Author Archives: hollybeck27
The Butterfly House – A One Bedroom Casita on a Budget
We became friends with Marilyn when she came down for a Surf with Amigas retreat a couple years ago and Kim agreed to design and build a small simple 1 bedroom casita on Marilyn’s sea view lot at Seascape Terrace. … Continue reading
Our House Is Finished
This post is a long time coming, but in case you wondering, yes we did finally finish our house. It was mostly complete in time for Luna to be born back in September of 2014. Since then it’s been a … Continue reading
Posted in Brisas
Tagged brisas nicaragua, construction management, hacienda boom, hipehabitat, holly beck, house design, kim obermeyer
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Day In The Life – Living in Nicaragua With a 5 Month Old Baby Girl
Posted in living in nicaragua
Tagged baby, beach house, day in the life, estuary, girl, hipehabitat, holly beck obermeyer, lifestyle, luna suli, nicaragua, surfing
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Quick Tour of a Few Lots Available at Brisas
We were the first to build our home at Brisas, a small community in Northern Nicaragua, and we’re looking for good neighbors! Here’s a quick tour of a few of the lots still available.
Posted in Brisas
Tagged aposentillo, available, brisas, community, land for sale, lot tour, lots for sale, northern nicaragua, the boom, video
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Jacek and Ivona’s House by Hipehabitat
After the seeing the successful outcome and great feel of our L-shaped hacienda home Kim has agreed to build a slightly customized version for a Canadian couple planning to retire in Nicaragua in the next few years. Here, Holly and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged building in nicaragua, construction management, hipehabitat, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, northern
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Settling Into the New House
It’s been about 3 months and we’re loving our new home at Brisas Del Alma. We’re still very busy settling in, putting finishing touches on the house (building shelves to store all our stuff mostly), and embracing our new lifestyle. It … Continue reading
Posted in living in nicaragua
Tagged brisas del alma, hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, living, new house, nicaragua
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The New Dipping Pool
The house is now mostly finished, and we have an 11 week old baby girl named Luna. Little Luna has occupied most of our time lately, so I’m way behind on blog posts. Eventually I’ll get a chance to take … Continue reading
Video Tour of the New House
We are six months into building our new 2 bedroom 2 bath house in Northern Nicaragua at Brisas Del Alma in Aposentillo, and it’s just about done! All we’re missing is a few little details that should be complete within … Continue reading
House in Progress Tour
In Part 2 of our Nesting in Nicaragua series, Holly is one week shy of being six months pregnant and the house has been under construction for five months. The roof is mostly on and you can start to get … Continue reading
Cool Roof Design by Kim Obermeyer
Kim Obermeyer of hipEhabitat.com talks about his design for a cool roof – a double layer roof that will prevent heat from the sun from radiating into the living space. The roofing system features pre-painted structural zinc roof panels with … Continue reading
Posted in Building in Nicaragua, Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged cool roof, design, hipehabitat, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, structural zinc, tropics, white roof, zinc
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Breaking in the Beach House
It was a long time coming (8 months to be exact), but the beach house is finally finished! Ok, so it’s not totally finished. There are still plenty of details to be addressed. We’ve got trim to put up, painting … Continue reading
Posted in Nicaragua
Tagged beach house, hipehabitat, holly beck obermeyer, kim obermeyer, nicaragua
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Beach House Progress – Plycem Walls and Bamboo Siding
We started building the beach house way back in March – or was it February 2013? The point is, it’s been so long that it’s hard to remember. The main delay has been caused by an irresponsible carpenter with a … Continue reading
Our Caretaker’s House at Brisas Del Alma
Ok, I know you can barely see the house in this picture, but it’s just such a classic shot of me telling the dogs that they cannot eat our caretaker’s pet squirrel “Simon” (named for one of the chipmunks). You … Continue reading
Planting Non-GMO Corn and Beginning to Build at Brisas
We are the proud owners of Lot #22 at Brisas Del Alma in Aposentillo, Northern Nicaragua. Since buying our lot a few months ago we’ve started making some improvements. The fence and some tree planting came first. Now we’ve hooked … Continue reading
Aqua Gardens Use Less Water and Produce Amazing Lettuce
A family farm in beautiful Mendocino County, Aqua Gardens Family Farm specializes in the sustainable production of organic, “living” bouquets of gourmet mixed salad greens, fresh strawberries, other popular vegetables, herbs, organic fish and compost products.
Finding Fallen Wood
Our wood dramas continue…. If you’ve been reading about the progress of our beach house construction you’ll see a repeated theme – we’ve been delayed by the local carpenter again and again. Now, the house is pretty much finished – … Continue reading
Beach House Roof Construction
The next step in the saga to build a beach house in Northern Nicaragua is complete. We’ve got a roof! When building anything in this country, you’ve gotta have patience. Lots of patience!
Beach House Progress – Slow and Steady
The whole process has been really slow, but at least it’s been steady. We bought a beachfront concession lot back in April of 2012. It wasn’t easy and you can read the full story here. Since then we’ve been working … Continue reading
Drilling a Deep Well in Nicaragua
We’re in the process of installing infrastructure for a small 16 lot housing development in northern nicaragua called Tierra Del Sueno. In order to provide water for the development we decided to drill a community well at the top of … Continue reading
Bodega Progress
We are nearly finished with building our teak and concrete block bodega up on the ridge at Tierra Del Suenos. We’ll use it as a garage, storage unit, and workshop. Right now we’re finishing up the details – painting and … Continue reading
Digging a Well in the Sand
If you happened to notice our post from a couple of months ago, we bought a beachfront concession lot in North Nicaragua. To catch up on that dramatic story, click here. After finalizing the purchase, the next step was to … Continue reading
Posted in Nicaragua
Tagged alcaldia, beachfront property, concession, digging a well, estuary, holly beck, kim obermeyer, land for sale, nicaragua, nothern nicaragua, sand
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Building a Bodega on the Ridge at Suenos – Part 2
In part 2 of the bodega construction process the floor is poured and the roof is on. If you want to refresh your memory with the purpose of this building and our strategy for building it, click here to read the … Continue reading
Teak Post and Concrete Block Bodega
We have begun building up on the ridge! First project – a place to store our tools, saddles, surfboards, wheelbarrow, and the building supplies that we’ll need to collect when we’re ready to start building the actual house. The name … Continue reading
The New Living Fence on our Lot in Tierra Del Sueno
We bought an awesome lot in the new eco-friendly community in Northern Nicaragua called Tierra Del Sueno and are starting to make some improvements. The first step was installing a fence around the perimeter so we can more clearly see … Continue reading
Posted in Nicaragua, Tierra Del Sueno
Tagged hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, living fence, lot clearing, lot for sale, nicaragua, northern nica, tierra del sueno
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Phase 1 Roads at Tierra Del Sueno
It’s been a year or more in the planning stages but we have finally broken ground on the new roads that will service lots in Tierra Del Sueno. We had been waiting to finalize the lot lines before figuring out … Continue reading
How to Make a Stubborn Passionfruit Vine Flower – Nicaraguan Folk Wisdom
We love passion fruit! Called calala or maracuya in Nicaragua, delicious passion fruit is awesome mixed with plain yogurt, granola, and a drizzle of honey. We buy them a dozen at a time and have been eagerly awaiting for the … Continue reading
Promoting Education in Northern Nicaragua with Waves of Hope
It’s natural to want to give back and help people. When professional surfer Holly Beck was looking for a place to run her women’s surf and yoga retreats she wanted to partner with someone who was making a positive impact … Continue reading
Posted in Giving Back
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Green Papaya Thai Salad Recipe
Kim spent 8 years living in Thailand and learned some great recipes for delicious and healthy Thai food. One of my favorites is the Green Papaya salad. It’s super easy to make, fresh and healthy, looks awesome with all the … Continue reading
Posted in Eat drink and be merry
Tagged green papaya thai salad, hipehabitat, kim obermeyer, recipe, thai cooking
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Steve and Danika Choose Their Lot
Steven and Danika Thomas lived in Nicaragua for several years and invested in a large piece of property over-looking the bay they liked to surf. They formed the dream of one day building a home on the hilltop and being … Continue reading
Posted in Nicaragua
Tagged buy land, chinandega, danika thomas, holly beck, kim obermeyer, lots for sale, nicaragua, sea view lots, steven thomas, tierra del sueno
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Tiny House with Bamboo Construction on the Osa Peninsula
On a trip to the Osa Peninsula last year we looked up someone called “Super Steve” who we were told was building some beautiful things with bamboo. Despite the fact that we showed up out of nowhere, Super Steve aka … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged bamboo house, building with bamboo, costa rica, guadua, nicaragua, steve juries, super steve
4 Comments
Earthship in China
Our friend Ben is really excited about earthships. He wants to build one here in Northern Nicaragua. I didn’t know much about them, but undertook a program of self-study reading through all three volumes of Michael Reynolds’ Earthship books. The … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo, Make your own
Tagged china, earthship, michael reynolds, new mexico, nicaragua, thermal mass
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Extreme Driving to Extreme Luxury in Southern Nicaragua
We were headed down to Southern Nicaragua to check out Rancho Santana and talk about possibly using it as a location for an upcoming women’s surf and yoga retreat. The drive usually takes about 6 hours but we wanted to … Continue reading
Posted in Nicaragua, Surfing and Surfboards, Videos
Tagged hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, luxury condos, rancho santana, southern nicaragua
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Hippy Hop Attack IPA
I’ll admit that I was a doubter. After participating in numerous homebrewing efforts over the years I learned that it isn’t easy, there’s a lot that can go wrong, and especially considering our lack of refined equipment I thought our … Continue reading
Posted in Eat drink and be merry
Tagged hipehabitat, hippy hop attack, holly beck, homebrewing, hops, IPA, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, wort
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Coconut-Rolled Cashew Honey Cacao Balls
We are all about the homemade – home-brewed IPAs, home-fermented honey wine, and now hand-rolled cacao balls!
High School Kids Help to Build a New Classroom in Nicaragua
A group of 17 high school kids from High Tech High in San Diego came down to Nicaragua with Surf With Amigas (formerly Suave Dulce) for the trip of a lifetime. They learned to surf, did yoga, went horseback riding … Continue reading
Posted in Giving Back, Nicaragua
Tagged give back, high school, high tech hich, nicaragua, surf with holly beck, volunteer
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Homebrewing in Nicaragua
Living in Nicaragua is awesome. Warm weather, warm waves, affordable homesteading, and a simple life lived barefoot. There are however a few things we miss about the US – mexican food, fast internet, and good beer! Luckily, Kim is an … Continue reading
Dome Treehouse in Ukiah by Jay Nelson
Everyone loves a tree house. This one is particularly pleasing. Inspired by an acorn, this 8′ domed tree house was made of fiberglass, resin, wood and glass by San Franciscan artist Jay Nelson in 2007 for Larry Rinder. It was … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged artist, california, dome, dome living, jay nelson, tree house, ukiah
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DIY Guanacaste Stairs
We moved into our new cabana about a month prior and had yet to take full advantage of the loft because we didn’t have any stairs. We had considered several funky stair designs with notched logs and spiral things, but … Continue reading
Posted in Make your own
Tagged asseria, cabana, DIY, guanacaste, hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, loft, make your own, nicaragua, stairs, wood
3 Comments
Kauai Treehouse by Jay Nelson
San Francisco based functional artist Jay Nelson built a tree house in Kauai for pro surfer family Aamion Goodwin and Daize Shayne. The top floor is 30 feet up, with 140 square feet of interior living space. Imagine sipping coffee … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged aamion goodwin, artist, build you own, daize shayne, jay nelson, kauai, photos, surfer, tree house, treehouse
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Building An Elementary School Classroom with Waves Of Hope
Imagine you’re a 12 year old kid growing up in a remote fishing village in Northern Nicaragua. You’ve spent most of your life barefoot, chasing chickens and skinny dogs through barbed-wire fences. You learned to ride a horse at age … Continue reading
Posted in Giving Back
Tagged building a school, classroom, el coco loco resort, elementary, giving back, holly beck, kids, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, volunteer, waves of hope
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Eco Friendly Fire Ant Killer
Fire ants suck! They’re just like regular ants except they swarm, bite, and then leave a painful itchy reminder for hours – usually all over your feet and ankles. I dislike mosquitoes but I hate fire ants. Even though I … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo, Nicaragua
Tagged eco friendly solution, eucalyptus oil, fire ants, kill fire ants, without poison
5 Comments
The German Mound Garden
As a 31st birthday present to myself I decided to build a garden. I’ve been reading through The Permaculture Garden by Graham Bell and thought the design for a German Mound looked interesting.
Posted in Make your own, Nicaragua
Tagged gardening, german mound garden, graham bell, holly beck, how to, nicaragua, permaculture, the permaculture garden
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Eco-Friendly Bee Hive Removal
While trying to install our signal booster antennae on our new house, we heard a buzzing and came across a buzzing mess lurking under the palm fronds. Kim grabbed a plastic bag and I got in place with the camera. … Continue reading
Posted in Nicaragua, Videos
Tagged bee hive, bee removal, eco friendly, hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, nicaragua
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Building a Cabana in Nicaragua – Walls up and Siding on
The walls are up, the siding is on, and our cute little 18’sq cabana is nearly finished! We had to leave Nicaragua at this point and are very excited to get back down there and put in the details like … Continue reading
A Tiny House in Hopland
On our standard tri-yearly drive between Oregon and LA we finally stopped in the deliciously named Hopland to check out the Real Goods Solar Living Institute. The Tiny House was obviously appealing – a micro home on a trailer built … Continue reading
Posted in Eat drink and be merry, Green Building and Bamboo, Make your own, Pacific Northwest
Tagged alex fang, car camping, duck egg, hardly strictly bluegrass festival, holly beck, hopland, kim obermeyer, lagunitas brewery, petaluma, real goods solar living institute, recylced solar panel, sumpin wild, tacoma, tiny house, trouble coffee co
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Framing the Octagon Window
Designing the window placement was a fun experience that involved measuring, re-measuring, and measuring again, then erasing, measuring, and changing the dimensions multiple times. Our friendly red-headed framer was smilingly patient as we changed our minds back and forth. Right … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo, Nicaragua
Tagged building a cabana, framing, hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, northern nicaragua, octagon window, pine
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Building in Nicaragua – Concrete Floor, Tile, and Wood Dilemmas
Building in Nicaragua is both much easier and much more difficult than it would be in the States. This project in particular is easier than most since we’re building on Coco Loco property with full access to power (except when … Continue reading
Guanacaste Horizontal Siding
When trying to figure out what type of siding we’d use for our new cabana we checked out the cabanas at the French Guys restaurant (who also have a few cabanas). They used guanacaste horizontal siding and it looks really … Continue reading
hip-E habitat 