Category Archives: Construction

Are We Hillbillies or What?

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We are nearing the very end of the house demolition project. However, now that the house is basically just pieces of wood on the ground, everything else about our life is totally disordered. That’s what happens when you live “on-site,” I suppose.

Working in Paradise

Thursday was the craziest with activity and lots of hammer drilling from about 7am to 7pm, so Friday we needed a break (and I think the workers did too)!

But it wasn’t a true break, because I still needed to get laundry done amidst all the chaos that was left behind. I was getting a bit snippy with Britton about my “less than ideal” ability to wash and hang laundry and he stopped me in my tracks and said, “Wait, I need to get a photo of this.” Yep, it is pretty hilarious. And a good reminder to not take things too seriously. Everything will get sorted out….eventually! And if we turn into hillbillies in the process, so be it!

Crazy laundry and turkeys
Crazy acres is the life for me! 🙂

The cool thing about living amidst all the construction progress is that you get to know everyone pretty well. Well enough that when the guys heard that I had never had “pitorro” (which they pronounced pitojo), the next day they brought a bottle of it for us and a bottle for them and we all took shots (a very small one for me) from the same metal cup and said “salud!” Pitorro is like Puerto Rican moonshine and everyone has a different recipe for it. This one tasted pretty good and sweet and was made with tamarind and parcha juice, but it did pack a punch. An only in Puerto Rico experience for sure.

PitorroYou can’t be a true hillbilly until you’re drinking the local moonshine, right? 🙂

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House is Nearly Gone and New Electric Project

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Life has been pretty hectic around here lately. We are used to a pretty mellow and peaceful pace, but lately we have had crews of people in and around the property from sun up until sometimes past dark. While Britton and I are not doing very much of the labor ourselves (a major difference as well!), it is still pretty chaotic and stressful to have everything around you totally disrupted and noisy. Still,  things must get messy before they get pretty; it is how progress gets made after all. And we are very thankful for all the help we have had in moving towards these goals.

Missing house
Not much left!

The house is nearly gone. They are down to just the very last few beams and posts and a little clean up work. We plan to keep the lower shed room as a storage space and laundry room for the time being, but otherwise, everything will be gone super soon. It is so weird how much it is already transforming this space.

Ugly old electric line

The next thing we had to consider was the electrical line that runs from the wood house to our cabana. If we were to leave it, it would just be a pole sticking up connected to the street pole that traversed from the house through a tube under ground to the cabana. In order to take down the rest of the house, we need to remove it as well and have an electrical pedestal installed that connects directly to the cabana. We talked with an electrician who happens to be the father of one of the workers and he said he would be able to fix it. So in addition to our house demolition team hammering and tossing boards, we also had the electrical team digging trenches and sawing into our little concrete cabana. Talk about chaos!

Drilling into the house
Dust flying as the house was being sawed to the breaker box

The pedestal will be installed near the gate and will be very close to the road electrical line thereby removing the line that shoots downward where the house once stood.

work site and Pedestal from the road

After the house is down, the wood is stacked and protected from the rain, the shed is finished and the electrical system is rigged up, I think Britton and I are ready for a bit of a Christmas break! Whew!

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House is Halfway Down

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Bedroom removed from house
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.

Poop tube
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…

Fan palm in place of house crop 2
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.

House half small

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.

Wood House Deconstruction
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!

No Roof

 

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