I feel like Ralph Kramden's sidekick Ed Norton

I just love doing home maintenance -- NOT!  I get a really special "attitude" toward home ownership when the maintenance involves plumbing problems on the, ummm, odiferous side of the system.  Thus was my situation this week.

We have had a somewhat slow drain in the kitchen sink, forever, and just figured it was some of that there Pura Vida plumbing.  The other day, it got snail-slow and even backed up.  Couldn't figure out the problem.  Tried the nasty acid drain opener chemical.  Nope.  Opened the outside grease trap and cleaned that out (quite full after 4 years.)  Nope.  (Ack!! What a disgusting job.)

Day two.

O.K. -- this is getting to be a headache.  Got a plumber's snake.  Went in from the sink-side and figured that I had hit a 90-bend at about 6-feet in.  (Yes, they put 90's in drain and sewer piping here.  "Those pesky wye's are just too hard to figure out.")

Went outside to the grease-trap side.  Went in with the snake ... waaay in ... hit a kind of soft spot but after spinning the "roto rooter" head of the snake a bit figured it was the same 90.  Still not very good flow.

Using several small batches, I got a whole can of drain opener and boiling water into the pipe.  Over time and with a little addition of hot water, lots of little chunks kept coming down the line and falling into the trap.  Still not much flow.

Filled the sink half way with hot water and let it rip down the pipe.  Better.  More chunks.  Still crappy (pun!) flow.

Three more sink dumps ... and then there was a burping noise, the flow stopped dead and then s-l-o-w-l-y a long brown "something" oozed out of the pipe, dropped into the grease trap sump and disappeared.  Instantly we had full flow.  I put on my long rubber glove and went fishing.  Got it.

The long brown thing was ...

-- wait for it --


... a large wadded up piece of portland cement paper sack (with the cement company logo still intact.)

!!!!!!

How?   How did the drain system EVER work with that blockage in there?

My guess that it has been there since the early stages of the house construction, when they put in the drain stubs before pouring the floor.  Normally, those stubs are stuffed with a rag or something to keep animals and concrete splatters out of the piping.  Somebody missed removing one when they did the final hookups.

So the mystery of a slow drain and blockage is solved, only to generate another mystery as to how in the world that drain ever worked.  Wow.

I hope they didn't miss removing another paper pipe plug somewhere else in the "castle."
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Today we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary living the good life in Costa Rica

Two years ago today, we said our goodbyes to loved ones and flew from Houston, Texas, to start our new life in Atenas, Costa Rica. What a wonderful time we have are having. Everyday we have to pinch ourselves and ask, "are we really here... are we really living this dream?"

Everyday we wake early up to the sounds of birds singing in the trees. Some mornings you can hear the howler monkeys down by the river below our property. At certain times of the year we get large flocks of parrots in trees picking the seeds mother nature has provided. They cause quite a ruckus with all their squawking.

Upon our arrival in 2011, we moved into our little 300 square foot Casita and immediately started the process of building our Rancho to give us some outdoor living space. This was completed in November, and then it was time to start construction on our new home. The Casa took about 6 months to complete. In June of 2012, we moved all our furniture and personal belongings from the Casita's garage to the Casa Grande.

We are loving our new home and this wonderful town of Atenas. We have made many new friends and I think we have more of a social life here than we ever did back in the States. The culture just lends it's self to socializing. So unlike the big city we came from. There everyone is always in a rush and has no time to stop and just enjoy life. Just today, we went to the local farmers' market to pick up the week's fruits and vegetables, and I thought we'd never finish with the shopping. We kept running into both old and new friends at the different vendor stalls, and of course we had to stop and chat with everyone for a few minutes.

A few months ago we decided it was time to turn our little Casita into a vacation rental. This has worked out very well. We have met some great folks and picked up enough extra income to cover the expenses of maintaining the Casita and the main Casa.

Do we have any regrets about moving to Costa Rica?

Absolutely none!

Do we miss family and friends from back in the old country?

You betcha!!! No one can ever replace them and we miss them everyday. We just hope they will come visit us soon and see this wonderful place we now call home.
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We are finally on the Google map!

If you've ever wondered what our place is like, you can finally see our hogar (home) in Google Earth. For years we've been looking at blurry satellite images of the Atenas area and our place was just a dark smudge on the map. Last month Google obtained new images and you can clearly see our property and all of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Click to enlarge

This image was updated in March, just after our annual neighborhood fiesta and rodeo. You can still see the bull ring and the flat bed trailers where they had setup chairs for the spectators. It's too bad the image was taken at the end of the dry season... the recent rain has already started to turn the sports field green again.

So now when you think of us, you'll be able to picture us living here in our tropical paradise.
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Construction Update: Where are the doors?!?!?

So close and yet so far… Here we sit, waiting on electricity, waiting on cabinets, and waiting on doors.

We won the standoff with I.C.E. (the national power monopoly) that I mentioned in an earlier post. Our little service road has now been declared a public rode and I.C.E. showed up last Saturday and actually ran power cables up to the pole in front of our Casa. First thing Monday morning, we went to our local I.C.E. office and requested new service with an electric meter to be mounted on the service pole a couple of meters from I.C.E’s new power pole. Cindy, the I.C.E. agent that waited on us, said the law states electricity must be hooked up within 10 business days of the request for service. At this time, she thinks it will be installed in 4-5 business days. Today was day 4, so I’m hoping, by this time Monday, we have power. Do you think we’re being too optimistic?

Doors!!!

Where are the doors?!?!?!


We inked the deal for the 11 doors on the 10th of April. At that time, we were told it usually takes a month for an order, but they felt they could have them ready in about 2 weeks. Yeah, right. Two weeks have come and gone, a month has come and gone, and still no doors. We really need the 4 external doors, like right now. With doors, we can actually start moving our stuff out of the Casita’s garage and start unpacking things we haven’t seen in almost a year. We’ve had problems getting John (not my John, but John the door guy, whose name is also John, not Juan) to return phone calls or give us a straight answer. So our builder Rodolfo told us where the door workshop is in a neighboring town. This past Tuesday we took a drive and after a few stops for directions, we found the workshop. John wasn’t there, but his dad, Eduardo, was busy making doors and was well aware of our order. He said they could probably install the external doors on Thursday (yesterday) or Friday (today), and the internal doors can be installed Monday or Tuesday of next week, “si Dios quiere” (if God is willing.) Yeah, right. At 2 p.m. this afternoon, no external doors had been hung and I called John the door guy again. This time he told me they are just putting the finish on the doors and they can probably be hung tomorrow, “si Dios quiere.” Now I don’t know, but I really believe God wants us to have doors and He wanted us to have the doors about 3 weeks ago. I don’t think it’s a matter of “si Dios quiere.” I think it’s truly a matter of John the door guy “no quiere” and God doesn’t enter into this equation at all. What do you think?

I think the cabinets are supposed to be ready sometime next week too. William (not Guillermo) the cabinet maker is a pretty reliable guy. He worked in New Jersey for about 15 years as a cabinet maker when he was younger and he tells it like it is. So far, he has been great to work with and he has made some beautiful furniture for our friends, Maritza and Vinicio. I trust that when he says 2 to 3 weeks, he means 2 to 3 weeks. He doesn’t get caught up in the Tico way of telling you what he thinks you want to hear, he tells it like it is.

Other than these few finishing items, we are almost finished and we are extremely please. I know I’ve promised to post more photos, but I’m holding off until everything is done. I want you to enjoy the full effect.

¡Pura Vida!
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Casa Construction Update - New brick pavers

The construction team started laying our concrete brick pavers this week. The pavers are going all the way around the house, under the eaves, the carport, and our terraza. We are really pleased with the overall look and the upkeep will be a breeze. The splash over from this afternoon's rain is clearly visible on the bricks in this photo.

We drove into San José today to pick up a very nice humidifier we found on Craig's List. We plan to keep it in our new walk-in closet to reduce the possibility of mold and mildew in the rainy season.

Last week we started looking for a new refrigerator for the Casa, to replace the side-by-side we sold with the Houston house. We found a nice one at PriceSmart (Costa Rica's Costco), but before we dropped some major bucks on it, we wanted to check out Consumer Reports . It turns out it had a much lower rating than we had hoped. So, after lunch today, we went to a local appliance store here in Atenas. We lucked out! They had the much higher rated Samsung on sale at an even better price than the Frigidaire we saw at PriceSmart. We are now the proud owners of a 26 cubic foot side-by-side, with an ice maker and water dispenser in the freezer door. The refrigerator was delivered this afternoon and for now, we have parked it in the spare bedroom.

In other news, we are still waiting on electricity because the power cables haven't been strung on the new poles. That was supposed to happen last week. We are also still waiting on doors so we can secure the house. In the meantime, John is still sleeping with the dogs in the new Casa to deter any crimes of opportunity. The doors were supported to happen last week too. No word on the kitchen or bathroom cabinets yet.

The good news is that the toilets were installed today and only one of them leaks. We also discovered a hot water line was not installed for the twin sinks in the master bath. Rodolfo promised he would take care of it right away. Apparently we missed this error when we reviewed the plans prepared by our Civil Engineer. We can't install any of the sinks until the cabinets are installed, so we have time to fix this. At this rate, we may not make our target move in date of May 15th. :(
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Just another Casa update

Every week, since we started construction on the Casa, we have monitored our expenses to make sure we stay on budget. As of today, it looks like we are going to finish the job right on track. Our actual cost per square foot is going to be just under $50 USD. That's not bad considering the house we sold in Houston, just before we moved here, went for $91 per square foot, and it was almost 40 years old.

Today, the boys have been busy on clean-up details and small projects. Two of them leveled the dirt in the yard so we can put St. Augustine sod down in the next couple of weeks. Mario, the tile master, started the tile work in the master bath today and it's looking great. Eliécer hired a dump truck and a backhoe to haul away all the left over dirt, broken concrete and general debris. The folks that play in the sports plaza across from us should be pleased when they see our unsightly mess is now gone.

I.C.E. (see last week's post) actually showed up on Saturday and set the new electricity poles. I talked to the jefe from I.C.E. and asked him if I could submit our application for service today and he said we should give him a week to get the cable strung so the guys from the office don't whine about putting in a meter when the cable isn't installed.

The technician responsible for the L.P. gas lines came today to hook-up the lines for the water heater, dryer and gas range. As soon as we have electricity, we will have a tech out to hook up the mini-split A/C unit we are installing in our bedroom. I wonder how often we will actually use it considering the affects of our insulated clay tile roof. We have an A/C unit in the casita, that only gets used once or twice a month. I must admit, it is a nice luxury to have when you need it.

There has been another delay on the concrete pavers we ordered for the driveway and walkways. We ordered them back in March and were told they couldn't get them until after Easter. Now they are saying is looks like it will be at least another week.

This past Saturday, we went shopping again and found a small shop in a town very close to us that carry some really nice kitchen, bath and lighting fixtures . To top it off, the sales clerk spoke perfect English, making it so much easier for John. We found some nice pendant lights for the master bath and some for the front and back entry ways. They had to order them for us, but the sales clerk told us they should be in tomorrow or Wednesday. The last thing we need to buy now, which will round out everything, is wood for the baseboards. That will be our next, and hopefully the last, shopping trip for the Casa.

I'll post plenty of photos when everything is closer to completion.
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Casa Update, Shopping Sprees & Electricity

We are both so ready to move out of our 300 square foot casita. We’ve been in cramped quarters for more than 9 months and the new Casa is really starting to look like a home. All of our tile floors are in, with the exception of 8 trim pieces that are still back ordered from Columbia. We picked up all that was available back in February and were told rest of our order would be filled within 30 days. Still waiting, but the vendor “promises” they will be here by the 2nd week of May. I’m not holding my breath on this one and if we have to move in without the tile trim, so be it.

The glass bricks have been installed in both showers and they look beautiful. Mario, our tile expert, is working in the master bath and it should be finished in the next couple of days.

We overestimated the amount of tile we needed for the house and wound up purchasing too much. Rather than return it for a credit, Mario went ahead and laid tile on the floor of John’s Mirador (observatory deck) and inside the storage room under the Mirador stairs.

Mario’s brother, Enrique, had been busy painting the interior. It’s amazing to see this “construction project” actually turn into a “home” as each room gets a coat of paint. Enrique will start painting the Casa’s exterior next week.

We went on another shopping spree this week to select lighting for the house. We were able to find most of what we needed to keep the electricians busy installing light fixtures and fans all over the place. Cali, our head electrician, attached all the wires to the main breaker box, and the rest of his crew installed all the switch plates and electrical outlets. I estimate they are now about half way through with all the electrical work. They still have 4 more lights to install inside and none of the outside lighting has been started.

Yesterday, we went into the big city of San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica) to meet William, our cabinet maker, to pick out cabinet hardware and accessories. I was astounded at all the choice there are for interior cabinet organization. I saw some nice stuff when we remodeled our Houston kitchen back in 2008, but I never saw some of the choices that are available here. Most of this stuff is imported from Europe and Australia. We picked out a 2-tiered, stainless steel, lazy-susan, stainless steel racks for the pots and pans drawers, stainless steel pull outs for spices, and this amazing stainless steel pull out for a corner cabinet that actually lets you use that corner dead space for storage. I’ll have to post a picture of it when it’s installed.

After we finished shopping with William, we went looking for more lighting fixtures. We found most of what we needed. We still have to find 2 pendant lights for the master bath and 3 outside pendants for the front and back porches.

Ronald, our window guy, came back today to install the last two windows and then he installed all the window screens and weather stripping. The windows look great and as soon as we get the doors installed we will be able to secure the Casa and start moving stuff in. Before that can happen, we’ll have to make another shopping trip to buy door hinges and locks.

We are finally down to a short list of things that have to be done before we can move in:
• Pick out the counter tops for the kitchen and bathroom.
• Install toilets, sinks and plumbing fixtures
• Install mini-split A/C in master bedroom (already purchased)
• Install on-demand gas water heater (already purchased)
• Install brick pavers in carport, terraza and walkways
• Install wrought iron gate (scheduled for Tuesday)
• Install wrought iron window trim
• Install electrical meter and hook up electric grid

We have had sort of a waiting game going on between us and I.C.E. (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (the national power company)) to see who would give in first. Our property line parallels a “servidumbre,” or “right of way,” that gives access to several properties below us. On the other side of the “servidumbre” is a sports plaza owned by the city. The power company will only install electric meters on public streets, not “servidumbres.” Guess what, our new Casa is almost 100 meters from the public street. That’s a lot of high voltage wire we would have to buy just to tap into the power company’s meter. Lucky for us, Minor, our Civil Engineer/Architect, heard a rumor from a reliable source, that our “servidumbre” is about to be declared a public street. So we’ve been in a holding pattern to see what I.C.E. is planning to do and we haven’t solicited electrical service yet. Two months ago, I.C.E. showed up with a big truck and dropped two concrete power poles along side of the sports plaza. The poles have just been lying on the ground all this time. Today a small truck from I.C.E. pulled up right in front of our new Casa and 3 guys got out, started measuring and setting some ground stakes. I asked one of them if they were there to bring in electricity and he said yes, the poles will be set tomorrow. Yea, we win! We will not have to pay for 100 meters of cable!! Now, I do realize that setting poles doesn’t mean that power cables will also be strung, but it’s a start. Monday morning I plan to go to I.C.E. office in town and officially request electrical service for the Casa. If they start in again with that tale about “servidumbres” and how power meters can only be installed on public streets, I’ll show them photos of THEIR newly installed power poles.

We’ll folks, that’s all the news for now.
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Passive Cooling

It's raining to beat the band.  As I sit here in the rancho, looking out over the house and its new tile roof, one can see how the passive cooling system works.

It started pouring rain HARD as soon as this storm hit.  Almost immediately, rivulets of runoff began shooting off of the rancho's metal pseudo-tile roof (the rancho has no gutters.)  Yes, there is an immediate temperature drop as the sun-heated steel roof quits radiating infrared down onto my head.  But, as soon as the rain quits and the sun hits it again, the temperature will rebound to it previous roasting temperature.

Over on the house, with the real tiles, they aren't turning shiny with rain.  I can see the quarter-sized raindrops smacking into them all over the place ... and then the drops disappear.  For at least 10 minutes, not a dribble comes out of the downspouts of the house roof gutters.  Those tiles are sponging up a third of their weight in water.

Ever use one of those clay tile wine bottle coolers?  Soak it in water ... stick the wine bottle into it ... wait a half hour ... voila, cool wine.

That's what is going on here.  For hours (or in this case, after an overnight, tomorrow morning) the wet tile will not heat up in the tropical sun.  It will slowly give back the water to evaporation and will actually be cool to the touch.

Oh, yes, I cheated a little and laid a shiny radiant barrier between the roofing beams and the tile supports but most of the reason for the cool is that tile effect.

Temperature in the rancho at the peak of sunlight today?  98F.

Temperature in the house at the same time?  80F.

Guess where I sat to read my book?
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264: Casa Construction Update

We are finally finished with the clay tile roof. The crew did a beautiful job as you can see here. The white platform is the top of the carport and John's mirador/observatory deck.

We still need a railing around the deck and a bannister on the stairway. This will be built out of wrought iron at the same time they build the entry gate and window coverings. It should be a beautiful finishing touch for the casa. I'll post pictures of John's wrought iron design work soon.





 




Here is a view of the front porch taken from the driveway. The driveway and all the walkways will be multi-color concrete pavers. Most of the prep work for the underlying foundation for the pavers is finished. Last week the team set the concrete bricks to form a curb on either side of the driveway.

We now have a pair of built-in twin beds that are built out of concrete blocks in the nook/office. The plan is to use the inside box for storage, cover the opening with ¾" plywood and top each of them with a twin mattress. I'm going to try to find someone that can make a couple of slip covers and bolsters out of upholstery material. I want some thick bolsters and over-sized pillows to line the walls and make these into super comfortable day beds for reading. When we have guests, we can use this space as an additional bedroom.

This photo is a picture of our view from the master bedroom.




In other news, the construction crew finished the installation of the septic tank and all the dirt has been replaced over the drain fields. After all the construction debris is cleared out, we will have our gardener, Mario, re-sod the lawn and help us do some landscaping. We have lost several trees to the construction efforts and we really need to replace some of the shade trees.

We finally have some decent water pressure! We installed a 2500 liter tank on stilts behind the bodega and contracted with a local company to install a 60 liter pressure tank with a 1 hp water pump. We then connected a valve to the casita's water line, so we can take advantage of the improved water supply before we actually move into the casa. Now, instead of taking an hour do do a load of laundry, it taking between 20-30 minutes for a full cycle. The 2500 liter storage tank will be more than sufficient to keep us supplied when the water from the municipalidad is unavailable.

We received some bids on windows this week. One guy gave us the "gringo" price and the other guy gave us a real price. They both brought us the same samples of their work and the 2nd guy is charging us half of what the 1st guy bid, for exactly the same thing. Turns out these two guys used to work together a couple of years ago and decided to go their separate ways. Ronald, the guy we contracted with, will start on the windows tomorrow and promised they will be finished in a week.

We also met with a cabinet maker and a door maker this past week and we are waiting on their bids. Once the doors are in place we will have a way to secure the casa and we will be able to install all the plumbing and electrical fixtures.

John and I went shopping again this week and finally decided on the tile for the two bathrooms. We've decided on white marble countertops and white cabinets to offset our beautiful Talavera pottery sinks. Both of the sinks have cobalt blue and white in their patterns, so we also decided the inside shower walls should be white tile with an accent band of cobalt blue with glass bricks above it. The team expect to start on the tile work this coming week. I'll post pictures when they are finished.

It has been really hot this past week with temperatures reaching into the 90's. The casa seems to be at least 15°F cooler all the time. We can see the clouds beginning to build every afternoon and sometimes we hear thunder. I think it is just a question of days before the rainy season begins. We are both ready for the season to change, even though we know we will be looking forward to the dry season when the October rains return.
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Casa Construction Report - Roofs, Floors, Lights, Etc.

Click to enlarge

On March 12th, we celebrated 8 months since we retired and moved to Costa Rica. We have settled into a daily routine and we're really enjoying our laid back lifestyle. Everyday, the construction team shows up about 6:45 AM, so we get up early, fix coffee and breakfast and move to the Rancho to oversee the construction. The Rancho has become our outside dining room, office and sort of an internet cafe. Being outside most of the day, we frequently enjoy visits from the local wild life. Yesterday we had this little visitor land in one of our hanging baskets, about 15 feet from me. She immediately began flirting and shaking her tail feathers at all the males flying nearby. Unfortunately for her, they all ignored her and she flew away without a mate.

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here and the progress on the construction is very evident. Last week we applied to the national water company, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados for an additional water meter. This way the Casa water supply will be separate from the little Casita. Since AyA is a Government office, we knew we had to provide them with lots of paperwork, but this time I was well prepared with every possible document I thought they might need. The clerk that waited on us pulled out a sheet of paper listing all the requirements and started to go over them with me. It was kinda comical, because as he named a required document, I just pulled it out of my file and handed it to him. He had to accept the fact he was not going to be able to put me off until mañana while I gathered documents, he had to start filling out the paperwork right then and there. In the end he told me he would call the next day with the total amount we had to pay. Well that was on Thursday, March 8th, and you guessed it, he never called. Wednesday we went back to check on things and he told us to come back before 3 PM Thursday, March 15. Being good gringos, we got there early at 1 PM, and no, the paperwork wasn't quite ready. He did finish it up in a few minutes and gave me a bill for about $135 USD. This would cover the cost of ripping up the asphalt street, connecting a new meter, and re-paving the street. Just one problem, like all Government Offices, nobody is allowed to handle money. There are two choices when it comes to paying the bill he had just handed us. Go make a deposit to their account at a national bank, or go online and pay it as an electronic payment from our account to their account. Can you guess which option I chose? Internet banking, of course!

Even though we have water service from AyA, it sucks! The water pressure is so low, that if you wait to take a shower later in the day, you run the risk that the water won't reach the shower head, In addition to this, there are frequent interruptions in service, without any warning. Take for example today, while we were shopping for light fixtures for the casa, AyA came and installed our new meter. Needless to say we were shocked that it only took 24 hours to get a meter after making the payment online. It had to be a shock to our neighbors too, because they had no water service while we were being connected to the water main. So, to resolve the water pressure problem, we contracted last week to have a 2500 liter tank connected to a water pump with a 60 gallon pressurized tank. This will eliminate our water shortage problems for the foreseeable future.

The terraza roof and front and back porch roofs are now in place. We've had to make a slight change to their design so all the clay tiles will not be in place until some time next week.

The past two days the team has worked very hard pouring the concrete floors in all the rooms. It's amazing to watch them lugging these 50 KG (110 lbs.) bags of cement to the small cement mixer, then shovel in the rock and sand, load it into small wheelbarrows and haul it into the house and pour it into each of the rooms. Then the foreman smooths it out and levels the concrete to the preset marks on the floor. Tomorrow they will be here to float the floor with the finishing surface that goes below the ceramic tile. The tile flooring will be installed sometime next week.

We wrapped up the week with a shopping trip to find some of the finishing touches we will need for the casa. We didn't have much success this trip, but we did find this chandelier for the dining room. After we bought it, we noticed that it is from the "Charley Collection" and as many of you know, it is most appropriate.
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Quite a busy week here.  The roofers finished the main roof today. It was amazing to watch this crew.  Each day, they arrived on the bus, from San Jose, at the downtown Atenas bus terminal.  Then they walked out to our site.  That's a good kilometer of some serious up and down hill walking.  From our materials yard, they lugged stacks of tile, on their backs, up the mirador stairway and placed little stacks of 8 or 10 tiles at strategic spots all over the rooftop.  They worked like mules, all day, in the sun and then walked away at 5pm to go catch their bus for an hour trip home.  We're guessing that they're probably not each making $20 a day for this.  One of the bigger boys was able to lift a stack of 4 tiles and accurately throw it from the ground up to this guy in the picture.  I watched him do this at least 10 throws in a row -- one right after the other.  Never missed.  Never cracked a tile.

The general contractor showed up with our water storage tank.  This monster is needed because our barrio is only fed by a single 1/2" water "main."  Perhaps you can guess what happens when the dozen or so houses along this road all wake up in the morning and flush.  At times, the water pressure is so low that it barely drips from a faucet.  It can take an hour for the washing machine to fill with water.  The solution is to have a personal water storage tank large enough to hold a day's worth of water.  We're also going to add an electric pump because we don't want this lovely piece of bright blue "artwork" gracing our personal skyline, up on a high pedestal, as is done by many of the locals.  They let gravity give them pressure.  I'm more inclined to give nature a little boost.

The electricians finished pulling the last of the general service wiring, plus the alarm wiring and now they're laying in the breaker panels and the generator power switching panel.

The drywall contractor is gone, having created a virtual mountain of white dust. Fortunately this was one of the highest wind days of the Summer (yes, I know it's Winter -- they're a little seasonally confused down here) and there is just a light film of white remaining, everywhere.

Our resident carpenter is busy working the tenons for the deck rafters to their precision size.  These are socketed into steel "mortises" that I designed after we discovered that the architect's original plans didn't allow enough clearance or strength for old fashioned clay tiles. [His design called for us to have icky thin plastic sheeting for all of the patio roofing.  Eeyoooo.]   There are still a few kinks to work out with these seat-of-the-pants roofing designs but it looks like it's going to work. Anyhow, the rafters are going up and the furring strips will tie across them.

The roofing woods we're using are the most amazing woods I've ever handled.  The main rafter beams are a tropical wood called "areno. This species is so dense that the 2 x 6's, only 4 meters long, are almost too heavy for two men to lift. As it is, there will be a bunch of bruised shoulders when everyone is finished carrying these beasts.

Even the 2 x 2's used for the cross furring are almost comically heavy.  They're supposed to be a "lesser" wood species but they're each quite a chunk of tree. I'm hoping for a couple of 3-foot pieces to be left over so that I can turn them into some scarey-heavy cave man clubs.

So, that's the start of a busy week and it ain't half over yet! Stay tuned. Film at 11.
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233: Construction changes and decisions

Last week was a week of many changes and decisions on the Casa construction and some of the design and materials being used.

The first surprise was the ceiling in the great room and kitchen. The crew was busy framing out for fur-downs because our civil engineer had included them in the plans. I guess we missed that when we reviewed the specs. I’ve always thought fur-downs, or dropped ceilings around the perimeter of a room, make the room look smaller. That is the last thing we want to do with the great room.

In 2008, we remodeled our kitchen and ripped out the fur-downs so we could extend the kitchen cabinets all the way to ceiling. We sure don't want any fur-downs in this house. Fortunately for us, the construction team had only started on the first fur-down in the living room when we caught it and asked them what they were doing. We immediately called a halt to the dropped ceiling look.

The next surprise was the roofing material specified for the Terraza and the entryways for the front and back doors. This was supposed to some sort of polycarbonate material that would allow light through and block the ultra-violet rays.

The plan was to place this material on a metal structure. We had never seen this stuff installed, so we arranged for an agent of a company that sells the polycarbonate sheets to come with color sample and then we went to see it installed at a home near us.

This plastic stuff is not at all the look we are going for with our Spanish Colonial Casa and its clay tile roof. Aside from not being the look we are going for, the polycarbonate sheets are expensive and have a short life expectancy. Needless to say, we squashed this design idea immediately. Rodolfo, one of the construction bosses, informed us we needed to settle on “Plan B” as soon as possible, because the crew would not have enough work to keep them all busy until they could start on the interior spaces, like floors and tile work.

John and I talked about what our options were and how we could keep the Spanish Colonial look. We decided to go with wood beams, instead of steel, and clay barrel tiles that will have the underside of the tile exposed. Thursday, our other construction boss, Eliécer, decided we really need to make a shopping trip to look at the types of woods that are available. He took us to an incredible lumber mill about 30 minutes from our house, in Alajuela. The fellow that waited on us started working at the mill when he was only 12 years old and has been working there for 38 years! This guy really knows his woods and he showed us some amazing stuff. We brought back a number of samples to consider over the weekend.

On Friday, John put together a new design for the Terraza and entry ways that will consist of heavy 2”x6” hardwood beams made of Areno and 2”x2” furring strips of a lighter wood called Melina. The beams will be mounted to the house with steel brackets. Rodolfo liked the re-design we came up with, so Monday we went back to the lumber mill to order all the wood.

Yesterday, the electricians were here to pull cable. Today, the workers are busy floating the walls of the interior of the Casa, so they’ll have a smooth texture, and the rest of them are helping Rodolfo with the structures needed to support the wood beams and barrel tile roofs of the Terraza & entryways.

The roofing company just called and they will be here shortly to begin laying the clay tile on the Casa. We also expect the lumber mill will deliver all the wood we ordered sometime today. The rest of the clay tile needed for the Terraza and entry ways will be delivered and installed next week.

Lots of activity and things are really starting to look good. The next update will have photos of the clay roof and some of the other features of the Casa that are close to being completed.
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Another shopping trip for the Casa

Back in December we decided the overall style of the Casa would be traditional Spanish Colonial. Since then we have been on several shopping trips to select material. We've selected a multi-tonal clay barrel tile for the roof similar to what you see here.

My wonderful nephew, Alex, is the owner of a foundry here in Costa Rica that manufactures products from recycled aluminum and bronze. He made the drains for the bathroom showers and the laundry room as a gift for us. Today we took a trip into the capital, San Jose, to pick them up and take Alex to lunch. While we were there we decided to do some shopping for tile trim options for the house. All of the floors in the Casa are going to be red ceramic tile, but we want different accent pieces to add texture and character. Finding these accent pieces has been a challenge, but today, we found what we need to give the Casa the look and feel we want.

This is the boarder trim we are going to use in the great room. We plan to lay a square pattern of tile, one meter wide, from the walls toward the center. Next the boarder trim will be laid and the center will laid in a diamond pattern using the same red tile.

I really want to bump up the color in the kitchen. Today, we found this painted clay tile that adds both interesting texture and my favorite color scheme. We will use this as a border on the floor and also for accent pieces in the counter and range back splashes. I'm thinking of making the range hood cobalt blue tile with this trim on the edge. We haven't decided yet if the counter surface should be granite or tile.

We bought this accent piece to install in the center of the floor in the Nook/Office. It will be surrounded by the same red tile we are using in the rest of the house.

Wouldn't you know it, when we got home this afternoon, the builder told us they will be ready to install the folding attic stairway in the next couple of days. Of course we haven't bought it yet, so it looks like another shopping trip tomorrow.

We still haven't made any decisions on how we are going to accent the floors in the bedrooms and bathrooms, so I see many more shopping trips in our future.
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214: Making Charcoal & Construction Update

When we were packing up our sea container back in Houston, we found we had a couple of bags of Kingsford Charcoal Briquettes. Rather than throw them out, we loaded them into the container and shipped them to Costa Rica with the rest of our stuff. Since we have now been here for more than 6 months, we have been doing a lot of outdoor grilling, and our U.S. charcoal supply is now gone. So John, who never ceases to amaze me with the things he knows how to do, has now started making his own charcoal.

Recently, ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) came through various neighborhoods trimming and removing trees so they could replace all the old creosote electrical poles with new concrete poles and new power lines. All of the debris from the trees has been stacked along side the roadways and lots of folks have been gathering it for firewood. Many families in Costa Rica still have wood burning stoves. We've been helping ourselves to some of this firewood for our new stone oven. Every time we finish using the oven for something, John would load it up with a batch of logs to be dried out by the residual heat after we've made bread or cooked pizza.

Now, instead of just drying out wood for the next batch of bread or pizza, John is now making the charcoal you see in the bin on the right. He will stoke the stone oven up to about 800°F or 900°F. and place wood inside this large kettle. There is a small hole in the kettle to let the gases escape. Then, he puts a weight on the lid to lock everything place and closes up the oven. Several hours later, when the wood in the kettle has had all of the volatiles burned out of it, we have charcoal. Our charcoal bin is now full again thanks to this clever man of mine. Pretty cool!

Meanwhile the construction is coming along nicely. Yesterday, they poured the concrete steps to the mirador (observation deck) John will use for his star gazing with his telescope.

The galvanized steel roof is now on and we are just about ready for the colonial clay barrel tiles to be laid on top. This week the crew also finished all the water lines and tested the connections under pressure at about 120 psi to make sure we have no leaks. This coming week we should see a roof over the carport that doubles as the floor to the mirador.

Tomorrow, we have a house sitter/guard coming over, so we can get away for a few hours and attend the 5th Annual Atenas Charity Chili Cook-off. This is a benefit for the local orphanage. This year they have more than 25 teams and expect more than 1,000 attendees. It should be lots of fun and we are looking forward to some good old Texas Chili.

Well family and friends, that's about all the news for today.
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193: Casa Construction Update

It's been almost 3 weeks since we posted an update on the Casa construction. John and I have both had colds recently, so consequently, we haven't been doing much. We spend most days relaxing in the Rancho, surfing the internet and napping. While we've been doing that, the progress on the Casa has been amazing. The builder says once the roof is on, we won't notice significant changes during the new few weeks, because now it's all in the details. Here are the most recent photos with comments.

Eliécer, our construction manager, is overseeing the boys mixing the concrete recipe.

On the right, you can see they have started to pour the concrete footings for the stairway to the Mirador. The stairs will lead up from the Rancho you see in the background. We are planning to have a large storage area in the stairwell. Between the stairway and the house on the left, there will be a covered carport with the Mirador above it. This will be an observatory deck where John can setup his telescope. You won't believe the clarity of the night sky here.

This is our front entryway and the window on the left is the spare bedroom.

This is the great room and kitchen as seen from the front door, with the nook on the right. The nook will have two side windows looking into the great room with French doors.

This is the view from the kitchen to the great room.

This is the master bedroom.

This is the view from the master bedroom looking toward Atenas.

This is the Terraza outside the master suite. Notice the stack of ceiling joists already welded. This will be the structure that will support our clay tile roof.

This is the view from the Terraza back toward Atenas. The storage shed you see in the background will be removed when the construction is finished.

Since we are in the dry season, the team has really been able to put in full days and their daily progress is very evident. The down side to all of this beautiful weather is the wind. It kicks up a tremendous amount of dust and dirt from all the excavation they did to level the ground and pour the concrete footings. I've just about given up on on trying to keep the Casita and Rancho clean. I'm fighting a losing battle until the construction is finished. We should be finished with all this by April, or May, when the rainy season starts. Then we can plant grass again and do some landscaping.

In other news, there will be Fiestas during the last weekend of February, sponsored by the local community, in the Sports Plaza next door to us. There have been workers in the Plaza these past two weekends, building a bull fighting ring and who knows what else. We met with them today and volunteered to provide them with electricity for their lights and sound system and we will also supply them with water for the animals. It should be lots of fun for the neighborhood. I'll be sure and post pictures after the event.

Well friends and family, that's all the news for now.
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176: Casa Construction Update

Happy New Year everyone! We wish you the very best of everything in 2012 and always. Christmas and New Years was very quiet for us this year. We had to stick close to home to oversee the construction material to make sure it didn't grow legs when no one was watching. We live in a quiet Tico neighborhood, but one never knows if stacks of our pre-paid concrete blocks and bags of cement would come in handy for someone else's construction project.

It has been over a month since we posted an update on the construction of our new Casa. The house has now gone from a jungle of re-bar and concrete footings to something that actually looks like a house. Quite a transformation in just a month!

I'm going to post a series of photos and try to describe the room and the view, so bear with me.

This is the front entryway.

This is a side view of the front entryway and spare bedroom window from the Northeast corner.

This is the kitchen door on the North side of the house.

This is the doorway to the master bedroom from the great room.

This is the hallway from the master bedroom to the master bath.

This is the nook/office as viewed from the great room. It will have French window pane doors.

Here is Mauricio standing in the window of the guest bathroom at the Northeast corner.

Another view of the Northeast corner of the house to give some perspective.

More steel for columns on the South side of the house, with the bodega in the background.

View of the Kitchen from the great room.

View looking South to Atenas from the master bedroom.

Rodolfo and Pato preparing steel for the support columns

The Southwest corner of the terraza outside the master bedroom.

A view from the Southeast corner of the terraza to the master bedroom.



The weather has been beautiful and this has helped the construction team stay on schedule. We anticipate the casa will be completed by May, and we'll finally be able to unpack all the stuff we have crammed in the garage and attic. You have no idea how cumbersome it has been living in our little 300 square foot space with no place to put anything. We are always in each others way for one reason or another. Just imagine 2 adults trying to make coffee and breakfast within 6 square feet of counter space. It can be very comical at times. We've got a pretty good rhythm going now, but it's a good thing we are so in love with each other.
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