Progress Report

July 17-22, 2006 // CONSTRUCTION LOG #93

Contact phone numbers

Internet Phone:
New York: 315-279-6711
Toronto: 416-907-5758 // 416-461-2203

Costa Rica:
Cell: 506-305-3965
Land: 506-282-4142 Ext. 101

NOTE: the New York and Toronto numbers are "local calls" for people in the area codes; calls from outside the area code will be billed at the normal rate from the caller's area code to either the "315" or the "416" area code.

Pictures: house 101 / 102 and 124 / 125

The Story: chaos and progress and decorating

CONSTRUCTION

Weather: sunny usually in the mornings with almost daily rain

Accident: Our gardener who had the accent is out of the hospital and living at his home. He is going to rehab to learn how to walk with his missing toes.

Units 101 / 102: Unit 101: it is undergoing it's initial painting and waiting for me to make some decisions. I thought I had the color scheme all worked out until Lita said she didn't like one of the colors-that has now put me into a box. The windows are going in and the cana brava on the terrace is also being installed. Most of the exterior boarding is completed and the first of the two coats of stucco is being applied.

Unit 102: The ceilings have been boarded and most have the 2nd. coat of taping applied...

Lockers and Houses: Unit 125 is now clean and furnished-it looks fabulous. Curtains will be installed in both units on Monday.-had my instructions been followed, it would have been done on Friday but. Unit 124 will be completed, cleaned, and furnished by Wednesday.

Unit 120: The wall unit is now installed and the finishing decorations will be completed on Monday. Some minor furniture is yet to be acquired / delivered.

Electrical System Upgrade: We have had to change the location of all the 30 meter bases and well as the main disconnect. Fortunately we had a place to which we could move it within the reach of the cables which had been installed. This nightmare continues. How much longer and how many more twists and turns we will be required to make, I don't know.

Parking: We have now completed the lining and have created specific parking spaces. We will proceed to allocate those spaces to each house and to designate visitor spaces. There is still 5 spaces or so on the west side yet to be lined but right now it is still being used as a construction materials site. Finishing that will follow in a couple months.

Marketing: We continue to have several potential renters and purchasers each week but we haven't connected with anyone yet.

We had occasion to meet the purchaser of Units 110 and 112. He bought them sight unseen and all this happened over a two week period. I was interested to meet him and ask him how he came to a comfort level to do this-to buy in a foreign country, with people he didn't know, and a product he hadn't seen nor touched. When he was here, I also found out that he had never been to CR before. His answer was that he had done a lot of research on CR and when he came across my development, built and leased, and having what he wanted in an investment, he felt comfortable. He also said that while the web site was really good, it did not do justice to being there and seeing, feeling, smelling, and hearing all the sounds. He was thoroughly pleased with his purchase. He also got to meet his tenants.

Internet: We now have two providers. Just in time as our main ICE feed has had problems all week. Satellite TV: So far, so good. We are still awaiting the balance of our access cards.

Next Project

We viewed and quickly discounted some well priced land in Escazu because the access was a 45 degree slope. While the views were great, get there was a significant problem.

We finally get the last bit of information we wanted on the 4 hectares of land in Santa Ana. We have confirmed that the set back requirement for building from the stream which runs lengthwise through the property is 10 meters. This makes sense since it is the headwaters of the "river" which at our location, is still a stream. We will begin negotiations next week. The price we have in mind is quite different from the asking price but we feel we will end up closer to our price than the asking price. The land has been on the market for 4 years. We are prepared to pay cash. We feel we can present an attractive offer to our side of the price issue.

OUR LIVES

My recovery continues but at a slower rate. Improvement is still happening but by smaller increments. I have been totally focused this week on purchasing the furnishings for three houses. Saturday we began to allocate those items and to augment them with the items we had purchased in Nicaragua. We have a couple of missing items but so far, everything purchased seems to be 100% right.

Personally, our lives are again in chaos and disarray. We have to move from where we are as the owner wants possession by August 1. Lita has been boxing and moving things all week. Who knows where anything is? Our house will not be ready for another month and we will have to camp out for the interim and live off the charity of others. Sometime this week we will be moving somewhere. Our phone numbers will follow us. This is not fun and even though we have done it many times over the past 4 years, it doesn't get any easier or less stressful. Knowing this will be the last move for quite some time, is only a slightly warm fuzzy feeling which doesn't carry much solace now.

Brian, Lita, Hugo and irreverent Vicka, the pigeon toed parrot.

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