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I think there are probably a lot of us who want to build on a budget, especially with home prices they way they are now in Costa Rica. My husband (a Tico) and I have been looking at prefab construction, Facoli in particular. I believe they have an office in San Pedro. Since we’re not planning on building until next year, we haven’t delved too deeply into it, but at some point I’d like to go over to the office and see what types of finishes they have available, more details on the construction process, etc. They did send me some information (a few different plans, and I believe construction prices and specs, all in Spanish); if anyone is interested, I’d be more than happy to e-mail them to you.
We’ve lived in Costa Rica for 8 years (well, my husband most of his life!), so we’re used to Tico-style construction. The price of pre-fab is definitely attractive. If someone else can build me a finished 1100 square foot home for less than $60,000, I’m all ears! And I will say that we are a little picky about finishes, so we’re thinking that if we don’t care for what they have to offer, we will go with the unfinished version (gray construction? not sure what it’s called) and finish the walls and floors, etc. ourselves.
Just wanted to make a quick comment on the following: “No problems giving birth there, although they don’t permit the father to be present, and the before and after are spent in a common room with a whole load of other women about to bust, with all the associated oaths being sworn against their respective inseminators.”
This is NOT true, it all depends on where you give birth and who the obstetrician is. We personally had our baby at home with a midwife and doula, my Tico husband delivered the baby himself. We did check out hospitals ahead of time, and CIMA, while close to our house, had weird policies we didn’t agree with, while Clinical Catolica (east of San Jose) was much more flexible about what the parents wanted (you could have your whole family in the room if you wanted to, keeping the baby in the room, labor/birth all in the same room, etc.). (There’s an article on this site about it — do a search for “natural childbirth” if you’re interested.)
That said, our son is a citizen of both the US and CR; getting his Costa Rica birth certificate was a huge pain due to the fact that we had him at home, but getting the passports was relatively easy for both countries (surprisingly). When you get the CR passport for the baby, you will need to specify whether the baby can leave the country with only one parent, or if permission of both is needed. This is something they didn’t do at the US embassy. I was already a legal resident when I had him, so I’m sorry that I can’t help you on that point.
