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You’re right I am white. I grew up in a town called Beardmore, Ontario. Look on the map, it’s just a dot. Dirt poor and when you are poor in a town like Beardmore, you’re really poor. It gets 30 below all winter and winter is eight months. Luckily, I had the opportunity to join the Military and served in both Canada and the USA. I’d hardly call myself affluent, I swung a hammer for twenty five years. I am the only Canadian living amongst Americans in Playa Grande and I agree 100% with you about the American attitude. Please don’t lump Canadians in with Americans, just because we are on the same continent. Yes we speak english and we are Homo sapiens, but that’s where the similarities end. Don’t take it wrong Canadians love Americans, but we don’t want to be Americans.
As far as the remarks about Nicarguans and Mexicans being the problem in your country, your comments are ridiculous. Canada is made up of immigrants from throughout the world, all coming for the same reason “opportunities”. Same goes for the United States. Those folks you refer to want to better their lives and you do that by seeking out opportunities, just like Costa Ricans and Nicarguans are trying to do here.
It’s interesting that you point a finger at immigrants while not mentioning anything about murders, drug dealers, gangs or any of the other millions of criminals that contribute nothing to the United States.
All about money? Your in Costa Rica man, wake up, everything here is about money. Costa Rica wants to be just like the USA and that’s exactly how it’s ending up. If you want to live somewhere, where life is not about money, head to jungles in Peru.
This thread started out about citizenship and I doubt if the government of Costa Rica or the citizens of Costa Rica are going to want a couple of Americans who are fed up with their own country, to obtain citizenship in CR, just so they can turn their backs on Costa Rica when things aren’t going the way those two Americans want it to go.
Instead of bad mouthing your country, go home and do something about it, make the changes that need to be made. Vote! Your return to the United States will benefit both the USA and Costa Rica.
Like I said before, strip yourself of your worldly possessions and stand beside the men who are cutting cane in the fields of Costa Rica. Most likely the good old USA will start looking pretty good real fast.
Dear Sprite:
I am Canadian and all my life have known what is to be a Canadian. Everything is good in Canada, I mean good compared to any developing country I have visited. My wife and I moved to CR to enjoy the weather, because it’s really cold where we lived in Canada.
I also know many Costa Ricans and many Nicaraguans. Every single one of them has the thought that they would trade places with you in an instant. Believe me Sprite, where you are born makes a big difference in how you will have the opportunity to live your life the way you want.
Sure moving here after living in the USA is easy, because you and every other person from North America has had the opportunity to do what they wanted in our free societies and you probably have a little extra money.
But if you are born in CR or Nicaragua, you are limited to “opportunity”. Right now 2008, as I write these words the men who are working on the house project next door to me are making 880 colones per hour. They are living in a metal sheds and they are being eaten alive my bugs. They are eating beans and rice, sometimes a little chicken. They work 12 hours a day and they work hard. Block work, mixing concrete, hauling dirt in a crappy wheel borrow. Their families are at home trying to survive, some living in tin sheds, waiting for the money their husband or son is going to send them at the end of the month. Their kids are missing out on school, they have no medical, they have nothing. Unfortunately they have no opportunity and little hope to improve their lives.
Many of these men travel from the Panama border to work in the North Pacific. Many come from the Northern area of Nicaragua. They all live and have lived under dictators. In CR everything is controlled by the government, everything, read between the lines here.
You don’t need to be proud of your government, but you do need to appreciate your country of birth. I don’t agree with many USA policies and actions either, but right now as the USA goes through these difficult times, they need you and every other American to take a stand and change what is wrong.
Not everything in paradise is perfect either. CR is an extremely complex place to live, for CR citizens and for foreigners. The current transition from the OX cart days to modern day living is creating all kinds of problems for CR. You and I will be long gone before there is equal opportunity for all in CR, as there is in the USA and Canada now. Those feelings you have towards your country are not going to leave you, just because you move here, as you will be taking on a whole set of new feelings in CR.
There is a cure for how you feel towards your country. Live in Nicaragua, live in CR, live in India, live in a third world country as an average person, leave your money and belongings back in the USA, marry for citizenship and I can assure you that it won’t be long before you will be back in the USA appreciating what you have and you will then possess those feelings of pride and gratitude.
As I mentioned in the beginning, I have always known what it is to be Canadian, but I never really appreciated the opportunities available to all Canadians, until I lived in CR and visited other developing countries.
I hope this response will encourage you to revisit your feelings about the good old USA and encourage you to help change the wrongs that make you feel shame about your country.
Pura Vida
When my wife and I thought about retiring in CR we started at the Nicaragua border and hit every beach along the Pacific coast, all the way to the Panama border. We new we wanted to be near the beach and on the Pacific coast. We made our way to Tamarindo which wasn’t bad at that time and liked the area.
One day we went for a drive to Playa Grande as it was a beach we marked on the map, that we wanted to see. We have been to just about every nook and cranny in Costa Rica and at the end of every day we look at each other and say lets get back home.
My number one spot to live in CR is Palm Beach Estates, Playa Grande, hands down.
Something to consider: Snakes, scorpions and skunks come to mind when I see a house built on stilts. I don’t want anything living under my house that bites, smells or stings. My free advice, stay away from pre-fabs, if limited funds are available. The pre-fabs that I have built, always cost more in the end and they never turn out as advertised. Just so you know, I’ve never purchased a pre-fab package, I’ve only built them for others.
CRhomebuilder: We build the exact slab in Canada also. In areas where there is extreme frost and perma frost the method you describe is superior to any other type of foundation. Regardless of what type of foundation is being built, my point is to remove the original soil, building codes and common sense guide us in this most crucial stage of construction. This thread started as pre-fab construction. What I want to convey to others is that the types of pre-fab I know of in CR are, just the shell of the building. This shell, however built is not the exspensive part of building. Doing it right, in my opinion using proven conventional methods, is less expensive in the end.
In my example I got to the stage of preparing for the slab. Most builders in Guanacaste pour the slab after the block is laid. Why, I don’t know? I like things done right the first time, so there is no going back. I guarantee anyone that if you cut corners in building, at some later stage you will be going back to visit that cut corner. That means more time, more money and more aggravation.
I place the electrical, plumbing and other features at this stage, cap the plumbing and test it. Builders can avoid problems by testing the potable and drainage systems at this stage. I have a lot of tips at this stage, if anyone wants to hear about them. I use three men at this stage and for the cabina we are talking about building, it will take them about 2 hours to make the installations, including providing for venting of the plumbing system, cap every thing off and test the system. The rebar is installed by the end of the day, ready for the pour the next morning, weather permitting.
I’ll assume no ready mix is available and cement will be made by mixer. The floor pour should go fast so a dozen men will be amble, along with two mixers. Don’t let them push the wheel barrows over your plumbing and electrical. Have planks on site so they can wheel on the planks. A rough finish is best and the floor is ready to accept the tile further down the road.
What just happen during this stage as compared to the way it’s usually done. Your plumbing and electrical that will be under the slab, which you can never get to easily if there are problems, has been installed and tested. Your floor is exactly level. You have a perfect work place to start your block work, which goes fast, if the construction is done in the proper order, straight, level and plumb. During this stage you will have saved money.
If you use a pre-fab, the process should be similar. The idea is to cover all your bases, install everything properly, do it fast and minimize labour costs. This may be a little over wheming for the average property onwer, but if you remember my first bit of advice, I advised you to hire someone such as crhomebuilder, to either oversee or inspect this type of work. Next time I’ll talk about how you can save a lot of money laying the block, as compared to the way we see it done in Guanacaste.
One other thing I’d like to mention is that, those dozen men I hire for the slab pour, nine of them go home after the pour. It doesn’t take eight, ten or twelve men to build a cabina. Labour in Costa Rica can be very expensive, when a dozen men work on your project for a year. More on that topic later.
Edited on May 21, 2008 17:30
Retired Couple – Playa Grande, Costa Rica
Electricity – $220. with the pool pump running 8 hours a day
Add: $100. per A/C unit if you run them. We have them, but don’t use them. We like it hot…but our visitors use the A/C in the cabina. Yep $80-$100 is accurate.Water – Just went up 500%. We pay $25. per month. We recycle our water to use on the plants. My neighbours pay around $80. per month for water.
Property Taxes – $300. per year
Internet – $72. per month thru ICE (high speed)- lame service
Cable – $20 per month (Amnet)
Gas for Cooking – $10. per month
Telephones – Cell $10. per month
Regular line $6. per month
Fuel for the car – $60. per week (live in the booneys, you gotta drive)
Food – $400. per month
Private Medical $110. per month for two
Vehicle Insurance/permits – $180. per month
House Insurance $90. per month
Edited on May 15, 2008 18:26
First, I love San Ramon, great choice to purchase your lot. I will skip the architect, permits and all those pre-construction topics for now. You can easily save a lot of money before you start construction. The CFIA process in CR is somewhat of an expensive, needless process, which by my tone you can tell I am not a fan of. There are many issues that you may want to explore before deciding on the pre-fab system. First you need to do one of two things, be in San Ramon during the construction and take of your investment OR hire someone like the crhomebuilder who can ensure your project moves along in YOUR best interest. In all of CR and in San Ramon, you want to reduce the amount of moisture in your Cabina and in your house. If you build the CR way, they dig trenches, install rebar, then pour cement into the trenches. The problem is they do this on the original soil. That’s a no-no. If you’re close by a project when they are doing this you can smell the virgin soil, it smells sour. You want to excavate all the virgin soil from the area that your building will be built on. For your cabina this will involve about 2 hours of backhoe work. Keep that soil, you’ll need it later. Form the footings and install the rebar, have the first X number of rows of blocks laid. You want to ensure that you’re finished grade is at least one foot, ABOVE the road. Drainage is important in CR. Make sure there is room to allow the rain water to flow away from your building. Now haul in “lestray” they call it here, it’s rock and clean dirt, not to much dirt. You don’t want any soil with silt in it. You place that lestray inside your foundation, compact it as it is spread evenly inside your foundation. Finish the repello on the exterior of your foundation and then backfill against the exterior of the building with lestray. By doing this you have just eliminated 90% of the moisture problems associated with building in CR. I know this part cost more than the CR building process, but you will save later on. When we talk pre-fab versus conventional building all we are really talking about is the shell of the building. Just so you know, in addition to being a house builder in Canada, I was a municipal building inspector, so I have seen the ins and outs in the construction business. In Costa Rica you need someone like crhomebuilder to help you onsite. I suspect he knows whats going on in the building game here and I am sure an hour or two inspecting your project at critical stages won’t cost you much. In the end someone like him will save you money. I’ll continue later with more info, if they don’t ban me from here because of too much writing.
After many years in the residential house building business in Canada, I can tell you that the money savings claimed by many pre-fab systems is just not true. When all is said and done, in the end, if you use the right building processes and techniques, you will always save money using the conventional methods. For example, I built my cabina in Playa Grande with cement block, which is cheap in Costa Rica.
The process I used was unlike the CR building process, so I saved a lot of money, ended up with a better product and added maximum value to my property. crbuilder advised us of the extra work required for the pre-fab in CR. That extra work takes time and money.
Stick with the conventional cement block type construction. In the end you’ll be glad you did. If you need further explanation I’d be glad to help.
I am a retired builder from Canada who just finished my own home at Playa Grande, Costa Rica, which is located in Guanacaste on the north Pacific coast. Some neighbours close to me are getting quotes at around $200 per square foot to build which does not include property or pre-construction fees such as surveys, permits and so on. The costs to build in Costa Rica are still dirt cheap compared to other parts of the world. The problem in Costa Rica is that architects, builders and others in the building industry are maximizing their profits by charging outrageous fees for very poor quality work. If you are coming to the North Pacific beach area, visit first and do your home work. All the quotes will be well above the $100 per square foot and your architect/builder will want 50% down. Don’t pay the 50% and get a detailed, I mean detailed written quote from architects, translated to your language of preference, then take it from there. You can build a North American quality home in Costa Rica easily for the $100 per square foot. Keep in mind, water systems, walls, gates, driveways are all extras. Hope this helps. I will be glad to answer any questions you have about building in Guanacaste.
