SOLD-Building And Furnishing Your Own Retirement Home For Under $100K Part XVI – 16 weeks and $63,945.35 invested in construction so far.

As a reminder, our goal with this series of articles is to show our VIP Members what’s possible when it comes to building your own retirement or vacation home in Costa Rica.

At the end of the day, this new Costa Rica retirement home will cost way less than US$100K to build and to completely furnish (including quality brand name appliances – washer, dryer and oven) plus the cost of the land.

This retirement home could be located in any one hundreds of beautiful rural locations in Costa Rica. There are so many stunning places in this country where great deals can be had ‘if’ you have the time and energy to find them.

A quiet, rural location is also not for everyone however, for us this is a refuge, an escape away from business, traffic and high technology – an oasis of peace, with silent, star filled nights… And if the global situation really becomes bad, then I have my home, with a great supply of fresh water and a very, very private and easy to secure retreat.

This week we delivered 17 lights (lámparas), electric wall sockets (tomacorrientes), the toilet (inodoro), switches (apagadores), the door lock mechanisms (llavínes) to the construction site. We also met with and paid another c500,000 to the architect for his work and constant support.

Julio has started on the big fireplace – our entertainment centre – in the living room so the brickwork should probably be finished by the end of next week when the fireplace and chimney will be enchapado which means inlaid with piedras del rio or in simple English – river rocks …

Julio has built the fireplace according to the correct measurements he was given although the actual design of the front is not quite what we had agreed upon, it’s more or less (más o menos) right.

Meanwhile, at the rear of the house they have started on the foundation for the cochera (garage area), the bodega (storage area for firewood) and the pila (the place where the outside sink and the washer and dryer will be located).

It looks like we will have to cut away about a meter off the side of the driveway wall as we enter the property so that we can easily drive straight into the garage and not worry about reversing out…

Build Your Own Log Styled Vacation Home – My costs in USD so far:

Construction began during the first week of January 2009 and as of the 24th April 2009 the total cost so far in building this vacation or retirement home has been US$63,945.35 plus the cost of the 5,000 square meters of land.

You can see the home we built (and sold) previously in the same geographical area at: Mountain Home For Sale By Owner – Fully furnished with one acre of land. Three online videos.

To calculate what your total real estate investment would be, obviously you need to add in the cost of the land to the overall construction cost. From speaking with so many VIP Members, some have told me that they would like acres and acres of land and others, would be deliriously happy with just half an acre so that cost will vary tremendously.

What Will We End Up With For Way Under $100K?

• The main home has two bedrooms, one large bathroom, an open plan kitchen and living room with fireplace, a 25M2 (270 square foot) office (or could be a third bedroom) upstairs with awesome views, the entire home now measures 167M2 (1,797 square feet) plus…
• The bodega (storage room which will be used to chop and store firewood), the pila (the area with the washing machine and dryer) and the cochera (garage area) measures 43M2 (462.68 square feet)
• We had originally started with a new home design of about 145M2 (1,560 square feet) however after a few modifications now we have a total construction size of just under 210M2 which is 2,260 square feet…

You can see the previous weekly articles about building our own vacation or retirement home below, starting from the oldest to the most recent:

1. Building A New Log Styled Vacation Home in the Mountains – Part I – 1,775 square feet for under $100K
2. Building A New Log Styled Vacation Home in the Mountains – Part II – A simple summary of progress so far…
3. Building A New Log Styled Vacation Home in the Mountains – Part III – Progress summary US$61,386.47 invested so far.
4. Building A New Log Styled Vacation Home in the Mountains – Part IV – US$63,373.47 invested so far.
5. Building A New Log Styled Vacation Home in the Mountains – Part V – US$64,346.47 invested so far.
6. Building Our New Vacation Home in the Mountains – Part VI – US$66,791.47 invested so far.
7. Building Our New Vacation Home in the Mountains – Part VII – US$77,376.47 invested so far but the size has increased by about 25% and so will the cost…
8. Building Our New Vacation Home in the Mountains. Part VIII. The roof goes on next week
9. Building Our New Vacation Home in the Mountains. Part IX the roof goes on.
10. Building Our New Vacation Home in the Mountains of Costa Rica. Part X – Ten weeks and the roof is on…
11. Building Our New Costa Rica Mountain Home. Part XI – US$52,874.15 invested in the home so far plus the land.
12. Building Our New Costa Rica Mountain Home. Part XII – US$56,103.94 invested so far in the construction.
13. Building Your Own Home in the Mountains of Costa Rica – Part XIII – Inches and fleas…
14. Building Your Own Retirement Home in Costa Rica – Part IV. 14 weeks and US$58,696.34 invested so far.
15. Building Your Own Retirement Home Part XV. 15 weeks and $60,563.88 invested in construction so far.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.