Sunday, April 27, 2008

Week Five Pictures

Here are some pictures that Angela took this week. I didn't make it to the construction too much. I took some pretty decent ones earlier today, but of course I once again left the memory card at home (although this time the card was at least in a little plastic protective case). I'll maybe put those up sometime this week, or add them to the posting next weekend. In the meantime, hope you like these!

This week the workers were laying more and more blocks, and slowly the forms of the rooms began to take shape. Directly in front in this picture is the garage.


An overview picture from April 23, 2008.


A 45-degree angle that will connect the kitchen, entry, and living room (sort of...it's hard to explain very well).


This room, which looks really freaking small, will be our second/guest bathroom. Everyone assures us that houses look small when they're being built, so I guess that's reassuring. Kinda.


The curve at the entry to our house.


Friday, April 25, 2008.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Week Four

Well, despite my bumbling of yesterday, I've managed to make it to an internet café today (Monday) with last week's pictures. Hope you like them!
Here's another one for your collection: April 15, 2008.

This picture shows what will be the back of our house (and a Coca-Cola truck). On the left will be our dining room, and on the right our living room. Where the guy is standing, there'll be a patio / deck / porch / whatever. The blocks shown in this picture rise to the height of the eventual floor.


Putting more blocks up to form the foundation/retention walls around the house.


Well, eventually we'll have this view from our bedroom. You can see the Gulf of Nicoya as well as the Nicoya Peninsula in the distance (that's where the province Guanacaste is located).


Now this kind of seems like a "duh" moment, but I was wondering why they were bending all these steel bars. Then they pointed out that the bars are about 4 meters tall, but the workers were less than 2 meters tall. So, they have to bend them to get the blocks put on.

For a person used to wood-frame houses, this is interesting. Here is a corner of our dining room. They build all the walls, and then they pour the steel-reinforced concrete columns at the end.


April 19, 2008. This was a bit of a slow week, but that's OK. There was a country-wide sand shortage, apparently (or else all the construction supply dealers were full of shit), so that took slowed down concrete mixing, and there were also spots of inclement weather. Still, slowly but surely she's going up, and I guess the house is still right on schedule. So, be sure to check back next week to see what's new!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Oops

Well, in my never-ending quest to be awesome, it appears that I've forgotten to bring my camera (or at least my memory card) to my weekly internet visit. That means no photos from this week, but I'll double-up next week. Sorry.
--Ryan

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Week Three

It was a big week for construction, and a big week for pictures. Have a look:

Some of the workers with a cement mixer. Before they were mixing it in that wheelbarrow, so the mixer is definitely a step up in the mixing game.


A nice Jesus statue, complete with little lights, that I saw on the wall at the hardware depot.


Tuesday, April 8, 2008: Here you can see that they're starting to get some of the steel up for the reinforced columns.


The foundations for the columns. The guy in the tan shirt is Keylor, the contractor who's building our house.


Harvey working on getting the columns aligned just right.


It's a bit of a maze of steel, but I guess that 's the point now, isn't it?


Columns rising into the air. They look really, really huge in real life.


Saturday, April 12, 2008: More and more steel is rising into the air.


A sea of steel.


How's this for current? Here I am this morning, placing the first official block of our new house.


Here I look like my thumb has its own thumb.


Angela placing the official second block (we were going to put the first one together, but the workers didn't feel too confident about taking a photo).


A good foundation.


Adding a third block, for good measure. (Not pictured: Probably about five minutes after we left, the workers surely removed and replaced our three stones to make up for our incompetence). Anyhow, check back next week, and I'll put some more pictures up!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

"So Where’s All That Money Coming From?" – A Too-Much-Information Chronicle

Not that this is really something you necessarily need to know, but it’s rather inexpensive to build a house in Costa Rica, at least compared to the U.S. That is also probably the only reason that Angela and I are able to even build a house here, because we’d never be able to afford it in America. I say all this only because many people have asked bout this at some point, and also to introduce today’s topic: our funding of our Dream House In The Mountains. The reason I am writing this, then, is because as I was at the ATM the other day, it occurred to me that paying for this house has been really bizarre so far. Since it made me laugh at the absurdity of it all, you might like to read about it, too.

To pay our contractor and to pay for the materials we buy, we’ve been using cash so far. I know that may sound strange, but apparently, it’s the best way to get good prices around here. No one here has or accepts checks (in fact, the girl at the bank flat-out refused to open a checking account for us). Additionally, most places, if they do accept credit cards, they apply extra charges which can rack up the cost of materials by 10% or so. All of this translates into cold, hard cash. Or, as in the case of colones, which is Costa Rica’s currency, it translates into warm, limp cash.

This issue is more complicated because most of my money is still in my account in the U.S., and I’ve not made a large transfer so far partially because of safety concerns, and partially because of a Costa Rican anti-drug-trafficking law which requires a lot of paperwork for large transfers. So now, on various occasions, I’ve had to resort to the ATM.

Fortunately, the company I work for is located in a free trade zone or a duty free zone…I’m not really sure what it’s called, but the bottom line is they look in your car’s trunk when you leave, and while you’re anywhere in the commercial park, you have to wear a badge that makes you look like a big tool. But, the ATM is inside of my company’s building, so it’s probably the safest ATM in the entire country (which IS actually saying a lot, if ATM robbery reports on the news are to be believed).

So, when we need money for construction, I go to the ATM, take out 250,000 colones (about $500), which appears to be the maximum that I’m allowed to get in one day. I quickly snatch the money, fold it, and cram it into my pocket. I then head toward the bathroom, find a stall, lock the door, and sit down. This is where it gets weird. In my other pocket, I’ve already placed a napkin and a rubber band (wow, this is turning into a totally heroin-y story!). I count the money, just to make sure it’s all there. It always is, which is somewhat remarkable, due to the colon’s notoriety for being a physically flimsy bill that is prone to mildew and ill odors; I’m just surprised that the mechanical parts of the ATM’s bill counting machine would not have more problems with this currency.

When I know it’s all there, I carefully wrap the napkin around the money. I then double-wrap the rubber band around the bundle. Then I stick it in the front of my underwear. Of course! I know this may sound totally weird, but it was a technique that developed through trial and error over a long time. I used to carry my money in my shoe, like when I had to go pay my immigration lawyer in San Jose, but I noticed that that technique left me with a slight gangsta limp and a sore foot at the end of the day, to say nothing of the subtle humiliation that comes from handing a lawyer a slightly moist and smelly wad of bills.

That, of course, could possibly explain the use of the napkin, but it’s actually not to absorb sweat; instead, I do it to protect my own skin, as there are few things I would like less than a moldy paper-cut on my wang. And the rubber band keeps all the money in place; I’d feel somewhat like a hooker if I pulled forward my drawers to find a disorganized and scattered collection of large-denomination bills. So, the napkin and rubber band are a must. If you have tight-fitting drawers, you can put the stash against your thigh, right about where your front pants pocket would go. Tight-fitting? Oh, I’d recommend boxer briefs. Conventional boxers are obviously out of the question, and bikini briefs are just too small (and pervy) to get the job done. And it shouldn’t be just any style of boxer brief. I’ve found that the American Hanes and Fruit of the Loom just aren’t nad-squeezingly adequate; for our purposes, you’ll have to look to the Old Country and track down some good quality tight-weave Eurotrash boxer briefs. Try Germany.

If all else fails, you can stow the “package” of money by placing it under your pants button, and further secure it with the help of a tight belt over that. Then top all that with a some ribbon, a bow, some whipped cream, a cherry, and a small cocktail umbrella. This whole process should obviously be done near the end of the day, because it’s not comfortable, mentally or physically, having that much cash bouncing around so close to your junk.

From there, it’s probably smooth sailing. If you’ve got a car, you can basically head right home. If you’ve got to wait at a bus stop like a loser, you can take comfort in the fact that at least if you’re mugged, the homophobic nature of most Latin American criminals will probably mean that although they may steal your wallet, they probably won’t be looking to do a pat-down in your groinital area.

Anyhow, the only reason I mention this is because the other day, as I was securing my cluster of currency to my body much like a police informant secures his hidden microphone, I asked myself, “Man, I wonder if paying for house construction is this complicated in the U.S.” And my immediate answer was, “No, of course not. I’d just use a check.” Oh well, different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Week Two

Here are some pictures from the second week of our house building. The one above is nice, because it looks like God is perhaps shining holy light down on our workers. Also, it'd be nice if a hit from God appeared on my clustrmap...just a hint.


Here's the next photo for your flipbook. This is from April 3, 2008. Still mainly ditches and blocks.


The septic tank was built the other day. Being from a place that generally has plumbing linked to a sewer system, I must confess that I have no idea how a septic tank works. Or, at least I didn't until yesterday, when Harvey took a good half hour to explain how they work while I got a sunburn. It's OK, though, because knowledge is power.


A view of the foundation trenches where they'll put the steel-reinforced cement. The rooms look really, really tiny when you're just using the ditches as reference, so Angela and I keep freaking out a bit, wondering if we'll be able to fit into our Hobbit House. The coffin-shaped mound to the left of the image, for example, is supposed to be our guest bathroom. I'm wondering how they'll fit a toilet brush in there, let alone a shower...


Another picture for your flip-book. This is from April 5, 2008. In the foreground are Angela and her brother Arnoldo. (Oh, and by the way, you probably figured this out, but if the image is small or crappy, try clicking on it, and you'll be able to see a larger version)