Having been open to the elements since it's construction in 2007, La Casita is looking a little worse for wear. Wasps nests are sprouting from the voids where the windows should be: paw-prints, possibly from wild cats, act as graffiti on the walls: dead bugs litter the floor. There is no visible evidence of a water supply and the electrics, although there are an infinite amount of light switches and sockets indented in the walls, do not work.
We hire some builders, who promise great things and quickly too (here we go again). Jose is the guy in charge; a short, stocky man in his early fifties with remarkably dark hair and a few fingertips missing. His right hand man is Luis, probably early thirties, looks just like a local builder from Farnham - right from the way he dresses to the way he wears his sunglasses on the back of his head; the silver capped teeth add to his overall semblance. Neither speak English, which I think could be fun in the future!
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| The Lone Demolisher |
So to kick off, we get demolish the stone steps leading to the terrace and move the wrought iron banisters to the other steps that lead to the small garden area. This takes ONE man a whole day: no pneumatic drill to make the job easier, just a pick axe and hard work! Amazing!
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| The small garden. |
We level the small garden as much as it can be, and start to make a path along the retaining wall so that we can make a new front door: how a residence can be built with only 1 door, we are not quite sure, but then this is Costa Rica. We lose a few shrubs along the wall, but the tall cacti are planted elsewhere. A hole is cut in the exterior wall and we have a new orifice ready for a front door, with two new steps leading to the pathway.
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| The new pathway to the front door |
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| The new front entrance, overlooking a coconut tree. |
The next task is to make the terrace and path to the front door safe; it's about a four foot drop down to our garden below. The previous owner installed wrought iron fencing around the entire property, so the same is needed at La Casita. Quite a lot is going to be needed, plus a gate to allow some privacy between the two properties. We realise that this will require a huge chunk of our budget, as wrought iron is not cheap anywhere in the world. But ever the resourceful, lining about 10 metres of the perimeter, we have some fencing that is not really necessary. So we recycle and re-use and hey presto, it looks pretty good. Luis cuts and welds the decorative arrows and they look like they were there all along. He even spray paints them for us, free of charge!
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| The repositioned steps and railings |
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| Railings by the front door |
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| Making the Terrace safe |
Jose, Luis and team are surely not from Costa Rica as they are flying through their work AND in a clean, tidy and professional manner! We must be in a parallel universe. As quick as they are working, DH and I are being sent here, there and everywhere to get supplies: not very environmentally friendly the amount of cement that is being made! But cement is the material of choice and necessity here as CR follows the Los Angeles code of building regulations in that everything had to be earthquake proof.
What adds to the amount of cement needed is that the entire floor needs to be relaid; having been left untreated for so long, it has cracked and lost all elasticity (if that is the right word?). This wasn't in the budget, but it is the only set back so far.
Not bad progress in a week. Dare I say it, Jose and his team are faster than the builders back home. Certainly they have moved faster that any other professional persons that we have encountered so far! Early days, but really quite pleased with them.
