About

We are a family of four consisting of Ileana, Craig, and our two daughters Sofia and Grace.  We were both professionals in Portland, Oregon where we worked such long hours, one of us would often miss seeing our daughter on any given day.  When our second daughter, Gracie, was born, we decided that it was time to shake things up and take a year to spend more time together.  We were lucky enough to stumble upon Cuenca, Ecuador and made the move in January of 2014.

As with any move of this magnitude, it had its initial hurdles.  “What part of town is best for us?”, ” Where should the kids go to school?”, “What is the best way to learn the language?”, so-on and so-forth.  It was mind blowing and there were a lot of questions that simply could not be answered without physically being here.  One of the largest hurdles we faced was finding a comfortable place to call home for a few months while we muddled our way through the other questions… Spending $45-$100 a night was not an option, and we didn’t want to sign a long term lease not knowing which school the girls were going to attend or what parts of town we liked best.

It didn’t take long for us to fall in love with Cuenca.  The city has so much to offer and the culture is so friendly and family oriented.  We found a school for the girls and got them settled, we did find a long term rental, and we began living our lives and became so happy here that when we came across this house, we decided it would work for our family and we might be able to convert it into efficiency apartments for people just like us or people who are visiting Cuenca for a few weeks to several months.

We purchased the home in May of 2014 and got to work.  Renovating a historic home in a UNESCO World Heritage city can be a very difficult task.  We ended up hiring a local architect, Lourdes Abad.  Lourdes is world renowned for her work on preserving historic earthen buildings.  She is often asked to speak at UNESCO conferences and has worked in Cuenca on many projects including the famous Puente Roto (Broken Bridge) and the San Francisco Church. To top everything off, we were asked to participate in House Hunters International Renovation which we gladly accepted.

It took the greater part of 2014 to get the permits and approvals from the city and the architectural plans complete. House Hunters and HGTV sent a film crew down in January of 2015 and we began the remodel. We decided to remodel in phases. Phase one was to “deconstruct” the home. (I say deconstruct because here in Ecuador, the reuse of materials is very important. Every salvageable part was carefully removed and donated to the local community for reuse in other buildings) Phase two was to repair any major problems that could damage the structure of the house. This phase included the repair of the roof, replacement of electric lines and water lines, repair of adobe walls, and adding structural support under a section of the home. Phase three was finishing off the individual living spaces, paint the facade and interior walls, and repairing the original woodwork. Throughout the process of the renovation, a film crew was sent down on a regular basis to document the work being done. To view some photos of the renovation process, visit our Gallery.

It took some time, but in the end, we are very happy with the results of our efforts and hope you enjoy Cuenca and our home as much as we do.