30 March 2008

Construction Progress Report #4

Here are a few photos of our casita. On the left side you can see the garage opening. To the right is the covered porch with the opening for the front door. There will be two windows on either side of the door. On the right wall, toward the back, you can see the bedroom window that faces the soccer field.


This picture is looking from the kitchen to the bedroom in the back. You can see part of the kitchen counter on the right and the bathroom wall on the left. We are installing an "on-demand" hot water tank so will have hot water for the bathroom sink, shower, kitchen and washing machine. Most typical Costa Rican homes only have hot water in the bathroom for the Suicide Shower (read this post from November '07 for more info)


This is the view inside the garage. Here you can see the crew floating the garage floor. On the right side you can see the doorway into the living room. There will be a double utility sink next to the door with room for a washer and dryer.

We will have A/C in the bedroom and ceiling fans in the bedroom and living room. We are installing tile floors throughout so it will be easy to keep clean.

We are not going to put a stove in the apartment since this will eventually be the guest quarters. We will have a full kitchen in the big house when we build it. We have planned for plenty of electrical outlets with the appropriate amperage to power a microwave, electric skillet and two burner hot plate. One of the goals for the July trip will include the purchase a small refrigerator and some furniture.

We have already started to accumulate a lot of stuff (towels, sheets, kitchen wares, etc.) which we will be taking down with us in July. We also hope we can pick up a used washer & dryer for a reasonable price.

More later...

Read the whole story...

27 March 2008

Construction Progress Report #3

We just received an update from Minor on the Apartment construction. The walls and roof were completed about 10 days ago.

They are working on the plumbing and electrical now. The order has been placed for the Laurel that we will be using for our wood ceiling. They should be starting on it soon.

We have made our flight reservation to fly into San Jose on July 4th for a couple of weeks and Minor feels comfortable everything will be finished by the time we get there. He will be sending more photos in the next couple of days and we'll post them here for all to see.

We are also in the middle of our Spanish II course, so John should be much more conversant in español on our next trip.

Hasta pronto...

Read the whole story...

22 March 2008

Baby Christopher

Photos of the new grandson have arrived! (Thanks to Christoper the Elder.)



















Hey ... this kid looks like a baby. How can I send him a sharp object if he's too small to get a good grip on it? Oh well. I'll figure something out.

Read the whole story...

21 March 2008

A New Grandson!

Hardly any details yet, but new grandson, Christopher Coleman, arrived yesterday, March 20th, and the parents (Aimee & Keith Coleman) are probably almost as thrilled as we are. Everyone is fine and we're anxiously awaiting photos from their home in CA. Film at 11?
Read the whole story...

08 March 2008

Construction progress report #2

Our first structure is really going up! Here are some photos.


This is a view of our footing excavations and rebar up against a retaining wall. This retaining wall was required of our new neighbor because they are constructing a building (house?) down in an excavation, substantially lower than our natural land contour. When they dug out their lot, they exposed our planned back bedroom wall to undermining if the land ever got washed away from our property, down into their "basement" level.




Below is a typical footing pier with the wall post bolted into place, on top of it. Notice on the nearest post, there is a slot facing the lower right corner of the photo, but no slot facing the lower left corner. Therefore, this is a corner post where a wall is coming across from the distant post and then turning to mate up with the not-yet-existing post to the right.




This is the steel cap running along the top of two wall panels, bolted into one of the posts. The house is all steel and concrete. No wood for the termites! (Except for the internal ceilings and some minor indoor features.) You can see our little farm road / driveway. This view is looking south, from north of Atenas. That is the town hidden in the trees in the distant hills. To the left is our neighboring soccer pitch. That giant tree behind the truck is a mango tree. Yum.




This view is as if you're standing on a step ladder in the kitchen, looking over the wall into the bedroom. Notice the mountain view out the bedroom window. I don't know if I'll be able to stand it.





Even the roof trusses are steel.




That's all we have for now. Stop back soon. We'll be posting more.

And, don't forget to get in your time share reservations to visit [grin].


Read the whole story...