Category Archives: Nicaragua
We’re in Costa Rica!
Since the turmoil in Nicaragua we have become full-time in Costa Rica and Kim is available to design, build, consult and get it going! Starting soon he’ll be offering several different “eco-home” solutions- smaller environmental footprint, faster build times, lower … Continue reading
New construction at Tierra del Suenos
Hip-E Habitat (aka. Permagreen Compania Limitada) just started construction of a new 2 story, 2 bedroom/2.5 bath, 2000 Square foot home on Lot #1 at Suenos (https://suenosnicaragua.com/lot-map-and-pricing/). It will feature a clay tile roof, and an open floor plan kitchen/living/dining … Continue reading
Casa Amarilla
Casa Amarilla came about when frequent visitors Jacek and Ivona found their piece of land in the area and decided they want too build a house. They came to see our house and when they left they asked if I … Continue reading
Rancho Supremo
Currently in construction: Dan and Evan partnered on a small lot close to the beach at Brisas and came to me with a few thoughts about what they wanted to build. They wanted it to be mainly open-air but still have … Continue reading
Designing Hacienda Boom (our house)
Holly and I had talked about how we liked L-shaped or U-shaped houses with courtyards that would allow you to be outside but have privacy. That’s where my research on floor plans started. My stepfather, one of the early leading architects … Continue reading
Green building in the tropics- thermal mass
When I first started researching green building I found pretty quickly that the vast majority of material, books, websites, etc. are made for people living in the temperate zones of the US and Europe. There is a ton of material … Continue reading
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
More Monkeys, Better Schools. Investing in Southern Nicaragua
Life in Northern Nicaragua is mellow. Thus far there’s been very little development, at least as compared to Southern Nicaragua. Of course, things are changing. In the four years that we’ve been living here the number of hotels in our … 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
Nesting in Nicaragua
We’d been designing the house for months, but as soon as we found out that we had a baby on the way, we quickly finalized the plan and soon broke ground on what will be our home (scroll to the … Continue reading
30% off the next two sea view lots sold!
Starting Feb. 1, the owner of Seascape has decided to offer a promotion- 30% off the next two lots sold. These lots were already a great deal- 1/2 acres with sea view, power and water to the lots already in … Continue reading
South Nicaragua for the New Year
We live in Northern Nicaragua and don’t make it down to the South very often, so it was exciting to get a chance to cruise down for New Years to live it up in luxury land for a week. Hot … Continue reading
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
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
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
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
Beautiful Girls on Longboards at the Bay
Afternoon light, a friendly paddle, one 9’2″ longboard with GoPro mounted on the nose, trading off, smiling, laughing, toes on the nose, crouching for speed, cross-stepping into the later afternoon. All part of the life, living the dream.
Marvelous Managua
Up until now we had avoided Managua at all costs. It was just the place where the airport is located, a necessary pass-through on our way to the beach. Friends who had lived in Managua for a couple of years … Continue reading
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
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
Thoughts on Summer Vacation
An open jar of truffle-flavored honey scents the room in sweet musky earth tones amongst a baker’s dozen young hip lawyers, doctors, and a dancer. They’d come to this party in Cambridge, Massachusetts to admire and celebrate the first home … Continue reading
Living the Dream – Surfing, Dogs, and Ridgetop BBQs at Tierra Del Sueno
This is why we live in Nicaragua – warm water, fun waves, dogs off-leash on the beach, estuary swimming, hiking barefoot, and sausage BBQs on a sea-view ridge with cold home brewed Belgian Ales to wash it all down. Life … Continue reading
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
Windmills In Nicaragua
One of Nicaragua’s most valuable resources turns out to be wind. Super strong (often hurricane force) and consistent winds blow across lake Nicaragua. These amazing winds are basically Trade Winds that are funneled and amplified as the high pressure on … Continue reading
Affordable Sea View Lots in Northern Nicaragua
A few years ago I bought a 1/2 acre lot in a small development in Santa Maria as an investment. I liked the location, only a five minute walk down a shady road to a quiet beach and near several … Continue reading
Surf Trip to Central Nicaragua
It’s like driving from LA to SD for a swell except just a little bit better…. There are really nice waves all around us in the North, including a few within walking distance, but sometimes when you see a big … Continue reading
Growing Guadua bamboo
We had been searching for it for nearly a year, since we learned about it in Ecuador. Guadua bamboo (Guadua angustifolia and other species) is the giant bamboo species native to Central and South America. It is one of the strongest … Continue reading
Our garden grows
We started planting the garden in late October, 2011- lots of chillies (habanero, jalapeno, arbol, New Mex, serrano and others), various greens, tomatoes, Thai basil, lemongrass, dill, tea tree, sunflowers and a bunch of randoms like purslane and indigo. Some … Continue reading
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
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
Holly Beck Surfing In Nicaragua
Check out a few clips of Holly Beck surfing in Nicaragua in Nov/Dec 2011. Good times, great waves, so much fun!
Simple Life at Home in Nicaragua
I’ve been in the States for two weeks and I’m getting desperate to be back home. After a year of living homeless, bouncing around from one available cabana to the next, sleeping in a tent, the back of our truck, … Continue reading
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
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.
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
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
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
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
