Creating environmentally designed habitats for sustainable living in Costa Rica and beyond…
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 baby Luna give a tour of the project.
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 the next couple of weeks, but the good news is that we'll be moving in …
I can hardly believe it, but the house is nearly complete. Way back in February our contractor promised to have it finished by the end of July, but as anyone who has ever built in Nicaragua (or anywhere else in the world) knows, a better estimate is to take whatever they say and add at …
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 a feel for what the house will look like. Take a tour of the interior …
After four months of construction, we have walls completed to roof height, the roof of the bodega is finished, and we're starting to install the alfajias (rafters) that will hold the roof of the main house. It's the end of April. The official start of the rainy season in Nicaragua is May 15th, but rain can be …
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 can see a tiny bit of the house that our caretaker will move into once …
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 into the community water, have planted some non GMO corn and have begun building our …
Continue reading "Planting Non-GMO Corn and Beginning to Build at Brisas"
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 - concrete work is done, custom window bars are installed, floor is nice and colorful, etc. …
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! A big issue has been our carpenter. We wanted to work with local people and keep jobs in this area, so we …
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 to improve the lot little by little. We hired a caretaker. We dug a well …
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 varnishing. We've also begun construction on our lot down on the beach.
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 for this sort of building is a bodega. We wanted it to be as cheap …
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 and best species to use for load-bearing construction and we wanted to find some to …
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 counter tops, stairs, etc.
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 it goes out) and water, and we don't have to worry about any sort of …
Continue reading "Building in Nicaragua – Concrete Floor, Tile, and Wood Dilemmas"
Using the Barefoot Architect by Johan van Lengen to get a few ideas during the design process.
Accessing the palm fronds for the thatch roof turned out to be one of the easiest things we’ve had to do so far. There’s a property nearby owned by a friend full of the right kinds of palms, so we simply had to have a chat with the caretaker there and negotiate a fair price …
Continue reading "Building in Nicaragua – Palm Fronds for the Thatch Roof"
Mangle, mangle, mangle! We were told we needed to get some varilla to support the palma (palm thatch leaves used for our roof). So we said “OK, where do we get that”? We could either buy it from a local guy or at the market for 30 Cordobas (cords; exchange rate = 22 cords/US$) per …
Continue reading "Building in Nicaragua – Is Cutting Mangroves ever Sustainable?"
The video footage of the Eucalyptus plantation experience and the start of the roof assembly.
The house progresses rapidly. It’s amazing how quickly the eucalyptus posts can be assembled into home shape. Our nine supporting pillars were bought, cut, delivered, and cemented into place within four days. For the rest of the roof structure we needed thinner diameter eucalyptus and drove a few Kms down the main highway towards Chinandega …
Continue reading "Building in Nicaragua – Eucalyptus Plantation Politics"
A video summary of shopping for the eucalyptus posts that will become the pillars for our cabana in Nicaragua.
Eco:Design:Life 