Progress Report

 June 3-10, 2006 // CONSTRUCTION LOG #87

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: Purchasing trip to Granada and another sale-Unit 115

CONSTRUCTION

Weather: partial overcast, some rain but we haven't been held up.

Units 101 / 102: The structural steel for the upper level has been started and one area has been covered with tin to help keep it dry-that is the objective. The balance of the roof structure and the tin underlay should be in place by Wednesday.

Lockers and Houses: The exterior of the building is now parged; doors are being made for the lockers. The windows are nearly all installed in the upper level. Prime coat of paint is on. The tile roof is in place. Floor tiling will begin this week..

Electrical System Upgrade and Marketing: Nothing, nothing, nothing!!!!!!!

Marketing Units 110 and 112 should close this week. One of our existing purchasers who wanted to purchase 112 but who came to the table too late with a definitive offer, has offer to purchase Unit 115. We've accepted and will, over the next month work on closing that sale.

This leaves us with only 102 which is a difficult sale now as it is in the grey work stage and doesn't show well. We have a proposed color scheme and I think it will be really great.

Next Project: Not much movement here. We've looked around but nothing has jumped out at us. We understand that the vendor of the Ciudad Colon land we were interested in is rethinking his position and may want to talk. Paul and I are cool as there is nothing more to talk about.

OUR LIVES

On Wednesday Lita and I along with our maestro de obra (site superintendent) and his wife hoped the bus to Granada. They had never been so we invited them to join us. It was a more fortuitous invitation than I thought. On the trip up, Nicaraguan immigration isolated and searched two young kids looking for drugs. This resulted in a two hour delay while they interviewed them, search all their belongings and searched the bus numerous times. It wasn't clear they found anything but they did detain them and the bus finally moved on We spent two days shopping and then packaging what we had purchased for our return to CR. I currently have 4 houses to decorate-three of client's and our own. I took advantage of some things available there that are either not available in any depth here or are quite expensive. It was all a lot of fun but also a lot of work. We returned around 2:30 Sunday afternoon. The trip was it's normal 8 hr. bumpy trip with two movies. We were advised by the bus driver to pay off the customs person so they wouldn't go through each box item by item and hold us up for three hours. We did. There was no contraband, we declared the contents and the value, and they stamped two passports saying we had used our allotted $500 import limit for 6 mo. We also had to pay the bus driver for reasons not known. Immigration and Customs are two very, very, very dirty sections of this country and should be avoided at all opportunity. Don't think you are going to save any money; the "system" will get it. These are two government departments which NEED to be cleaned up-everyone knows it but so far, no government has effectively done it.

Granada is still a great town to visit and to enjoy the variety or restaurants. Some of the streets are difficult to walk now because the civic improvement program which has been underway for the past year, still has a long way to finish. There were few tourists and one could stay in any hotel and eat in any restaurant one wanted-no reservations required. I saw little new development and generally I found things pretty grim. We continue to stay in the Colciboca Hotel II-their deluxe room -two double beds, TV, air conditioning, and hot water was $34 per night. They are very friendly, good service, small swimming pool, and are well located.

Nicaragua is such a poor country and Granada is no exception. It can become depressing if one thinks about it long. I overheard several Gringo conversations about what a great boom was going on in Nicaragua and how San Juan del Sur was such a hot investment area... I don't share that assessment. I found I had to restrain myself.

Lita arranged for her birds to be cared for while we were away. I offered to reward the caretaker if the parrot ended up missing on our return but no such luck...

All in all, it is good to be back.

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

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