Rio Apartment

Camillo and I bought the Rio apartment in February of 2003. When we decided to move here in mid - 2002 we started looking for available apartments via internet and when we would find something promising we would send his son or daughter or even a friend living in Rio at the time to check it out – Our requirements sounded like this; small, in need of repair, in Ipanema or Leblon, no parking required, and if no elevator then on the bottom two floors, and we did not need a view (we knew we couldn’t afford a view.) In November of 2002, Camillo found this apartment and when I came down for Christmas we checked it out and made an offer. The whole thing was more complicated than that but this was the basics.   I came down again in February to sign the papers and we started remodeling – me in Houston and Camillo in Rio. NOW that is a feat worth a wedding band.

By the way we found an apartment that met and exceeded our list and with the dollar at nearly 4:1 with the Real (right before Lula’s election) we were able to afford the place and the reformation. This is a 3rd floor with elevator apartment, 100 sq meter (about 900 sq ft), one parking spot, 160 steps from the beach, walking distance to good restaurants, the subway bus, and desperately in need of reformation – so we could do it our way. We opened up spaces turning this 4 bedroom into a one bedroom with sitting and one bedroom/office, reused the original wood floor, used ceramic in the kitchen (Cozinha) and dinette (copa) area and replaced all the windows with sandblasted glass that depicts scenes around RIO (creating our own views).

I thought that it might be interesting for you to see the before and the after – the before starting and the after when mostly finished.