Christmas Post number two....

Like the other Christmas Blog, this one shows the guys prepping the floor so that tile can be applied. This allows them to set angles or slopes so that water will run off.

This photo shows tile just peeking out onto the veranda. In this photo, all the 'inside' space is done.

In this photo you can see floor tile up to the beginning of the upper bathroom shower pan. That large window you see really is that big. A nice floor to ceiling window so that you can wave to the monkeys when you step out of the shower! Seriously, we'll probably make the lower window panes frosted to emit light, but allow for some privacy.

This is a good photo looking across the 'living room' into the 'kitchen' - really all one big room. In the corner on the right will be a tall thin cabinet. Left of that the refrigerator; then some countertop, stove with microwave above, and more counter around the corner. The sink will be on the wall on the left (out of sight for this photo).

This final photo shows the stairs going down. That wire on the right will be an exterior outlet. I honestly don't know what we'll plug in there, but the glass door on the veranda spans all the way to the end; so in order to put in a table lamp, or radio or such the plug would have to go around the corner to plug in here. Then too, Ricardo is famous for his holiday lights and this might prove to be the right place for them.

Thanks for reading our blog. More coming after the 5th of January. Right now the crew is on holiday break.

Ciao!

Ricardo y Jeeeem

Merry Christmas (2 back to back posts)

The first two photo's begin to transition from "the teak issue" to prepping for floor tile.

I don't really have any words to add since my nearly daily phone contact with our PM Rob has been slowed due to his own travels. But I think the photo's pretty well paint the situation well.

This first photo is looking from the "living room" across the upper bedroom into the bath. Yes, up there is a very open plan. On your right is the wall dividing 'inside' space from 'outside' space while remaining under roof. The cupola feature is above our heads here but you can see the teak applied onto the underside of the upper roof.

What needs to go in up there now are windows...

You can see in this photo, and the second one the scratch coat in preparation for the tile. There is a coat above this one before tile is applied.

This is a great view of the upper veranda. It would appear that only some of the varnish has been applied to the teak, so some work needs to be done there.

Dick and I have fans to take down with us that will provide air movement when breezes aren't enough. This space is about 9 feet wide. So while not huge, it is a generous outdoor space.

What will go in on the left are sliding glass doors to divide 'inside' from 'outside' - a distinction that is sometimes very fluid in Costa Rica.

In these next two photos, the undercoat is being applied for the floor tiles. This first one is at the top of the stairs. The second photo shows part of the living room/kitchen area done. The pipes you see against the wall across the room are hot/cold supply. Between them is a drain pipe.

This final photo you can see the texture applied to the outside wall. This is the wall along the stairwell. That window opening is for the lower "bedroom 2" shower space in its bathroom. Those two wires are for two things. One is a switch to turn on the lower bodega (closet or basement) lights. The other one is to turn on lights along the stair wall to light the way.

I have exterior switch covers for these.

Thanks for visiting our blog!

Ricardo y Jeeeem

Happy Thanksgiving, The Teak Issue...

Hola Amigos!

For the most part, this is a photo edition of our blog. Rob and Kent have been in Hawaii for the past two weeks, and will be there another week. The flow of photos has slowed down, and there may very well be updates to what you see in this collection. However, some of these are through Rob via another Costa Rican friend.

I'll explain the photos in order. This first one is while standing on the upper veranda, looking into the Living Room towards the stairs coming up to this level. You can see a bit of American Beam on the left, which marks the outer edge of the building (and hence outer edge of the stairway too). The roof past that is the overhang to shed water further away during rain. Looking up, you can see through the opening where the upper veranda windows will be located, and above that to the cupola feature. Teak will be applied to the outer overhang of the cupola roof. Right now the teak ends where the windows will go.

The second photo is similar shot, but closer so you can see the teak.

The third photo is taken by turning around and looking across the upper veranda. Marlon is applying oil to the teak. You can see how the color is becoming more vivid with oil. As that soaks in, that vividness just become richer. The camera was tilted so that you can see more of the teak and not just a level view which, because of limitations of the camera itself would not capture as much. On the upper left you can see the other end of the cupola feature as well as the other end of the upper veranda windows.

The fourth photo is taken by stepping closer to the railing, and then looking through those upper veranda windows to the cupola. If you imagine an ocean breeze blowing in, and the effect of the sun on the cupola roof creating a chimney effect, you can imagine how this will be naturally cool. Dick and I have purchased three Hunter fans suitable for tropical climates which we'll hang from the veranda ceiling.

This fifth and final photo for this post shows teak, but the focus here is looking up from a few feet out from

the bottom step going up. All of that underside will be teak. Above the wall and behind the worker you can see the teak ends. At that point above the wall will be glass. This is over the kitchen cabinets. Teak will extend outside to the edge of the roof. BUT the other reason for this photo is to show the gutter in place so that when you're walking to the stairs during a driving rain, there isn't a waterfall on ones head. We are liking the color of the teak against the green of the gutters (which match the roof).

All for now. Dick and Jim hope you had a happy thanksgiving!

Ciao!

Ricardo y Jeeeem

The bodega is secured!

Hola amigos!

Our apology for delaying so very long on updating our construction blog. Wow, how did two weeks pass so quickly!

First, some have asked Jim, "what the heck is a bodega"? "Is it a basement in Spanish"? So let's get clear on this bodega thing. Essentially it is a storage space. In our little casa the space that is becoming bathroom #2 (of 3) was initially intended as the bodega - a place where we could store owners supplies, and supplies for our staff to use when we're away - so they can put clean sheets and towels on the beds, and get some cleaning supplies.

As the project evolved and it became very clear that we could add a third floor downhill from the first floor - hanging between some of the structural posts which hold up the house - we revamped our plan slightly, and decided to make the first floor bodega into a third bathroom so that each bedroom had a private bath, and use the new third level as a storage level.

As it turned out, there is a HUGE amount of space provided by doing this. Our quick calculations figure this at about 33 square meters or about 330 square feet of total space. We really don't need a 330 square foot closet. But we're not sure just how the total space will ultimately be used. But we did know we had two immediate needs. First, we needed a secure equipment room where we can store the propane tank, the generator, and compressors for air conditioning. We allocated about 6.25 square meters to be a secure space just for that. In this first photo you can see the generator room behind the guys on the right.

Then we wanted a dry room to replace what would have been the dry room on the first floor. With Costa Rica's humid climate, it is important to have a space where we can run a small dehumidifier. It was in this space, which turned out to be about 7.5 square meters, that we created two sub rooms. The back secured owners closet, and the front employee space. In the second photo you can see the secure owners portion of the dry room, with the mesh door to allow the entire space to be dried. That little window is just to allow some natural light to come in - and it can be opened to allow for fresh air flow when we want to clean that

space.

In the third photo, you can see Gerardo fitting a solid metal door he built so that fresh humid air is kept out of the room.

And in this fourth photo, you can see the completed door to the dry room. If the generator room door was closed, you would see it closing in on the edge of the dry room door. All of these doors have secure locks to prevent petty theft. It does seem like that would be unlikely, but Alazan is the new wealthy gringo community in what is otherwise agricultural areas - so security just makes sense.

All of this fits into the "back" of the bodega level, leaving quite a generous amount of undeveloped space. We will wind up securing that third large room as well with some sort of chain link material. At the moment, that larger third room contains the water filter (at the corner of the dry room) and the plumbing is in place to add a simple wash sink down there as well. So it will be important, but not urgent, to secure the rest of the bodega. Besides, that creates several layers of locked gates - and material to keep the enterprising monkeys who make their way past our casita at least twice a day.

Thanks for reading our blog. Once again, our apology for such a delay.

Regards,

Ricardo y Jeeeem

Stairs Built Photo Blog

When Rob and I spoke this week he had mentioned that Gerardo had removed all the steps and was doing something to secure the left riser to the building. As heavy as the metal is, I didn't think that was necessary. But Gerardo has been doing metal work for decades - and I trust his judgement.

Best I can tell, that first step looks like a short step. I'm hoping he isn't assuming I won't tile the concrete...

A view from the distance of the stairs going up. As you can see, all is well under the drip edge of the roofline.

So this is looking UP.

Another example of Gerardo's excellent work, making this angle in the rail going up.

Now, to finish these steps, they need to be filled with concrete to the level of the metal, then get tiled with the same tile that will be used on all the floors. We brought back samples of everything; and at a point we'll publish a blog of just finishes. But for now this is what will go on the steps and floors.

Here is what we are apt to see when Gerardo comes visiting...

Oct 31 Post

Greetings friends!

More on our adventure in October! Well, we made huge progress Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday outlined in the previous three blog posts. We began each morning at around 6:45 am, and ended each day at around 5:30 pm. Like we 'enjoy' in the USA, we made at least a couple of trips into the Ferreteria (Home Center) each day; and lots of progress between times.

This first photo shows a pile of teak. It has been milled, but our crew has to sand and plane each piece to a consistent thickness, then trim to fit wherever they are hanging it. It is precise and time consuming work. But the results are some of the most beautiful work you'll see anywhere.

I'm wanting to show two views of the same photo, so that all can see where these guys are working, and what they're doing. In a previous blog, I showed photos of the facia board mounted below the drip edge of the roof. This photo shows Iladio fitting a piece of teak into the overhang which extends beyond the stair. Right about the level of his left arm will be the flat ceiling of the stairwell. Teak will extend up and inside, but that will be in the climate controlled space (eg: air conditioning/dry) space.

This next photo is that view from outside looking up. These guys appear totally comfortable walking on these beams, even though falling would surely injure them if not worse. It is on this sort of structure though that a lot of the work gets done, with metal lashed to trees... Neither of us would manage the life of a builder in Costa Rica!

This next photo shows the teak of the cupola feature. You can see the precision of the mitre corners. What you can't see here is how rich that teak will look once oiled. The variations of very dark to very light of old growth teak is amazing! Having craftsmen install it adds to the beauty. We have heard fellow gringo's speak of workers like ours with a certain distain - as if these guys were some out less talented, or less intelligent. These fellows amaze us every time we enjoy working with them, and feel that we're developing lifelong friends with them. They will always be welcome guests, and we will always delight at an opportunity to work with them.

So, on Thursday of our trip we ate breakfast as usual, got to work early on, and broke for lunch a bit after noon. We had totally layed out every fitting of the black AND grey water drain systems, and just needed to purchase a couple of fittings to complete the job. So we left for shopping and lunch with Rob and Kent. Jim sort of lost his appetite during lunch, but just wrote that off to the humidity and hard work. But, at the point of starting to work on that plumbing, became extremely dizzy, and nauseous. Thinking it was just dehydration, we broke for a water break. But that problem just continued. So around 2:30 we ended our day. With the help of Rob and our crew, we got headed downhill to break for the day. Dick drove us into town to our hotel, and Jim just got worse and worse. After some review a couple days later, we concluded something about Thursday breakfast resulted in food poisoning.

We attempted to work Friday morning, and did successfully repair two leaky joints and bring the supply water up to full pressure. And with the able help of our crew, ran the propane gas line from kitchen to bodega. We took a set of notes we could leave with Rob. But Jim was still too shakey to manage the rigors of below level plumbing so we stowed all our goods in the dry room, bid our crew farewell, and headed back to San Jose. So when we return in January, one of our first tasks will be to complete the black and grey water drain systems - and tie them into what we hope is a septic system we can readily connect to.

We snapped this photo of that wavey bridge we had to drive over both ways to/from San Jose. While secure, it waves as one drives across, and tilts back and forth as well. That red water below was moving at a very fast clip adding to the feeling of risk as we crossed. But, this is one of the wonderful characteristics of Costa Rica that make it such an interesting and charming country.

Thanks for reading our blog!

Ricardo y Jeeeem

(Dick and Jim)

Oct 30 Update

Greetings friends!





Before I get into the business of our trip, I wanted to share two scenic photos we took. The first one opens with the namesake of Torrente de Agua and that is the lovely waterfall which abuts the length of our property. With the rains so heavy, you can almost hear the noise of falling water into one of the many pools which are part of the course of the falls. You know for sure it is rainy season when you see that reddish silt floating in the pools - picking up the natural color of the rock.





The second photo was as we were driving up the mountain to our land, and captured this wonderful view across the Parrita valley towards rain forests, with a spectacular view of the rain falling there. That 'body' of water in the foreground is actually the river which is reasonably wide at this point, especially during rainy season. But this is not atypical of much of the year in mid afternoon.



So one of the things we absolutely, positively had to complete during this trip was the plumbing to below the first floor. In this photo, we put together the drains for the second floor bathroom. We know it can look confusing. The left side with that white elbow is the upstairs toilet. The pipe that is narrower is actually the vent shaft which goes across the ceiling to the outside, and then up to provide incoming air to help drive the flow when one flushes the toilet. Just to the right of that pipe (where that blue flexible electric conduit crosses, is the air vent for the grey water drains for the shower and sink. The ceiling in the room will be lowered about 8" so that it is flat, with this plumbing above it. It is still a nice height, just lower than the rest of the rooms. We make up for that with a large floor to ceiling window, plus a generous window over the sink. These two should bring in great light, and make this a warm and comfortable bathroom. All this notwithstanding, the shower into which we're looking will remain unfinished at least through January, and possibly February 2009. This space gives us good access into the electrical panel, and we want the opportunity to provision for Air Conditioning before we close up these walls.

We wanted to include some new photos of the storage level of the casa. One might think of this as the 'basement' although this floor, like all the others, is well above ground level. You can see the TV cables hanging down so that we can run a signal to each bedroom and upstairs. As of now, we don't know what we will use for TV. The switchbox on the wall will be the bottom switch so that if one is working on something at that level, and it gets dark, they can turn on the overhead lights. There are separate switches and lights in the closed room (aka, the dry room). More on this space in the next blog post...



In this final photo for this post, Enrique our electrician is running electric at the lower storage area (bodega) level. The tubing on the ground uphill is the drain plumbing pipe we will install in January. The metal lower down is construction material. The zacate block you can see running outside (from the post with the switch box) is just a temporary walkway. Later in the project we'll create a cement pad here, and a concrete stair going up. But most likely we'll also leave that path as it goes to the parking end of the driveway, and will be very convenient.

All for this posting, yet another from this trip.

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment.


Ricardo y Jeeeem
(Dick and Jim)