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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Health Warning! What happens to household goods in storage for a year!

A week ago I felt what I thought was the onset of a cold. I started taking the usual OTC meds, but this nasty bug immediately settled in my lungs. I had to sleep upright in a recliner just to breathe. By Saturday, John insisted I go to a doctor to get this checked out, and the search for cause and cure began.

When we first moved to Atenas, we were not yet covered under Costa Rica's national health care system, Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS or CAJA). So we affiliated with a a local health care provider called "Linea Vital." They offers private English-speaking medical care for the Atenas community. Clinic staff provide home visits, emergency care and general medical services.

Saturday, I saw Doctora Candy and when she listened to my lungs she said, "Muchos Gatos" (or many cats)! She put me on 4 nebulizer treatments, gave me an injection for inflammation and sent me home with antibiotics, inhalers, and a bunch of other meds to try to assault whatever was attacking my lungs. She told me to come back on Monday and meet with Doctora Hernández, who would be filling in for here for a few days. By Monday, I was still the same, or maybe a little worse. Doctora Hernández gave me 3 more nebulizer treatments, another injection and changed the antibiotic to something stronger. She suspected pneumonia of some type had set in. Since we are now members of the national health care system all of our medical is covered, so she sent me off to the local CAJA clinic for blood work and x-rays. I was handed the results for the blood work in 30 minutes, but it would take two days to get results for x-rays. Yesterday, We opted to go to a private facility in Alajuela (about 30 minutes from us) and get the x-ray done and receive the results the same day. It took us about 3 hours and we were back to see Doctora Hernández with all the results. She diagnosed bacterial pneumonia due to the raised white blood cell count and some cloudiness she saw on the x-rays. So, she sent me back to the local CAJA clinic with an emergency referral for treatment.

At the clinic they took me right to the head of the line where I met with the intake nurse and doctor to assess the treatment so far. This doctor started thinking Asthma and put me on a course of 4 rounds of nebulizer treatments, i.v. drip and more injections. He called in another doctor to consult and they decided I still needed 3 more nebulizer treatments and another i.v. injection. Now, let me tell you during all of the this treatment, they have my blood pressure all over the map, the highest I have ever seen it in my life and I've got the shakes due to the drug induced tachycardia. My pulse rate was over 115. By 4 p.m., the local clinic was getting ready to close for the day, so the attending doctor check my status a determined there was still no improvement so they needed to transport me to the big hospital in Alajuela for treatment and off I go...

John went back to the house to take care of the dogs, pick up some stuff for me that I might need and arrange for someone to guard the house. During the trip to the hospital, I called my dear friend Maritza, an R.N. that recently retired from this same hospital. She wasn't home, so I explained what was going on to her husband, Vinicio. He said he would update her as soon as he could.

We arrived at the hospital emergency room around 5 p.m. and they immediately took me to the head of the line to see the intake nurse and attending physician. The doctor, reviewed all the the previous results, checked me out and decided I needed more nebulizer treatments, blood pressure meds, more blood work and antibiotics.

So, off I go to the "Sala de Asma" for nebulizer treatments, etc. I sent John a text message telling him where he could find me when he arrived at the hospital. As soon as he got to the hospital, they sent him right in to see me.

I met with another doctor in the Sala de Asma and it turns out he lives in my neighborhood of Atenas and knew me as the neighbor that had provided all the electricity and water for a recent fiesta in the plaza across from our house where they held bull racing, horse racing, dances, etc. He was bragging to all the rest of the patients about what a good neighbor I am. Small world.

About this time, Maritza called and said she was coming directly to the hospital. Maritza is one of those "take charge" kind of people, that instills the belief that everything will be fine. She holds several advanced degrees in nursing and retired at the pinnacle of career in health care. She has seen it all. I have known and loved this woman for longer than I have known and loved my children. She was born 3 days before I was and I consider her the twin sister I never had.

In walks Maritza, and of course all the staff members are delighted to see her, hugs and kisses for everyone. She talks to me, takes my blood pressure and then talks with my doctor. Suddenly she turns around to me and says she knows exactly what has caused this pulmonary episode. She said she was sure it was a combination of dust, mold, mildew and bacteria.

Maritza reminded me that we had just started to unpack all of our household goods that have been in storage for a year. In spite of all the care we took with everything, our stuff arrived in a sea container last August, in the middle of the rainy season and immediately went into a garage and attic for long term storage. We had to store everything while the new Casa was under construction. We finally moved in a couple of weeks ago and we have gradually been moving the stored furniture and boxes into the new casa before opening them. Bad move! All we did was release all the mold spores and bacteria into the new house.

Well the doctor pretty much concurred with Maritza's medial assessment and decided the nebulizer treatments weren't going to cure this, but he wanted to see the blood work first to see if the antibiotics where improving anything. The results came back and the white blood cell count was down somewhat. They finally cut me loose from the hospital with more meds and instruction to see my local CAJA doctor in a week, or sooner if I get worse.

Last night, instead of trying to sleep in what is probably a mold infested recliner, I opted for our bed with a large stack of super clean pillows, and I finally got some rest after a sleep deprived week.

So, the bottom line... I think I may be on the road to recovery. As a word of warning... don't ever think you can put all of your belongings in an storage facility where the environment is exposed to the elements of nature. Especially here in Costa Rica's tropical climate. The jungle will always try to take over and claim your stuff as it's own.
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Farewell Ye Noble Sheets

Some boards get cut up and made into things ... and that’s the end of that.  Other boards do a job, such as being a form for concrete work ... and then they go to the burn pile.  But we know of some special boards that performed many jobs in two countries and across the high seas, yet may now have found their final place in the world ... and they may be doing that final job for a long time.

Mezzanine goes into the sea container.

Back in Houston, about a year ago, I realized that we were pushing the limit of what a 40-foot sea container could hold, due to the volume of “stuff” we were taking to Costa Rica, along with the space to be taken up by our Subaru Forester.  So, I designed a “mezzanine” decking to be assembled around and over the Subaru which would create quite a bit of useable space above the car – space which would normally be “dead air” where nothing could go.  As a plus, this wooden cage would protect Subie from shifting cartons or falling stuff while out on the heaving ocean.

I went to Lowes and bought three ¾” plywood sheets and a bunch of 2x4’s for the mezzanine’s support structure.  I pre-cut and pre-drilled everything so that it could be slapped together in minutes, once the car was up inside the sea container.  [We had been told by the shipping company that we were only allowed 3 hours to load the container, so there wouldn’t be time to diddle around cutting lumber and figuring things out on Load Day.]

The plywood sheets were a good grade and based on earlier purchases in Costa Rica, I knew that good wood like this was very expensive in CR.  Not wanting the mezzanine structure or plywood to be, umm, “borrowed” on the dock when the container was unloaded, we marked all of the boards with shipper’s inventory numbers and declared them on the manifest as “property to be delivered.”

Well, they did the mezzanine job just fine, crossed the ocean, got removed from the container and showed up in Atenas, CR, with all of our junk.   Really.  Used lumber.   Oh, well, it made the trip so I leaned it up against the tapia (our property perimeter wall).

THERE! Hiding behind the blue tarp.

We had no more than begun breaking ground for construction of our “Rancho” (party-patio) when our contractor came up and asked if they could use the plywood and 2x4’s, temporarily. Why not?

They put everything back together almost exactly like the sea container mezzanine and this became protection for the guys and for building materials from the sun and rain.  Those sheets of plywood took a direct beating from the elements for months and they took on a kind of dirty grey-brown look.  But they held together just fine.

Kind of small and rickety but Da Boyz loved it.

Before starting on the main house, the contractor built our “Bodega” (storage building) so there was no need for the poor old plywood mini-bodega up at the Rancho.  They took it apart and leaned the boards back against the tapia.

No sooner had they scratched the earth for the house foundation when it became obvious that we needed to break the tapia open so that the large volume of construction materials could be unloaded and brought in from the road “down there” at the house site, rather than hiked all the way from the driveway, up at the Casita.  Trouble was, we didn’t want the big gap in the wall to be left open at night.  Hey ... plywood!

The guys started out the “closure” of the tapia opening by just leaning two of the plywood sheets against the edges of the gap.  Pretty soon though, the dry season winds came and the plywood would get blown down almost as fast as they could pick it up and put it back.  But, the guys didn’t “get it” since "quitting time" was the only time when they would stand up the plywood, close the gap, jump in the crew truck and be gone --  before the wind could blow the sheets down (some times.)  So, the solution was up to me.  I built a giant bolted-on tongue and groove assembly which locked the two sheets together in the middle while a rope (eventually a chain) across the downwind side of the closure would keep this wooden wall from collapsing.   This worked for many more months, as the plywood sheets became sadder and sadder looking.

One sheet down ... one sheet up. The Closure.

{The observant reader might well wonder what happened to the third sheet of plywood.  Well, um, can you say “outhouse” kids?  Yes, sadly, Da Boyz required some means of protecting their modesty whilst watering the plants in the back 40 and they absconded with poor old Sheet Three.  Don’t know if you’ve had much experience with outhouses and messy boys but, (urk) Sheet Three was not suitable for future usage after this job.  So sad.}

 As the rainy season came back and construction started into the home stretch, our wrought iron gate was installed across the opening in the tapia (site of the new driveway) and the Big Bad Boards went – guess where – back to leaning against the tapia.
 
But are The Little Plywood Sheets That Could down for the count?  Nah.

As told in an earlier post, the Brave, Courageous and Bold guardian of the Kingdom, Don Newt, had been sleeping on an air mattress inside the casa for several weeks protecting our new stuff from thievery and thuggary during the hours of darkness.  But it came to pass that I COULDN’T STAND IT NO MO, so we gagged and choked up the two bucks an hour and hired Jesus, er, I mean Jesús to patrol the grounds and sleep with the bugs every night.  And a darn good job he does, too.

The other morning, Jesús spake (sorry ... da devil made me do that) and asked if we had any plans for the two sheets of plywood leaning against la tapia.  Seems his mattress at home was sagging badly and he figured ¾”plywood sheets would be just the ticket to bolster up the bow in the bedding. 

Holy crow – an opportunity to get those nasty looking things out of my everyday sight, after 10 months!

So, today, those two sheets, which started life protecting Subie and giving us room, were hauled by Subie and taken to the room of Jesús, where they may rest, quietly retired, beneath his mattress, doing a job where appearance means nothing and their proven strength is everything. 

Farewell ye noble sheets.


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Day 56: Another milestone - Subie is free at last!

Our Subaru Forester has finally been given a clean bill of health by the Costa Rica Government and it will be delivered to us this evening. It has been inspected, import duty has been paid, it's been registered in our C.R. corporation and it has brand new C.R. license plates. The old Texas license plates, "Blade" will just become a souvenir to hang on the wall of the rancho.
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Day 44: Found my cooking tools & the Rancho construction is well underway.

We have finally finished going through all the boxes on the porch. We pulled the stuff out we have to have now and re-consolidated the boxes for storage until the house is built. I know, don't say it, we should have done a better job of packing so we had all the "must have now" stuff boxed together. Easy for you to say, but you had to have been there when we were packing. It was a zoo, and at the end things were just being thrown into a box, any box. I was so happy to finally see some of my favorite kitchen tools find their way out of a box today and into the casita's tiny kitchen.

John found my pressure cooker! So, I just made a pot of fresh black beans for dinner tonight, without soaking them, in less than an hour.

I also made one of our favorite rice dishes using one of the several cans of "Ro~Tel" John slipped into boxes as packing filler. Way to go John! I Love You!!!

Tomorrow, for breakfast, we can have fresh fruit smoothies with my favorite blender. Yea, life is good and we are starting to organized.



I found the place to get propane for my new gas range yesterday. So, today we took the empty propane cylinder for the grill into town to have it filled and ordered a larger tank for the stove. It is a two-day turnaround to fill a tank. Tropigas first picks up the cylinder from the local agent and takes it to their main filling station. The next day it's filled and re-loaded back onto the truck. Then, sometime the following day, Tropigas returns the full cylinder to the agent and we go back to town to pick it up.

The construction crew showed up for work this morning, in the rain, at 6:45 AM. They have been hard at it all day, excavating for the foundation footings. They work, rain or shine, and only knock off if there is thunder and lightening, or the rain is so heavy they have zero visibility. It's now 5:30 PM, and the crew just finished today's work. Long day!

We have some of the building material stored in the driveway and more will be delivered as needed. Last week we put down a deposit on some really beautiful ceramic floor tile we found right here in Atenas. We still need to do some more shopping to pick out sinks, plumbing fixtures and tile for the counters and bathroom. Oooh.... shopping trip, one of my favorite things!



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Countdown to Moving Day: Days 8,7,6,5 & 4! The 40' sea container is ready to be packed

We are backdating this blog post by a few days to keep things in chronological order. We have been meaning to blog about our actual moving experience, but we haven't had time until now (7/18/2011.)

In the early Spring, we began boxing up things which we didn't use often or probably could have done without: books; VHS tapes; odd tools; some collectable items, etc. Eventually between stacks of packaging materials and packed boxes, the garage was a shambles.

But the inside of the house was beautifully staged and the house was sold in 30 days.  Once the buyer was reasonably certain, packing began in earnest.  Boxes began to be stacked to the ceiling in several rooms.  Work, work, work.  Tired, tired, tired.  Guess what.  We're not 20 years old anymore.

We hired our housekeeper, Maria, for a couple of extra days so at least there were three of us working.  Pack, pack, pack.  Hardly a dent.

We were both packing as hard as we could, all through June, with the exception of a motor trip to see the Grand Canyon.  Back to Houston and pack, pack, pack.  Quick, 24 hour trip to Thibodaux, LA., for a last pre-move visit with that part of the family and back to Houston.  Pack, pack, pack.

By the 4th of July holiday, there was sheer desperation in our hearts.  The container was coming on the 6th, in the morning and we were only allowed 3 hours to put everything into it.  Still all of the big heavy stuff was unpackaged and unprotected for moving.  We weren't going to make it.

After a horrid experience with 2-Men Movers telling us they could help but then backing out, on the 5th, we hired some "professional" movers to help us get the last of our stuff packed to be ready (allegedly) to load into the container on the 6th.  To be certain that the new team wouldn't back out, I sent their office a highly detailed inventory of the big things they'd have to pack, "Plus the typical number of boxes one would expect from a 2000 square foot, 3-bedroom house and 2-car garage."

"Well, in that case," the office said, "we'll have to probably send 3 guys instead of the usual two." Four guys showed up quite late on the 5th, packed and wrapped like dervishes, but quit about 5 P.M., promising to be back, "Oh, not later than 8am ... probably earlier."  We still had to number and inventory all of the day's work and we kept at it until after midnight.

THE BIG DAY:  The movers dragged their sorry butts back to "the scene" after 8:30 that morning, then stood around sizing things up and chatting for another 10 minutes.  There was still a lot of stuff to be wrapped in mover's blankets and nothing had been moved out to stage it in the driveway.  Of course, the 40' sea container arrived at exactly 9 A.M.  Expecting difficulties, Pat had enlisted the help of our friend, Harvey Foster, to act as a monitor and third set of watchful eyes.

Then it began.

As you can see from the adjacent photo, their "professional" means of getting everything from ground level up into the container was via strong backs or the S-L-O-W lift gate on the back of their rented Enterprise box truck.  Immediately, someone on the crew mumbled, "We can't do this in 3 hours -- more like all day." Uh-oh.


Then came the first extortion.

"Well that $2400 'not to exceed' quote was only for labor and yesterday we used quite a few of our boxes and rolls of tape and bubble wrap and shrink wrap and blankets." So, (Implication: if you want us to keep loading your crap) you'll have to sign on this document that the price is now $3600.  Quite a situation.  What can ya do except sign (and they already had our credit card number.) [NOTE: They left a garage full of my already paid-for boxes and plenty of all of the above accessories.  For some reason, their stuff was the only stuff they could use.  Ours must not have been "professional grade."]

So, along they diddled.  We were supposed to have everything loaded by 12 Noon and this included our Subaru Forester.  Fortunately, or depending on how you look at it, unfortunately, the crew's head packer kept loading and unloading boxes until he was happy that each one would be secure for the sea voyage.  It would eventually take them a full 9 hours to load everything.  [We're still holding our breath for the overtime charges coming from our broker for the container driver's standby time.]

Based on what several professionals had told us and just on the visual of the sheer mass of stuff we were going to try to put into the container, we knew that it would be hard to fit everything into that container, especially with a car taking up a lot of space.

Because the Subaru was also going into the container, I reasoned that all of the air space above that squatty little car would be wasted.  So, I designed and prefabricated the supports and cross-decking pieces of platform onto which we could get back a good 200 cubic feet to fill with junk.  But, the loader didn't
 want to use it, shaking his head that it would be a waste of time.  Great.  $200 of lumber and 4 hours working in the sun to prefabricate it and he was going to blow it off.

Some time around 3pm, Mr. Genius, the loader, realized that he really wasn't going to fit everything in.  Almost like the thought he could sneak my deck into the container without admitting he was wrong, he sent his two laborers to get the support pre-fabs without a word.  Then he realized that they didn't have the screws or tools to put the decking in place.  But first, (in Spanish and with much hand waving) "Have them put the car in first."  What?!?

We had arranged for a tilt-bed wrecker truck be on standby to lift and raise the Subaru up into the container's deck height.  On standby.  "Give us a half hour's notice."  Mr. Genius, I guess, thought that we were going to levitate the car up into the container.  Where's Harry Potter when you need him?

Called the wrecker dispatcher, expecting to get a refusal for such instant service but he gave me the first good news of the day, "I'll have him on his way right away."  Super.  Their dispatch yard was less than a mile away.

Just then, there was a clap of thunder.  Ominous clouds were racing in overhead.  Everyone scrambled to get things up inside the Enterprise box truck and out of the exposed driveway.  Just as the wrecker arrived, the sky opened up with all the rain we had been waiting for since this past February.  All of it.  At once.

The driver jumped out, got the low down, and told me to bring the car into line with his bed.  Hook, snap, buzz and I'm sitting in Subie, 4 feet up in the air, completely blinded by torrential rain.  Everyone ran for cover.  As the rain let up a little, I could see a concerned little confab going on among the movers.  Rolled down the window, a little, "What's wrong?"

"The wrecker's bed is about a foot lower than the container's."  Crap.

Now, I'd been assured by this wrecker company's office that, "Oh, yeah, we do these vehicle loading-into-a-container jobs all the time.  Don't worry.  Nothing to it."  What now?

Then, I noticed my 3/4" thick plywood hurricane board-up "shutters" sitting up by the garage.  Four of them.  I reasoned that creating a ramp by stacking two sheets behind each wheel -- 1.5" of plywood -- would certainly support a little Subaru.  I shouted this out to Patricia, The Translator, and Da Boyz jumped to the task.  As soon as the lumber was in place, bridging a 1-foot height difference and about a foot of distance between the two vehicles (an abyss into which I could fall if something went wrong,) everyone but the wrecker driver ran for cover from the rain.

The wrecker driver motioned for me to back into the container.  I didn't want to spin the wheels and shoot plywood down the street so I began to move gingerly.  As I got to a point which I guessed to be directly over the abyss, the driver's eyes popped out of his head, communicating a need for urgent action.  I floored it.

And slammed on the brakes.  Plain and fancy driving if I do say so myself.  Perfectly centered and only about an inch or so out of linear position.  I'm told that my plywood sheets had bowed under the weight of the car and then emitted cracking sounds.  Glad I couldn't see it or we'd have spent another hour cleaning up the driver's seat.

Quickly, with me supervising from within the container, the pre-fab decking was muscled up into place and my screw shooter was used to hold everything down in place.  Loading resumed.

Gosh. Now they had PLENTY of room to finish the load out.  Judging from the body language and the grins, the "pros" were congratulating themselves for being so clever as to use my decking.  Cripes.

Just then Susan Gallivan showed up with a huge bag-o-burgers-n-fries to save our day.  We hadn't eaten since about 6am and were a bit more than famished.  THANK YOU SUSAN!

The rain quit.  The loading was completed.  Container papers signed.  Ready to roll ... not.

"Where's your container lock?" says the loader.


"No lock ... we're using a customs seal ... this is an international ocean shipment."

"You gotta have a lock.  Company policy."

"If we lock it then Customs won't be able to get in and survey the load; and, anyway, all of my locks are packed.  They're inside there (motioning to the container) somewhere."

"Gotta have a lock."


Just about now the container rig driver stepped into the fray telling the mover's loader that, no, we don't lock these shipments.

"Gotta have a lock."

The truck driver looked at me ... I looked at him and jerked my head, as in, "Go ... now."

So as our worldly possessions rolled off out of sight, the loader was on his cell phone chattering excitedly to his office.  What was he going to do chase after the truck?  He hung up.

Nah.  He was going to come at me with yet another demand for more money.

"Ya know, we only allowed 4 hours for this job so you're going to have to sign for 5 more."

And I'd just given away all of my guns.

Patricia to the rescue.  Ever seen her REALLY mad?  In Spanish?  I didn't know what she was saying to this guy but she was scaring me as well as everyone around us.

That was the end of it.  The movers picked up their junk and slunk off to who knows where.  Probably to some other stupid victim's house to extort double the quoted price from them.

I sure wish I could do this moving thing at least once a year.  I just don't get enough stress anymore.
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Countdown to Moving Day: 19 days and have I 20/20 vision again.

The cataract surgery yesterday was a complete success!  I went for a follow-up with the doctor this morning and I now have 20/20 vision in both eyes.  I will probably just need some reading glasses now.  I have needed glasses to see at a distance since I was 18 yrs old.  It will be so nice to be able to drive with just a pair of non-subscription sun glasses.

As usual, John is  taking excellent care of me.  He cooked dinner last night and then packed more boxes.  Today he spent  the day boxing up more stuff while I kept track of the inventory.  I swear stuff must be multiplying in the closets and cabinets when we're not looking.  I not supposed to lift anything more than 30 lbs for another week, so all the heavy lifting has been left up to John.  Maybe I'll get lucky and he will have everything packed before I go back for the final check-up with the eye doc.

Yesterday, we went ahead and booked our airline tickets on Continental for July 12th.  Tomorrow we are off to the vet to get the APHIS7001 health certificate for Randy, our dog.  The document has to state he is healthy and he has had all the required vaccinations.  Once the vet signs the document, we have to send it to Austin to have the certificate authenticated by the State.

Friends are planning a farewell party for us on July 9th and then we are off the Costa Rica 3 days later.
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Countdown to Retirement: 12 Days to go and we just sold the house!

Woo Hoo!!! The plan is quickly coming together.  We listed the house for sale on May 2nd, and here we are, 30 days later, with a signed agreement and a closing date on July 8th.  Costa Rica, here we come!

We just booked a 40' sea container for all the stuff we are shipping from the Port of Houston to Costa Rica.  We will have a few hours to load up on the morning of July 6th.  Then, we have another day to clean up the house for the buyer's walk-through and closing on the 8th.  I guess we're going to have to call a cleaning service to help us, since all the cleaning tools (vacuum, mops, brooms, etc.) will be long gone in the container.  It's just as well, since we will probably both be too exhausted from packing to actually clean the house too.

We are so ready to start our next adventure together in Costa Rica.
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Countdown to Retirement: 45 Days to go!

Finally, the house is ready to sell! The "For Sale" sign goes up in the front yard in the morning.

This week we finished all the repairs and landscaped the yard. John power washed the deck and re-sealed it. I had the carpet, tile & grout cleaned. We cleaned out all the closets and I pulled together a large load of stuff to donate to a friend's garage sale. We continue to pack as we go and the stack of boxes in the garage keeps getting higher.

We've staged every room of the house for showing and I think a potential buyer will be favorably impressed with all the nice amenities in this house. This has been a great home and we've always been happy here, but it's time to let someone else enjoy it while we can get on with our retirement in Costa Rica. We are hoping for a quick sale so we can start our next adventure soonest.
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Packing and Geocaching

What a great weekend! We went bike riding for about 10 miles along Buffalo Bayou in Tracey Hershey Park. We took our time and made frequent stops to hunt for hidden geocache sites in the woods along the bayou. I actually startled a little brown bunny in the brush, who must have been getting an early start hiding his Easter Eggs.

Saturday we packed up everything in the kitchen that I think we can live without until we get settled in Costa Rica. Later in the evening, we went to a dinner party to celebrate our friend Susan's birthday. The conversation turned to our geocaching adventure the day before and a couple of the party guests became very intrigued with our hobby. We agreed to meet with them and introduce them geocaching. Instead of an Easter Egg Hunt, we spend a couple hours with Tammy and Danielle teaching them the techniques and tools of a geocacher. They're hooked and they are already making plans to go with us again in 3 weeks.

We will be meeting with the realtor later today and putting the house up for sale. We spent a good part of the weekend staging rooms for showing to potential buyers and packing more of our stuff for the move. We keep moving stuff into the garage and it is getting hard to move around all the boxes we've crammed in there. I sure hope a 40' sea container is going to be big enough to hold everything we plan on taking with us.

Donald and Wendy drove over from Alabama a couple of weeks ago and loaded up a U-Haul truck full of furniture and stuff as part of our down-sizing project. It was great to spend time with them.
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Countdown to Retirement: 100 Days to go!

Hard to believe John will finally retire in just 100 days. I received my first Social Security Retirement Benefit payment last month. I haven't worked (except around the house) in more than 2 years, but now I'm officially retired and getting paid for it. John submitted his application for Social Security Benefits today and it should become effective in July.

This past month we finished fixing up the inside of the house. Wallpaper has been pealed off the walls, sheet rock has been repaired, ceiling damage has been fixed from the water pipe break we had last summer, and all the rooms have a fresh coat of paint. This afternoon John replaced all the old door knobs on all the bedrooms, bathrooms and closets. Now, if I can just get him to fix the spot light over the kitchen sink, we'll be done indoors. The inside of the house really looks great and I think a potential buyer will be pleased with all the nice touches we have added.

This week, work will start on the outside. We have some minor stuff to fix outside, then everything will be power washed. We removed a 50' pine tree from the front yard that had finally succumbed to disease and now we will get started on some landscaping to improve the curb appeal.

In the middle of all of this, we are also trying to cull through stuff, packing what we can and setting aside what will be going to the kids. Then, there is all the stuff that will either to donated or trashed. It amazing how much stuff you can get rid of, stuff we really don't need, when you make up your mind to downsize.
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Countdown to Retirement: 145 Days to go!

Everything for our retirement is starting to fall into place!

While on vacation in Costa Rica this past December, we got our Costa Rica Drivers Licenses and wrapped up a number of details for my Residency application. I was fingerprinted and photographed at the Fuerza Publica (National Police) for Interpol and then we meet with our immigration attorney to sign some paperwork.

All of the documents have now been certified by the Costa Rican Consulates and officially translated into Spanish. I received a confirmation this week stating my application for residency has now been submitted to Migracíon (Immigration). Once my application is approved, we will start the same process for John.

We have a number of things we need to do before we can sell the house. We need to paint a couple of bedrooms, replace some carpet and fix some minor stuff. We've started taken bids for the painting and repairs and hope to have the house ready to go on the market this Spring.

This weekend, the agent from the shipping company will come by and take a look at the furniture and personal belongings we plan to ship. He will give us a quote on the shipping cost, Costa Rica import duty and delivery to our home in Atenas.

We're hoping our kids will come soon to take away a lot of the furniture we don't want. We have way too much stuff and downsizing is a real challenge.

Hard to believe, in just 145 days John will officially retire!
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Household Inventory

We now have less than a year to get ready to relocate to Costa Rica. So, we have finally started taking an inventory of everything we own to decide what we will take with us when we move to Costa Rica.

John found a great set of database programs which will help us compile lists of everything and determine the values for Costa Rica's custom officials. So far, I have used the Book Organizer, Music Organizer and Movie Organizer to download info on our collections. The program lets you enter the UPC barcode and then it retrieves all the information, including titles, authors, artists, actors, release dates, value, etc. It has already saved me hours of data input.

All electronics and appliances have to be listed with the brand model and serial number. This way Customs knows when they were manufactured and if they are used or fairly new. Anything less than 6 months old will be considered new and taxed accordingly. The average tax rate on new appliances and electronics is somewhere around 50%. We will probably go ahead and replace a number of our old electronics and appliances in the next few months, so we can take them into Costa Rica as "used" goods, and hopefully we will be taxed at a lower rate.
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