Making progress

We are progressing on most fronts.

This past year, we have realized some of our original goals:
I have a workshop set up. We bought a house to renovate and sell and one to live in (the drab orange facade shown here). We have health care. I did manage to have some surgery that went alright, the long wait aside and we have a car. All in all, not too shabby.
The kids are doing great with school and their 'club' afterwards. Here they are getting dropped off at "Defensor Sporting".

They play lots of futbal, swim. To see them in action, you wouldn't know they weren't born here.

My Spanish is still pretty weak. I am petrified to speak much.This year I'm committed to making some major advances. Let's see.

The house renovation project is at around 10 months.

It's an old gem and it's getting a total restoration. The front, shown here, is getting cleaned and painted next week.
There have been delays. A hernia slowed me down a bit. Plus it's quite hard to find any help, let alone competent help. While some weeks had 4 or 5 workers, it's been mostly me and a friend. He's a capable painter and helps me with almost everything, including a lot of translating. I don't know how this would have gone with out him.
I am cramming now to finish the kitchen and get it out of the shop. I have negotiated ending my lease there a bit early (a major accomplishment) and I'd like to be out by the end of March. More savings, yeah.

Next for us is our long awaited coffee shop. How exactly we can fuse our dream of a coffee bar with what will work here, isn't completely clear just yet. We have a lot of ideas and we've been watching the market closely. Some of it depends on the location we can secure. Where it is (what kind of traffic?) and how much space we have to work with.

Right now, we are working on getting my immigration worked out. After that is squared away, I'll get a cedula (the main ID here) and will have legal residency status.

We are having a great summer so far. the photos below are from our vacation last month. We went to Rocha for a couple of weeks. I managed only a week, but that's me.
Happy and safe, things are looking good. All we have to do is lock in some consistent way to earn a living and then it's, well, I don't know, downhill like everyone else I guess.

peace.