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JOURNEYS BY PAUL Building a House in Costa Rica (or go to page 4) |
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Page 3 April 2, 2008 I left here three weeks ago after leaving the foreman with a set of pencil drawn plans on graph paper. (The architect is out of town.) My plan was to arrive back here immediately after the foundation was poured so that I could verify the door and window openings before the structural columns were built and the cement block walls began to rise. Well, to my surprise, when I went to the site yesterday, I discovered the walls had already risen over four feet. The better news is that all the dimensions are perfect, and the foreman, Antonio, remembered all the details I had told him. I was quite impressed.
It's pretty amazing to see what almost looks like a house growing out of a spot of earth that was only a hill with weeds on it a month ago. Today, I have to do the final figuring of where all the electrical plugs (tomas), lights and light switches will go because those have to be installed in the cement blocks before the walls go much higher. For those interested, the main power comes into the house through the dirt below the house to a main breaker box inside the house. Then the wall plug wires go down from the box through the dirt and then up into the walls where the wall plugs will be. For the light switches, the wires go up from the circuit box, above the ceiling (which will be a cathedral roof with tongue-and-groove hardwood planking), then back down the cement bricks where the wires end at the light switch. Pretty spiffy, eh? I find the whole construction very interesting. I used to build houses 30 years ago in Houston, Texas, but they weren't anything like these houses. Also, these houses look like they will last forever with all the cement blocks an hardwood. The wood (for the roof) has to be hardwood. That's one factor why they use cement blocks for the walls. Regular wood will be eaten up termites and other bugs down here. An addition note - if you really hate insects, don't come to Costa Rica. But once you've accepted them as co-habitants, you'll notice some very interesting species. This morning I'm going to the lumber mill to pick out my roof wood. It's not cheap. I'll let you know the estimate when I get it. Some people go out and buy a whole tree, have it milled, then store it for a year to cure. That's pretty cool. Most construction costs have risen more than 10% in the last year due to inflation and availability (supply and demand) here in Costa Rica. And the cost of wood alone has risen even more. You're already seeing less and less houses utilizing wood for the rafters and ceilings, and soon, only the expensive houses will be using it. (And my small one.) Here's some pics.
Kurt's House
Go to Page 4 of Building a House in Costa Rica
thanks, Paul Ogier
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