Tag Archives: nicaragua
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
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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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
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
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
Belgian IPA homebrew “Belguraguan”
OK, here’s the brew I’ve been waiting for, wanting to try for months, yearning for – a home-brewed Belgian IPA made right here in Nicaragua. I’m thinking of throwing a packet of dried Belgian yeast into our palm-thatch roof so … Continue reading
Posted in Eat drink and be merry
Tagged belgian IPA, belgian yeast, hipehabitat, homebrewing, kim obermeyer, nicaragua
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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
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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“Volcan” Cacao-Cafe homebrew Stout
The third, and possibly the best batch, in tropical home brewing adventures, almost met its end in the moldy rainy season condition of June. The rainy season brings clouds of mold that drift invisibly through the air landing on … Continue reading
Posted in drink it, Eat drink and be merry, Make your own
Tagged beer, cacao, coffee, DIY, hipehabitat, holly beck, homebrew, homebrewing, kim obermeyer, mold, nicaragua, stout
3 Comments
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
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
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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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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
Posted in Eat drink and be merry, Make your own, Nicaragua, Uncategorized
Tagged chillies, garden, gardening, hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, organic agrden
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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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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
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
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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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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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
Building in Nicaragua – Palm Fronds for the Thatch Roof
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 … Continue reading
Building in Nicaragua – Eucalyptus Plantation and Roof Assembly Video
The video footage of the Eucalyptus plantation experience and the start of the roof assembly.
Building in Nicaragua – Eucalyptus Plantation Politics
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 … Continue reading
Building in Nicaragua – Shopping for Eucalyptus Video
A video summary of shopping for the eucalyptus posts that will become the pillars for our cabana in Nicaragua.
Building a Cabana in Nicaragua – Eucalyptus posts
Lately our home base has been a thatched roof cabana at El Coco Loco, the Eco-hotel where we run our women’s surf and yoga retreats. Since the guys at Coco Loco have been letting us crash there in between retreats, … Continue reading
