Building Your Own Home in the Mountains of Costa Rica – Part XIII – Inches and fleas…

Since the lady I have loved for the past five years never speaks in English to me, I actually speak more in Spanish than in English although I write in English more than in Spanish (Gracias a Dios!).

So my Spanish is pretty good and even when discussing the construction of my new vacation home with the foreman and the labourers is not too difficult although at times, the accent of the folks out in the country can get a bit thick.

But there are always these little Spanish mental blockages that seem to take forever to disappear and one of these infuriating little blockages is fleas and inches…

Imagine how puzzled you would be if you were the foreman of a construction crew and your boss is telling you that something has to be “four fleas thick.”

I would have loved to have known exactly what raced through the mind of our foreman Juan Carlos when we first had this little confusion perhaps thinking to himself:

“These strange British people must measure wood panels in multiples of fleas? But what part of the flea? The thickness of it’s body? How thick are it’s legs?”

You see in English, fleas and inches are very different words but for some inexplicable reason, my little brain always seems to get the two fairly similar Spanish words mixed up so instead of saying inches (pulgadas), I say fleas (pulgas).

Maybe one day – probably long after the home is finished – I’ll get it right but, in the meantime when I refer to how many fleas something has to be my foreman looks at me with a sort of sympathetic: “This-guy-really-is-nuts-but-he’s-paying-me” look and goes about his job …

Having just had our first heavy rains of the year, we were pleased to see that there have been no leaks of any kind in our new vacation home in the mountains of Costa Rica located one hour away from San Jose.

The ceramic floor tiles have been laid on the terrace but there was some confusion as to what color grouting should be used so that will be completed in beige this coming week. They have also installed more of the cabling and we’ve put the breaker box inside the closet off the master bedroom which will then be encased in it’s own cabinet.

The lads have installed the doors (which weight at least 50lbs each) and have been busy sanding down the wood, filling in those little spaces, curing it and then they will seal it. At 7,230 feet termites are rarely a problem but Murphy’s Law states that when we build a home some new breed of SuperTermite will be discovered in the area so we have used Xilobor for protection against termites.

If you decide to build a home in any area of Costa Rica with wood then you must also protect your new home from the piercing hot sun as well as the pouring rain.

We are sealing the home with Flood and at 25,000 colones ($44) per gallon it ain’t cheap especially when we’ll need at least 25 gallons of the stuff… After the door and window frames are sealed and have dried properly then Jimmy will return and install the windows and doors.

We’ve seen other similar styled wood homes in this area that have been sealed with inferior sealants that have started to peel one year later which is not good because this means the wood again must be sanded down, Xilobor applied again and sealed again…. No thank you!

We are assured that this will not happen with Flood, that it will last for a minimum of five years before we simply give it another coating – without the need to sand it – so that’s why we’re comfortable using a more expensive and, hopefully more protective and longer lasting product. Time will tell….

Build Your Own Log Styled Vacation Home – My costs in USD so far:

Construction began during the first week of January 2009 and as of the 3rd April 2009 the total cost so far in building this vacation or retirement home in the country has been $58,245.94 plus the US$40,000 cost of the 5,000 square meters of land (US$40,000).

You can see the home we built (and sold) previously in the same geographical area at: Mountain Home For Sale By Owner – Fully furnished with one acre of land. Three online videos.

You can see previous articles about building our own vacation home below starting from the oldest to the most recent:

Next week, Juan Carlos should start on the fireplace and chimney and the crew will put the gutters on the roof and then start on the foundation for the garage and storage area.

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.