Poisonous Fer De Lance?	One Fang	Un Regalo

I think I solved the problem with the house position being closer to the front than I wanted. I drove out on Saturday to stare at it to see what could be done. The lot is not a true rectangle, and the back side angles toward the front. If I could just cut three more feet of that dirt wall, I could slide the house back three feet, I could get the terrace footings well within firm ground. I walked over to where I saw the back hoe parked, and the operator wash busy washing the windshield. He walked over to the lot with me, and I told him what I wanted, and, voila, less than an hour later he was finished cutting that back corner.

Today is Sunday. Tomorrow, I have to be at the site before 8 a.m. for the staking out of the house foundation. They need me there because the architect is out of town, and the builders are going to use the drawings I made on graph paper to lay out the foundation. Which reminds me, I'd better get busy detailing the house plans, and figuring exactly where the windows, doors, electrical outlets, lights, light switches, and water hookups will go. Then I've got to look through some catalogs to decide which windows I want. And I also have to go to a local mill, and pick out the wood for the beams, posts, rafters and tongue and groove decking.

Did I mention that the sod will arrive on Tuesday, and they're going to start sodding the entire hill.

March 11, 2008

Here's some pictures of the beginning of creating the form. They lay out the house with string where all the wall will go, and then dig trenches where the strings are. That's where the first few layers of cement blocks will go, which is the foundation. One question I have to ask today is why this builder is not laying the cement blocks along the perimeter of the porch like some of the other builders do. This is a concern to me because we don't have the final plans from the architect yet, and I want to make sure the builder is not just cowboying it, although he seems to be precise and knowledgeable. He answers to an engineer named Jaime, so I need to talk this over with Jaime  and get the scoop.

Don't forget to click on any picture to enlarge

View from my perch on the back wall	Another view from the Wall	Enlarging the back of the lot	Building the form
Cutting stakes with machete	Builders, and Ann's lot in the distance - White spot on top of that hill	Sod and some area to be sodded	3,000 sq ft of sod
About 300 sq meters	More stake cutting	Digging a trench for the water pipe	View to the Southeast
View to the South (Ann's lot at the top of that hill)	Kurts House	Kurt's House

March 13

The sod is still in its stack because the workers are waiting for Jaime (Hailey), the engineer that Raphael hired, to bring the PVC pipe that will route the water from the hookup at the bottom of the lot to the top, where the house site is. I hope the water gets here soon because the sod is getting pretty dry. The 3,000 sq. ft. of sod cost me $550 with delivery. In the meantime, the crew is busy digging out the dirt where the foundation will be. They're also constructing the little building that will house the tools. Usually one worker sleeps in the shed so he can guard the tools and materials at night. There's some pics of the building and other necessary furniture. All work, including sawing, is being done by hand right now because we need to bring the electricity down to the lot. I think if work becomes serious, they will bring in a generator while waiting for the electric company to extends the electric cables to the front of my lot.  Victor, who is the foreman of the construction at Kurt's site (and the security guard), killed a poisonous snake. There's some pics of it. I don't know if you can see, but it had some nice fangs. Well, only one, because one was broken off.                            (click pics to enlarge)

Building the Bodega	And furniture	Checking it out for size

March 17th Weekend Update

I'm back in the U.S. but Raphael sent me these pics for the finished work for the First Week.

The Foundation is Dug	Foundation and Bodega	The Sod has been Planted

Go to Page 3 of Building a House in Costa Rica

thanks,

Paul Ogier