Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Let the Building Begin! :)

After two years living in Costa Rica, there is a light at the end of our tunnel!  Although we have had our share of road blocks, literally and figuratively, work has begun on the construction of our home.



The latest roadblock is the new concrete on the public road.  Although thrilled that the repairs are being made, there is approximately a two week waiting period before the large trucks required for construction are able to cross the concrete.  However, things are moving forward!





With all our permits and papers are approved we are using only small vehicles for awhile.  We also need some gravel added to the top of the road leading to our gate and then we will, hopefully, have full steam ahead!











As I walked to the property on Saturday to see what, if any, progress had been made; I had a wonderful view of the Turrialba Volcano's activity.  Here I am just a short distance from where we are currently living but the volcano is also visible from our property.










Once arriving at our property, I discovered that our house had been laid out with wooden stakes and string in order to get it situated in the right direction.






Our house takes up a large part of the top of the hill that we removed. Even though we have reduced it considerably because of the increasing cost of construction, it still covers much of the area we have to build on.
























Where the pile of wood is on the left will be our garage.  The T-P of cana on the right was in the way of the bodega that is to be build to house the workers and construction supplies.  About 5 men will be staying in the bodega during the construction of our home.  Don spent the weekend trying to burn the stack of cana, with little success, thanks to wet cana, no wind and, of course, rain.









When I arrived on Monday morning the cana pile had been pushed out of the way along with a huge pile of top soil and the backhoe was there digging the septic.








It is amazing how quickly a backhoe can dig a huge hole and it's just where it is needed and just the right size!














As I was walking home on Monday, a good sized truck full of wood and metal headed down our road to the property.  The supplies were unloaded and we expect to see a bodega constructed in the next few days.








All the unloaded bodega supplies, including a toilet!  All the luxuries of home!







Also on Monday, they started digging the trench which our columns will sit on on the steep side of the property.  Because of the erosion problems here and proximity to the edge, the columns on this side of the house need to be secured by a process consisting of digging a trench to which about a meter of gravel is added.  Next a 3 or 4 inch drainage pipe, more gravel, plastic and top soil are added.  The original ditch, shown in the photo, is approximately 2 meters. At this point the area is ready to safely support the columns. 







More work for the backhoe!










Almost finished!








One more view of the ditch completed!


It is impressive to see how quickly the work of the past few days has been happening!   There actually may be a house in our future!!







2 comments:

Matt Rose said...

That's awesome guys, soooo happy you have broken ground and really look forward to all the update pictures of the progress!

Unknown said...

Glad to see things finally moving in the right direction! How exciting for you! Good luck!