Category Archives: Building

House is Halfway Down

Popping off the top really opened up the view!

The wooden house demolition project is moving along pretty well. We had a few set backs but nothing too major and things are looking good.

Oops…when dropping some of the pieces overboard it accidentally broke the tube that connects the cabana to the septic. So we went a day without flushing the toilet until we could get it fixed

We have moved past the halfway point. The whole roof is down as well as the upstairs bedroom. Most of the walls have been removed. As we are seeing the insides of this old house we recognize that we would have probably needed to tear things all the way down to the subfloor in any case. The wall cavities were filled with remnants of just about every critter of the jungle and much of their waste.

Taking down a large wall…watch as all the bat guano starts flying!

It is weird to take down this house that we have been looking at (but not really using) for over a year straight through. I think we took our time in making the decision and met many people and learned the ropes for a long time before commencing such a big project. And really, with all the ideas we have for the property this is just the beginning…

The large traveler palm from the driveway is now visible from down below (with turkeys of course)

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A Decision Has Been Made?!? Deconstruction

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We have owned this property for over 3 years now. When we originally had made the offer we put in a low offer because the wood house was going to need a lot of work. Since then we have gone back and forth about what to do with it. We live in the concrete cabana and have enough room for the two of us, but it makes it hard to have people visit for dinner or for longer stays for family.

We recently decided that we are going to tear it down. We initially felt like tearing it down would be a huge bummer because of all the time and effort that went into building it. Due to the odd floor plan and not having the master bedroom on the ocean side of the house as well as the entire thing being infested with bats, rats and cockroaches we were going to have to tear it down to studs anyway. We are still going to keep it, we are just going to move it.

House in Deconstruction Phase

The property consists of 4 acres and the cabana and wood house sit on a tiny ity bity corner. So we are going to move the wood house and build a cabin on the other side of the quebrada. There is sooo much room for us it doesn’t make sense to simply have the living space in the corner, we are going to spread out a bit. It will open up the area in front of the cabana too.

In order to make the area more accessible where the wood house will be we want to build a suspension bridge that transverses the quebrada! We have started the deconstruction of the house and figure it will be done in a few weeks. The wood is being cleaned (having all nails removed and then power washed). While this is going on we are also going to begin to clear the area where the house will be rebuilt.

At some point in the future we want to build a concrete house a little bit down from where the wood house currently sits, but first thing is first. Should be some exciting things coming up in the next few months with some big changes for us!

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Back to Work: Cabana Bridge

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Britton slowly has been recovering from his recent illness and so we wanted to take it easy on our next project around the property. We decided it was time to work on the cabana bridge. This was a relatively small project and almost completely done under shade, a definite plus in the heat of this time of year.

The bridge before (with a little help from our feathered turkey friends)

The cabana bridge connects to the roof of the cabana that we live in and is accessed near the gate of the property under the big mango tree. The wood boards that were on the bridge were starting to decay at the nail head area and some of the wood in other areas as well.

Because we have been doing some deconstruction on the wood house, we have quite a bit of extra nice treated wood lying around. So we counted and cut some of the pieces and then set about waterproofing them with sealant.

Then Britton peeled up most of the boards leaving just a few to stand on while he painted the lower beams.

Finally he nailed in the “new” non-rotted boards and waterproofed the long hand railing board as well.

I think it turned out really nice and will be much sturdier to cross. The turkeys had fun crossing the bridge and playing on the cabana while we were up there working. They like to follow us wherever we go. They climbed to the top railing of the cabana (another future project) and took turns jumping and flapping down. It was pretty funny.

The turkeys are always our companions on outdoor projects