Rainy Season coming to and end...

Our October trip was right at the end of the rainy season - and it gave us a chance to enjoy some of the specatular lightning shows, and intense rains.


These first two photos are looking down from the top most veranda to the edge of our driveway, seeing the intense water rushing there.






This actually is a bit of a concern for us since it will be important for us to add significant erosion control. We notices the permanent ruts from this in our January 2010 trip. So some solutions to do there...

This last photo is of the waterfall adjacent to our land; and from whence the Casa Torrente de Agua comes from.

Thanks for reading!

Jim and Dick

Dining at Home - Photo blog

Killing the Tree of Life

Hey all, one of our issues locally in Playon Sur Parrita Costa Rica is that Frutas Selectas del Tropico replanted the pineapple plantation at the base of our mountain with bananas.



Soon after the baby banana plants were growing, they put in the ILLEGAL airstrip for their crop duster. Now, on one hand, they are wickedly inconsiderate, starting up at 5:11am and spraying till about 9:00am nearly every day. The biplane has no muffler, and can be quite irritating.



But, bananas don't grow well naturally in Central America, and require annually increasing doses of fungicide to remain productive. The fungicide they use is extremely toxic, and damaging to surrounding property. Our own workers vehicles paint has been destroyed in just a couple of passes of the plane. The pilot isn't careful, and sprays this poison on their own workers in their feilds, on school children on their way to local schools, and on cars, pedestrians, etc on the main road adjacent to the banana plantation.

A year ago our community began checking out the operation there, and found that Frutas Selectas Del Tropico put this airstrip in illegally, with no approval for their air operation. They've paid off local officials to continue operation after we, working with our Tico neighbors, brought this to the attention of the national authorities.



During our January trip, we had some relief, with the pilot not starting operation so very early. But nonetheless, he did spray.





From our veranda (living room) we have a way-too-good view of the illegal airstrip. In these photos, you can see the plane spraying the field below. Notice the tree in the first photo. Its shape reminded us of The Tree of Life.

You can see him applying spray right by it.



While our local community (Alazan, Playon Sur, El Tigre and Parrita) have made headway; this situation is by no means resolved. We would like Frutas Selectas Del Tropico to choose another crop whose maintenance does not pose local human and wildlife health and safety hazards.



We've learned that the major purchaser of these local products is Del Monte Fresh Produce. We have mailed a locally (Costa Rica local) video to Del Monte and ask our friends to write to them, pointing our that their grower is posing environmental hazards to an otherwise quiet group of communities in Costa Rica.





Thanks.



Jim and Dick

New View Photos

The January trip was filled with amazing weather. It was clear and sunny the whole time, with fog some of the nights, but no rain.


This little photo series just shows some of the great open views with the clearing so far. There won't be much more, but we sure enjoyed the breeze that this bit of work has brought to the living room veranda.

This afternoon photo is very similar to the one below, but you can see how hazy it got over the coastline with the humidity that rose that day.

This last photo really captured the horizon line and clouds looking south over the pacific. It was a great morning shot!

View Clearing

During our January 2010 trip we spent a good amount of time working on clearing some of our view scapes.

One of the challenges of carving out a home site in the jungle is that the trees are filled with bajuca vines - the sort Tarzan used to swing from tree to tree in the jungle movies of old.

In previous trips we spent time clearing, and this was no exception. this top photo is of a helper we hired who was good at climbing trees. We had cut the vines off at the ground during our October 2009 trip, and had thought they would die off and fall. But in this case, they had twisted around the branches, and showed no signs of dropping. So we sent our hired helper up on our extension ladder and climbing gear to cut and untwist all the vines to clear the tree.


This second photo is the before shot.

This third photo is the after shot. As is often the case, we clear one only to find more to clear. But; our goal is to open up, not to have no folliage at all. After all, our monkey friends need this as well!

The whole clearing event took about 3 hours, and while the tree was being cleared, Dick was hard at work electric chain saw at hand trimming down below.

Meanwhile, I watched one of our other Tico workers sharpen a machete using an electric hand grinder. Pretty slick result so I got out our grinder, put the right wheel on it and did all three of our machete's. They've never been sharper. Ah, yes, better living with electricity!!! So we both took turns chopping and clearing vines further left of our viewscape, that should afford better views on our next visit.

Thanks for reading!

Jim and Dick

New views of house - from downhill looking up

Hey friends and followers!

Well in January we finally had cleared enough that I was able to take some never-before-seen photos of our casa.

From this perspective, downhill looking UP, you can really see the layer cake. Missing of course is the interesting roof detail, but this is more than enough of a new view.



This first photo kind of puts the whole building in perspective. You can see the connection to ground, and generally see the posts in the downhill side. There are more posts higher up hill supporting the middle (2nd) floor.



So if you count floors from top to bottom the way I do for this house, 1 is on top, 2 is middle and 3 is lowest (and technically below grade from the perspective other other side of the place).


Of course in this second photo, I backed up and thus there is more vegitation between my camera and the casa.

In this third photo we get a perspective that really shows how high up off of ground the first (top) floor veranda is.

You can see how the top of the stair is off to the left, and cantelievers over the second (middle) floor.

Current work is occuring on second floor, left with tile going into the bathroom. There are some subsequent blogs to post that will provide more on that.

There are only the two sliding door on the second floor with a narrower veranda, mostly for sitting out and enjoying cool night air, or rain storms, or ocean liners looking south to the Pacific.

In this view I wanted you to see the (perhaps) famed bodega. When you look above you can see a big area to the left. That is really a no-mans land. Not sure how that will evolve, but ideas are finally brewing.

Meanwhile, you can clearly see the cage on the right for equipment. That ensures no critters will get their mits on the generator (currently for sale), or the AC compressor units. The black door you see to the left of the cage the solid door entry into the dry bodega (one with a dehumidifier inside). And far left on that bit of wall you can see the water filter that keeps all the running water inside clean.

Painting of all the galvanized (silver) and primed (red) metal work will start next week, right after Easter. That'll take a couple of weeks, but when we next travel down (May) I'll take new photos of the completed project. I'm hoping on that trip I'll have some time to get some drawings which will set the new entry to the bodega level, and set the stage for future development of that level.

Finally, if you scroll up to the very first photo, look bottom right, below the third (lowest) floor. It is in that space that I need to add tank space for grey water, so that we can create a waste system that essentially keeps the bottom of all the posts moist.

I hope seeing the place from this vantage point gave all of you some perspective on how this structure looks when all seen together.

Thanks for reading!

Jim and Dick

Laundry Counter

One of our goals since we brought the laundry equipment online was to get the long intended countertop done that was part of our original design.

We had thought we would have Gerardo build it out of metal, but found translating our design into an understandable working drawing just wasn't working.

We wound up heading into Ferreteria Garyba in downtown Parrita to look at lumber options and found the hard true 2x4 lumber - heavy as all get out! Just a few pieces were enough to render our design into a functioning and sturdy countertop. Our design had to allow access of the washing machine hoses to the wall box to afford ready access to the shutoff (we keep the water pressure off when not in use) - and so an access hole needed to be against the wall in the countertop.

Similarly, we needed access for the dryer plug in, and the height of that outlet was about an inch below the finished surface. So we needed a method of access from below that allowed a finished counter to be on top, but still be able to easily unplug the dryer when needed.

All along we intended for a sink to be placed in the center. This to allow for soaking laundry when needed and hand washing with warm water.



As you've seen before, we had to apply plasterbond to the fibrolit surface we applied to the top, in preparation for tile.

We had arranged for Nelson to apply tile to the countertop as well as apply a troweled on texture finish to the walls. This was done in April, well after we left from our January trip. It had been our intention to face the countertop with teak, but unfortunately that was lost in translation. Nonetheless we think the tile facing looks quite nice.

Later on we'll add a door, hopefully teak, below the sink to block off the plumbing between the washer and dryer; and give that space a more finished appearance. We'll decide on paint color and apply it during our next visit.

We'll also install the sink and faucet during that trip which will finish that room.

Thanks for reading our blog, more later....

Jim and Dick

Laundry Ceiling/Door

Hello again!

Every time we travel to Casa Torrente de Agua we have things we plan to do, and things we don't plan to do wind up being part of our trip.

For this trip, one of our main goals was to get the laundry ceiling completed. We had purchased materials in the October 2009 trip, but ran out of time to complete our work.

So, fairly quickly we got working on the laundry ceiling. One of our challenges was that we thought we might have to build a small soffit to accomodate the plumbing supply. Our original intention was to put a layer of 1.5" square wood onto the metal structure, and then attach plywood to that. The we would have built a small soffit at the end over the service panel, and over the window as a soffit.



However, while actually doing it, we figured our soffit only had to be 6" by 1.5"; and decided we would just add a cross layer of 1.5x1.5 to create a 3" drop, and then we could have a flat ceiling.


We came prepared with finish washers and stainless steel screws to attach the wood. And in our prior trip had even finished the wood. We had also brought down a ceiling fixture that could hold a CF bulb.




So we spent a day installing the wood. It took a little longer than we intended as drilling so many holes, overhead, into steel was more effort than we bargained for. But as you can see, we did attach the three pieces of plywood, and installed our light.





















I had previously written how nice a job Javier Garro, our electrician, did wiring the service panel. Go ahead and double click the panel photo, then zoom in to his connections. I've never seen such work (so neat and clean). Now I have to clean up my home panel to match!!!

















One of the things we added on to our trip was finishing the laundry entry door. The window did go in during the gap between October and January. So we had our door builder come with additional teak so we could trim out around the door. So this is the finished door look.

There is one more trim piece, a section of 1/2" x 3" to cover the gap between the fibrolit wall and the door surround (currently that is flush). But we'll do that after the texture is done, and we've painted the room.









All for this post, next one will include the laundry counter top - which turned out to have the look but totally different than intended as well.


Thanks for reading!


Dick and Jim

Kitchen Progress Jan 2010

One of the goals we've had for a LONG time was to get the kitchen backsplash tiled. We bought the tile nearly a year before and on our July 2009 trip, attempted to install.

However, installing tile on Fibrolet is not the same as installing tile on, let's say your drywalled kitchen backsplash. To get tile adhesive to stick, one first has to apply a bonding agent.






... and along comes "Plaster Bond" - pre mixed at your local Costa Rican Ferriteria!

In January we we able to hire Nelson for what we thought would be a 1/2 day job. That began with a run to town to get Plasterbond, and an application of this (paintbrush) the night before Nelson was to start. Plasterbond is that lovely blue material.




Nelson is that fellow in this photo, and you can see the progress installing the tile (combination of porcelean, recycled green glass and natural stone).

Here is our first photo with all the tile up. You can also see our "find" from this trip, with our ceramic giraffe over the cabinet.

Same but from a different angle.

In all these photos, none of the tile has been grouted. We hired Nelson to begin by grouting, and then do some other projects for us that should be underway now as I post this.

So slowly, but surely, the place it emerging as fully finished!

Thanks for reading,

Jim and Dick

Bedroom 2 Progress

Hi again!



This blog is mostly a photo blog focusing on bedroom two, wich is the lower right hand bedroom, the one whose bathroom was tiled in other posts close to this one.















This first photo shows work that was done in April 2010, and is Nelson's crew applying repimax wall texture to the fibrolet (fiber/concrete) walls. This will provide a nice paintable finish that will look really nice. Same as was done upstairs.













This next photo shows the clothes cabinet we had Jose and Yoanna build for this room. As we've written before, generally in rural Costa Rica one doesn't go to a furniture store and buy ready made furniture. Rather, one goes to a builder, picks out or designs what they want, and then the builder makes it for the customer. This is actually reasonably priced stuff.



For bedroom #3 we wanted "oscuro finished pino" or black finish pine. We think our paint selection will be fairly bright colors. The outside veranda will have the same blue as we did upstairs, so that when viewed from a distance it will appear to be a blue house (at least from that direction).




We saw the little carved decoration on a headboard Jose had on display as a sample; and liked it a lot, so wanted that replicated on this cabinet (and also on the side tables for each side of the bed).





You can see the one window in this bedroom to the right of the cabinet. And you can see the sliding glass door to the left.



That said, the room is fairly dim since the house is nestled within the jungle canopy. We're not certain what we'll do in finishing the ceiling yet other than it will be a similar plywood as we used in the laundry, just a different color.




This next picture shows the clothes cabinet open. Since this room will usually be used by guests we wanted only a bit of hanging space with a hat shelf on the left; and the open shelves except for one drawer on the right. The room safe would be installed on the shelf above the drawer. Between this piece, and a low table we have yet to get to hold a couple of suitcases, we believe that will be adequate for clothes. We also have to get a writing table and chair. But otherwise our vision is to have lounge chairs on the veranda that guests can bring inside if they wish. A small TV and DVD player will have to fit on the writing table as well.

This next photo shows the headboard of the bed, with the footboard resting in front of it. We like the high board as it should be really nice to lean against for reading.

When we make our next furniture order we'll buy a mattress for this bed, so that it arrives about the time the room is fully ready for it.

This next photo shows the custom teak door into this bedroom. The third bedroom has a twin door. We've costed out having the bathroom doors built, which would be identical EXCEPT that that upper panel with the upper and lower arch would be tempered glass, in a type called "celeste". That glass is not clear, but rather has nice blue and white tones which look a lot like water, or perhaps clouds in the sky (likely will strike people either way - it did me when we saw it).

We're excited in that we hope to sell that large generator soon - and once done will explore getting those bathroom doors built - and bedroom #3 and bathroom #3 tiled and walls textured.

We also hope to get the driveway expanded so that the parking place is larger; and gives us an opportunity to turn around on flatter ground.

As mentioned before, future projects will include a sheltered bridge between the parking area and the entry area.

Thanks for reading!

Jim and Dick

Jan 2010 Bath2

In January 2010 trip we got going on wrapping up bathroom #2. Our first challenge was purlings so that we could attach fibrolet onto the walls.

This first photo is unremarkable, but a few pieces of purling were welded into place

We also had to work with Javier to reconnect the plumbing he took apart when he rewired, correcting the misdeeds of Eduardo. While all that was happening, we had him put an outside outlet near that bathroom window outside, so we will be able to easily connect to power with the doors closed (when we're keeping the inside dry).

This photo shows the fibrolet around the shower area. You'll see the progression below.

This next photo shows the bondex applied to the fibrolet (which to remind you, is a cement/fiber board sold pretty much in the dimensions of drywall, but in 2mm thickness increments.

The bondex is required to adhere the tile adhesive to the fibrolet. Otherwise, it would not stick.

This photo shows the fibrolet around the window and the bondex applied for tile up to the level of the window. You'll see exposed metal to the left of the window, and if you zoomed in on the right, you would also see metal. Our plan is to apply teak to the corners of the room, with wider planks closing in that corner behind the shower water supply.

Of course, this photo shows the tile applied to the shower walls.

This last photo shows the tile for behind the sink and toilet.

On our next trip, we will fir up the ceiling and put in a flat ceiling, with ceiling lights over the shower and sink/toilet area.

We have the challenge of finding an interesting mirror that can swing out for over the sink, but otherwise moves out of the way. We'll also need to fashion some way to obscure the glass so as to afford privacy there.

And of course, like upstairs, we'll need to fashion some sort of vanity table for our vessel sink.

Thanks for reading our blog.

Ricardo y Jeeeem

May 30, 2010

Bath/Bed 1 completely finished!

During our October 2009 trip, we bought a vanity from EPA (sort of like Home Depot). Color was wrong, but it was built and the one that was supposed to be being build btw July and Oct never happened. So this was a way to keep moving forward.

We bought stain to color it from the red it was, to the 'oscuro' of our mirror. We bought plywood at Ferriteria Garyba and a small amount of teak from Rob to use as edging.

We bought the faucet and vessel sink and tile well over a year ago when we thought all this would go faster. But timing has been exactly as it needed to be.

During the Oct trip, we put together the plywood substrate, and then tiled the top with our stone tile (rock, cut to uniform thickness, tumbled to be rounded again, and mounted on a mesh).

Dick stained the cabinet darker, Jim did the tiling, and then we joined it all, connected the plumbing, and now have a sink in the upper bathroom. We probably will do different solutions below as the sink is a little tall. Shorter people than us would have a problem.



However, we think it all came together nicely with the top edge of the countertop hitting the bottom edge of the color strip we had Nelson put in when he tiled the bathroom.

This view of the bedroom shows the dual cell pleated shade we added to the bedroom. We discovered this need when the streetlight was still functioning, and it managed to shine perfectly between the foliage. And you can see the blue drape we added to allow us (me) to close to block out daylight and inside light when only one is still sleeping.

You can also see the thin quilted spread we added which brings some nice color to the room, but isn't overpowering. Has turned out to be a comfortable place to sleep.

Anyway, that's all for this little post, many to follow....

Dick and Jim.