April 10, 2011

Whew! O.K. folks, building in Costa Rica is a process much like anywhere else world. The good news is we just received our permits and we are ready to start building. Hooray! We also have a copy of the building plans so we can review and make any necessary improvements/changes. So, why did it take so long to get to this point? Good question. Here’s the story: We spent a lot time going back and forth with the architects to get our vision as close as possible to match the reality of the home. During this process it started morphing into a larger and costlier project. Go figure. Somewhere during this design process the home needed to be stretched out in order to accommodate the roofline in conjunction with the second floor. This added more square footage than our budget allowed. Last blog I spoke of due diligence and the reason we chose Doug and Steve as our builders. We chose well. Steve graciously bowed out of the equation so we would have a greater budget and Doug worked with us streamlining the costs and gave us a solid contract price. Doug even went a step further and offered to track all building costs to use a cost plus scenario. He will then give us whichever price works out in our favor. This is a great solution for us as it allows us to forge ahead with the dream. The house design is now marked in chalk on the earth and this coming week the weight bearing walls will begin to shoot up. Very exciting. On a final note, it is very hot here in April. Quite literally there is sweat on my brow as I type this blog. One of the ideas we are incorporating into the design is a “get away room”. It is an idea we borrowed from “The Not So Big House” book. Basically it is a small room set up with an office, couch, and TV. The thought is to be able to escape the afternoon heat to do work, watch a movie, or simply relax with a good book. Being a relatively small room it will be a cost effective way to stay cool versus cooling larger spaces. Since, even now, the April nights and mornings are pleasantly mild it makes sense not to AC the whole home. Live Well, John