as we said in the beginning, it would be a three to
five year remodeling project, which took eight and a half years instead to put it
where it is now which is about 98% finished, with only “finishing details” left to
complete simply because the project was so large, mostly hand labor, and
due to the fact that we bought an additional piece of property next to the
original house and constructed a 3 story, annex housing 5 servant rooms, a
laundry room, a large storage room and a maintenance/repair shop. Right
now the photos and slide show on our web site tell the story. Our general
contractor, David Rivero, from Valladolid has been fantastic. He is not only
the construction general contractor, but he has moved into the role as our
“primary architect” as well. In addition, he has a workshop where his staff
do iron work and wood working – his people have been wonderfully creative in
the construction of iron work and custom furniture and other wood pieces
for the house. Often they have been working only from photos we gave
them from international architecture magazines or art publications. The
results have been beyond expectation in most cases.
The swimming pool, inlaid with Italian bright white and brilliant dark blue
glass tiles, the servants quarters, the small gym, the back yard bar and
additional sunken conversation seating area, the Jacuzzi and the marble and
glass bridge across the swimming pool are now all totally complete. As are the
remaining portions of the house, including our two-story suite within the main building.
Specifically the living room, the dining room, the guest bathroom, and the
kitchen and on the second floor, the master bedroom, bath, shower stall, large
walk-in closet, sitting room, and dressing room and the library and Dorianne’s
studio are all finally finished and have all now been “accessorized” with art. The large
“commercial” kitchen for large parties, behind the sala, is in the process of
being built out. All five guest bedroom suites are more or less finished and
have upholstered furniture, two air-conditioning mini-split units, small
refrigerators, already installed in each of the rooms, so they can soon be occupied by
friends. They are named: Maya, Izamal, Valladolid, Diego, and Frida. Our
suite is the Venado Suite. Artist Daniel Rosel has completed a ceramic tile
mural of in each of the gardens of the five guest rooms and also on the back wall
of the musician’s balcony in the sala grande.
All five guest bedrooms are basically done. Yes, upholstered, custom
made sectional sofas, club chairs, king beds, mattresses, bed linens, mini
refrigerators, etc., are all in place in each of the five guest
rooms waiting for guests and each has its share of things we collected for the house.
Everything from all wool hand-woven area rugs from a village near Oaxaca, to
contemporary paintings, watercolors, and reprints that need to be framed,
lots of ceramics barro and carved wooden folk art are placed throughout each
of the five guest bedrooms, and elsewhere around the complex to “finish it
off” and give it that WOW factor we are looking for when guests come for
the first visit!
Recently, Mario Peniche, Valladolid’s current mayor, asked us to allow him to hold
a press conference in the entry foyer in front of the colorful 11’x17’ framed
high relief, ceramic mural we commissioned from Luis and Jorge Valencia of
Oaxaca, depicting a Mayan village scene. He was interviewed by Televista,
one of the national Mexican TV networks. His message was his hope to expand
tourism in Valladolid and what he and leading merchants in Valladolid plan to
tell the new State Governor about their hopes and expectations for
assistance from the Yucatan State government to expand tourism in
Valladolid.
We hired a botanist/landscaper to be in charge of the landscaping and he has now
completed the central courtyard, all 5 guest private gardens and the garden
in the back of the house alongside the swimming pool. He also incorporated
15 different types of native orchid plants n the various gardens including
some of them being secured in the jica tree in the central courtyard. The central courtyard,
the 5 guest gardens and the garden by the swimming pool all have also have had their
night lighting installed, which gives those areas a magical quality at night.
In September 2007, we met with the staff and volunteer leadership of the
new Museo Arte de Popular (MAP), to discuss an expanded role we may play
to interact with MAP in Mexico City and Valladolid. We also met with some
artists in Mexico City. Then in Oaxaca, we worked with our art consultant to
visit 18 folk artists and purchased more objects for the house.
This more or less brings you up to date through Spring 2009.
Eventually we will edit all the 1500+ photos currently on the web-site and
pick about 10 “before” and 10 “during” and 10 “after” photos to view and
store the others as part of the history of the construction process on a
disks.
“A house is a hobby” and we expect this will be a lifelong one….and
“collecting is a passion and a disease that is incurable, but one from which
you never die,” are two sayings that seem to ring true for us. Watch the
website for more photos of how the house is coming along and to see some of
the additional folk art and contemporary art we have been collecting for the
suites and complex.
Saludos,
John and Dorianne Venator
www.casadelosvenados.com