2013 start update! [by Anna]

It's been reeeeally long now since we posted anything! Obviously, it is not because nothing has been happening. It is because there has been happening a lot :-)

First of all, in 2012 we have finally finished all the paper work! It included picking up our permanent residence permit in Moscow and changing the type of company, which downgraded our taxation scheme and now we will pay less taxes! All this was of course a very long and painful process with delays and time and money wasted - both in Russia and in Brazil. At least that these two countries have in common - their love for bureaucracy!

Also in October we went through a construction process - we built a new, seventh room. The decision to do so was a bit spontaneous and was taken one Friday night in front of Na Casa Della restaurant and immediately cheered for with beer cans we had in our hands at the moment.

The construction process was smooth, delayed only by one month exactly as we had expected (100% of the time predicted by the foreman) and 50% more expensive than predicted by the foreman, also exactly as we had planned, so no surprises there. It was not SO smart of us to have the construction in the middle of high season, but since we had started, it was important to have it ready by the New Year's eve, and it was. So we are now well on the way in making the investment pay off.

We closed 2012 with satisfactory result and 68% average occupancy rate and also found that we re-invested over 80% of the profit. Since June 2012 we are Number One B&B in Jericoacoara and we've been working hard to maintain this position. In 2013 we plan to ripe the results of this reinvestment and work less and relax more! No big plans expect changing two last old ACs to new models and doing some general maintenance during the low season. Although of course you never know what kind of new inspiration we may get all of a sudden!

I have also decided that my 50% of the business are now up for grabs at the initial price of €200.000 and any takers are welcome to contact me for more info!

Here are some photos on the Room 7 development:

the beginning

the washing area that has been moved into the house

one week into the construction

three weeks into the construction

the result (we paved the outside area with big flat stones now)

the inside (we still want to paint two of the walls pink)

the draft of the shells

the result

check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

before and after - continued - back and front yard [by Marina]

As mentioned before by Anna, we got sucked into a never ending list of little improvements all around our pousada. Hopefully, we are going to finish all works by next week. 

This post is dedicated to the back and front yard.

The backyard, or the passage behind our kitchen leading to the storage room and room nr.6 has always been looking kind of untidy, so we tried to do our best without involving ourselves into major construction changes. Just some make-up - cleaning&painting...

Backyard - before, with the ugly roof for the gas bottle, dirty walls and electric cable in the middle

Backyard - after, with the new cabinet for the gas bottle, painted walls, new grass, plants in pots and decorated cable

Yes, in an old house like ours we've got to be creative sometimes when trying to make things look nicer. After some pondering we decided not to mess with the fragile walls of the old fisherman house because of the electric cable that takes electricity out to the front yard and left it at the same place, however, gave it a new look. Within just a couple of hours it was covered with the decorative rustic rope and then we hanged the polished shells from an old necklace on it. This necklace by the way I bought a few years ago in Moscow at Izmailovskiy Market for RUB25 and used it maybe once ever since.

The decorated electric cable with the shells from an old necklace

Backyard - before. Different angle.

Backyard - after. Different angle.

  The top of the parasol in the front was renewed a few months ago, now the table was polished, the chairs repaired and painted red, and the Bougainville tree cut and pushed to grow on top of the hotel sign, the old moldy bench removed and stone walls washed.

Pousada Atlantis entrance - before. The way it looked when we first saw it.

Pousada Atlantis entrance - 7 months after.

  Actually, when you live here and see things every day, you don't notice all the changes. So, we got very impressed ourselves when compared the actual situation with the old pictures :-)
check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

before and after continued - room no. 6 [by Anna]

as we say in Russia, renovation cannot be completed, it can only be terminated. Marina and I found ourselves trapped in this rule - we just cannot stop trying to make the things look prettier. the past couple of days we were working on room number 6. this is by far my favourite room! it is the smallest, but it is the only room situated on the right side of the main house, therefore nobody passes by and it is very private.

before from last year

before painting

it all started by us wanting to treat the bricks of the fence to stop them from getting dirty by the water, but as this solution turned out to be quite expensive, we decide to use it rather in room 6, that has three brick walls that constantly lose the loose cement particles and make the room feel dirty. then we decided also to paint the fourth wall as it was only painted once and not too nicely. then we fixed the bath-room door (it wasn't possible to close it), removed the ugly and rusty door-handle and lock, polished and painted and put the hand-made door-handle. we also painted the door frames, as suddenly with the new paint-work, they started looking really untidy. then I also polished the surfaces of the furniture.

a while ago Marina fixed the electric socket. the top of it was missing, we couldn't buy a new cover as this model is not produced anymore, and it was not possible to change the socket itself, as the way the wiring was made, it would require rewiring of the whole room. so we had to think outside the box!

before from last year

after from now

also, before it was possible to walk to the washing area from this room. we have closed the passage and removed the stones of the path, put plants there and instead enlarged the area in front of the room. now we only need to get a small table and some chairs. hook for a hammock was added yesterday :-)

after from now

fish-scale "curtains" [by Anna]

we have a long list of the things to do on our "maintenance and improvements" list, but today finally i crossed out one - making some sort of curtain over the laundry-drying area on the right side of the house. this part has historically been half-neglected as there is only one room that is situated there. the entrance to the storage room is there, the garbage tanks etc...

as mentioned in the previous post we have already changed out gas container solution, and now, after long hours, 110 holes in the fish-scales and 220 knots on the thread, we put up some sort of decoration to masquerade the ropes for drying cloth. well they don't exactly hide everything behind, but at least they distract the attention from the laundry and also from the window behind, which actually goes pretty much straight to our bath-room :-)

before from last year

these are the same fish-scales we talked about here by the way!

after from now

before and after (mostly after) photo report [by Anna]

it's been a while since we posted anything, so maybe it is time to do some updates!

so we are half way through the rainy season now. people say, it is the driest rainy season in years. indeed, we are a bit disappointed with the amount and frequency of rain. believe it or not, the sun and the heat do start getting tiresome at some point! every day we hope for some rain and every day it's sunny and hot. so far it rained maybe every 3rd-5th day and the longest it rained was 15 minutes at a time. it seams though that for the nature it is quite a lot of ready, and everything is green. the serrote hills are green and the desert around the village turned green. it makes me nostalgic as I think of summer in Europe. the landscape is even more beautiful than before now!

as for the occupancy, we closed March and April with 44% and 62% respectively, which is higher than we had projected originally, but still not quite enough to make up good numbers. oh well, luckily the low season does not last that long here! now in May most of the places close and it is the lowest of the low. however we seem to be ok for now. today Marina picked up four Russian tourists from jardineira, so we are happy! the last week of May we will close to go for one week field-trip to Lennçois Maranhenses.

meanwhile, our team has expanded with yet another female member - it is Zhuzha. her mother is a Doberman and the father is supposedly pit-bull. well, we doubt the latter, although it seems as her character is the one of a pitt-bull. Zhuzha is a very active puppy and it is pretty much impossible to take a picture of her sitting still. however, it appears that she learns fast, as I already managed to teach her to sit. and she is not even 2 months old yet!

since we are not super busy these days, we've been using this opportunity to do some maintenance. amongst other things it includes polishing up the look of the hotel - adding the numbers to the rooms (after some clients managed to mixed up the rooms and walk in on the neighbours in the middle of the night), painting more things red, making a new storage for the gas container and taking care of the garden.

the old solution for the gas container

the project

the result

Marina and I have rather different ideas about the garden (to put in mildly) and since Marina's ideas are much more dramatic and involve a lot of cutting down and taking out, she always makes sure to invite the gardener the day I am away. I am not completely agreeing with that approach, but I'm sure I will get even with her on another occasion :-) meanwhile I have been spreading some grass and cutting some plants to make them look more neat. also we finally found out that our papaya tree is a she, since it started having baby-papayas!

new grass

before cutting

after cutting

as a bonus - a shot with some sort of strange seaweed that invaded the beach a couple of days ago.

the strange seagrass