Tag Archives: northern nicaragua

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.

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Brisas House Progress in Late April

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 … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Designing an Eco-friendly Cabana in Northern Nicaragua

Using the Barefoot Architect by Johan van Lengen to get a few ideas during the design process.

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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

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Building in Nicaragua – Is Cutting Mangroves ever Sustainable?

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 … Continue reading

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New Ocean View Eco Community in Northern Nicaragua

It’s been brewing for a while and now we’re going for it. We’re planning an eco-friendly community on an amazing piece of land consisting of two ridges, a hilltop, and valley situated behind a bay with great waves and a … Continue reading

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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

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