Building Our New Vacation Home in the Mountains of Costa Rica. Part X – Ten weeks and the roof is on…

Many people who haven’t travelled too widely in Costa Rica have written saying how strange it seems that we are building a new home in Costa Rica with a fireplace since fireplaces are traditionally associated with very cold climates…

What they do probably not realize is that there are some pretty cool places in Costa Rica. You can literally choose your own climate by deciding to build at a specific elevation. If you prefer it a little cooler, build a little further up the mountain…

Where we are building our vacation home, during the day the sun is incredibly penetrating, very hot and, believe it or not, we tan far quicker here than we do when we are at the beach.

However, at an altitude of 2,204 meters (7,230 feet) the evenings get wonderfully cool and fresh which means that we enjoy a roaring fireplace every single night of the year when we’re up there and, it’s perfect snuggling and sleeping weather for us.

The fireplace is an integral part of our entertainment centre. Since I haven’t watched television for decades (I know that ‘The Simpsons’ is a TV show but have never seen it and have no idea what it’s about…) my entertainment centre is a combination of my Bose iPod player with about 900 CDs loaded up on it sitting on top of the fireplace and, a stack of good books on the coffee table and.., practically every other table in the house.

As usual we arrived on Wednesday just as our construction crews started their lunch. They have nearly finished with the roof with just a few small sections to do and they have already started installing the tablilla which are the small boards of wood that you can see on the ceiling.

The sawmill has now delivered all of the logs, beams and wood panels that we need for the home so they have been paid for all deliveries so far… They only now have to deliver what we’ll need to build the cochera (garage area), bodega (storage area for firewood) and the pila (the place where the outside sink and the washer and dryer will be located).

Apart from the cochera, bodega and pila, the hardest physical labor work has been done which is great because now the roof is in place and nearly finished we don’t have to worry about the strong sun damaging the wood or any rain that might be coming our way, although the official rainy season is till a few months away…

By the way, you can click on this link to get the year round temperatures (Celsius or Fahrenheit), rainfall data and other weather information in the location where you want to live in Costa Rica.

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

As of the 12th March 2009 the total cost so far in building this vacation or retirement home in the country has been $91,147.15 which includes the cost of the 5,000 square meters of land which – as part of our purchase negotiations – was made ready to build on.

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.

You can see our previous articles about this construction 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.

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

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.