Casa Alta Blanca: Easy, peaceful beach living
When John Bradshaw and Alan DiCamillo, two Centro residents from the U.S., built their Telchac house, they chose a lot three rows in from the village’s beautiful beach.
“Not being beachfront means our maintenance issues are much less,” Bradshaw explains. “We don’t get all the salt spray on windows! Also, because the house was built with foam block material, the house is well insulated and much stronger than traditional block construction. There is an eight-foot wall around the property, which makes it very private, and a great size garage means our car is protected from the damaging salt air.”
While not touching the sand, their home, named Casa Alta Blanca, is very much a beach house. They are steps away from the footpath, or entrada, that gets them to the water in about a minute.
They are very satisfied with their decision to choose this particular village.
“Telchac Puerto is quiet, the beaches are wider than other beach towns,” says Bradshaw. There are pleasures on land as well: “Our favorite seafood restaurant, El Angelito, is just around the corner from the house.”
Telchac is extremely quiet, with local cottage owners visiting mainly during the summer months. “In the winter we have a few snowbirds, but the beaches are mostly deserted. That’s our favorite time to be there,” he says.
They built the house themselves, supervising every detail.
“We were fascinated with the building material, known as Novidesa (novidesa.com.mx), due to its strength and insulating properties. Basically, it’s poured concrete sandwiched between two foam blocks. It’s one of only a handful in Yucatán, all built by local builder Grant Beare (facebook.com/yucatancustomhomebuilders).
Visitors enter the front garden through a wooden door at the street, or from a door leading out of the garage. The door opens to a hallway that leads to the living-dining area and to two sliding glass doors to the back deck, garden, and pool. Stairs at the beginning of the hallway lead to two bedrooms, a master and guest, both en suite. The third bedroom, located on the first floor, is presently used by the owners as a TV room. It has a large sofa that converts to a queen-size bed. The sofa in the sala also converts to a double bed. The house can sleep eight.
Stairs from the second floor lead to a large third-floor terrace with a pergola overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.
The second-floor guest room also features a large terrace and the master bedroom features a smaller palapa-roofed terrace overlooking the back garden and pool.
By the numbers
Casa Alta Blanca has three bedrooms and three and-a-half baths. The lot is 10 meters, or 32.8 feet wide and 20 meters, or 655 feet deep. The living area is 211 square meters, or 2,271 square feet, and the lot is 200 square meters, or 2,152 square feet.
The home is available for US$199,000 from Carlos Betancourt at Merida Living Real Estate (meridalivingrealestate.com, Property Code 1499) and Nicholas Sanders at Yucatán Beach & City Properties (yucatanbeachandcityproperty.com, Property Code 002654).
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